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

Using MEC at university

Steph — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:15:15 GMT

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 >

Free MEC top-up training!

Steph — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:25:34 GMT

MEC>, Sarah Milligan, writes:

We are very happy to let you know that we are organizing MEC online top-up training sessions free of charge. If you feel that you need MEC revision or you have new teachers using MEC, we would be delighted if you joined us. Each session will last 1 ½ hours and will be held three times a day so you and your teachers have plenty of choice.

The training schedule is as follows:

1^st March - MEC overview

9am UK time, 12pm UK time or 4pm UK time

2^ndMarch – MEC test building

9am UK time, 12pm UK time or 4pm UK time

3^rd March – MEC course building

9am UK time, 12pm UK time or 4pm UK time

4^th March – MEC in use

9am UK time, 12pm UK time or 4pm UK time

5^th March – MEC administration

9am UK time, 12pm UK time or 4pm UK time

If you would like to come along or have any questions please send me an email with your name, organisation and the time and date you would like to attend.

See you online!

Planning a lesson on nature

Steph — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 14:38:10 GMT

MEC Training Coordinator, Sarah Milligan, writes:

Planning to do a lesson on nature?

If so, click here to find eleven new creatures that have recently been discovered. MSN has created a slide for each creature with a short description of what the creature is and where it was found. Some of them are truly bizarre and may cause students to recoil in horror but should definitely create an interesting class discussion.

Also, don't forget that on MEC> you can find a whole host of resources about nature by clicking on Interactive Worlds>.

Summer camp ideas!

Steph — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:05:32 GMT

MEC Training Coordinator, Sarah Milligan>, writes:

Many of you will be about to start teaching in summer camps for young learners. It's always nice to have a few extra ideas to hand so click here to find lesson tips about using fairy tales in the classroom. The lesson ideas come from the British Council's TeachingEnglish site.

You may also like to have a look at MEC's Animals and Culture world by clicking on Interactive Worlds from your Work Area. You will find lots of fables and stories about animals here. All of the resources in Interactive Worlds are compatible with Interactive Whiteboards and work very well with data projectors too. Enjoy!

Nine tried and tested lesson ideas from Macmillan Academy

Steph — Fri, 29 May 2009 15:42:44 GMT

Nine tried and tested lesson ideas from Macmillan Academy

MEC Trainer, Joanna Trzmielewska, writes:

Below is my last Macmillan Academy lesson. This one is designed for elementary learners and is focused on parts of the body.

Macmillan Academy Lesson 9 'Parts of the body'.pdf (75.07 KB)

I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas on using MEC. If you'd like to write a comment just click on the comments button at the bottom of this posting or send me an email at j.trzmielewska@macmillan.com.

Nine tried and tested lesson ideas from Macmillan Academy

Steph — Fri, 22 May 2009 10:36:32 GMT

Nine tried and tested lesson ideas from Macmillan Academy

MEC Training Coordinator, Sarah Milligan, writes:

Below is the second Macmillan Academy lesson idea written by Joanna. This one is all about celebrity crimes and uses extracts from a onestopenglish lesson plan.

Macmillan Academy Lesson 8 'Crime'.pdf (887.88 KB)

I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas on using MEC. If you'd like to write a comment just click on the comments button at the bottom of this posting or send me an email at s.milligan@macmillan.com.

>>>>>

Nine tried and tested lesson ideas from Macmillan Academy

Steph — Fri, 15 May 2009 14:26:58 GMT

Nine tried and tested lesson ideas from Macmillan Academy

MEC Trainer, Joanna Trzmielewska, writes:

Below is my first Macmillan Academy lesson idea. This one uses a MEC Listening Activity and extracts from the 'Culture Shock' lesson plan on onestopenglish.The aims of this lesson are to develop listening skills and practise speaking.

Macmillan Academy Lesson 7 'Culture Shock'.pdf (73.9 KB)

>>>>>

Nine tried and tested lesson ideas from Macmillan Academy

Steph — Fri, 08 May 2009 10:44:00 GMT

Nine tried and tested lesson ideas from Macmillan Academy

MEC Training Coordinator, Sarah Milligan, writes:

Below is the sixth Macmillan Academy lesson idea. This one was written by Steph and uses a MEC Vocabulary and Listening Activity.

Macmillan Academy Lesson 6 'Work and Phrasals'.pdf (83.14 KB)

As always I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas on using MEC. If you'd like to write a comment just click on the comments button at the bottom of this posting or send me an email at s.milligan@macmillan.com.

Nine tried and tested lesson ideas from Macmillan Academy

Steph — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:39:46 GMT

Nine tried and tested lesson ideas from Macmillan Academy

MEC Training Coordinator, Sarah Milligan, writes:

Here is the fifth lesson plan from Macmillan Academy. This one was written and taught by Steph who has sadly left the training department but on the bright side is going to live and teach in Bhutan !

Macmillan Academy Lesson 5 'Jobs and Conditionals'.pdf (82.29 KB)

Nine tried and tested lesson ideas from Macmillan Academy

Steph — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 12:51:34 GMT

Nine tried and tested lesson ideas from Macmillan Academy

MEC Training Coordinator, Sarah Milligan, writes:

Here is the fourth lesson plan from Macmillan Academy. This one was written and taught by Steph who has sadly left the training department but on the bright side is going to live and teach in Bhutan !

Macmillan Academy Lesson 4 'Relationships'.pdf (85.07 KB)

Nine tried and tested lesson ideas from Macmillan Academy

Steph — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 13:38:32 GMT

Nine tried and tested lesson ideas from Macmillan Academy

MEC Product Trainer, Sarah Milligan, writes:

Below is my final lesson plan from Macmillan Academy. This one was about the word 'bogus' and focused on word formation and homophones.

Macmillan Academy Lesson 3 'Bogus'.pdf (71.32 KB)

Nine tried and tested lesson ideas from Macmillan Academy

Steph — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 11:29:25 GMT

Nine tried and tested lesson ideas from Macmillan Academy

MEC Product Trainer, Sarah Milligan, writes:

It's Friday and that means it's time for me to post another Macmillan Academy lesson idea for you to try out in class. This one was about Barack Obama and focused on mixed verb tenses. Just click on the link below to see the lesson plan.

