Well it's been quite a while since I last posted to my blog here, but I have been keeping very busy, mainly looking at new web based tools that we can use with our students and new ways we can use them, or sometimes old ways that work well too. I decided to put information about a few of these tools together and publish them in a free manual.

I was actually very surprised about how easy this was to do. Writing the actual manual took about 3 days. It was prepared to go along with an online training session I was delivering, but once I'd developed the manual I thought I may as well make it more widely available. I found two different websites which would help me to publish the manual online for free.

These are Scribd and Issuu. I was pretty happy with the results from both, though I think in terms of reading the manual online Issuu provided a better reading experience as it displayed the manual full screen.

You can try them yourself here and compare.

Issuu Web 2.0 Tools for Teacher

Scribd Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers

I think the lesson that I have drawn from this, is that it isn't necessary to spend months writing a book and trying to get a publisher interested in it, then months more editing etc etc etc. With platforms like the ones I tried we can produce books and have them published online very quickly. I'm sure the quality would have been better if I'd worked with an editor from a publishing house, and I'm sure the overall look would have been better and there would have been less typos, but the ideas would have been basically the same, except that by the time it had gone through the processes involved in getting it published as a paper based book, most of the sites would have been out of date and it would have cost a lot more.

Anyway, you can make your mind up for yourself, but I certainly think publishing our own materials for each other and sharing them can really help to speed up the rate at which we share  and develop.

I hope you enjoy the manual.

If you want to download a copy to your own computer and see and hear the presentation that it was designed for you can access both from here: Web 2.0 Tools for EFL ESL Teachers

Best

Nik Peachey | Learning Technology Consultant, Writer, Trainer
Teacher Development: http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/
News and Tips: http://quickshout.blogspot.com/
Student Activities: http://daily-english-activities.blogspot.com/