Fiona MacKenzie, MEC Publishing Director, writes:

'I thought it would be a good idea to introduce you to some of the people you don't usually meet, the Editorial team working at our London offices. We're right next door to what must be one of the biggest building sites in the world - the King's Cross development which will result in the Eurostar arriving here later this year. So if, in a Harry Potter-ish way, you walk up a railway platform (Platform 1 in our case) you will find us. Many of us will be adding our views from MEC to the blog but here's an introduction.

Aerial view of King's Cross

There are also one or two questions at the end which I'd love some answers to - remember that you can genuinely help us to publish more of what you want into MEC if you give us your views via the blog.

Michael Lax is our Publishing Manager - he manages the in-house team and makes sure that everything we want to publish gets published. Jenny Lovel is our Commissioning Editor, newly arrived from commissioning for a linguistics list. Jeremy Smith is Senior Editor and Sarah Cumming is Editorial Assistant. There's also David Baker who works freelance as a commissioner and consultant. I should also mention that the teachers' community site, Onestopenglish, which I hope you know, is part of the MEC family. Claire Pye is the Commissioning Editor, alongside Becca Sams, Web Editor and Lucy Williams, Editorial Assistant. Michael also manages an extensive flock of freelance editors and authors and they are spread as widely around the world as the users of MEC. At the moment, we have people working on MEC projects in the US, Argentina, Spain, Hungary, France, Greece and Mexico as well as in the UK. Various of them are people who've worked with us in-house in the past - but we make sure they don't get away once they have such invaluable knowledge about how to make MEC content work.

And speaking of MEC content here are my questions, which I hope a few of you will answer because your input would be really helpful. First, some information - we're working intensively at the moment on new functionality and content for our Tests. The Tests area in MEC at the moment is the area I most want to update and improve. What I'd like to know is - if we have a new and whizzy Tests area, would you like to keep the existing Tests? Are they useful? Do you (and your students) use them? If you don't use them, why not? If you do, why?'

TELTC Conference

Our sales representative for East Asia, Patrick Hafenstein, writes:

'The word of MEC is being spread around East Asia - first destination Taiwan and next stop Japan.  

In April teachers got to experience MEC first hand at two conferences - firstly TELTC (Taiwan ELT Conference) and then at NKFUST (National Kaohsiung First University of Science and Technology) Digital Learning Conference. 

MEC did take a back seat at times as the Language Games CDROM seemed to be a better match for the short attention spans people have when browsing booths. Those who did check out MEC (probably those who were bored with the presentations) enjoyed the power of designing and creating their very own e-learning courses.

JALT CALL 2007 is just around the corner (June 2^nd and 3^rd in Tokyo) and MEC East Asia will have a booth set up and also some presentations for you all. Please come along and say hello to me - I'm Patrick Hafenstein by the way, MEC's East Asia rep (see if you can spot me in the picture below).'

NKFUST Conference

Did you attend TELTC or NKFUST? What did you discover about ELT and digital learning? Leave a comment!

Jane Wright, our sales and marketing manager in Mexico, writes:

OK so who remembers doing their CELTA? 'Ahh...' I hear you say '...how could I forget?!'

Well, for those of you who have, or  those of you who would like their memory refreshed in order to get that 'thank goodness I made it!' feeling all over again, we are proudly presenting The CELTA Diary.

This is Jenny.

She's in the thick of her CELTA at International House London as we speak, so who better to ask for the latest on modern CELTA courses! One reason for this diary, aside from us wanting to feel smug that we are happily qualified, is because a few people at IATEFL mentioned that CELTA courses do not include any training on blended learning. Rena Penna of the British Council in the Czech Republic was one of those who remarked on this gap in ESL teacher training. You can find her on the British Council IATEFL website. Email her for details of her talk on the role of technology in teaching: Mind the Gap: What ICT skills do teachers need?

Over the next four weeks we'll hear from Jenny about what a CELTA is like these days, and whether teachers are being properly prepared for the modern world of ICT and blended learning.

