Polling for a July date

With all the excitement of the university’s social media strategy; the impressive roll-out of Connections and of course recent announcements from Apple, Microsoft and Google – not to forget Digidol of course – it must be time to have another meet-up and a cup of coffee.

I’m posting here the meet-o-matic link, please use it so that we can see if we can find a date in the w/b 9th July for a chat in the Costa Coffee, Park Place, Cardiff.

Look forward to seeing you! Oldies and newbies alike. Stay as long, or as short, a time as you like.

Meet-o-matic says …

Thanks to the nine of you who responded to my meet-o-matic invite – I do so like it as a piece of simple but effective web software!

Eight of you can manage Tuesday 1st May some time between 10:00am and 13:00pm. We’ll make sure we’re still there at 12:00 for Sarah to be able to join us, and anyone else you know who might enjoy a chat and a cup of coffee – just invite them to drop-in for as long, or as short a time as they are free.

I can’t imagine that the University’s Social Media Strategy won’t be discussed, nor that some of us might want to talk about the take-up of Connections, the progress of the Digidol Project and (of course) the need for education and culture shift in anything to do with social media in higher education.

As a postscript, I’ve just been reading the most recent issue of Wired (UK edition) and there’s an interesting article on Flip Learning – the reinvention of the university – a lot of which accords with my thinking for university (and lifelong) education in the future. See … I managed NOT to mention Google+ … nearly 🙂

Coffee and clouds

Spring is well and truly upon us. After doing the spring-cleaning of our tasks, projects and actions last month, it’s time to turn our attention to those seeds of thinking that, with a bit of watering (coffee-drinking), will turn into “the big idea” later in the year. So I’m polling for a date/time for the next #tgsmc (or, Thought grazing Social Media Cafe) meet-up. As usual it’ll be in the Costa Coffee in Park Place.

Follow the link below to let me know your availability … isn’t Meet-o-matic just the greatest of meeting maker software ???

http://www.meetomatic.com/respond.php?id=2HLIDK

Watch this space for a confirmed date/time, or follow @thoughtgrazing on twitter

Spring clean your minds – Take 2!!

[Updated post – too many people, including me couldn’t make next Wednesday, revised date and time.]

Well, Christmas lethargy has almost passed. One hopes the cold and snow has gone for this year too. Now’s the time for a little spring-cleaning! That’s what we’re doing in our house at the moment and it occurred to me that’s what needed with our minds sometimes. We carry around so many thoughts and ideas that it’s difficult to focus on what is actually the most important. What is it that actually needs to get done? What is it that needs to be written on our blogs, or what that we have written needs to be posted.

An excellent example of latent thinking and writing surfaced over the weekend in Kelly Page‘s “Social ways of working in Higher Education“. In a tweet, Kelly mentioned that she’d written this post a year ago but hadn’t been sure whether to post it, or not. How often is that so true. How many other ideas and thoughts are getting cobwebs collecting around them that are crying out to see the light of day. How many others just need to be swept away, to allow others to emerge and grow?

So that’s the theme of the next Thought grazing Social Media Cafe (#tgsmc) to be held on Friday morning, 9th March from 11:00am at Costa Coffee in Park Place. Come and do a bit of thought spring cleaning as well as have a good chat and cup of coffee (and a cake), or two.

Last Cafe before Christmas

So we’re nearly in December, and this Friday – being the first in the month – brings around the next Social Media Cafe event (hashtag #tgsmc from now on).

What’s happened in the last month, apart from me having a bit of leave and learning a bit more about photography which is forcing me again to think about blogging, social networks and CONTEXT. I’d thought I’d put that one to rest … but I haven’t, and I’d like to talk to you folk about this on Friday at the Grad Centre from about 11.00am on.

I’ve also talked to some other folk at Newcastle and they’re interested in the concept of #thoughtgrazing and #tgsmc so I’m going to go and talk to them when I get back from Australia with @joenicholls. [Now there’s a country (according to my son who lives there) who are way in need of social networking!! :-).] In particular Joe’s ideas on tasks, extended digital literacies, and core’n’chore resonated well with folk from the Netskills team when I met them at a Conference just recently.

Joe and I also wondered whether any one wanted to talk about mobility. What does this actually mean for learners and researchers. What opportunities and challenges does it bring? What’s the role and responsibility of the provider of service (content or tools) to meet their aspirations and requirements.

So we have a couple of topics to get you thinking – but you’ll hopefully bring your own.

This’ll be the last #tgsmc of 2010. We’ve met three times. I’ve polled for days and Friday seems to be a favourite; but knowing that not everyone can manage that day, we’ll try and set up an alternative #tgsmc – maybe even at a different venue. What do you think?

Finally, what about you becoming an author on this blog. Please let Joe or I know, and we’ll add you to the list of folk who can post to the site. You’d be very welcome!