Blended learning, English language teaching and the use of technology - the MEC blog

Onestopenglish newsletter

2008-05-16T16:46:13.785+01:00

Onestopenglish Web Editor, Lucy Williams, writes:

In May we're showing off a huge selection of listening materials! Check out our audio and podcasts section for authentic interviews in 'Live from London'; the onestopenglish soap opera, The Road Less Travelled and serialized Macmillan Readers, the latest of which is The Well. For new subscribers there is also the chance to win an iPod nano, making it even easier to listen to podcasts when and wherever you want!

May also welcomes the latest characters from the Onestop Phonics series for young learners, Gertie Grape and Harry Hamburger. Keep your eyes peeled for letters Ii to Ll, which will also be published this month.

If you teach English to adults at beginner level, we'd really appreciate your help with our latest research. Click here to take part.

There's lots of other great content, so please take time to explore and enjoy another packed edition of onestopenglish.

May MEC clinic

2008-05-14T14:15:20.907+01:00

Hurry up and register for May's MEC clinic!

Join us for our next MEC clinic presented by Ann Foreman. This clinic will include tips on:

Using www.Voki.com with the Syllabus Item Identity in the Macmillan English Campus Inside Out Advanced Course
Using www.voki.com with MEC pronunciation exercises on sentence stress.
Using www.voicethread.com with MEC exam practice exercises, focusing on: Speaking in PET, FCE and CAE exams.

MEC clinics are short sessions (maximum 90 minutes) involving small groups of no more than 10. They are on a first-come, first-served basis to any teachers who use MEC.

There is no cost involved: we will set up and host the sessions. Those attending simply need their web-linked computer and a separate phone line to dial a freephone number.

Our next clinic will be held on Thursday 29^th May 2008, 12.30pm GMT (to be confirmed)

Presenter: Ann Foreman, British Council ICT Coordinator and Teacher Trainer

Subject: Tips and ideas on how to use MEC resources with Voki and Voicethread.

If you are interested in attending this event or you require any further information, please let us know through the 'contact us' section of this site or by emailing s.milligan@macmillan.com.

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MEC training

2008-05-13T10:23:46.608+01:00

MEC Product Trainer, Sarah Milligan, writes:

We'd like to remind you about the Macmillan English Campus training sessions we can offer you to help your teachers and administrators develop their confidence, knowledge and skills with MEC.

Before you decide on what type of content you'd like in your next training session it's worth knowing that there are two ways we can deliver training to you:


1) Face to face training - In this case a Campus trainer will come to your school or organisation to train a group of your teachers and/or administrators. Training sessions are usually 4-5 hours and taken over a day but timings can be flexible according to your needs.

2) Online training - In this case a Campus trainer will demonstrate a particular aspect of Campus using an online meeting and conference call facility. Online training sessions last a maximum of 90 minutes. Content can be of your choice.

Once you've decided on how you want your training delivered you'll need to choose from the wide variety of content we offer for training sessions:

Content - Listed below are some of the training sessions we can offer either face to face or online. However, if you require something more specific then we would be more than happy to organise this with you.

Macmillan English Campus overview - how to use the tools in the student and teacher area
Administration - how to use the administration area; user management, class management, course building, exporting data from Campus
Advanced course building - tips for experienced course builders
Distance learning - tips on how to use Campus in a distance learning programme
Low-level learners - tips for using Campus with low-level learners
Campus in class - including demonstration lessons (face to face training) and ideas for creating your own lessons using a variety of Campus resources
Searching on Campus and in the Macmillan English Dictionary Online (MEDO) - helping teachers find the resources they need

The final step is to get in contact with us here (training-campus@mec.helpserve.com) specifying what training you'd like. We look forward to hearing from you!

SpellingCity

2008-05-09T17:24:27.219+01:00

MEC Marketing Assistant, Julian Chant, writes:

Want to improve your students’ spelling? Then try out SpellingCity, a new educational site that can help children improve their spelling skills and expand their vocabulary. It can also be used by teachers and parents to teach their students how to spell properly with their own spelling lists.

The site contains a bank of over 25,000 words including plurals, contractions and 3rd person tenses, as well as three main practice features:

- Test Me: which uses a real human voice that says both the word and the word in a sentence;
- Teach Me: which spells out the word; and
- Play a Game: where you can select from a number of useful applications including HangMouse (an animated equivalent of hangman) and Word Matching (the objective of the game being to pair cards based on the words and sounds).

Teachers and parents can enter their very own spelling lists to test their students/children on specific topics. The List of the Month feature ensures that the most popular lists are highlighted. Click here to try out a one of this month’s winning lists.

This would be a useful site to save in your My Web Links area of MEC and recommend as a homework activity to supplement in-class material. Teachers will need to create an account in order to upload new spelling lists and students can start using it right away!

English, baby!

2008-05-07T14:01:15.792+01:00

MEC Training Coordinator, Steph Earnshaw, writes:

If you're looking for some fun and inspirational material for teaching American English, then take a look at English, baby!

This is a great website where you can find ready made English lessons, English speaking penpals, chat rooms and forums to help your learners practise their English.