We'll have Jenny's first posting at the end of next week. If you are inspired by anything she says please give us your thoughts. We'd also love to hear from you with your own CELTA anecdotes and memories. 

The 41^st IATEFL conference was held in Aberdeen 'The granite city'

Almost a view from our hotel window!

A large part of the MEC team attended this conference, the group photo on yesterday's posting was in fact taken in Aberdeen. Steph Earnshaw, our MEC Training Assistant, writes:

"I really enjoyed visiting Aberdeen itself as there is some pretty impressive (and pretty grey) architecture there. As a first timer at IATEFL I was impressed by the scale of the event. I learned loads just by visiting all the stands and it was great to meet people and put some names to faces. I was very interested in the sessions related to Learning Technologies and really enjoyed Pete Sharma's talk on using technology in the classroom. He also mentioned using free downloadable programs like Audacity to record and edit your own audio. So now I can create my own podcasts!"

Of course, MEC had its own prominent stand and many thanks to everyone who came up to talk to us. It was great to catch up with those of you we know and to get acquainted with those of you we don't. For more information on MEC at IATEFL have a look at our Newsletter. We also managed to attend lots of plenary sessions and talks, to help us keep at the forefront of ELT knowledge!

So what did we learn at IATEFL?

2007 is all about blended learning and using technology in teaching!

With a total of 48 related talks, it's clear that technology in teaching, and blended learning in particular, is really becoming a key topic for discussion in ELT circles. 

Sessions of particular interest included:

For the first time this year you can view the talks online by logging on to the British Council website. You'll find video and audio recordings of some of the most prominent events, including those listed above. You can also post questions for the IATEFL speakers taking part in the forum, so all in all it's a fantastic resource, especially if you were unable to attend the conference in person!

The MEC stand

The Macmillan sponsored Ceilidh

For a video clip of Aberdeen dancers in action, go here.

This Macmillan sponsored event offered many of us our first ever taste of Haggis and experience of traditional Scottish dancing. There was also the launch of the New Macmillan English dictionary which was welcomed with a formal address in true Robbie Burns style. 

A great time was had by all - next year the conference will be in Exeter so if you get the chance to go, we highly recommend it!

Are you surprised by the strong emphasis on blended learning at this year's IATEFL or did you expect it? As a MEC user you must feel relatively knowledgeable in this area, but would you consider yourself a digital native or a digital immigrant? Do you even recognize the terms? Send us your comments!

Hello there and welcome to connect2mec. Thanks for stopping to take a look, we hope you'll visit regularly!

There are so many MEC users out there (75,000 and counting) and all so widely dispersed around the world, that sharing ideas on how best to use MEC was always going to be a challenge. The aim of the blog is to solve this dilemma by giving you an opportunity to share your MEC experiences, and ideas on blended learning in general, with MEC teachers worldwide!

While you're here you should also take a look at our Links to other useful ELT related websites and also our Blogroll - there's loads of information from experienced teachers and experts in ELT.

We'll be keeping you updated on all the gossip from the MEC offices, running MEC Clinics (online refresher sessions and forums for sharing knowledge), answering your questions, giving you ideas from guest bloggers and MEC authors, and generally providing you with inspiration on how to be the best MEC teacher ever!

All your comments and suggestions are most welcome. So go on, give us a piece of your mind - connect to MEC! 

Some of the MEC team, clockwise from top left: Kerry Ormand, Sales Manager; Mike Green, Training Manager; Byron Russell, Sales Manager; John Murray, Sales and Marketing Director; Emma Shercliff, Managing Director; Claire Pye, Commissioning Editor onestopenglish; Kristin Annexstad, Sales Representative; Stephanie Earnshaw, Training Assistant; Magda Giornazi, Macmillan Distributor Libya.

And before you go, take a look at this photo from the MEC archives below. Is it you or do you know this person? Where was it taken and when? Leave a comment!