Macmillan Academy Lesson 2 'Obama'.pdf (67.3 KB)

Nine tried and tested lesson ideas from Macmillan Academy

Steph — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 15:20:12 GMT

Nine tried and tested lesson ideas from Macmillan Academy

MEC Product Trainer, Sarah Milligan, writes:

We (Steph, Joanna and Sarah from the MEC team) recently went to Oxford and taught English lessons using MEC and onestopenglish resources.

Joanna Steph Sarah

Lessons were taught as part of a free twelve week project, created by Macmillan Education, for adults living in Oxford . The project was called Macmillan Academy and for the next nine weeks we'll be posting one of the lesson plans that we used to teach lessons at the Academy.

Below is a link to the first lesson I did with my class. They were very advanced learners so I had to find some challenging material for them to use. I hope it inspires you to use MEC in class.

Macmillan Academy Lesson 1 'Communication'.pdf (72.07 KB)

Please feel free to comment on this lesson plan by clicking on the 'comments' link at the bottom right of this posting.

If you have any questions you can contact me directly at s.milligan@macmillan.com.

Using Twitter in ELT

Steph — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 16:37:26 GMT

IH Prague teacher and e-learning coordinator, Ania Rolińska, writes:

Using Twitter in ELT

What is it?

Twitter is a combination of a social networking site, microblog and instant messenger that lets you stay hyperconnected with your friends, family or co-workers. The primary purpose of the service is to keep your social circle posted as to your exact whereabouts and doings through regular updates or 'tweets'. Answering a simple question 'What are you doing?' can require some mental gymnastics though as you have to squeeze the info into a tiny space of 140 characters. Therefore, you have to be concise and to the point (some people resort to text speak to gain extra space).

Setting up a free account can be accomplished with a few clicks of a mouse. Another few clicks is enough to network your account with those of your friends' and get their updates straight onto your Twitter user page, mobile phone, web page or blog (depending on the selected settings). Your tweets can stay private between you and your contacts or be accessible to the public. For more information about how Twitter works check out their About us page or 7 things you should know about … Twitter, an article on www.educause.net.

How to use it with learners?

With regards to English Language Teaching (ELT), Twitter seems to be a tool worth looking at and exploiting.

At a basic level, students can follow tweets on a public timeline. They are provided with digestible bites of authentic language, and through guided discovery they are exposed to the rules of current usage (text speak, ellipsis).

In more practical terms, Twitter instantly lends itself to practice in the use of Present Continuous or Present Perfect (reporting what the person has just done), but also other more advanced structures like participle clauses or ellipsis. These features are easily overlooked in traditional language instruction.

But Twitter is not only about announcing what you are up to; it can serve as a forum for reflection, posting important questions or sharing online resources (just post the URL like in the screenshot below). The followers can respond to the tweets by posting comments and asking follow-up questions, thus sparking an online conversation.

Twitter could provide space for thriving student-to-student(s) collaboration and interaction outside the class, thus supplementing Macmillan English Campus self-study resources and tutor-to-student(s) communication. What's even more important is that the solution is simple, intuitive and easy to grasp even for the less technologically minded. With that in mind, here are some ideas on how to use Twitter with your class.

Facilitating vocabulary acquisition/retention

The teacher posts a few words plus their definitions in the MEC Word Lists (or messages just the words to students who look up the definitions in MEDO and create their own wordlists). Compiling a list of lexis is a good start but using the words in context is the next step and that’s where Twitter comes in handy. Students create personalized examples with the new words/phrases and publish them using their Twitter account. There could be a new word every day and every student recycles the same word, reading their classmates' updates for different examples. Alternatively the teacher could send a different word to every student once a week and they pool the new words by checking their classmates' updates. There might be a competition for the best example or one posted the fastest. Both methods can be used to revise or pre-teach any vocab from MEC vocab/listening/reading activities.

Current news

Select a News Item that your students might be particularly interested in reading about or find somehow controversial. Ask them to read it, choose one of the accompanying questions and answer it on Twitter. Then ask them to read their classmates' posts and comment on the content, thus engaging in an online discussion. A great introduction to using Twitter in this way could be the MEC News Item Twitter gets political.

If you use a News Item in class, ask your students to look for related articles/videos/podcasts on the internet (you can allocate selected websites to make the task easier for them) and post the URL in their Twitter status (with a mini-commentary if they can fit it in). Classmates look at the suggested resources and post their comments, using the feature of 'reply to the Twitter update'.

You could also tell students to follow current news or celeb gossip - they choose or get assigned a theme or person and try to look up relevant information as often as possible and post it on Twitter. To motivate them you could run a contest for the best reporter.

Mini stories

Students write summaries of their day or invent mini stories about a fictional character and post them over a period of time (see Novels in 3 Lines project for model). They could do it individually or take turns, each of them providing a subsequent episode (a class Twitter account would be better in that case).

I've always wanted to know…

The teacher or a student posts a question to which the other classmates have to find an answer or express their opinion. In the same vein students might post a problem to which the others suggest solutions, e.g. they need to buy a birthday present for their gran. So in the tweet they quote the maximum price and vaguely specify their gran's interests. The classmates look for a perfect gift online and post the URL to it in reply to the original tweet.

I am sure there are other stimulating ways in which Twitter can be used in class. No matter what the task is, students interact with their classmates, teacher and other Twitter users producing bits of language in a way that forces them to be brief and precise, thus improving the important skill of thinking clearly and communicating effectively.

Community Walk

Steph — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 15:13:28 GMT

IH Prague teacher and e-learning coordinator, Ania Rolińska, writes:

Community Walk is a website which allows you to create highly personalised and interactive maps thanks to its powerful, yet simple and intuitive interface. You just click on the orange Create Map icon and follow straightforward instructions. If you encounter any problems, there are a few tutorials available as well as discussion forums. You might design a route from A to B or mark places of interest like tourist attractions, your favourite hangouts or quaint second-hand shops where you can get the best bargains. You might restrict yourself to your neighbourhood or explore a bigger area like the whole city, country or even a continent. There are no limits, just your imagination! You can add other features like comments, photos, video and audio so that the place comes across in all its visual splendour or shabbiness with your description. The maps can be open to the public (and collaboration) or kept private in which case you have to create a free account. A couple of clicks are enough to embed the map in your website or blog.

