The end of our first week!
Social media theory sessions on Friday were interesting, and very informative. Information overload!!!

Prof Cecelia Penzhorn

 Prof Cecelia Penzhorn provided many opportunities to discuss social media. There is still some consensus to be found about Academia and Researchgate amongst colleagues, but the discussions were lively.
I have saved many of the platforms on my Zotero account so that I can look at these when I have more time on my hands to explore.

Koos, Werner and Dr Marlene

Getting acquainted with Google Scholar citations is definitely something to explore. I was surprised to see some our History academics from RU have their Academia profiles. I would like to follow through on all our researchers, and suggest Academia to those who are not yet using it. It seems to me that having profiles on both Academia and ResearchGate is a valuable exercise.

During tea on Friday, I glanced over to other side of the room and was immediately struck my my colleagues in their traditional clothing. Stunning.

Diversity of countries and cultures in Africa is certainly very rich and this is one of the aspects I am enjoying within our programme. I am learning a lot about other African countries, and how they work around infrastructural issues that we all face.

Friday evening dawned. While we were exhausted from the

 demands of the week, we made it to the Illinois Spur. Vuyo and I wanted to eat there because it reminded us of our three weeks together in Champayne-Urbana, Illinois. Waiters did a line dance in the aisles for the diners. Carren is surely enjoying South African culture and activities. Lee joined us much later which led to much laughter. Definitely a good way to end a working week.

Saturday morning saw Social Media Group 3 meet (for 3 hours) to address our weekend assignment. Again lively discussions and coming to a combined consensus is richly rewarding in learning about other experiences, strengths and weaknesses. I was reminded of how fortunate we are to have the CPD opportunity, and that everyone is keen to tackle our group sessions.  We nominated Efua as our scribe, and meet on Tuesday night to
final edit our word document.

Saturday lunch was a new experience for many of us. As South Africans, Vuyo and I have never eaten at Chesa Nyama. Lee took us there, together with Carren (from Tanzania) and Oedema (from Nigeria). We all had braai boxes - pap and relish, chicken and wors. I loved it. Lee showed us the student square entertainment area; we should have something like this at Rhodes.

And the afternoon was spent on working with storing my weeks' readings and areas for exploration into my Zotero account. And compiling my part for Group 3 document. This took me well into the night. It is evident that Sunday will be much the same.