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

TeacherTube

2010-03-10T09:58:13.985+00:00

MEC Trainer, Joanna Trzmielewska, writes:

TeacherTube is an online community for sharing videos. It is a site where teachers can post videos designed for students to view in order to learn a concept or skill.

The most important thing about this website is the fact that videos refer to our students' interests and discuss their everyday life. The videos might also be attractive to students as a lot of them are made by their peers. The language in the videos is real and provides students with a chance to experience various accents.

Teachers can also find some videos that provide them with tips on how to teach effectively.

You are using you could send particular videos to your students as homework with a set of questions to answer. Videos could start a speaking class, stimulate students to express opinions. You might want to use videos as the basis of bigger projects. Alternatively, you might ask students to make their own videos and publish them on the site.

Example of videos:

Texting and Literacy

Cry Me a Verb (maybe your students could do something similar about Irregular verbs in English)

Introduction to The Catcher in the Rye

Interactive Read-Aloud

How NOT To Use PowerPoint
>

News item update!

2010-03-09T15:17:29.491+00:00

MEC Managing Editor, Jeremy Smith, writes:

Return of the pioneers

This week's news item, adapted for MEC from a news article originally published in the Guardian Weekly, is about people who left their homes in the Caribbean to work in the UK after the Second World War. Now that they are retired, many are returning to their countries.

You can find this story in the News Items section on your Work Area screen.

Creating a photobook

2010-03-05T17:59:20.472+00:00

Joanna Trzmielewska, MEC Trainer, writes:

We know that images and stories help to establish and revise vocabulary and grammar. We often do storytelling with young learners, who are always very excited about the idea of listening to and creating a story. However, the question is how to bring stories into teenage and adult class, without students thinking that it is childish and silly.

The solution might be bookr.Bookr> is a tool to create and share your own photobooks using Flickr images.

Why create a photobook?

● to revise vocabulary

● a way to practise writing

● introduce/revise grammar points

How to create a photobook?

Before you start creating your own photobook you may want to see how others have done it by going to the bookr archive>.

Go to Bookr

Search for images to use as the cover of your photobook and write a title and the author.

Turn the page and search for images and add some text.

If you want you can add some more pages by clicking on the + symbol next to the photobook.

When you have finished creating your photobook, click on Publish.

You can send the photobook by providing an email address/s.

How to use it?

● in class activity

● group/individual project

● copy the url of your photobook and send it as a web link on Campus

Photobooks samples:

Haiti Tragic Earthquake

A Mini Biography of Hugh Jackman

Books by J Lanham

New exercise player!

2010-03-03T16:49:06.65+00:00

Hello MEC enthusiasts! It's time for our March MEC clinic.

We've got a brand new exercise player and we'd like to show it off to you J

We will be holding an hour long clinic on March 24^th at 10am UK time and 4.30pm UK time. We will show you what's changed

about the player and what's been added to make it even better. We will also include a lesson idea for you to take away with you.

If you would like to join one of these sessions just send an email to me s.milligan@macmillan.com with your name, organisation and

the time you'd like to attend.

What are MEC clinics?

MEC clinics are short sessions (an hour) involving groups of no more than 25. They are on a first-come, first-served basis to any MEC teachers or administrators.

There is no cost involved

We will set up and host the sessions. Those attending simply need a computer with internet access, sound and ideally a microphone.

News item update!

2010-03-02T15:11:48.0118557+00:00

MEC Managing Editor Jeremy Smith writes:

Recession hampers education advances

This week's news item, adapted for MEC from a news article originally published in the Guardian Weekly, is about the problems the United Nations has supporting children's education because of the global financial crisis.

You can find this story in the News Items section on your Work Area screen.

Drop.io

2010-02-26T15:52:36.435+00:00

English teacher in Paris, Todd Burch, writes:

One challenge faced by many teachers is to find a simple way to distribute, receive and exchange documents with students. Email is too limiting when it comes to managing a large number of documents , and the file size restrictions make sending large documents difficult, if not possible.

An alternative is to make use of an online file storage and collaboration service. Many such services exist; however, from my experience, the best is drop.io.

Think of a ''drop'' as a place where you drop off things for others to pick up. It is perfect for storing course materials for students, and for any type of group project where students need to collaborate.

