Blog off Im not going on Facebook !

So as the one who suggested all this blogging and having now been beaten to it by some of the students I thought it was about time I made my first offering on mine, that’s MINE as in mentoring in nursing in Europe not mine as in my blog…although it works either way so I will stick with it!

Well were almost at the end of the first week of the intensive programme event and it’s been fascinating, some of the blogs have mentioned the differences in cultures of all the participants and I guess this was always going to be the case, it’s what makes it interesting, but I hope the use of the facebook group has gone someway to counter this and promote a sense of unity and cohesion amongst the group, I will definitely be asking the students for their feedback on this and their thoughts on using tools such as facebook in a programme like MINE.

The video’s on the second day were fantastic and really impressed me, each one was very different from the other and had been approached in a different way but all managed to put across the unique identity and personalities of each group of students and mentors and the country. I’m now expecting some big things from the student conference and the digital narratives.

The thing that has struck me most however is how positive people have been and even those who are sceptical about the use of technology have embraced it and got involved, which is fantastic, it’s these different opinions I really value and I hope to capture throughout the event.

Finally looking back on my session on the morning of study day 2 I think it would have been useful to plan a hands on session to get everyone up to speed on the blogging and use of the flips, had the timetable allowed I think this would have been beneficial as by the end of day 2 we would have had everyone up and blogging and feeling comfortable with the technology. The session we ran I think linked the assessment well to the use of the technology and Caroline’s bits on reflection with practical examples were great, I think had this been linked in with a hands on session we would be a bit further down the line than we are with the blogs and in a short 2 week event I think that’s important. With that in mind I’m off to meet with some students now to get them up and running.