A few suggestions for using the mapping tool in class

§ As a 'getting-to-know-each-other-better' activity or to practise the Present Simple, students create a map of their neighbourhood to show the bakery where they get bread rolls for their breakfast or a corner where they always meet an old guy with a dog, etc. To practise past tenses and used to they could do the same but about the area where they used to live in the past or spend their holidays as a kid.

§ Students in pairs create a tour around their city or a city they know well or have read about/listened to, e.g in a MEC Listening Activity such as A tour of Dublin ... They do some research on the Internet to gather more information about the places of interest and find photos to add a visual twist to the map. Just make sure they don't do any copying and pasting. The tour might follow a theme, e.g. historical places or the best restaurants and pubs (see Food in the Harbour City, a MEC Language Exercise, for a model).

§ Students in small groups work on a project about different customs across their country or if you have a multinational group, it could even be a continent or the whole world! The interactive map could be embedded in the school website or class blog. Following the same line of thinking, the website lends itself perfectly to presenting the results of a MEC Web Project like Food around the USA.

§ Students plan a dream holiday (they look at Holiday Paradise Vocabulary Activity for a model) and then present their plan to the class. They vote for the best one.

§ Following the results of a City quiz, a MEC Listening Activity, students create a similar map of their city or country to practise the superlative. If you have a multinational group, then they can compare their cities and countries, thus getting further practice in superlatives and comparatives.

§ Lower-level students mark different places around a small area, e.g. bank, shops, restaurants, etc. They add short descriptions. In pairs they analyse their maps and ask each other questions with there is/are. This could be a follow-up activity with more focus on fluency once you had drilled the structure with a MEC language exercise such as Is there a bank in this street?

§ Last but not least, students might practise giving and understanding directions. They don't draw on pieces of paper any more but create real routes on real city plans!

Whichever way you use Community Walk, the students will get into it as they are creating something meaningful and relevant, they are sharing their personal story and experience with you and their classmates.

Using Interactive Worlds with adult learners

Steph — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 12:02:40 GMT

MEC Training Coordinator, Steph Earnshaw, writes:

Using Interactive Worlds with adult learners

Although the Interactive Worlds are designed for 10-14 year olds, some of the content could easily be used with adults at pre-intermediate to intermediate level. After all, everyone likes to watch videos in class, and why should young learners get all the fun?!

Here's an idea for a lesson using MEC Interactive Worlds resources with adult learners. You can also click below to download the lesson plan in pdf form.

Interactive Worlds video lesson plan.pdf ( KB)

Preparation

1. Log in to MEC and open up the Interactive Worlds. Go to The Natural World. Open up the Zone called 'Animals Communicating' and go to the resource called 'Cetaceans: description'. This resource comes with a downloadable worksheet which you should print out before the lesson. Just click on the worksheet icon at the top of the page to open the document, then print out enough copies for everyone in your class.

Remember that you can also find a list of new vocabulary in the 'A-Z' link at the top of the page.

1. In the 'Animals Communicating' Zone, go to the 'Cetaceans video' and click 'Read' to open the script for the video. Print out enough copies for all of your learners and then cut the script up so that each sentence is on a separate piece of paper. You'll need to give one set of text to each learner. If you want to make this more difficult you could cut the text mid-sentence.

2. In the 'Animals Communicating' Zone, go to 'Which species: elephants or cetaceans?' and open the Web Project by clicking the worksheet icon at the top of the screen. Print out enough copies of the Web Project for all of your learners.

Introduction

1. Go to 'Animals Communicating' and open up the 'Elephants and Cetaceans' page. The lesson focuses on Cetaceans so you’ll need to cover the rest of the page. If you are using an IWB you can cover up the text relating to elephants using the IWB tools. If you are using a data projector you can cover it with the 'hint' or the 'Help' box from the resource itself. Elicit the name of the animals in the picture from your learners. Ask them if they know what the scientific name for the animal is.

2. Hand out the 'Cetaceans: communication facts' worksheet and tell your learners to read the text about cetaceans on the board (or on their screens if you are working in a computer room) and answer any questions they can on the worksheet.

3. Go to 'Cetaceans: description' and play the listening to your learners. To find the resource click

on 'Home' and hover over the 'Animals Communicating' Zone.

4. Ask the class to fill in any more answers that they can on the worksheet.

Video resource

1. Once the video has finished give out the cut up script and ask them to put the sentences in the correct order.

2. Compare answers as a class.

1. Ask your learners to complete the questions on the worksheet and then compare answers as a class.

Follow-up

If you are in a computer lab, give out a copy of the Web Project you printed off earlier to each of your students and ask them to complete the tasks as described for dolphins only. They will need to look at the website www.bbc.co.uk to complete this task.

If you are using an IWB or data projector and are not in a computer lab you can set the above task as a homework activity. To end the lesson do the 'Fact check' and the 'Cetaceans summary' resources as a class and then ask your learners to note down 5 facts they have learned today about cetaceans along with any new vocabulary they have learned. Ask them to write 3-5 questions about cetaceans and ask their partner to answer the questions.

Using Interactive Worlds with adults

Steph — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 11:49:15 GMT

MEC Product Trainer, Sarah Milligan, writes:

Using Interactive Worlds with adult learners

Why should young learners get all the fun?! During some of my Interactive Worlds online clinics several teachers mentioned that they would be using the resources with their adult learners. I was a little surprised at first I must admit but the more I thought about it the more it made sense!

There are plenty of resources you could use with adult learners. All you have to do it adapt them slightly to fit the right age. The first type of resource that springs to mind is video. There are three videos in Interactive Worlds and below is a lesson idea on the resource 'Butterfly video'. You can also download this lesson plan in pdf form by clicking the link below.

Interactive Worlds video lesson plan.pdf (KB)

Preparation for intro:

Go to MEC, Interactive Worlds and then select Animal World. From here hover over the zone 'Survival Strategies' and choose the resource 'Camouflage or movement?'

This page explains the words 'camouflage' and 'movement'. If you have an IWB use the pen tool to cover the text and vocabulary on the page. If you are using a data projector create a screenshot and cover the text and vocabulary using Paint or a similar program. Your screen should look something like the one below.

