PSA Blog

Sky Wars

Pete — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 19:56:42 +0000

Sky Wars
In the battle to dominate the budget airline market, Ryanair and EasyJet are the bitterest of rivals……………..

The latest e-lesson has just taken to the air……….fly immediately to Macmillan’s website and land worksheet and teacher’s notes….

BESIG Issues

Pete — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 16:06:30 +0000

The next BESIG Issues has just been circulated! It’s another winner….don’t forget to check out the Learning Tech page! Pete & Barney

Blended Learning – ELTJ

Pete — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 21:50:48 +0000

Delighted that the next Key Concepts in ELT in the ELTJ is on Blended Learning.

You can access this here: Blended Learning.

Enjoy!

Music for podcasts

Barney — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 10:54:03 +0000

One of the most popular sessions on the PSA Blended Learning courses is on how to make your own podcasts. Recording and editing voice is straightforward. Adding music is also easy to learn. However, the question that arises with music is always the one of copyright.

Most people know that if you use a clip from a song by your favourite pop singer then you are likely to be in breach of copyright rules. This doesn’t mean you have to dig out your old Stylophone and tamborine and record your own. There’s lots of music available on the Web which is covered by the Creative Commons licence. The folks who have written and recorded these tracks are more than happy for you to use them or parts of them as long as you follow the rules of the licence and give them due credit.

Here’s a ready made list of Pod-safe instrumentals from the wonderful Free Music Archive to get you started. Have fun!

Disaster in the Gulf

Pete — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 21:03:38 +0000

……………happiness in the classroom. The latest Macmillan business English e-lesson is now online. Be slick, and download it NOW. Oil’s well that ends well….and the petroleum giant is nearly there in terms of damage limitation…..

Like all great current materials, use it NOW!!!

New website

Pete — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 15:24:21 +0000

Our new look website is being designed up as I type…and it already is looking fabby….cannot wait to see it uploaded…..

Change at the top – e-lesson

Barney — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 21:02:00 +0000

In case you missed it due to glitches in the blog, Pete’s most recent e-lesson is available here.

It’s on the life and times of the man retiring from his position at the top of the British supermarket giant Tesco.

Paper books vs. e-readers

Barney — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 19:49:45 +0000

A recent survey suggests that it is faster to read a book on paper than using one of the popular e-readers on the market.

The environmental blog TreeHugger was skeptical about this and had a closer look at the research.

The jury is still out but it is worth bearing in mind that new and better e-readers are hitting the market every year.

The blog is back!!

Barney — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 17:55:30 +0000

Hello there. Our blog is back after a slightly extended technical hiccup. Sorry if you’ve been trying to drop by and catch up.

Hopefully everything works fine now and, as a side-effect, I’ve learned a bit about fixing and restoring databases – which is good.

Thanks for reading.

BESIG Rome

Pete — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 08:10:47 +0000

Here is a graphics-lite version of the PowerPoint for the session:

Networking in English

at the BESIG summer conference in Rome.