We're delighted to announce that Eurocentres has recently started using Macmillan English Campus. Their MEC training took place on the 10^th and 11^th of October at the Eurocentres school in London, Victoria.

The Eurocentres school, London, Victoria
 

It was a real pleasure to meet everyone at the training sessions. Participants came from Eurocentres schools in London Victoria, London Blackheath, Cambridge, Brighton and Bournemouth. Some already started building MEC courses to be used their school for one-to-one and distance learning courses.

There was lots of positive feedback on MEC along with some useful suggestions for future MEC developments.

Participants at the training

From left: John Bird, Zella Phillips, Jackie Margarson, Bob Scott

Most of the Eurocentres schools plan to start using MEC with their students in January so we look forward to finding out how they're getting on.

Plane English

This week's news item, adapted for MEC from a news article originally published in the Guardian Weekly, is about whether it is more damaging to the environment to travel by plane than by other forms of transport. Go to the Headline News section on your Work Area screen to find out more.

For different opinions on air travel and its effects on the environment, students could have a look at the views of the following organizations mentioned in the news item:

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.

Military in Burma stops protests

This week's news item, adapted for MEC from a news article originally published in the Guardian Weekly, is about Burma and the response of the military to protests there. Who has been protesting? Why have there been protests? Go to the Headline News section on your Work Area screen to find out.

For more information about the recent history of Burma and the protest movement, students could have a look at the website of Burma Campaign UK (http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/), which is mentioned in the news item. This site looks at the campaign for human rights in Burma.

Students could also look at other news sources to get more reaction from around the world to the protests.

Our October upload went live at the beginning of last week and Thursday saw the publication of Episode 2 of the new onestopenglish soap opera, The Road Less Travelled. In this episode, Katie is reluctantly dragged off to watch football with her boyfriend and his friends (again) and ends up being asked to fetch and carry snacks for them. How much can one girl take?

The Road Less Travelled and the intermediate-level Macmillan Reader, The Space Invaders are both now available as podcasts. This means that you have the option to automatically receive the latest instalment in a series as soon as it is added. To find out more about podcasting on onestopenglish and how to set it up, please visit our Audio and podcasts FAQ page.

Last month we asked our users to send us photographs of them in their 'staff room', hoping for a snapshot of varied teaching circumstances. We received lots of great entries alongside a few slightly puzzling ones. Nine finalists have been selected and we're asking you to vote for the winner. Click here to have a look through the entries and vote for your favourite using the poll on the left-hand side.

This month we also launched a new teaching diary. Lynda Ross is about to embark on a voluntary teaching placement in Cambodia and has agreed to send us regular updates on her experience. The series kicks off with a letter introducing Lynda and documenting her preparations and expectations. If you have any useful advice for her, you can leave your comments in our forum.

We always welcome feedback on the site, so if you'd like to contact us directly with any inspired ideas or relevant comments and suggestions then don't hesitate to get in touch - we'd love to hear from you. webeditor@macmillan.com

The Piazza, Trento 

It was a real pleasure to meet the participants for both the London and Trento training sessions. Participants came from EAQUALS schools in London, Italy, Poland, Romania and Greece and many already had plans for MEC courses and ideas for using MEC in their school. There was also lots of positive feedback on MEC along with some useful suggestions for future MEC developments.

The Hampstead school of English, London

Most of the EAQUALS schools plans to start using MEC immediately so we look forward to finding out how they're getting on.

The MEC word games for October are available now!

This month's Witch's Pot topics are 'adjectives to describe a city' (Easy), 'people involved in politics' (Average) and 'words which can mean "exciting"' (Difficult).

The Swamp Disaster topics are 'words that "follow" in' (Easy), 'words that follow "give"' (Average) and 'words that follow "let" and "set"' (Difficult).

The Wordsearch topics are 'nouns connected with parties' (Easy), 'verbs used instead of "clean"' (Average) and 'handicrafts' (Difficult).

As usual, there are new Crosswords and Bridge Builders at all levels too.

Visit the Word Games area to find them all.

News item

MEC Senior Editor Jeremy Smith writes:

Putin and the next president

This week’s news item, adapted for MEC from a news article originally published in the Guardian Weekly, is about Russian president Vladimir Putin and the choice of his successor. Go to the Headline News section on your Work Area screen to learn more.

Do you teach distance learning courses and need a quick and easy way to post information to your students?

Would you like to set up an online notepad so that your learners can access your instructions for homework without you having to email them individually?

Do you need a convenient way for your students to create simple group documents and submit written homework to you without having to email you?

If you answered yes to any of the above then this article about creating simple websites with www.jottit.com may be of interest to you.

For an example of what a Jottit website looks like, have a look at the connect2mec test page.