How wonderfully refreshing to read Wayne Trottman’s ‘from the heart’ review of our latest book on Interactive Whiteboards in the EL Gazette. it made my day; my week; my month…
You pour your heart and soul into a book; there are innumerable invisible constraints; you let it loose on an unsuspecting world, and hope, like a child, it survives. Then out come the reviews…..
This one did us proud. The author team are absolutely delighted. So is the publisher. And so should the editing team.
Here are some edited highlights:
Getting interactive – Stay on top of technological changes in the classroom
400 Ideas for Interactive Whiteboards: instant activities using technology
…….who better to introduce the IWB to us than authors well versed in such matters: Sharma and Barrett have published widely on information technology and ELT, while Jones was one of the first to use the IWB both in the UK and abroad.
This book comes in four distinctive sections. The first – perhaps the one most relevant to the majority of readers – is aimed at novices like myself who use PCs a lot but rarely in the classroom.
Section two deals with activities that can be designed using commercial software, some in the form of ready-made lessons, others requiring the use of templates. Once again, activities are clearly explained and, as with the first section, I was pleased to note a healthy emphasis on pronunciation work.
Section three, on using published materials, will probably come as a godsend to teachers around the world who have been told to integrate the IWB software that tends more and more to accompany recent course-books. The case study involving teacher training in the use of such software is a must-read for the director of studies with staff reluctant to embrace the IWB. The final section in this superb title provides easy explanations of how to grasp IWB features in order to produce your own teaching material.
Setting aside my pride, I have to admit that at the outset I wasn’t at all convinced I’d ever be interested in using IWB technology with my classes, but this title makes doing so much more of a possibility. You may soon notice further literature on IWB and its potential, but this resource book will probably remain the prototype. Well done the authors.
If you haven’t read the full review, I urge you to beg steal or borrow a copy of the Gazette, on paper or digital, and feast your eyeballs. In the meantime, once again…THANKS, Wayne!