What an amazing week it was !
It actually feels like a lot longer than a week since we all met at Archway. Perhaps that is because everyone mixed and bonded with such ease that it feels like a group that has been together for a very long time. Being somebody who loves a bit of underpinning theory, you could say that in 'group theory stages' we have easily moved through forming, norming and are most definitely storming at the moment !

I think we need to explore the impact that facebook has had on the cohesion of this group, Alex is really keen to follow this up, and we will be pursuing this a little with you.

Lots of comments on cultural differences have emerged, all hugely positively, but highlighting our practice differences, nursing regulatory and curricula differences but even so the amazing compatability when we explore how we feel and what we value about nursing and learning to nurse.

The blogs are really interesting, and there is a vast amount of work and qaulitative feedback within them. I think some of us have found them challenging - but a welcome challmege on the whole. The need to meet students on their own ground, and communicate in ways that they feel comfortable with is important - it did try and theorise it and you could argue the use of web 2.0 approaches is a humanistic one, where the student and teacher meet on an equal level, and both learn ! As eariler we really need to follow up the eduational value of these - are they useful because they are critically reflective, because they encouage communication, as students have to write and articulate - even if it is not refelctive, or perhaps becuase knowing that others will read what they have written they give it more care ? Lots of thoughts no answers yet, but hopefully you'll be contributing to this debate later in the week.
I did have one further question on the blogs - should students write them academcially, or rather with complete grammar and syntax, or should txt language be allowed ?

Overall, this does seem to be providing everyone with what I would consider to be a true Erasmus expereinces, one where there is learning in all contexts, social, cultural, emotional, cognate - there is so much wonderful evidence of this already.

For next week we need to think about what will go into our toolkits and be presented at the student conference.
Some thoughts from what I've read are:

How does web 2.0 feature both in future student toolkits, and how will it be used in the conference ?
Should we be telling students about specific aspects of 'survival' in their exchange countries, eg: giving specific directions or letting them experiment - directions and tube maps vs instinct !
How much country specific in the toolkit, and how, by dv ?
What about practical issues such as occupational health clearance and MRSA swabs ?
How will learning theories, the concept of mentorship and practice assessment be included ?
We have groups of students and groups of mentors, but each country also has an academic as part of their team - how do the academics contribute ?
We aimed to use co-operative inquiry as our approach to MINE, is it working ?

Looking forward to seeing you all tommorrow !