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

Meet a MEC Author

Steph — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:32:18 GMT

An interview with Patrick McMahon:

Meet one of our MEC authors Patrick who has bravely agreed to answer our gruelling questions. Patrick has written lots of EAP material for MEC and has recently completed some EAP lesson plans for our very own Teachers' support area.

1) What do you do when you're not being a MEC author?

I’m a full time lecturer at Plymouth University so being an MEC author is a very small part of my work. I also spend a bit of time on my blog English for university.

2) What do you do for fun?

I like being around water so things like boating, fishing and going to the beach are top of my list.

3) When and how did you become involved with Macmillan English Campus?

Jenny Lovel contacted me and asked me to do some authoring after she saw my blog. I've been involved with MEC since April 2008.

4) What kind of content do you work on?

I've written some EAP listening activities and some lesson plans for the teachers' resource area.

5) What are your views on MEC as a teaching/learning resource?

I think it's very good indeed. I think its strength is the blended aspect of face-to-face teaching and online learning.

6) How would you compare MEC with other VLEs you know or have worked on?

I think it compares very well. It offers a lot of support to teachers which other VLEs don't do.

7) Do you think that ICT training should be a bigger part of CELTA training and teacher development?

I think the basics of ICT should be included on courses but after that it should be an optional part of training. Lots of people go into teaching because they like to work with people, not computers!

8) What is your favourite MEC resource, and why?

I like the web projects in the EAP activities. I think language students learn a lot when they are involved in project work without realising it and I think these activities give a lot of opportunities for this unconscious language acquisition.

9) What are your tips for new teachers using MEC?

To spend as much time as you can having a look around MEC before you start using it. In class there’s nothing worse than a teacher trying to use resources that they are not familiar with.

10) What are your views on blended learning? (resources, teacher : resource ratio, etc)

I think blended learning offers a real chance to maximise resources. Blended learning means that students can spend a lot of their own time doing reading and listening which allows the teachers to focus on the productive skills. To be honest a student should spend most of the time working without the teacher.

11) Do you use a lot of technology in your teaching/work/life? If so, what do you use?

I use the web a lot. I put resources up for my students on our university portal and on my blog I point out useful online language learning resources

12) Do you have any favourite ELT websites, blogs, podcasts or other resources?

My favourite EAP sites are Andy Gillett's UEfAP site and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s English Language Centre site.

13) What do you think the future holds for ELT teachers and authors?

I think there will be a lot more learning online and online tutoring as technology becomes more reliable and faster. Teachers and authors will need to be very flexible and adaptable to deal with this.

14) Any parting comments?

I look forward to writing more material for MEC!

Patrick McMahon

Building Bonanza

Steph — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:51:53 GMT

MEC Marketing Assistant, Julian Chant, writes:

Building Bonanza is an online game from the Science Museum which enables players to build an energy efficient house. This activity provides text and audio support, including animated teenagers who pop up on the screen and rate the choices that players make.

As well as educating learners on the benefits of sustainable housing, the site is a fun and light-hearted source of ELT material. The mix of simple object terms and teenage slang that is used by the animated characters provides a good balance of vocabulary.

Two more advanced environmental-education sites include ElectroCity and Greenpeace's EfficienCity. ElectroCity is an online computer game that lets players manage their own virtual towns and cities, while EfficienCity is a high-quality flash presentation with detailed information about energy efficiency and sustainability.

News item update!

Steph — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:41:52 GMT

MEC Senior Editor, Jeremy Smith, writes:

Electronic wasteland

This week's news item, adapted for MEC from a news article originally published in the Guardian Weekly, is about diesel thefts in Great Britain .

Go to the News Items section on your Work Area screen to find out how the thieves operate and how petrol stations, farmers and householders are affected.

Test your English

Steph — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:06:39 GMT

MEC Training Coordinator, Steph Earnshaw, writes:

Do you speak perfect English? Can you prove it? Click here to find out…

BBC English Test

We all like to think that our English is great, otherwise how could we be good English teachers? Still, it's good to keep on your toes and the English test above from the BBC news website is just the way to test your knowledge. It's a test of British English, so if you speak and teach American English at least you have an excuse for not getting top marks!

If you have any really high level learners you might want to try it out on them too, although I'd recommend you check the answers yourself first. After all, English spelling can be deceptively difficult...

For lower level learners, why not get them to do some of the following Campus exercises?

Nouns and verbs - Vocabulary activity (Level 3)
Nouns from verbs - Vocabulary activity (Level 3)
Noun suffixes - Vocabulary activity (Level 4)
At the beach - Vocabulary activity (Level 2)
Clothes - Vocabulary activity (Level 1)
Meet my family - Vocabulary activity (Level 1)

EnbassyCES training

Steph — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 10:17:49 GMT

MEC Product Trainer, Sarah Milligan, writes:

Steph and I took a train to Greenwich on the 27th June to run a Macmillan English Campus training session for teachers at EmbassyCES, London . The participants were ten Embassy teachers and the theme; demonstrating different ways of using Campus in the classroom.

EmbassyCES Greenwich is equipped with ICT labs, Interactive Whiteboards in 50% of classrooms and a fantastic team of motivated, 'switched on' teachers. Steph and I had a great time running the training as most of the teachers already use Campus in the school ICT labs and were happy to share their ideas and experiences with us. All in all this 'Campus in the classroom' training session was useful for both the teachers and us at MEC.