Preparation for video resource:

Go to the resource 'Butterfly video' and click on Read. Print a text for each pair of learners in your class. Cut each text up so that learners will have to put the text back in order. If you want to challenge your learners cut sentences in half.

Intro:

1. Show learners your 'Camouflage or movement' screen with the text covered up. Ask learners what they see. Elicit the names of the animals.

2. Get learners in pairs to discuss what qualities a leopard and butterfly have eg butterflies can fly, leopards can run fast. Encourage more complicated discussions if your learners have a higher level.

3. Feedback as a class. Try to ask learners about the leopard’s coat and the patterns on the butterfly to guide them towards the covered vocabulary.

4. Reveal the words 'camouflage' and 'movement' and ask students to give a definition if they can. Reveal the rest of the text and read it out to your learners. Clarify learners understand both texts. Ask them if they can think of another animal that uses camouflage. Ask them if they can describe the movement of a crab or any other animal that has a distinct way of moving.

1. Click on the butterfly to move on to the resource 'Butterfly video'. Give learners the cut up text and tell them that they are going to watch a video about butterflies. Before they watch they must try to put the script in the right order.

2. Go around and help learners with difficult vocabulary. If they are using computers they can click on the A-Z icon and look up meanings themselves. Stress that the order they put the text may be different from the video script but not necessarily wrong.

3. Learners watch the video and sort the text into the right order or check to see if their text is already in the correct order.

4. Elicit the answers to the questions on the resource as a class.

Follow up:

Click on Forward and get learners to complete the resource 'Butterflies and birds'.

Ask learners to write down six questions using vocabulary from the A-Z box and then to go round asking and answering questions.

> >

MEC voicethread competition winner

Steph — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 14:32:52 GMT

Voicethread competition winners!

You may remember we launched a competition in September using a Macmillan English Campus news item with voicethread. We asked your students to make comments about the news item and write or record them on our voicethread slide.

We are delighted to announce the winner of the MEC voicethread competition is class B2.2 from The British School of Trieste, Italy . We had great fun finding out what they had to say. You can see an example of their excellent comments below.

The British School of Trieste will soon own five brand new Macmillan readers as a prize for their great effort. If you'd like to find out more about voicethread click here.

Thank you to everyone who entered the competition and watch this space for the next one!

Learning technology teacher development

Steph — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 16:40:25 GMT

MEC Product Trainer, Sarah Milligan, writes:

If you want to find some excellent teaching ideas on using technology in the classroom then it's worth your while visiting Nik Peachey's blog Learning technology teacher development.

One of his postings tells us all about Gifup, a site that allows to you make your own photo slide shows. As usual, Nik suggests some useful ways to use Gifup in class and highlights the advantages and disadvantages.

You could create a photo slideshow to use with a MEC vocabulary activity. For example if you're using the MEC Vocabulary Activity Clothes you could find lots of pictures of clothes, use Gifup to create a slideshow and ask learners to shout out the correct names as a follow-up activity.

Wordle - Beautiful Word Clouds

Steph — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 14:56:45 GMT

MEC Product Trainer, Sarah Milligan, writes:

The lovely image above was made using the website Wordle - Beautiful Word Clouds. I thought it might be useful for teachers using an IWB or data projector. Click on 'create' and add some text or even the url or Rss feed of a website to make a beautiful word cloud.

Here are a couple of ideas for using Wordle in class:

1. Create your own Wordle using vocabulary you're about to teach and put it on your IWB flipchart or project it onto the wall to introduce the lesson.

2. Choose a song you'd like to do with your class. Get the lyrics from one of the many song lyric websites. (Click here for one I found earlier). Make a Wordle from the lyrics, add it to your IWB flipchart or project it. Ask your learners to guess what they think the song is going to be about by looking at the vocabulary. Below is a Wordle made from the David Bowie classic 'Changes'.

If you think of any more ways to use Wordle, let us know!

MEC competition!

Steph — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:06:27 GMT

MEC competition!

Do you like a challenge?

Would you like to win your class five Macmillan readers?

We are holding a competition for all teachers using Macmillan English Campus.

We have uploaded an image and some text from one of our News Items onto Voicethread and would like your learners to leave their comments. The best comments from a class win five Macmillan Readers!

If you've never heard of voicethread before click here.

All of the instructions are written on our Voicethread slide show. To access it all you have to do is send us your name and the email address you'd like us to send the voicethread link to and we'll send you an invitation. The competition ends at 5.30pm on October 31st 2008.

Here is one way you can use the competition with your class:

· Have a look at the voicethread and familiarise yourself with the commenting tool.

· To leave a comment you need to click on comment at the bottom of the voicethread and it will give you two options. Click on either type or record. If you choose type you can write in your comment and if you choose record you can record your comment but only if you have a microphone.

· Before your computer lab lesson pre-teach your learners vocabulary from the News Item in the competition.

· Take your learners into the computer lab and encourage them to think about their answers and what comments they'll make.

· Finally have lots of fun typing or recording comments, remembering to mention what school or class you are from.

· If it's good you might find yourself with a brand new set of Macmillan readers.

We look forward to reading your comments!

Bushisms!

Steph — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 10:49:38 GMT

MEC marketing Assistant, Joanna Trzmielewska, writes:

Grammar is often seen as the most boring part of learning a language. However hard students study they still make errors when they attempt to use the language in context.

I found a very interesting grammar exercise on esl.about.com which is a fantastic resource site. In the link below you can find a couple of popular quotes made by George W. Bush. The quotes can be used during a warm-up or practice stage. Simply, give the quotes to your students and ask them to try and find grammar or vocabulary mistakes.

It is a great chance for students to experience real language in real context.

Have a look around the site by clicking on the link below as it is full of Bushisms.

esl.about.com - Bushisms

Also, why not check out our American English vs British English resources on MEC. Below are just a few of them.

British v American English: verb and tense use - Grammar Reference Unit
British v American English: vocabulary - Grammar Reference Unit
British v American English: spelling - Grammar reference Unit

How to be English

Steph — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 16:25:56 GMT

MEC Marketing Assistant, Vicky Ford, writes:

Getting listening material for beginners can be quite difficult as most of the stuff out there can seem patronising especially for adult and teenage learners.

