At Pearson Longman we always put teachers first and endeavour to support you in whatever way we can. New Cutting Edge Digital has a comprehensive 60 -68 page Teacher's Guide [depending on level] to help in the planning of lessons. The CD-Rom has embedded notes that can be accessed at any time on your Interactive Whiteboard/computer. Also the 'Support' section on the CD-Rom explains exactly how the different sections of the programme work, coupled to a unit walkthrough for first time users. Regular updates on our website will also give helpful tips and lesson plans for blending technology to traditional classroom activities. If you experience difficulties while using the software, follow these steps until the problem is resolved:

         1.   Consult the FAQ in the User's guide.

         2.   Restart your computer.

         3.   Turn the projector and interactive whiteboard off and then on again.

         4.   Consult the instruction manual that accompanies your interactive whiteboard.

         5.   If you think it is a problem with your interactive whiteboard, contact the hardware provider.

         6.   If you think it is a problem with New Cutting Edge Digital, please email the Pearson Longman
               technical support team at elt-support@pearson.com

New Cutting Edge Digital coupled with the comprehensive teachers guide is everything you need. The intuitive nature of New Cutting Edge Digital means that teachers with limited computer experience are comfortable and ready to use it in class after only a little practice.

Click here to read a brief description on interactive whiteboards.

New Cutting Edge Digital and the teacher's guide provide an excellent starting point in building your confidence with the interactive whiteboard and teaching you about the tools you need and how to use them. You are probably already familiar with New Cutting Edge. The New Cutting Edge Digital software follows the same layout with the same contents as the coursebook. This makes it immediately recognisable and quick and easy to switch between using the book and the interactive whiteboard in class.

When you use New Cutting Edge Digital, it will help you understand the benefits of interactive whiteboards in the language classroom.

Convenient and time-saving
New Cutting Edge Digital acts as a “one-stop-shop” for all of the New Cutting Edge resources. The Student’s Book, listening files and tapescripts, videos, language summaries from the back of the book as well as selected interactive flipcharts (activities specially-prepared for use on an interactive whiteboard using special software called ActivStudio) are easily accessible in one place and displayed on the interactive whiteboard.

Just by touching the interactive whiteboard screen, you can move quickly and easily from an activity in the Student’s Book to an audio track, perhaps looking at the tapescript for post-listening work before returning to the Student’s Book. This helps you adapt the pace of your lesson according to the needs of the group and saves lots of time. No more cueing CDs or DVDs!

Focuses students’ attention
The interactive whiteboard provides a useful focal point in the class. Instead of asking learners to focus on a picture or instruction in the book, you can zoom into the relevant section of the page and magnify it many times on the interactive whiteboard.  Just click on any part of the page to make it zoom.

The clear icons and simple controls mean that you and your students can work directly with the interactive whiteboard and avoid going back and forth from the computer to the board. Because you can stay at the front of the classroom, it is easier to keep students’ attention focused on the activity at hand.
 
Engages different types of learners
Some students prefer to listen and absorb, others respond well to pictures, while others respond well to physical interaction. New Cutting Edge Digital supports users with all these preferences through its rich multi-media, audio-visual and flipchart content. The flipcharts involve a range of simple interactions, such as drag and drop, erase or write-in.

The simplicity of these exercise types means that your learners can interact with the materials with no previous typing or IT skills, facilitating more student-centred lessons. Learning becomes more active and, therefore, more memorable.

Some learners may respond to ‘pyramid’ learning and discussion activities where teams of learners in their seats are working with the student at the board to complete activities.

Helpful and Supportive
Teacher’s notes are included in every flipchart with suggestions on how to teach the lesson using the interactive whiteboard. There are also detailed notes in the teacher's guide that include teaching tips and suggestions on how to exploit the flipcharts and materials further.

By using New Cutting Edge Digital, you’ll become familiar with interactive whiteboard technology in general and develop a repertoire of approaches to suit your teaching style.

Adds Variety
New Cutting Edge Digital is an additional  way of presenting New Cutting Edge coursebook material in your lesson. It is not, however, designed to replace the book for the student, nor is it designed to dominate your classroom teaching throughout each lesson. In any classroom situation it is important to select the appropriate tool, approach or materials to best achieve your teaching objectives.

