Free and Easy Newsletter

A brand new academic year is upon us! It is likely you are very busy right now with inductions, lesson plans, creating courses on Blackboard and more... so we would like to show you a few things that might just make your life a little easier. As always, they are both Free and Easy!

For those who are new to the College, these newsletters are designed by the E-Learning team to give you some ideas of free learning technologies that can be used in your teaching. We've moved into our new 'Teaching and Learning Hub' and will have the tools that we promote in Free and Easy up and running on some of our tablets for you to test out before you put them into action in the classroom.

Pop up and see us at any time in Room 1.014 or contact us using the details at the bottom of the newsletter.

So, you are starting the new academic year and there are plenty of things to buy. Let us save you money from not having to buy the Microsoft Office package!

Microsoft Office includes things like Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint etc, but instead of paying a lot of money (normally between £50-£100 depending on the version), you can download Open Office for free.

Open Office is something called 'Open Source Software' - which essentially means that its creators have made the software freely available for everybody to use, without the need to pay for licenses.

Open Office is Microsoft Office compatible, which means that your Office documents can be opened, edited and saved as Microsoft Office documents whilst using this free software, which you can then open in Microsoft Office applications on the College PCs. The layout is pretty similar to Microsoft Office as well, so you shouldn't spend too much time hunting for well-used buttons! Have a look at the picture above to see what the Open Office Writer (Microsoft Word) looks like.

This is excellent for members of staff who are just getting set up at home, but also for students who don't have Office at home and just need to get something set up quickly.

For more information about this, and a link to download this free software, please visit: https://www.openoffice.org/

TES (The Times Educational Supplement) is the place to be for all things Education related, and their free teaching resources are a great place to start - especially if you are new to teaching. As well as their main website, they have Pinterest boards filled with all kinds of teaching aids for all levels and they're on Twitter too.

The English and Maths resources will be particularly useful for Functional Skills and there are a whole host of materials for other subjects too.

The TES Community has groups with forums and blogs to share ideas and good practice with other teachers and you can even start your own group. Visit www.tes.co.uk to find out more.

Learn a new language, for free!

Not only that, you can learn it in a fun, easy way. This free program and app uses Gamification (creating things to have fun, play, or game-like qualities) to create an environment where you actually want to continue learning and advance to the next stage.

There is an Experience Point (XP) system that helps encourage the learner to advance in their linguistic skills, whilst testing them on how they write, pronounce and interpret words. Later, it can test students on sentences and then onto full paragraphs.

Ever wanted to learn a language? Do you run a course at Middlesbrough College that teaches a language? Or do you have a learner that struggles with English? Then this might just be the program for you! You can change the 'native' language of the site - so an ESOL student could use it to help them practice English.

This product is available online, but also as an app on both iOS and Android.

For more information about Duolingo, and to start using it for free immediately, please visit: https://www.duolingo.com/

Smore (the tool we use for Free and Easy) are currently offering discounted rates for their educational licenses. With an educator's license you can use your own custom backgrounds, make an unlimited amount of Smore flyers and set them as private, so they are only visible to you and your students. For the next few weeks, you can subscribe for a whole year for just $39.00 (under £25 for us in the UK).

It's such an easy tool to use and the flyers you make can be embedded into Blackboard too. Click here to find out more: https://www.smore.com/educators

If you have any questions or suggestions of things we can feature in Free and Easy - or if you have a tool that you love using - let us know!

Drop in to see us in room 1.014A or drop an email to our Digital Facilitators Rosie and Michael using the info below.

Rosie Hare: r.hare@mbro.ac.uk

Michael Egan: mj.egan@mbro.ac.uk

Website: https://www.youtube.com/user/MbrLearningResources
Location: Room 1.014A
Phone: 01642 333214
Twitter: @MbroELearning

...scan the QR code on your phone or tablet to see the links and watch the video, or visit this link on your PC: https://www.smore.com/8nbt1