This is why I find YouTube a great source of material. the 'How to be English' series is really useful because they use quite simple language yet they play on English stereotypes which is a fun topic for a Friday lesson. The series has been so successful that one of the authors has even appeared on American TV.

All you have to do is type in 'How to be English' in the search box and you will find lots of material to use in class.

Remember to watch the videos before you use them to make sure they're suitable!

MEC demo lesson using an IWB - lesson 2

Steph — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 16:23:13 GMT

MEC Training Coordinator, Steph Earnshaw, writes:

Last week you may have seen Sarah's posting on our big day out at EmbassyCES, Deptford filming ourselves teaching lessons using MEC on an IWB.

We had a great time and would like to say a big 'Thankyou' to EmbassyCES for letting us borrow their students for the morning, and also to the students themselves.

Sarah had a bit more footage of her lesson than I did, but a summary of my IWB lesson is below. I hope it gives you a few ideas for using MEC on the IWB in your school. Please excuse the shaky camera work…

Lesson using MEC on an IWB

Resources: The MEC News Item 'Nanotechnology could be used in food' and the Listening Activity 'Food and Nutrition'

Language: Food vocabulary

Skills: Reading , listening and speaking

Level: Upper-intermediate

Age: Adult

Part 1

I began this lesson with a quick warmer and then I showed the class photos of different types of food on the IWB. I'd taken these directly from the internet by searching in Google images. I elicited the food vocabulary from the learners and then elicited whether each food was healthy or unhealthy. Then I asked learners to discuss with a partner two foods they hated, two foods they loved, and why. Each pair reported back to the class.

Here you see the learners talking about food. I think they were enthusiastic because it was the lesson before lunch!

Here's some feedback from a few individual students.

Part 2

The second part of the lesson was to introduce the learners to the MEC News Item. I showed them the picture that goes with the News Item and asked them to guess what it was about. Then I gave everyone a printed copy of the News Item and asked them to read it. They had 5-10 minutes to do this.

Once learners had read and understood the News Item I asked them to put the article away and look at the activity on the board. As a class I showed them sections of the News Item with key vocabulary blocked out. I asked for a different volunteer to read each paragraph out loud, filling in the missing word when they came to it. Each missing word had a definition at the bottom of the screen to help them work out the answers. Any words they didn't understand we looked up on the board together using MEDO. You can see them having a go in the clip below.

And here's a vocabulary revelation.

For the final activity we opened up the MEC level 5 listening activity 'Food and Nutrition'. As a class we listened to the information about the nutrients found in different foods. Then the learners volunteered to come up and choose the correct options from the list of vitamins and nutrients. This was a great activity for the IWB as they just had to tap the correct answers with their finger. The rest of the class fed back on whether they agreed or disagreed with the choice and as a class we got MEC to instantly mark the activity.

To round up I asked the learners to discuss the 'Food for thought' questions from the News Item in pairs, then we had a group discussion on the feedback from each pair. It was a fun lesson and all the easier to do for having the whiteboard there to make the group activities really interactive. By the time the bell went everyone was famished!

MEC demo lesson using an IWB - lesson 1

Steph — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 10:32:03 GMT

MEC Product Trainer, Sarah Milligan, writes,

Here in the training department we're always encouraging teachers to use MEC in class. With more and more classrooms equipped with IWBs or projectors we think there's no excuse for shying away from technology in the classroom.

Even as I write this blog posting I can hear the cries of millions of teachers worldwide.

'Yes I’d like to use technology in the classroom, but how? Give me some ideas!'

That's why Steph and I went to EmbassyCES, London to film some demo lessons using MEC and an IWB.

We had a lovely time and have posted a few of the videos below. You can also see a description of our lesson plan. We hope it gives you food for thought and inspires you to send us your own ideas for using MEC in class.

As you're about to discover we're not experts at holding a camera so please excuse the shaky screen and unusual camera moves.

Holiday Lesson using an IWB and MEC listening activity 'Holidays'

Language - Superlatives

Level - Intermediate

Part 1

I began this lesson by showing the class three photos. Each photo represented a past holiday and what I thought of it. For example the first photo was of Tulum in Mexico and represented 'the most beautiful place I've ever been to'. I elicited the superlative from the class and then uncovered it on the whiteboard. I repeated this for three photos and elicited the three superlatives below.

most beautiful

most exciting

most frightening

I asked the learners to make questions out of these superlatives and wrote them on the board.

Part 2

The second part of the lesson was to get the learners talking in pairs using superlatives. I showed the class a slide on the IWB with three questions from a MEC resource they would do later (I didn't tell them this). The learners copied the questions and I gave them instructions to ask each other the questions and make notes.

After five to ten minutes the learners sat back down and we spoke about some of the answers they had given. It was a great way of getting to know the learners, hearing some interesting stories and an opportunity to make sure they were using superlatives correctly.

Part 3

At this point I wanted to introduce learners to some vocabulary they would be listening to in a MEC exercise so I uncovered each word from the IWB using the eraser tool and elicited the meaning. I also asked learners to say the words out loud in order to check their pronunciation.

Finally I opened the MEC listening resource Holidays on the IWB and we listened as a class. Learners had to match the speaker to one of the three questions discussed earlier. We listened to each speaker twice then the learners compared their answers with the person next to them. We listened a final time and I got them to tell me what they thought the answers were.

I hope that was useful and it has inspired you to teach a class using an IWB and MEC. Next week we will be posting Steph's demo lesson from our day at EmbassyCES, London .

MEC in China

Steph — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 19:45:05 GMT

MEC Training Coordinator, Steph Earnshaw, writes:

On the 17^th and 18^th June we ran Campus training for teachers and administrators from Overseas Education Investment Management (OEIM) Chengdu , China . There were seventeen participants in total for two days of MEC Basics, MEC in use and MEC Administration training. Training was held at the Chengdu University of Technology.

Teachers working hard during the training

OEIM is based in the centre of Chengdu and the team provides English lessons for students at the Chengdu Technology University who are going on to continue their studies in the UK . They also work in partnership with the University of Staffordshire, along with other Chinese and British universities, organizing exchange programs and between the UK and China . The Chengdu University of Technology will be using Campus as part of their English courses for practice in class, for homework and also in their self-study centre.