You may, for example, only want to use New Cutting Edge Digital to introduce an activity to be completed in the book or to conduct feedback after pair or group activity.

New Cutting Edge Digital cuts down on preparation time and aims to make teaching with an interactive whiteboard easy.  As with any tool, the more familiar you are with it, the easier you will find it and the more confident you will feel in class. In the initial stages, you might prefer to limit your use of the software in class to the ‘zoomable’ page spreads and the easy-access audio, tapescripts and videos. When you are comfortable with these, you can move on to use the flipcharts.

Familiarise yourself
If you can, look at all the interactive materials available in New Cutting Edge Digital, including the flipchart activities, audio and tapescripts for the module you are about to teach.  Not all of the parts of the page have flipcharts but all parts of the book can be magnified to draw students’ focus. Think about how and when the interactive whiteboard will make an impact in your lesson. When is it best to use interactive activities, and when is it best for students to work in their books?

Think about how students will be interacting at different stages of the lesson, in whole class, small groups or individual learning mode, and of course at what stages the learners will be actively using the board, and at what stage it will be providing visual support.  And don’t forget to give your students a break from the digital edition! Sometimes switching the board or projector off can be less distracting and help students focus better on the task in hand, especially with small group and discussion tasks. Remember to think about variety and balance.

Familiarise yourself with the mechanics of each digital activity and check if it requires drag and drop, erase or write-in. A small tool icon in the rubric reminds you which tool to use. Even though you’ll be encouraging your students to do the hands-on work at the board, you’ll need to provide both language and technical support on occasions.

Before the class, it’s a good idea to check the flipchart and see where the answers appear on the page. In the interests of legibility, this will help you direct your students to write their answers in an appropriate place. The step-by-step module guide will help you with this.

Manage the classroom
The interactive whiteboard offers great opportunities for student-centred work at the board but classroom management is crucial. With gap-fill type activities, for example, it can be time-consuming getting different students out to the board for each answer and can slow the pace of your lesson. Resist the temptation to take over the board yourself but rather experiment with ways that work for your group. Depending on the activity type, you might nominate a ‘board assistant’ for one activity. S/he could elicit answers from the class. Or perhaps use an ‘early finisher’, or invite individual students to come out while an activity is in progress. In this way the book and interactive whiteboard versions are completed at the same time and the interactive whiteboard provides ongoing feedback.

Reading
With reading activities it is generally more appropriate for students to read the text in their books. The interactive whiteboard provides an excellent focus for pre-reading work and also for post-reading text analysis: highlighting features of the text or vocabulary is a very effective use of the interactive whiteboard.

Writing
If you are preparing students for a writing task, images from the module make good prompts for brainstorming content and ideas. You might decide to use model texts from the book for process writing activities and can, for example, ask your students to highlight certain features of the text in different colours.

Speaking
In the same way, when planning speaking you may plan to exploit the on-screen tapescripts as model dialogues, highlighting features of spoken discourse in preparation for the main speaking task in the module. You may wish to zoom in on instructions and draw students’ attention to key words to make sure they are clear what they have to do. You may decide to leave these instructions on screen as they work, or alternatively, zoom in on the ‘useful language’ sections to support the students in their task. As part of general classroom practice, you might drill phrases from these sections, pointing out stress or intonation patterns, so that learners are using a correct model.

Consider if or when you will show the tapescript, and what you will do with it. Decide if there are any useful phrases you want to bring to your students’ attention and highlight these with one of the writing tools.

Pronunciation
Pronunciation activities can often be more effective if students concentrate on imitating the sounds they hear and not trying to read at the same time. This is a good opportunity to ask students to close their books and try to imitate your model or the audio file in New Cutting Edge Digital. You can use the interactive whiteboard to annotate features you want to focus on, for example, stress patterns or phonemic symbols then cover up the patterns so the students practise without reading.

Grammar
In Grammar activities, read through the instructions in the flipchart to see if there are key words or language analysis terms you need to explain. You can use the writing tools to highlight these on the board to make sure all your students understand what is expected of them (The guided discovery approach of New Cutting Edge may be unfamiliar to some students).

