Leslie - as a Grad student, you are eligible to enroll in the social-media-tools-and-supporting-your-professional-learning Landing Course (https://landing.athabascau.ca/pg/groups/22940/social-media-tools-and-supporting-your-professional-learning/.  The AU Graduate Student Association and TEKRI are starting this course here in the Landing on October 15th - to help you connect in many different ways with your peers. Click on the JOIN GROUP link, and see you on October 15th, if you like, as we will be talking about how to connect using "informal chit chats, twitter discussions" or other online technologies in the landing :)

I agree: a great post, Leslie. Ironically, I had posted a Landing bookmark about your blog post on MAIS learning in mid-May, and assumed you either knew about the Landing or would naturally find your way here. So I'm sorry I didn't specifically send you a tweet about it earlier.

Thanks for the welcome!  I have requested membership to the group, Nathaniel, and look forward to a walk-through of all the Landing's fine offerings.  I'll especially be interested in setting up links between this place and my other online homes.  On that note, when I post in my blog or sent stuff out on the wire choosing "public" does that mean this entire space is public?  

Oh, Mark.  I wish you would have sent me a tweet or posted about the Landing on my blog, but there's no use... you know... spilt milk and all.  I'm glad to be here now and would like to help promote the use of this space with other students.  On a side note, how do you get here without conducting a site search for me2u?  I went looking for links yesterday and couldn't find anything on any of the pages I would normally come across.  Have I really missed something, or is it difficult to find as it's beta? Oh, and thanks for stopping by my other blog!  I had no idea that anyone had ever been there!  Perhaps you'd be interested in a #blogalliance that has been started with @amichetti, a grad student in New York.  

George, I also look forward to interacting in this space.  I would love to see some synchronous sessions set up and would be willing to assist in any way possible to make that happen.  As Terry stated in the introduction to Theory and Practice of Online Learning, "distance education students may soon be able to avail themselves of similar social and collaborative support enjoyed by on-campus students" (Anderson, 2008, p. 9). In my opinion the tools to make this happen are already in use and soon has become now.

By the way, is Athabasca involved in any open ed. courses other than PLENK?  I find the time difference difficult to negotiate most days (mostly because I sit in on @coursa's class in the morning).  I will be trying to sit in on the lunchtime sessions from the 18th to 22nd, but again, time difference is no fun.

Anderson, T. 2008. Theory and practice of online learning. Edmonton: AU Press. Retrieved fromhttp://cde.athabascau.ca/online_book/pdf/TPOL_book.pdf

P.S. Do you folks know much about this doi number in APA citations?  Sorry, Mark... I've been in too many courses asking for APA style now and may be using that as my default rather than MLA!  For an English major, this is a sad shift....