How do you title a ramble??

Before I start I have had hiccups for ages now and any remedies to getting rid of them would be much appreciated, I have tried all of the traditional ones to no avail, you never know they may have gone by the end of this *fingers crossed*

Anyway back to business...

On Friday we had our first lesson with Lin, I didn't know what to expect as I didn't really know what we were going to be doing.

First thing we had a presentation done by a lovely lady called Debbie from the Library. She did a presentation on different types of media, participative and collaborative media including:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Blogs
• Google Groups etc.

The main one that she focused on was Facebook, there are so many groups on Facebook, some funny, some serious and most important they can have many levels of privacy on them ranging from openly public to invitation only.

Debbie included some research that was done by a chap called Sean Coughlan who said 'Facebook cuts student drop outs' I can imagine this is very true as Facebook is very teenager friendly and they feel like it is their world and something where they are always in contact with the people around them in the social network web.

The positives that were spoken about were:

• many people use it for leisure and are familiar with it
• it uses many types of media
• enables student interaction
• extends the time that tutors are available
• students can post 'work in progress' and get it critiqued
• tutors can post reading lists
• free
• less vocal students can be more inclined to participate
• allows students to catch up

Some of the downfalls:

• not all students can access Facebook
• some might not like the intrusion of their home time
• it can be a distraction

I think that as long as Facebook in this context is used as an inspirational tool to enhance learning it is brilliant. Also I think that any user that isn't au fait with Facebook should be able to have the support of their group to guide them through it and teach them another skill.

I found Debbie's presentation very interesting as Facebook is something that I am on almost 24/7 apart from sleeping etc. I never realised that it could be used as an educational tool and something where classes can get together away from their classroom.

After the presentation and after sausage batch time me and Rachel had to sit through the wonderful diagnostic test, I think that some of the questions were much harder than the last lot and the fact that there was a very noisy class next to us made it difficult to concentrate.

The maths test was horrendous as I couldn't remember simple stuff that we did at school and the english was frustrating as it wouldn't let you go on to the next section unless you skipped it and you lost all of your marks that you had been beavering away at for at least 20 minutes.

In the end I think I was just resigned to the fact that I don't think I've done very well.

Blimey after uni, it was the first time that I have had to rush around so much to get to work in a while, time seems to fly past recently and its not fair as I can't seem to catch up.

Can't really say much about work, same old.

Saturday was the first proper day off that I have had in a while, it made a change to actually manage to go browsing around a shop without having to make sure everything was in size order and perfectly folded.

I can't stop thinking about Lins report though, what am I going to write about? I keep changing my mind. I have a few ideas but I think I will have to just sit down and sort them out properly. It's making it focused enough and choosing a subject that I can witter on about... sorry I mean talk about objectively for 2/3000 words.

At least the actual report doesn't need to be finished until December, although I know that will here before I know it.

I can't believe that it is Sunday already. Where had this weekend gone???

Really struggling from lack of concentration today, if there was something shiny within a 10 mile radius I think it would have distracted me. I just about managed to do 1 observation and a summary on a newspaper article for Rachels lesson.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1314433/Our-children-dont-fail-racism-says-black-academic.html

I'm not sure whether I need to include that in my study skills module but I might just include it anyway.

Wow, can't believe how much I have rambled on now. I will leave you alone.

Yay, my hiccups have gone but I shan't say it too loud encase they comeback.

So, signing off now.

Byeeeee xx