Some flipcharts contain links to the Language Summaries at the back of the Student’s Book. Use these to teach difficult grammar ideas and give contextualised examples to further support your learners.

Vocabulary
Look at the amount and level of vocabulary coming up in your lesson and decide at what stages of the lesson and how you will introduce it. You can pre-teach phrases by zooming in on pictures from the unit or bringing in other digital images.

Consider how and where you will record new words that come up. You may wish to record them on a blank flipchart or Word document.

Use other resources
You may want to use other traditional or digital resources, for example, a web page, online dictionaries or other teaching materials. Check that any content to be shown on the interactive whiteboard will be visible from the back of the classroom. Try to have digital resources minimised before the lesson so you don’t have to search through folders or links during lesson time.

No matter what kind of interactive whiteboard you are using, the basic way to use the program is the same.

Promethean interactive whiteboards
If you are using a Promethean interactive whiteboard, New Cutting Edge Digital will launch the ‘Professional Edition’ of ActivStudio software that came with the whiteboard.  This version of the software is slightly different from the software described in this guide. You may notice these differences:

           •   The toolbar is likely to have more tools than the one shown in this guide, but you can use the tools
               shown in this guide in the same way. 

           •   You are able to have up to five flipcharts open at the same time, including a blank flipchart for note-
                taking or brainstorming.  Any flipchart you create from scratch can be saved.

           •   You can write/highlight on top of the page spreads when they are zoomed or not zoomed by using
               ‘Annotate over desktop’ functionality.

           •   You can use other tools such as a timer, an on-screen keyboard, a link to the internet, etc.

Contact your Promethean hardware provider for advice on how to use these additional functions.

Smart, Hitachi Starboard, Ebeam, Polyvision, Mimio or other interactive whiteboards
If you are using a different type of interactive whiteboard the basic way to use the programme remains the same because of the special ActivStudio software that is installed as part of New Cutting Edge Digital. 

By using the software that comes with your interactive whiteboard as well as the tools shown in this guide, you can:

           •   Write/highlight on top of the page spreads when they are zoomed or not zoomed.

           •   Have a blank flipchart open for note-taking or brainstorming.  These flipcharts can be saved.

           •   Use other tools such as a timer, an on-screen keyboard, a link to the internet, etc.

Contact your hardware provider for advice on how to use these additional functions.

To install on the computer :

Go to Start\Programs\Longman and choose your Cutting Edge level, or click on the desktop icon for the level you want to use.

To install on the network :

You have three options:-

1. You can install the software onto the server and then map to this location from each of your workstations and run the software directly from there. For this to work you must have ActiveStudio installed on all of the workstations.

2. The same as option one above but, instead of running the software from the server, run the setup program instead. This will then install the software on the workstation.

3. Install the software on the workstation from the CD.

For all of the three options you will need to insert the CD-Rom in the drive in each of the workstations the first time the software is run.

Yes and No. The student’s book pages contain exactly the same content as the paper edition, so that what your students see on the page is the same as on the screen. In addition, there are direct links to the tapescripts, language summaries and flipchart activities as well as the video section. The consolidation units, mini-checks and their respective audio files, however, are not included.

You can access the videos directly from the home page when you open the program.

A digital copy of the traditional teacher’s book is not included; however, every flipchart contains teacher’s notes on how to exploit the activity on an interactive whiteboard. Click on button to access them.
Module-by-module teacher’s notes and answer keys for the flipcharts activities are included in this guide.

Open the flipchart for a corresponding language analysis section in the Student’s Book and click on “Read Language summaries …” at the bottom of the flipchart to open a new window containing the language summary. Use the mini toolbar next to the tapescript and click on to write, the to highlight and the to undo any writing. Close the window by clicking on the tapescript button.

Click on any section of the Student’s Book pages, instructions, pictures, exercises, and it will zoom in on the section. Click again to zoom back out.

Use the right button to move to the next page and left button to move back a page. If you want to move to another module, then use the button to go back to the overall view of the module. Click the button again to see the list of modules.