Do you use Campus in class? We want to hear from you. Share your lesson ideas!

If you would like more ideas on how to use Campus in class then join one of our online training sessions. You can read notes from previous 'Campus in class' online training sessions here and here.

News items and word games update!

Steph — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 14:03:28 GMT

MEC Senior Editor, Jeremy Smith, writes:

The European middle class is getting poorer

This week's news item, adapted for MEC from a news article originally published in the Guardian Weekly, is about young, well-educated Europeans who earn less money and have a lower standard of living than their parents.

Go to the News Items section on your Work Area screen to find out why this is happening and what it means for the future of the European middle class.

July word games

This month's Witch's Pot topics are '-ing words that follow ''go''' (Easy), 'appliances' (Average) and 'driving' (Difficult).

The Swamp Disaster 'words that follow ''take''' (Difficult).

The Wordsearch topics are 'members of your family' (Easy), 'jobs' (Average) and 'positive adjectives describing personality' (Difficult).

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

Visit the Word Games area to find them all.

July MEC clinic – Using MEC in class

Steph — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 16:01:08 GMT

MEC Training Coordinator, Steph Earnshaw writes:

On the 4th July we held our 11^th online Macmillan English Campus clinic, giving ideas for how to use MEC resources in your classroom.

You can download a PDF of the full presentation by clicking the link below.

Using MEC in class.ppt (3.71 MB)

But if you haven't got time to read all that, below are some top tips for Using MEC in class:

1. How can you lead in to the MEC resource? What would be a good lesson warmer or introduction activity?

2. Even though you are working online with MEC, the lesson can still involve pair-work, speaking activities, etc. In class learners want to benefit from your help. MEC can provide lesson content as a basis for teacher input in the lesson. Learners can consolidate and practice new language on MEC for homework.

3. How can you modify the level of challenge? (Create an information gap exercise, cover bits of text or pictures using the MEC hint box or the listening window.)

4. Will students benefit from doing the same activity at home again? What related MEC resources could you set as follow-up or homework? (Language exercises have accompanying Grammar Reference Units. News Items are great as a follow-up to a MEC Listening or Vocabulary activity.)

The clinic participants were:

Milena Montalbano - IH MERATE - LECCO

Mafy Gallinetti - IH MERATE - LECCO

Spohie Behagg - EmbassyCES, Brighton

Vivienne Antognini - Language Consultants S.r.l.

Ken Jones- Language Consultants S.r.l.

Jose Willis - IH Livorno

A big thanks to everyone who participated. Please don't hesitate to contact us with your questions and comments - especially if you have any amazing MEC lesson plans!

If you are interested in attending the next MEC clinic you can contact us by leaving a comment or emailing s.earnshaw@macmillan.com

News item update!

Steph — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 10:57:07 GMT

MEC Senior Editor, Jeremy Smith, writes:

G8 countries owe $40 billion in aid as refugee numbers increase

This week's news item, adapted for MEC from a news article originally published in the Guardian Weekly, is about the failure of G8 countries to meet aid promises for Africa and the growing numbers of refugees around the world.

Go to the News Items section on your Work Area screen to find out what the Africa Progress Panel (APP) suggests to improve the situation.

MEC June newsletter

Steph — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:05:16 GMT

MEC Marketing Coordinator, Jane Petrie, writes:

Are you interested in blended learning but not sure how to get on board?

Meet Vilson Oliveira Filho. He's the e-learning manager for Cultura Inglesa in Brazil . They have been using the English Campus, which they call the e-Campus, since 2003.

We asked him to answer some of your queries.

What is the feedback from your clients and teachers on using the English Campus?

At the moment the e-Campus is mainly used as the online complement to our face-to-face courses for all our students. It is also used in the classrooms via interactive whiteboards to provide support for the activities developed in the lessons. Activities from the e-Campus are integrated in all our courses. At the moment we have approximately 60,000 users.

The feedback from clients and teachers is very positive. Clients see it as a very helpful tool for extra practice and reference that can be accessed from anywhere they have an internet connection. Teachers also see the tool as helpful since they can very quickly find activities for practice of specific language items or skills using the search mechanisms.

How much time is allocated per week for using the English Campus - both for teaching and for monitoring students' progress?

Since it is part of a varied programme offered to clients, the time spent by teachers using the e-Campus in their lessons varies from lesson to lesson.

As regards to monitoring time, the tool makes it easy to monitor students' progress and that is usually done on a weekly or fortnightly basis.

What advice could you offer on how we can make the launch of a blended learning programme run smoothly?

The resources available are vast and it is important to plan ways of exposing students to the resources and features gradually and frequently so that they see the value and understand how the tool works. Students usually see the value of the tool when they have done something that helped them or been shown an activity or feature that could help them.

July MEC clinic

Steph — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:19:02 GMT

Join us for our next MEC clinic presented by Steph Earnshaw. This clinic will include:

Tips on the different ways you can use MEC
Ideas on using MEC resources in class
A post clinic workshop where participants will share their ideas

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 3rd July 2008, 12.30pm GMT (to be confirmed)

There will be a post clinic session for participants to share their own ideas on the 4th July 2008, 12.30pm GMT (to be confirmed)

Presenter: Steph Earnshaw

Subject: Using MEC in class

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.earnshaw@macmillan.com.