A night-time street scene in Chengdu , China

I was really impressed with the participants' enthusiasm during the session and look forward to seeing how they expand their English Campus project.

MEC in Italy: University of Trento training report

Steph — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 12:39:34 GMT

MEC Training Assistant, Steph Earnshaw, writes:

On the 26th and 27th of September we were very pleased to organise a two day top-up training session at the University of Trento in Italy . Language training at the university is run by the Centro Interfacolta per l'Apprendimento delle Lingue (CIAL) and this is where the MEC training was held.

A view over Trento

The university has been using MEC for over a year and it was fantastic to see the blended learning courses they have built in order to help their students reach CEF level B2. The CIAL has excellent several computer labs plus a computer and projector in every classroom, so there is plenty of opportunity for students to use MEC at the centre as well as for homework. To find an overview of the blended courses run at the University of Trento just click on the link below.

Uni Trento Blended learning presentation.pdf (350.5 KB)

One of the computer labs at the CIAL

It was a real pleasure to meet all of the university teachers. Some were new to MEC and came to the training to get an understanding of MEC resources, how best to use them and how to use them as part of a course. Other teachers had a great deal of experience with using MEC and building courses which meant they were able to share their knowledge with the less experienced teachers and also provide some very useful feedback on MEC.

We look forward to hearing about how the university students get on with the blended learning courses in the coming months.

Using YouTube

Steph — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 13:09:13 GMT

MEC Training Manager, Mike Green, writes:

Few people can still be unaware of YouTube. You may well have used it already with your own classes.

This vast database of video clips is growing all the time and - used carefully - can provide loads of opportunities for authentic language practice and classroom discussion.

Below are a number of our own favourite YouTube clips and some suggested ways of exploiting them with your learners. As part of a blended multi-media lesson you could, of course, use a video clip as a lead-in or a follow-up to related resources done on MEC, whether on a particular topic or to practise a specific language point.

Use these or experiment with your own and see what you come up with!

1. Battle at Kruger

(You can also find this by typing kruger park into the YouTube search)

This incredible piece of film, shot by a tourist on safari, is about eight and a half minutes long and has already been viewed nearly 16 million times!

Prediction: You could play it to your learners and pause it periodically, getting them to predict what happens next.
Writing: Learners could write a summary of what happens from the point of view of the tourist, or even one of the animals! See also the suggested GRU below for practice on ways of sequencing a story.
Discussion: Are safaris cruel? Should the tourists or park rangers have intervened to help the buffalo?
Some related MEC resources:
Grammar Reference Unit (GRU): Connectors: sequencing
News item: Animal attacks on humans increase (all levels)
Web project: London Zoo (level 2)

For other resources, type animal* into the word and phrase search on MEC.

The game park website is: http://www.krugerpark.co.za/

2. Noah takes a photo of himself every day for 6 years

A strangely moving film of a guy who grows older before our eyes.

Discussion: What kind of person is Noah? Why has he done this? How else do we change as we grow older (attitudes, skills, relationships, etc)?
Some related MEC resources:
Listening Activity: Describing people (level 4)
Vocabulary Activity: What kind of people are they? (level 1)

For a bit of fun, you could even get the learners to download some morphing software. The website http://www.dolsoft.com/ for example has some software they can download. Get them to see how they might look with longer hair, bigger eyes, etc.

3. Vova and Olga's team act rehearsal

World-beating brother and sister team of Russian jugglers during one of their incredible practice warm-ups. There are lots of videos of these two on YouTube!

Discussion: Ask if any of your learners can juggle? (You might like to bring in some juggling balls and get someone to demonstrate!) How hard do your learners think it is to do what the Russian jugglers do? Are some people naturally gifted at certain things or is it just practice?
Writing:
1. Get your learners to think of a sport or activity they like and are good at. How is it played? How would they go about explaining it to a complete beginner?
2. Vova and Olga emigrated from Russia to the US in 2003. Get your learners to imagine they have moved to another country. Ask them to write about thier experiences and what they would miss about their home town.
Some related MEC resources:
News Item: Africa suffering brain drain (all levels)
Listening Activity: The schoolgirl millionaire (level 6)
Listening Activity: In another country (level 2)

4. Where the hell is Matt?

Excuse the title, but this is an entertaining little film by a guy who (really!) travels the world, doing the same little dance everywhere he goes.

Eliciting: You could cover up the locations at the bottom of the screen (with Word or Notepad) as you play the film. Learners then have to see if they recognise the locations and/or guess where Matt is as they watch.
Discussion: Ask your learners whether they have been to any of the locations in the film? Which ones would they (not) like to go to? Why?
Speaking/writing: Ask your learners to imagine they have a month off and unlimited money. In pairs or groups, ask them to plan their dream itinerary and then present it to the class, explaining their choices.
Some related MEC resources:
Vocabulary Activity: Travel around the world (level 4)
Language Exercise: A holiday in Rio (level 3)

Type travel into the word and phrase search on MEC to find lots of other resources.

There are some other links on ways of using YouTube and video on class, which you may find useful here, here, here and here.

Have you used YouTube or other types of video in class? How did you use them?

A passion for MEC in Brazil

Steph — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 12:50:35 GMT

MEC Marketing Assistant, Jane Petrie, writes:

Jane Petrie

MEC is currently being used by a number of customers in South America , including the Cultura Inglesa São Paulo (CISP). CISP is a chain of 27 language schools in São Paulo . They were the very first users of MEC, which they call the 'e-Campus'. They have been using MEC since 2003 and it is now used by 45,000 students and 750 teachers.

The Cultura Inglesa building in São Paulo

The Cultura schools have been very successful in incorporating e-Campus into their courses.

We caught up with Vilson Coimbra, e-learning manager for CISP, to find out more.

Supporting teachers

CISP has promoted the e-Campus to teachers energetically as Vilson is clear that this is the best way to integrate the e-Campus into the working life of the school. He explains how 'all new teachers are introduced to the e-Campus during our pre-service programme ... and work on its inclusion in their lesson plans.'

Indeed, at the LABCI conference last month, Vilson demonstrated in a presentation how effectively the e-Campus could be used with an interactive whiteboard, showing examples of creative activities that teachers could use.