There's a new ready made English lesson every day and each one is based on a short video, podcast or written text. You can search for a lesson by key word, title, category and content. You'll also find grammar and language tips, discussion questions or a vocabulary quiz at the end of every lesson.

The language is authentic and full of idiomatic expressions, making it an ideal way for you to teach your learners new vocabulary that they might not come across in a book. Ebaby! videos come complete with a transcript and subtitles, and for some really fun material, check out Ebaby! TV - here you'll find the Ebaby! soap opera and links to all the video lessons.

This would be a useful site to save in your My Web Links area of MEC and use in class as a video listening activity. You could then do related MEC resources as extra class work or for homework. You must be a member to access the lessons but it's free to join, just click here. If you get your learners to sign up you can even assign them some Ebaby! lessons as a homework activity to reinforce what they learnt in class.

There are lots of interesting articles for both learners and teachers in the Fun Stuff section of Ebaby! You can access this area once you are a registered member. An example of the kind of information you can find is in the video below, where Graham Stanley, an English teacher in Barcelona , Spain , explains how English teachers can use Web 2.0 internet tools and resources to make their lessons more dynamic and interesting.

To read more from Graham on his blog, click here.

News item and word games update!

2008-05-07T09:47:35.09+01:00

MEC Senior Editor Jeremy Smith writes:

Mugabe’s party intimidate voters

This week's news item, adapted for MEC from a news article originally published in the Guardian Weekly, is about Zimbabwe 's recent presidential and parliamentary elections and reports that Robert Mugabe’s party have tried to intimidate voters before an election runoff.

Go to the News Items section on your Work Area screen to find out more about the reported intimidation of voters and the possible outcomes of the election in Zimbabwe .

May word games

This month’s Witch's Pot topics are 'vegetables' (Easy), 'materials' (Average) and 'nouns connected with happiness' (Difficult).

The Swamp Disaster topics are 'How many legs?' (Easy), 'sports and games' (Average) and 'government and politics' (Difficult).

The Wordsearch topics are 'fruit' (Easy), 'musical instruments' (Average) and 'verbs related to light' (Difficult).

There are new Crosswords and Bridge Builders at all levels too.

Visit the Word Games area to find them all.

IATEFL Exeter

2008-05-02T17:28:59.076+01:00

MEC Marketing Assistant, Julian Chant, writes:

Last month the MEC team attended the very enjoyable and highly informative 42nd Annual IATEFL Conference in Exeter, UK. IATEFL holds its International Annual Conference & Exhibition every spring, which is attended by around 1,500 ELT professionals from over 70 countries around the world.

Throughout the conference there was lots of interest in blended learning and the interactive whiteboards on the new Macmillan stand brought Campus to life! Many thanks to everyone who came up to the stand to talk to us – I hope you were lucky enough to grab a box of onestopenglish mints, they went like hotcakes.

The team made four successful presentations at the conference including Jenny Lovel and Mario Oesterreicher’s talk, Blended learning: Meeting the challenges of university language teaching. Mario showed how integrated blended learning can help personalize learning, increase motivation and improve teaching efficiency, while Jenny introduced a flexible bank of EAP materials for MEC, commissioned specifically to meet university users' needs.

The British Council Exeter Online website provides a variety of useful resources from the event including video and audio recordings of selected sessions, moderated special interest discussion forums, blogs and photo albums. All you need to do is create your account and off you go!

As always the Macmillan party was a great way to thank everyone for their support throughout the conference and the Back to School theme went down like a treat. Please come and join us next year for what will surely be another memorable outing.

May MEC Clinic

2008-04-30T17:20:43.884+01:00

Hurry up and register for May's MEC clinic!



             Get a Voki now!

Join us for our next MEC clinic presented by Ann Foreman. This clinic will include tips on:

Using www.Voki.com with the Syllabus Item Identity in the Macmillan English Campus Inside Out Advanced Course
Using www.voki.com with MEC pronunciation exercises on sentence stress.
Using www.voicethread.com with MEC exam practice exercises, focusing on: Speaking in PET, FCE and CAE exams.

MEC clinics are short sessions (maximum 90 minutes) involving small groups of no more than 10. They are on a first-come, first-served basis to any teachers who use MEC.

There is no cost involved: we will set up and host the sessions. Those attending simply need their web-linked computer and a separate phone line to dial a freephone number.

Our next clinic will be held on Thursday 29^th May 2008, 12.30pm GMT (to be confirmed)

Presenter: Ann Foreman, British Council ICT Coordinator and Teacher Trainer

Subject: Tips and ideas on how to use MEC resources with Voki and Voicethread.

If you are interested in attending this event or you require any further information, please let us know through the 'contact us' section of this site or by emailing s.milligan@macmillan.com.

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News item update!

2008-04-29T16:56:28.5855919+01:00

MEC Senior Editor, Jeremy Smith, writes:

Scientists identify biggest challenges of the future

This week's news item, adapted for MEC from a news article originally published in the Guardian Weekly, is about a study looking at the biggest technological challenges of the next 50 years.

