Inspired by Monster

Inspired by Monsters

I have decided to be more diligent with this blog. Up until now I have been blogging about a variety of subjects that catch my attention and to be honest I feel that I should be doing much more and blogging more regularly.

This change of heart has been motivated by two events. One is the regular @monstertalk blog. The thoughts and observations of a practising social worker come on a daily basis. Anyone reading it can’t fail to be impressed by the content of the blog and the regularity of its production. The second event was that I loaded my tumble drier in the dark this morning.

The significance? Well it’s winter, or at least it feels at lot like winter in my corner of Lanarkshire.  Darker mornings and heavier jackets. This also means that it is the start of term time for our students. Our new Level 1’s begin their academic career this morning and I am teaching them.

So this seems an ideal time to blog on the subject of beginnings and teaching. We have over sixty Level 1’s, from as far apart as Kenya,  Zimbabwe and Devon last week we had a two day induction. As part of the ice breaker exercises they introduced each other telling us a little about themselves. The experience in the room was quite something. Lots of social care work, personal experience of caring, family experience of the social work profession and one student who advised they wanted a career in the “industry.”

This morning’s teaching is on a module called “Skills, Knowledge and Technology” I am responsible for this module and I am gradually reshaping it. My aim is to bring in much more content relating to social media, to encourage a shift away from the “social “ aspect to the “media.” The vast majority of our first years, and indeed all of our students have facebook. On closer examination they seem to use it to chat and arrange their social lives. I want to try to bring social media to them as a tool. I want to encourage them to read and contribute to blogs and to use to go beyond their current usage of the internet and use it to support their studies. So, bloggers beware!

The beginning of a new term is an exciting time, students are keen to get started and there is an atmosphere of impatience amongst them. Over the summer the university is very quiet, most people are on holiday. The corridors are empty and you don’t need to queue to buy your lunch. From today the university becomes like a night club. Returning students are excited to be back with their colleagues, new starts are keen to get under way to make new relationships and discover more about their chosen subjects. Academics focus on their teaching, module handbooks are printed, powerpoint presentations are checked, updated and in extreme cases re-written. Blogs are revamped and revisited and we allow all our monsters to come along and offer us their insights and opinions.

Outside might well be dark but the process of bringing the light begins just now.