Real Material: Create an ad on Idea Bounty

Hello,

I had a great idea for an activity that is sure to get your business and marketing English students highly engaged and motivated. Go to www.ideabounty.com.

Idea Bounty is a crowdsourcing platform where anyone(!) can submit ideas for new advertising and marketing campaigns. Every month, there are several new briefs from different companies, mostly multinationals. The format can range the full gambit from TV commercial scripts and print ads to web campaigns and guerilla marketing campaigns.

To get started, you will need to register on the site to obtain the briefs. This is free to do. Once you download the brief, you can assign it as a classroom activity for students to do in small groups or individually. Use the activity to highlight marketing language. I might also suggest looking at different ad sites to view print copy.

At the end, get students to submit their entries by the deadline. They can have a chance to win several thousand US dollars. (It's an open international competition.) If they don't win, they may still qualify for certificates showing how well they ranked - silver and bronze. (I received 2 bronze awards for the Peperami campaign in 2009 and came 46th out of 1100 entrants. It was a lot of fun.)

Enjoy the lesson!

Cheers,
Maurice
Voice One Oy
www.voiceone.fi

Brilliant activity resource book for busy teachers

I stumbled across this book while browsing through my favorite bookshop (Amazon.co.uk). What a fantastic book! This book has quickly become one of my favorites. And I say this having a massive library of EFL books at my disposal.

It offers you an extensive and diverse array of communicative activities under four main subject headings: Conversation, Functions, Grammar and Vocabulary. The activities vary from pair work, group work, debates, role plays, brainstorming, and group discussions. Each activity offers anywhere from 5 to 60+ minutes of classroom work. Make your life easier, get this book today!

Enjoy the book!

Cheers,
Maurice
Voice One
www.voiceone.fi

Five big questions about Nokia's New CEO

Finally, some new material. Sorry, I've been terribly busy, but here is something new on Nokia's new CEO. This is based on the Forbes Mobilized Blog Entry from September 10, 2010. It's available here:
http://blogs.forbes.com/elizabethwoyke/2010/09/10/five-big-questions-about-nokias-new-ceo/

Enjoy the lesson!

Cheers,
Maurice


Five Questions for New Nokia CEO

Haiti - A Historical Perspective

I wanted to create an activity related to the disaster in Haiti, but looking more at the fundamentals of the serious problems facing Haiti. To do that, you need something with some historical perspective. I used this article from Newsweek (not my favorite magazine). The article is typical of Newsweek, light on actual facts drifting off into personal commentary (fluff!). But I think it will do for our purposes.

The article can be found here:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/231179

The discussion activity is here.

Haiti - A Historical Perspective


Enjoy the lesson!

Cheers,
Maurice
www.voiceone.fi

CNBC Business of Innovation: The Future of Work

This week I am posting a video discussion from the excellent program The Business of Innovation with Maria Bartiromo on CNBC. This video deals with the future of work and includes some really amazing guests including among others: James Surowiecki, author of The Wisdom of Crowds; Dwayne Spadlin, CEO of Innocentive; Bruce Bueno De Mesquita, author of The Predictioneer's Game; and Michael Dukakis, former Democratic Governor of Massachusetts.

You can watch the video here or download it for free in iTunes.


The discussion activity can be found here:

Future of Work Video

Enjoy the lesson!

Cheers,
Maurice
www.voiceone.fi

Dioxin, Duplicity and DuPont video discussion

Here's an interesting video documentary by the Sierra Club about the DuPont plant in DeLisle Mississippi. The documentary goes into dioxin pollution and its effects. You can find it at the Sierra Club or watch it here:



You can find the discussion activity here:

Dioxin, Duplicity and DuPont Video Preview

Enjoy the lesson!

Cheers,
Maurice
www.voiceone.fi

New France 24 Mobile App for Smartphones

I just discovered last week that France 24 has just developed a new mobile app so you can get live streaming news (or highlights) on your mobile (iPhone, Nokia, Blackberry, and more). You can select between coverage in English, French and Arabic. France 24 has been pushing hard to gain marketshare from CNN, BBC World and Al Jazeera. France 24's definitely not my first choice on cable tv, but I've been using this app quite a bit. They have also developed a desktop widget as well. Most of my students have mobile internet access so I've been recommending they download it so they can practice their listening comprehension when they have time, anywhere they are. And you circumvent the extra cost of TV over 3G.

Mobile app:  http://www.france24.com/en/mobile
Widget:  http://www.france24.com/en/widget/home-stay-connected-with-france-24-widgets-windows-gadget


Hope this helps!

Cheers,
Maurice
www.voiceone.fi