All this really helps teachers to harness the potential of the e-Campus: 75% of teachers using it reported in a survey that they were 'Satisfied' or 'Very Satisfied' with its effectiveness.

Encouraging students

CISP continually encourages students to use the e-Campus at home as well as in the classroom. Research undertaken by CISP shows that 57% of students like using computers to learn English, and 71% say that MEC helps them to improve their English.

So how do they do it?

Crucially important is making sure that students are aware of what the e-Campus can offer. For example, the school's web portal offers sample resources and advertises new content that is published to the e-Campus by Macmillan. There have also been seasonal word games competitions for students to enter - which have proven to be very popular.

Vilson adds: 'Nowadays the e-Campus is part of the daily routine of students and staff. It is used in class as part of the practice needed for a specific language item or skill, as an assessment tool at the beginning of a term - and the exercises can be assigned for remedial work and revision.'

MEC in Brazil

Steph — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 12:33:39 GMT

We are delighted to introduce a new guest blogger today. Simone Sucupira is a teacher at Cultura Inglesa São Paulo (CISP) - Campinas . She writes:

Simone Sucupira

This year's LABCI conference invited us to discuss education in a situation of changing learning needs. We were challenged to think about what kind of education our society is likely to need in the near future. We asked ourselves the following question: 'How can we make a difference?'

Bearing this in mind, I chose the title 'The e-Campus and Self-Paced courses: the next revolution' for my presentation at LABCI.

Here at CISP, we've been using the e-Campus for quite some time and its adoption has revolutionized our regular courses. The e-Campus has made such a huge difference because although it's a single tool, it's brought many new innovations to our teaching! Here are some of the benefits of the e-Campus:

It's a virtual learning environment which offers consistent content and flexible delivery: students can have optimized input of language anywhere, anytime they like.

>
It has added a new, less controlled, asynchronous element to our courses: students are much more free to decide what to do when they are not in the classroom. It promotes learner autonomy!

One of my students, Guilherme Nunes, once told me: 'The e-Campus as it is now, offers students a lot.' This made me wonder what else we could offer given that the e-Campus has already been so successfully integrated to our courses. Then I realized that listening to what our students have to say about their learning needs is the key to understanding how we can make a difference.

Guilherme kindly granted me an interview which became the basis for discussing two of the most important questions I posed during my presentation:

What kind of learning opportunities could our students need that we might not be offering at the moment?
As an e-learning tool, has the e-campus achieved its full potential?

Here's Guilherme's interview.

In my presentation, I tried to demonstrate that the e-Campus currently offers students at CISP a great deal but has potential for much more! It might evolve from a supplementary tool into a self-contained, independent, on-line learning course.

At CISP we will be as ready to adapt as we are keen to offer the best learning opportunities to our students who, as in the case of Guilherme, sometimes cannot fit their schedules to our regular classes.

MEC in Chile: Delivering English online from a blazing desert to an icy rocky tip

Steph — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 11:17:29 GMT

We are delighted to introduce a new guest blogger today. Marcela Moya is Director of the Educational Technology Department of the British Institute in Santiago, Chile. She writes:

Marcela Moya

In a 4,000 kilometre long country where distance is clearly not a choice, the British Institute in Santiago started developing distance learning programmes of English as a foreign language in 2000. In 2004, we decided to incorporate the English Campus as a powerful online source of EFL learning resources into our face-to-face and distance learning programmes. We soon realised that the potential behind the possibility of generating tailor-made courses for every type of internal and external user with a wide range of needs was simply enormous.

At the moment, we have created over 100 different courses for our language school face-to-face teen and adolescent students, face-to-face students from our recently launched Universidad Chileno Británica de Cultura – The British University, students from traditional state and private universities which have signed agreements with us to generate blended English programmes and an important number of 100% distance students spread out along the length of the country. The courses designed for this last segment include Cambridge ESOL KET, PET, FCE, CAE, CPE and IELTS exam preparation courses online and Cambridge ESOL TKT (Teaching Knowledge Test) three-module courses for EFL teachers in need of an international teaching certification.

Map of Chile

But the road hasn't always been easy. Implementing an efficient system to manage new Campus users coming from a number of different institutions which needed to be activated in a virtual class was our very first challenge. It meant regular communication with the MEC support team which was always ready to guide us on the steps to follow to be able to do it, regardless of the time difference between this side of the world and theirs. Our second major challenge was making our teachers familiar with Campus as a learning tool so that they could first become effective users themselves to be able to promote its use among their face-to-face and online learners.

We feel we have been able to move ahead and now certainly feel ready to carry on devising new ideas in a country where English has gained a privileged place as a foreign language.

MEC in Brazil

Steph — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 13:42:32 GMT

Vilson Coimbra, of Cultura Inglesa São Paulo, Brazil, writes:

Cultura Inglesa São Paulo

'Here at Cultura Inglesa São Paulo the "e-Campus" (that is what we call MEC) is widely used both as part of the regular curriculum and also for remedial work.

For our business English students, the e-Campus has been used along with two distance courses run by The Club, our business executive unit.

One of these courses is called "emailing" and helps students develop their writing skills. On this course students are emailed activities which require them to write business emails and reports and subsequently submit them to a teacher at the unit. After analyzing the student's text, the teacher replies with comments and suggestions for improvement.

The other course is called "phone classes". On this course students schedule a time to practise their English with a teacher over the phone, and the main focus is on fluency. Prior to the scheduled phone class, the student receives a text to read or a task to work on, such a product presentation. During the conversation on the phone, the teacher makes notes of the student's performance and proposes a course of action for improvement.

For both courses the e-Campus provides activities which help students to practise the language they need for written or conversational English. Specifically the e-Campus provides topics of conversation taken from the news items. It also provides the opportunity for remedial work that the teacher has identified as necessary when analyzing a student's written or oral work.

The improvement achieved by the students as a result of their e-Campus practice can be assessed in future written work or phone conversations.'

Home alone with MEC (Part 2)

Steph — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 13:31:39 GMT

MEC Training Manager, Mike Green, writes:

5. Peer teaching.

'Divide the class into two or more groups. Members of each group study a particular Grammar Reference Unit (GRU) at home and complete the corresponding language exercises. In the next class, they teach/tell their peers in the other group what they studied and what they have learned. This could be done equally well to promote discussion by using different news items.