They show you that there is an interactive activity with this section of the book; either an audio file or a flipchart activity.

You can only write on a zoomed or unzoomed part of the Student’s Book page if you’re using the software that came with you board.  For Promethean board users, this would be ActivStudio Professional Edition’s Annotate-over- desktop functionality.  Other board users should consult their hardware manufacturer for advice on how to access similar functionality.

They don’t, the software is only licensed to schools and organisations. The software is not designed for students to access by themselves.  A teacher should facilitate the material for them in a classroom environment.

Your licence permits you to install New Cutting Edge Digital on teachers’ home computers or laptops so they can access the material to prepare their lessons outside the classroom.  The software can be controlled from a computer without the interactive whiteboard being plugged in, but some functions, like writing, are considerably more difficult when using a mouse instead of a pen (or finger)!

Go to the button on the home page and choose the audio file from the module menu.

Most activities include the audio, but you will need to use a CD for any songs or consolidation modules of the Student’s Book. All listening activities from the Workbook must be played from the CD.

Click on the button in a flipchart to show the tapescript. If this option does not appear, it is because the tapescript is written out on the page of the flipchart.

In the Audio section, click on the 'Show Tapescript' button to make the tapescript and its tools appear. If this option doesn’t appear, then there is no tapescript included with this audio file because the tapescript is written out as part of Student’s Book.

Make sure you have selected the from the small tapescript toolbar. Then, click on a section of the tapescript (it will change colour) to begin playing from this point.  You can also use the normal pause, fast forward/rewind buttons.

Use the mini toolbar next to the tapescript. Click on the to write, the to highlight and the to undo any writing.

You can resize the window by dragging a corner or use the buttons on the top right to maximise/minimise it.

Click the small picture of the printer on the tapescript toolbar.

You can see the icon on the double-page spread or enlarged section of your Student’s Book. Click on it to launch the flipchart activity.

Select the button. Sometimes you can check one by one, or sometimes the whole page at once.

Click on the button to reset page to hide the answers. If showing answers is the last thing you have done, click on the to undo your last step.

Before you use the page with your students, click on the button to see where the answer boxes appear or consult the module-by-module notes at the end of the teacher's guide. Then make sure you or your students don’t write in that area.

Use the from the ActivStudio tool bar or click on the next to the activity instructions.

For individual words or small sections, use the from the ActivStudio Viewer tool bar. To clear all handwriting on the page use the (choose clear annotations from the options that appear).

Use the button on the bottom right of the page.

Click on the button at the top of your ActivStudio toolbar to temporarily hide the flipchart and take you back to the Student’s Book. Click on the again to bring back your flipchart.

So that you don’t accidentally change the contents of a page or overwrite the flipcharts for the next teacher, all flipcharts are “read only”. This means that any changes you make during a lesson will not be saved.  You can print the flipcharts, however, with or without your annotations on them.  Click on the orange figure on the ActivStudio toolbar and select Print.

If you want to create your own flipchart to add pictures or text, you can use your board’s own software or choose Flipchart/New from the menu under the orange figure on the ActivStudio toolbar.

If you are using the edition of ActivStudio that came with New Cutting Edge Digital, you can only have one flipchart open at a time, but you could always switch between a blank page of a Word document or a flipchart in your interactive whiteboard’s native software.

If you are using ActivStudio Professional then you can have your own flipcharts open at the same time as a New Cutting Edge Digital flipchart. Click on the 'Arrange windows' in the top right of your screen to switch between the two flipcharts.

Close the Activstudio software by clicking on the cross on the toolbar.
If the program asks you if you want to save changes, select no as this option is disabled for New Cutting Edge Digital flipcharts.

For further information write to digitaldelivery@pearson.com or alternatively contact your local Pearson Longman office.

Pearson Longman strives to produce high quality products that meet your teaching needs. Please send us your comments/feedback about the product at digitaldelivery@pearson.com.

Minimum specifications:

Windows2000/XP
Pentium 500Mhz
128 MB Ram
24 bit colour
Adobe Acrobat reader

Total hard disk space per level:
600 megabytes