Synchronous chatting as opposed to swimming...!

Sychronous chatting - loved it! I have to say though, I still felt I needed to see Phil's face whilst taking part. I am definitely a people person and this went some way towards appeasing me. Being able to multi-task and concenterate a must, all those things to remember and read at the same time! I think I can see a use for it although I'm not sure how real students would be with it.. we were quite light hearted about it all...imagine trying to get them to take it seriously!
What did Clare get in her parcel? and were the doughnuts good?...

Dr Aric Sigman, a psychologist writing in Biologist, the journal of the institute of Biology, has suggested that the amount of time people are spending on social networking sites is affecting all sorts of things such as the way our hormones work, the function of our arteries and mental performance, suggesting that young people are finding it increasingly difficult to learn social skills and read body language. I have to say I do agree to a certain extent - as a mother, I have serious concerns about the isolating nature of some of the activities my children spend their time on in front of a monitor - luckily they qiite like the outdoors too and we try to maintain a healthy balance...not always successfully.

I can see that it might be useful to set up a blog for students during placements - something I had considered before getting more into them and I think there might be benefits in providing opportunities for them to share expereiences. I would be a little concerned about comments that might be deemed as unprofessional being posted and students using the blog as a way of letting off steam. Sharing resources and ideas could be done through blogging and it might be a more user friendly way of exploring topics and following up sessions with discussion which would be more interactive than using WebCT.

Well, I finally got round to exploring blogs on t'internet. Samuel Pepys? My daughter (aged 6) was delighted as they are 'doing' the Great Fire of London at school and she has a developed a liking for everything 1666! I must confess that although informative, I found myself getting a bit distracted - I couldn't get on with the 'olde english' and got a bit bored! I then found myself investigating the actual author of the blog, an actor from London, and became intrigued by his interest in developing this blog. I think I spent more time on his own website than on the SP blog!
The Nick Robinson blog was really useful and helped clarify lots of blogisms, it must be said that Phil's pointers here were helpful in getting the best out of it. My main concern about all of this is how time consuming it is. It is so easy to get carried away and clicking away on all the links. I found a very interesting American Blog called working mom and this took me into all areas including one conversation about the benefits of the American tradition of Summer Camp - fascinating!

Here we go then - welcome to my blog!