Due to the fantastic initial response to Psychology Together and the feedback from a pilot study on our extranet addition, the site will now be fully live by the end of November. This is because new features are being tested and added to make the site even more useful and exciting. It will be worth the wait, so in the meantime we ask you to browse the examples and register your interest so that you can be part of something new and exciting come the end of term. (And just in time for those January modules too!)

So what is Psychology Together? Just another website? NO! It is a real online community where you will be able to go to the library for resources, chat to fellow students or staff through forums; engage in your teaching and learning in a practical way in the classroom and on line.

The thought behind Psychology Together is just that – we all learn better if we learn together. We wanted to provide an easy way for teachers to share resources and good practice, we wanted a place where students could find all the information they need, which will integrate with classroom learning and focus students on getting best grades. It’s all here.

Through collaboration with Tell in Plymouth, we have come up with a dynamic site that we hope many of you will take the opportunity to use.

Look at the tasters and see what we mean. The whole theme on the student side is an online café, somewhere to relax with friends but with a purposeful learning atmosphere too. We learn best using our senses, and apart from the occasional sweetie prize in my classroom we do not exercise the sense of taste very much, so the café idea is to conjure up an association with food!

The materials on the student side are active, they involve cutting and sticking, playing games with others and much more – so they won’t be stuck in front of the computer all the time, simply using e-learning to enhance their learning experience.

There will be competitions for those who register, one per term with book voucher prizes, so brush up on your research skills and find out the answer to the first Autumn term question.

Finally, the newsletter will be more about up to date issues in future, trying to apply everyday phenomenon with our specifications.

Initially the student site will cover AQA A specifications, so if you are OCR, AQA B or EDEXCEL please wait for details in future newsletters before you sign up.

Teachers can share material for ANY exam board specifications, simply upload into the correct specs. Good Luck Have Fun and please encourage people to join!

A note about registration: Registration is FREE for all teachers who sign up before the end of OCTOBER 2005. All students who register before the end of October 2005 will receive a free 30 day trial. The registration fee is charged to help with administration and maintenance of the site, therefore, the more of you that register AT ONE TIME together, the better; it makes it cheaper and sits well within the philosophy that we should do psychology TOGETHER!