On drop.io you can store up to 100 MB for free (more than enough for most uses) without creating an account. Check out the great video on the home page:

Here’s how it works:

1. Go to http://drop.io:

2. Each time you go to the site, a random url address is generated automatically. In the example above it's: http://drop.io/thl6r6i. You can change the end to something easier to remember, such as http://drop.io/my_english_class.

3. Click on ''Select Files'' to upload files to your drop.

4. You can configure your drop.io space by clicking on ''Additional options'' just below ''Select Files.''

· Set a ''Guest Password'' to limit access to your drop

· Choose when you want the drop to expire, i.e. when your drop and the documents, photos, etc. you added to it, will be deleted.

· Decide whether ''guests'' (your students, colleagues, . . .) can add, delete, download or comment on files.

5. When you’re finished, click on ''Create a Drop.'' Your drop will be created. On the new screen you have an option to set an administrator password so that you can change the drop’s settings or receive an email in case you forget your drop address or password. This is optional, but it’s a good idea.

6. Communicate your drop url and password (if you created one) to your students and/or colleagues.

7. When others go to your drop, they simply have to hover their mouse over a file they would like to download to see a menu appear.

That covers the basics. You can actually do a lot more with drop.io, but the best way to discover the other functions is to go the site and play around with it. I suggest you start by creating a sample drop to discover all the possibilities.

Hope you find that useful!

Using MEC at university

2010-02-25T14:15:15.386+00:00

Have you thought about using MEC with prospective students?

This is what the University of Lincoln is going to do. It has just become the first UK university to get its own MEC platform. As well as using it with current students, Lincoln will also be using it to test, monitor and build up students' language levels before they even arrive at university.

For Lincoln , this has a number of big advantages. Building up their students' language levels in this way will give students longer to reach the level they want to attain and help them once they arrive.

Settling in will be made easier with access to all the study skills and practical resources from the 'University Culture' section of the English for Academic Purposes content.

It's a great way of building links with students before they even arrive and getting students on board to study at the university.

Mark Forster, senior lecturer at the University's Lincoln Languages Centre, commented on the potential to ''keep in touch with students, monitor their progress and devise a curriculum specifically for them. It means the Lincoln student experience will begin before students have even left their home town.''

Read Lincoln's press release about their use of MEC >

News item update!

2010-02-24T16:36:06.6668295+00:00

MEC Managing Editor, Jeremy Smith, writes:

Lure of an unfinished metropolis

This week's news item, adapted for MEC from a news article originally published in the Guardian Weekly, is about the growing number of artists moving to Germany 's capital, Berlin , because of low living costs and the tolerance of the city.

You can find this story in the News Items section on your Work Area screen.

We want to hear from you!

2010-02-17T16:56:56.4990375+00:00

MEC Trainer, Joanna Trzmielewska, writes:

We love hearing from MEC teachers, especially about how they use Campus. However, we do not want to keep this information for ourselves only! We like sharing ideas and the best place to do it is our blog.

We have had teachers in the past sharing their ideas on the MEC blog. There have been a few of them, amongst which were: Anna Rolinska, a teacher in the Czech Republic and recently Barbara Toth from Hungary . Their blog entries were very interesting and inspiring.

If you want to share your ideas with other teachers you can also write a blog entry that we will put up on the MEC blog.

How do I submit a blog posting?

It is very simple, write your blog posting in a word document and send it to me via email to j.trzmielewska@macmillan.com and we will be happy to include it in the next blog update.

I am looking forward to hearing from you!

News item update!

2010-02-16T16:40:08.8612227+00:00

MEC Managing Editor, Jeremy Smith, writes:

Earth in danger

This week's news item is our monthly news item for teens. It is about the problems created by climate change and what we can do to save the planet.

You can find this story in the News Items section on your Work Area screen.

You can also find longer versions of the news item with extension activities by logging in to our teachers' area here.

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

TeacherTube

Cry Me a Verb (maybe your students could do something similar about Irregular verbs in English)

Introduction to The Catcher in the Rye

Interactive Read-Aloud

How NOT To Use PowerPoint >

How NOT To Use PowerPoint

News item update!

Creating a photobook

New exercise player!

News item update!

Drop.io

Using MEC at university

News item update!

We want to hear from you!

News item update!

Earth in danger

How NOT To Use PowerPoint
>