Good Tuesday morning all;

I have finished reading all of your introductory blogs and am most pleased to meet you all and learn a little about your interests and objectives; you are indeed an interesting group of people. According to my class list, we are a group of 33, counting myself, but so far we only have 25 blogs posted. So, I am assuming a few people will arrive late and am hoping that if you are having technical difficulties, or any difficulties at all — that you will feel free to email me: erika.paterson@ubc.ca. I realize many of you will have little to no experience with using social media in an educational endeavour, so please do not panic if you are feeling frustrated with the tools we are using, I am patient and understanding.  My goal is to teach not judge; no question is too small or too long or too late to ask.

Just so you know, I like to work very early in the mornings most days and I like to quit working around one.  During this time I am always monitoring our Facebook page and my inbox. I do not like to work on weekends, but I am dedicated enough to “typically” check daily when difficult assignments are coming due, in case someone is really in a panic – I don’t like panic, it is not good for your creativity or your well-being. I can also disappear for a couple of days during the week sometimes, but I will typically let you know ahead of time.  I also post my Monday Blogs on Tuesday – some days, like today, I will always post a link on our Facebook page when I post a new blog.

Here is a little extra guidance for this weeks assignments which is inspired by your Facebook questions. I realized that the instructions for this first “comment’ assignment were a cut and paste from the blogging instructions, but really this week is different then the coming weeks. Here are the original instructions:

Assignment # 1 . Students are required to read two student blogs and post a significant and relevant observation or question in the comment box of each blog. By significant I mean; the comment offers a new insight or a question with some measure of complexity, or a criticism.

And, here is how I have improved the instructions – thanks to a Facebook question which alerted me to the need to improve my instructions:

Students are required to read two student blogs and post a significant and relevant observation or question in the comment box of each blog. For this week, you will be reading each other’s blogs for the first time, I would like you to spend some time reading a number of blogs and find a couple of people who inspire a response from you. Use the comment box to introduce yourself and ask your questions. You ARE expected to respond to comments left on your blog.

Please NOTE: you are always expected to respond to comments on your blog.