Author Archives: grahamstanley

I am a teacher, social media consultant based in Barcelona, Spain.

Scooby Doo and the Temple of Lost Souls

Play the game An engaging game with English audio introduction, middle section and ending. The game is challenging enough for the students to want help (in English) to finish it, therefore lending itself to be used as a listening activity during gameplay. Alternatively, you could do something with the walkthrough to turn it into a [...]

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

http://www.arcademaniacs.com/swf/whowantstobeamillionaire2.swf This is just a quick one – good for a filler or for telling students to do on their own at home. It’s an entertaining version of the popular TV show – the questions are, on the whole, relevant to English teaching, although some are US-culture specific Play Win A Million at Online Games [...]

Room Fake

Room Fake is another ‘Escape from the Room’ puzzle game that is almost impossible to do without the walkthrough, which I have added below. This works well as a live listening activity, but I recommend playing it first as a race to see who finishes first in the computer room. With the students in pairs, [...]

QR Code Gaming

Can you read the  square barcode above? Chances are you can if you have a phone with a camera and a barcode reader. If not, then it’s unlikely unless you take your laptop or a hard copy down to the local supermarket and persuade the person sitting at the checkout to scan it for you. [...]

Top Ten interesting ipod/iphone apps for English language learning

The idea of mobile learning (or M-Learning) is starting to become more and more popular as more people get access to smart phones and other devices that allow them to learn wherever they are. Although only a small part of m-learning, the apps available for the iphone/ipod touch show what some people are using at [...]

English Attack – a new fun way of learning English

English Attack is a new way of learning English through videos, games and other online entertainment platforms. Aimed at the 15-35 year-olds and claimed by the founders to be “the world’s first 100% entertainment-focused online resource for improving English language skills”, it is now open for beta testing (you can request an account here) and [...]

Problem solving game to generate conversation

Here’s a problem solving game that is best played in a connected classroom (i.e. a classroom with a PC/data projector) – it’s even better if you have an interactive whiteboard (iwb) The game is called Crayon Physics Deluxe and a free demo can be downloaded from here: http://www.crayonphysics.com/ You will need to install the game [...]

The Uncanny Valley

An interesting video to use with Advanced class interested in video games

Spotlight on Digital Play Innovators #4: Hayo Reinders

Darren Elliott, who writes the great Lives of Teachers blog, recently interviewed Hayo Reinders, keynote speaker at the 4th International Wireless Ready symposium. An Interview With Hayo Reinders from darren elliott on Vimeo. One thing that comes out of the interview, that Hayo also mentioned in his keynote, is that existing games should be adapted, [...]

Gateway

Gateway is a short, absorbing and entertaining puzzle game with ten levels – you have to guide a robot through a number of different rooms, each of which require the solving of a puzzle. Highly entertaining, although it is easy enough to do, so it’s not so obvious how you can use this for language [...]