Grammar reference unit

6. Vocabulary quizzes.

Learners read a particular news item at home, check MEDO and add any new words to their Wordlists, but without the definitions. In pairs, they then "test" their partner next lesson to see how much they know and can remember. They then do the food for thought questions together as a class.

MEDO

7. Web projects.

Learners do a web project at home (remember they can also print them out in hard copy) and add any new vocabulary to their Word Lists. They then present their findings to the class. As a follow-up, they could create their own short web projects for their peers to complete.

8. Consider modifying the level of challenge or the task.

Why not rethink the way learners approach resources? For example, get them to read different levels of the same news item and compare the language used, suggest they use the Hint or Audio box to hide the questions when doing a listening activity or encourage them to use the audioscript as a reading text - but without the audio. Be creative!

This list is of course just a taster of what's possible. We'd love to hear the ideas you've got for things which have worked well! Leave a comment.'

Home alone with MEC (Part 1)

Steph — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 12:44:45 GMT

MEC Training Manager, Mike Green, writes:

'What homework have you been setting for your learners on MEC? Have you been pointing them to a particular part of their course and giving them specific resources to complete or just letting them dive in and explore?

While neither approach is necessarily wrong, a "guided discovery" approach will allow your learners to use MEC in a more structured way and give you scope to exploit the full range of resource types on the database.

To whet your appetite, below are a few ideas for MEC homework which you might like to consider. Have a look also at Part 3 of the Guide to MEC.

1. Get them to practise their basic MEC skills.

We've put together some ready-made worksheets for you on our support site. You can print these off and give them out as homework. Easy! There are even separate teacher's notes with answers.

2. Give them a list of resources.

Another quick and easy way to set homework. Simply give your learners a list of relevant resources by title. They then find the resources for themselves at home, bookmark them and complete them. This has the added advantage of getting learners to practise their searching and bookmarking skills!

3. Finish an activity at home.

Start a MEC resource in class. For example, you could just do the first few questions of a language exercise together, get them to predict the contents of a news item from the photo or headline or just listen to the audio of a listening activity. Then you could get your learners to complete the activity at home.

Treasure Hunt.
Prepare a hidden sentence comprised of, say, 10 words found in different parts of MEC. They could be words from an audioscript, from the questions to an exercise or even from the MEC interface itself. Your learners have to search the database to find the words and complete the sentence. They then prepare a similar sentence for their peers next lesson. This could be done as a race - first group to find all the words wins!'

Have you ever tried any similar ideas? Do you find them useful? There will be more tips from Mike in tomorrow's posting so keep watching the blog to find out what they are.

MEC in Switzerland

Steph — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 10:44:02 GMT

MEC manager for OPTI, Judith Dick, writes:

Judith Dick

'Hi! I'm Judith from the French speaking part of Switzerland. I manage MEC at OPTI alongside Pierre-Alain who looks after the technical details. We have more than 1000 students and well over half of them are absolute beginners or low elementary.

Our problem: many of our teachers were reticent to use MEC at first, complaining that beginners couldn't understand the instructions! We devised the following solution:

When students start using MEC for the first time they download a pre-prepared exercise from their individual servers, or they watch and copy from the projector. They must translate and order the MEC vocabulary correctly. We used TextEdit to create these exercises as we are all using Macs here. You could also use Word on a PC. Here are some examples (tables are shaded in yellow where students have completed the exercises):

The exercises are then saved into a MEC folder on the desktop, always ready for use. Within this folder students keep the files for different MEC activities, vocabulary and instructions that they have translated. This helps them gain greater independence right from the start.

For translations we encourage students to open Wordreference.com in a separate browser. Monolingual dictionaries are great but not much use for real beginners. I suspect quite a number of elementary students find them a challenge too.

We also have another great idea for easy translation if you use Firefox as your web browser. Within Firefox2 (US) you can add a useful instant translation tool. Go to Mozilla Addons click on dictionaries and install the language you require. Then when you hover over a word in your browser, up comes the translation. It's brilliant and defies all those "can't dos"!'

What do you think of the OPTI approach? How does it compare to your organization? Leave a comment.

Judith will soon be back with a clinic on her experiences with MEC at OPTI. For more information, watch this space!

Campus at International House World Conference in Prague, Czech Republic

Steph — Wed, 16 May 2007 14:32:24 GMT

Director/DOS IH Pisa, Chris Powell, writes:

Prague

'You've got to be on your toes when you're facing 130 IH school directors! There's a miscellaneous mixture of expertise and innovation that's difficult to beat. So it was with a certain awe and trepidation that I set out to expound on how positive Campus has been for IH Pisa in a session entitled "Getting the best out of Campus".

My main points (see PowerPoint presentation) were that to get the best out of Campus you simply need a combination of imaginative marketing and integration.

Imaginative marketing in terms of the "blends" you're suggesting. Schools should be offered a variety of teacher contact/online combinations and the HR manager should be made fully aware of how the system works.

Integration in terms of making sure that Campus is fully slotted into your course programme. It's not enough to say "Right, here's your online component. Enjoy!" In Pisa we have a cyclical model whereby the weekly Campus online work is verified and revised using "Campus support activities" in the teacher contact lesson. These vary from traditional fill-the-gap exercises to more dynamic vocabulary or functions based activities. The students' Campus assignments are also an integral part of end-of-course assessment and are referred to in the end-of-course exam.

An IH Pisa model that attracted particular attention was our one-to-one Campus-SKYPE course. Our star pupil here is Luca who works at the Italian Embassy in Tashkent , Uzbekistan . Twice a week Pisa and Tashkent meet up through SKYPE and Luca has an hour-long teacher contact session with Campus used as a springboard for communicative work at a distance. He then has Campus assignments to do by himself, obviously with follow-up from lesson to lesson.

There are 40-odd IH schools already using Campus and plenty of fresh interest was shown by other schools who'll be coming on board soon.

What other blends are there out in TEFL Land ? Let us know! Do you have any other ideas on how to combine Campus with the latest online technology?'

Here is Chris's PowerPoint
IH Pisa Prague IHWO IH Campus.ppt (99.5 KB)