Jo Scellier

On Wednesday 11^th July I conducted a MEC Clinic for ANZ (Australia and New Zealand) Embassy schools. Participants linked up via computer and phone and were taken through a 60 minute training session. There were about 13 MEC Champions, administrators and teachers who joined the clinic from their schools in different states such as Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Sydney.

ANZ Embassy launched MEC at the beginning of 2007 and has undertaken several training sessions for their MEC Champions and administrators. These have focused on various aspects of using MEC from general navigation of the different student, teacher and administration areas to building courses and assigning courses to classes. So, before I delivered the clinic I sent out a questionnaire to all participants to find out how they were implementing MEC, integrating it into the classroom and training teachers and students.

Melbourne

Some really valuable feedback from the questionnaire was received. Here's a summary:

• Communication between teachers and students regarding MEC is really good within the schools. However, between the schools it's a bit trickier to keep in touch and share information. So, I suggested setting up an online forum using a free site such http://www.runboard.com/ or http://makeforum.org/home.php. Alternatively, this blog could be a useful way to connect with other schools by placing comments or writing postings.

• Teachers have generally taken to MEC well with some teachers really loving it. The Embassy MEC Champions have used MEC training materials to train teachers during in-house professional development sessions and found it really useful. They've also developed some simple training materials for students. (You can find more teaching materials on the MEC support site.)
  
  
• Students at ANZ Embassy love the games and teachers have found them to be a positive way of introducing MEC. I'm not surprised as the games are not only fun and interactive but also useful English language learning tools. The other resource areas that have been popular so far are the Language Tests and Exam Preparation exercises. Teachers said they find these very useful and students are really taking to them, too!

Below are five points I asked the participants to think about. You might find them helpful for own institution or school:

1. How are your Campus champions and local administrators getting on with MEC? How could they be helped or supported further?