Quite a few users have been emailing in and asking about pen pal services. I found this great website called epals. Their motto says it all 'where learners connect'.

If you're teaching a distance learning course you could use this to stay in contact with your learners. Epals also gives learners the opportunity to practise languages and make new friends from across the world. MEC users could stay in touch using epals, compare notes and give advice on the resources they have found most useful.

Having won various awards it's updated fairly often and there are some interesting news articles on members and their activities. Best of all, its free!

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.

Trade not aid?

This week's news item, adapted for MEC from a news article originally published in the Guardian Weekly, is about ethical fashion and a new trend of helping people in poorer countries through business opportunities.

Go to the News Items section on your Work Area screen to find out more.

You could also direct students to the website of the organization mentioned in the news item:

Soul of Africa

Online testing is now available with Macmillan English Campus

Macmillan English Campus can now be used as a testing tool as well as an online practice environment with the major addition of the new Test Compiler. This fantastic new resource enables you to compile and publish tests to your students under exam conditions, using specially created new content.

Containing 650 entirely new exercises, with over 6,500 individual questions, the Test Compiler increases the volume of Campus content by over 20%. What's more, these new exercises are not accessible to students until they are formally set as a test by the school or you, the teacher. This extensive resource will be an invaluable tool for progress testing.

New exam content

In addition to the Test Compiler, upcoming changes to the CAE and FCE syllabuses are reflected in the English Campus this month, as part of our ongoing commitment to new publishing. There are 41 completely new exam practice materials and all other resources have been rewritten to match the updated exams.

There are also another 100 new English Campus exercises across the Cambridge ESOL suite of exams.

Training users

The English Campus training department is organising online training sessions on the Test Compiler for existing users. You can find details on www.connect2mec.com. There will be Test Compiler clinics running throughout August, September and October.

The British English Test Compiler is available now: the American English version will be published on 25 August, in time for the new academic year.

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If your question isn't answered above or if you would like to know more about the English Campus email us at englishcampus@macmillan.com

Spoilt for choice?

This week's news item, adapted for MEC from a news article originally published in the Guardian Weekly, is about behavioural economics. Behavioural economists are demonstrating that many traditional economic theories may not reflect how people behave.

Go to the News Items section on your Work Area screen to find out more.

Watching real students giving good presentations is an excellent way to improve students' own presentation skills.

I am constantly amazed at the quality of some of the free English language resources available on the Internet.  The Hong Kong Polytechnic University is one institution which has excellent language learning activities which anyone can use. I particularly like their collection of EAP audio-video materials here: http://elc.polyu.edu.hk/EAP/Audio-visual/. These videos give excellent examples of how to give a presentation. To develop students' skills give them a set of presentation assessment criteria and have them assess some of these presentations from this site. This will help them realise what  it is that they need to do to give a good presentation.

You can tie this is in with MEC materials. The EAP listening exercise 'Giving effective presentations in seminars' would be an ideal activity to accompany the HKPU audio-video resources.

Patrick McMahon

This will be a demonstration of how to use the brand new function Test Compiler. The session will last approximately 45 minutes and will include training on how to build, edit, adapt, publish and assign tests.

We will be holding several sessions over the coming weeks. The dates are below:

• Wednesday 23rd July 4.30pm BST
• Friday 25th July 1pm BST
• Friday 1st August 2pm BST
• Friday 22nd August 12.30pm BST

If you can't make these dates then don’t worry we will be holding a session every Friday during September and October. Times will be specified in due course.

MEC clinics are short sessions 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 a web-linked computer with sound and ideally a microphone. 

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

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