Like my fellow Cohort 4 EdD colleagues, I'm tied to my various glowing rectangles (thanks, The Onion, for that reference!) trying to edit and revise my first paper for EDDE 802.  It's an exploration of theoretical paradigm issues in an area of our own research interest.  I'm using an m-learning research project of mine (which I'm conducting at CNA-Q in Qatar) to provide the context for this assignment.  Yesterday morning, as I was staring at two glowing rectangles while double-checking a reference I made to m-learning researcher John Traxler (featured in Dr. Ally's m-learning text, and involved with IAMLEARN, among other things), my smallest glowing rectangle (smartphone) began to buzz.  It was an email directly from Traxler himself!  Talk about a fortuitous coincidence...he was sending out a new resource link for anyone on the IAMLEARN mailing list interested in BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) m-learning research.  Well, I felt compelled to send a thank-you email, and to comment on the coincidence.  I ended spending the whole day exchanging emails with Traxler, who expressed a keen interest in my research project.  We talked about the pedagogical implications, and the epistemological culture of researching m-learning RLOs (reusable learning objects) in my context, when the traditional cost and infrastructure barriers are not an issue anymore.  He also suggested that I should showcase my research at next year's WISE (World Innovation Summit in Education) conference in Doha (or some similar event).  It was a bit of a mind-blowing experience on a couple of levels.  For one, it is still a bit mind-blowing that I'm studying in a doctoral program, and connecting directly with the researchers and scholars whose names I used to only see in print (and who are the leaders in their fields!).  It's also mind-blowing to see the power of the m-learning tools I'm researching in action.  Using my mobile devices, I connected directly with one of the foremost experts in my field of interest (who I had never met before, and who lives on a completely separate continent from either myself or AU), got some situated, just-in-time resources, and laid the groundwork for a working relationship and potential future collaboration.  It's days like yesterday that help contextualize what I'm studying, and renew my energy for the countless hours of hard work before I defend my dissertation!