Rocky Mountain Peer Tutoring Conference PeerCentered Session

I am sitting in the Boise State session about their use of PeerCentered. It is just starting up with Alisha Kamph, Samantha Sturman, Sara Welch, and Sarah McGuire.

This is, therefore, meta-meta-meta-blogging.

Update 10:30--The folks have been discussing the benefits and drawbacks of blogging with the following questions:

The Nature of the Discussion
1. Are our posts on PeerCentered discussion that could not have been carried on inside the classroom or the center?
2. What post(s) are most useful?

Peers and Community
1. How important is the emphasis on peers and the open membership of PeerCentered?
2. Do we build a sense of community or is it exclusive?
3. Are there privacy issues to blogging publicly?

Tutor Training and Coursework
1. Does the blog serve as a tool for tutor training/development?
2. Is it limited to an Oasis that complements classroom training and writing center experience or could it replace teacher-student interaction?

The Technical Terrain
1. How do we feel about the physical aspects of the blog?

Feel free to discuss these questions in comments.....

I want to ask this question: How has having folks who do not work in your center influenced your learning about writing center theory and practice?

PeerCentered on facebook

If you are a facebooker, you might want to seek out the new PeerCentered facebook group. (Just search for PeerCentered and you should find it. If that doesn't work, just search for me, Clint Gardner--clint.gardner@slcc.edu and add me as a friend. You should then be able to find it from my list of groups.)

This facebook thing is just another iteration of the PeerCentered concept to reach peer tutors who are horribly addicted to the online social networking platform from hell. ;-) In other words, the blog and podcast will still be around for our mutual edification.

Welcome!

There are lots of new folks from Boise State joining PeerCentered of late. Please introduce yourselves!

Fall's irony

It has always struck me as ironic that fall is the time when school traditionally starts given that fall is the time for crops to be harvested, the hard freeze to hit, and the squaring away of everything for a long winter. Even if late August feels nothing like fall, I still sense the hint of autumn in the way the light plays out over the land and the distinct chill in the early morning air as I hurry off to the bus stop to start up yet another school year.

Fall is, of course, spring for education. It is when students start anew and hope abounds.

If you are interested in joing PeerCentered, contact me at Clint.Gardner@slcc.edu.