Go to the News Items section on your Work Area screen to find out what the challenges are and how they can be met.

April MEC online clinic

2008-04-25T12:31:36.026+01:00

The MEC training team, Steph and Sarah, write:

On the 24^th April we held our 9^th online Macmillan English Campus clinic. The title of the clinic was Setting up a class blog to use with MEC resources.

Ann Foreman

The clinic was written and presented by Ann Foreman, a teacher trainer and ICT coordinator for the British Council, Bilbao. Ann also has her own blog called Encouraging Learner Autonomy where you'll find all sorts of great ideas about how to use technology in the classroom.

Click here to see the clinic presentation. To move to the next slide, left click with your mouse. To go back to a previous slide right click with your mouse and then click on rewind.

Ann demonstrated an example class blog posting related to the theme of Identity, a syllabus item from the Macmillan English Campus Inside Out Advanced course.

Tip for using a class blog

·         If you are working in an IT suite you can ask your learners to blog during the lesson. Otherwise, blogging is a fun way for learners to do their homework. You can check what they've written at home and give feedback in the next lesson or even as a comment on the blog. If you have an interactive whiteboard or a computer and a data projector in your classroom, you can review the postings together in class. It's a great way to compare ideas and correct errors.

·         If you're using MEC for a distance learning course, a class blog is a great way for students to submit written homework and keep in touch with their teacher.

·         Using topics from MEC courses is a great way to provide your learners with inspiration for their blog postings. Another useful resource might be Web Projects, as they cover a wide range of topics and levels, exposing learners to authentic language and encouraging them to study independently. Learners could complete a Web Project and then each write a posting on their findings or their opinions on the subject.

Do you have any ideas for using MEC resources with class blogs? Have you made a blog with your class and would like to share your experience with us? We'd be delighted to hear from you either by email or as a comment on this posting. Get blogging!

Our thanks to Ann and everyone who participated in the clinic. The participants were:

·         Monica Vlad - EQUALS EuroEd, Romania

·         Anna Rolinska - AKCENT International House, Prague , Czech Republic

·         Travis Rout - British Council , Czech Republic

·         Neil McLaren - British Council , Slovakia

·         James Glanville - British Council , Slovakia

·         Suzanne Mordue - British Council , Slovakia

·         Astrid krake - VHS Munich, Germany

·         Katia Lotte - FL&C, France

·         James Frith - BELL Cambridge , UK

·         Roberto Murakami - Cultura Inglesa , Brazil

Please don't hesitate to contact us with your questions and comments. If you are interested in attending the next MEC clinic you can contact us by leaving a comment or emailing s.milligan@macmillan.com

MEC April newsletter

2008-04-24T16:35:52.445+01:00

MEC Marketing Coordinator, Jane Petrie, writes:

The Moscow Institute of Linguistics - a Macmillan English Campus Case Study

The Moscow Institute of Linguistics (MIL) is one of the newest users of the Macmillan English Campus (MEC). MIL started using MEC in December 2007 and teaches students ranging in age from 12 to 60, at a variety of levels, from beginner to advanced.

We asked teachers at MIL to explain how they were using MEC and what benefits the implementation of a blended learning solution has brought.

A practical solution

Asked why MIL chose to adopt MEC, Vadim Klimachev, a senior teacher, says it provides the opportunity 'to make language learning highly effective, interesting, up-to-date and diverse'.

He describes the way in which, having been assigned to an appropriate course, 'the students are asked to complete a set of tasks within a specific period (normally a week or two); typical difficulties and mistakes are analysed and discussed in class with the teacher'.

One of the things that the teachers highlight is the flexibility that using MEC brings. As one teacher says, MEC 'can be used in accordance with students' individual needs. There is plenty of listening, which is often the most difficult aspect for language learners, and it can be used both in class and at home.'

Other teachers, asked how they use MEC, highlight its usefulness for homework and how, once exercises have been completed, it often leads to further discussion in class.

Learner autonomy

Students benefit from being able to work at their own pace, completing supplementary activities if necessary. Those who happen to miss a lesson can 'use MEC to go through material covered during a class they missed' and MEC also makes it easy to 'work on the aspects they need to revise'.

Other teachers also highlight the way that MEC 'offers students the opportunity to work independently' and provides 'a wide range of exercises on different topics'. They also note that many 'students are carried away by the process of testing their English on the internet and fulfil much more than the tasks set by the teacher!'

In this context, the automatic markbook is really useful, with teachers commenting that students enjoy 'the ability to check their results immediately and retry exercises'.

Teacher support

MEC also helps teachers to support students with greater effectiveness, due to its in-built monitoring facilities such as the markbook. Vadim highlights the 'ease of checking students' results and evaluating progress of their work'. Consequently, the time saved in lesson preparation and marking can be used to support students in other ways.

The approach taken by MIL works because of this complementary combination of face-to-face teaching and online resources.

Feedback about MEC and e-learning in general points to the fact that being able to use online resources increases motivation, and provides a structured and easy way to practise. In doing so, learner confidence is increased and results are improved. This produces a great result for the Moscow Institute of Linguistics!