It’s been awhile.

A few changes since I’ve last posted – one being a new job for myself! For the last 3 years I’ve been working at Osseo Area Schools as tech support working with equipment and software like Moodle, Google Apps, WPMU amongst others. It’s been a wonderful experience at Osseo as they have been and continue to be a forward-thinking district with many successfull implementations and initiatives.

An opportunity came to me from Blooming Public Schools as a Database and Web Integration Specialist, where I’d be working with implementing School Fusion, Moodle and integrating other software and applications into the system. Along with working with software I’d also be working with databases and transferring data between systems.

Although I loved working in Osseo (the district I went to school in from 1st-12th grade) it was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. My top priority to start is to help get School Fusion up and running. We will be re-doing the district’s main site, building sites and creating teacher and course pages. After that, I will probably be working with Moodle and trying to integrate it with School Fusion.

I’m new to School Fusion and look forward to learning the ins and outs of it. The only issue is it’s not open-source so learning those ins and outs may be a bit hard! One thing I’m excited to learn more about is the database and data side of things. I enjoy working with databases but I haven’t had much experience.

Oh, and one more thing… Bloomington is a “Mac District”…90% Mac….I’ve never used (for more than 30 minutes) a Mac. So um, any Macs for newbies articles?

On a different note . . .

• I recently did a book review on Moodle 1.9 Theme Design on MoodleNews.com
• I’m currently reading Moodle 1.9 Extension Development and I’ll be doing a review on Moodlerific.org
• I’m heading out to the ISTE 2010 Conference next weekend in Denver!

A few exciting tid bits to type about today. First, is my work with IT4Educators–Innovative Technology for Educators. I recently wrote a post on Moodlerfic about this company and how I’m involved in it.

I’m very excited to work with IT4Educators and I think it’s a great way for educators to get credits needed. I’m also excited about helping with their online web presence and getting their blog up and off the ground. The instructors at IT4Educators are some great tech leaders and will be providing useful resources and posts on the blog.

It’s a great way for educators to get the credits they need and since it’s using Moodle it’s convenient for users. IT4Educators also has very relevant and up to date tech integration courses like Twitter, Moodle, SMARTNotebook, and more. I’ll also be maintaining the IT4Educators Blog and writing posts every once in awhile about Moodle, so watch out for those.

On a separate note…

I recently wrote a series of blog posts on Moodle Monthly about my experience with our district’s Moodle Implementation. Joseph Thibault (creator of Moodle Monthly) kindly put all of those posts together and published “Once Upon a Moodle Install” on LuLu.com. Big thanks to Joseph!

That’s about it – just wanted to post about what’s been happening..till next time – Lifes a Blog!

Denver… ISTE 2010… here I come!

I was recently told that I would be able to attend the ISTE 2010 Conference in Denver, CO along with some of my colleagues.

ISTE is the premier membership association for educators and education leaders engaged in improving teaching and learning by advancing the effective use of technology in PK–12 and teacher education. ISTE is home to the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS), and ISTE’s annual conference and exposition, (formerly known as NECC). ISTE represents more than 100,000 professionals worldwide.

I will be attending with an awesome group of people from the Osseo School District. This will be my very first ISTE Conference, the only other bigger conference I’ve been to was TIES (the last 3 years) but this conference will be much, much “bigger”.

I hope to attend some good sessions and write up a few quality blog posts this summer. I will most likely attend sessions about Moodle, mobile devices and other software or web-based tools.

I’m assuming Twitter will be blowing up with #ISTE2010 and #ISTE10 tags around June 25-27 and you can check out the ISTE 2010 Ning.

Can’t wait! If you’re going I’d love to network! My Twitter handle is @mebenson.

For my first blog post, with actual content in it, on Melbenson.com I’m going to talk about a topic that I will post a whole lot more about – MOODLE! : )

In my Melbenson.com Blog I’m going to talk more about my personal experiences, projects I’m working on, my thoughts and all that good stuff, so I’m starting off by telling you a recent project/site I’ve been helping write blog posts on called Moodle Monthly.

Moodle Monthly was created by Joseph Thibault in November 2009. He says, “the idea came to me on a run“. Well, that was one beneficial run as his site has had great success and positive feedback from the Moodle community in a very short amount of time.

One of the main reasons it’s become so popular (besides the quality and the ‘breaking news’ type posts) is because of  the frequency of posts. There are multiple posts each week day! And this is where I come in. Joseph contacted me asking if I’d be interested in writing for Moodle Monthly to keep up the amount of posts. He was looking for a few Moodle bloggers that could help him keep the site updated and we knew of each other from the Moodle Community. We also frequently exchanged links between his blog and my Moodlerific blog, so he asked if I’d be interested and I said “yes!”.

I began my contribution with a 7-post series called “How we implemented Moodle” [into our school district]. I will probably be contributing posts mostly about Moodle tips, admin tasks and things I’ve learned that others would benefit from. I’m very excited about being a part of the Moodle Monthly team and working with Joseph and other fellow Moodlers.

If you work with Moodle in any way–teacher, admin, student–I definitely recommend checking out Moodle Monthly–and not just because I write for it but because it’s truly a very useful site. Twitter is the main way the site announces new blog posts and every day @moodlenews (which is Moodle Monthly’s Twitter handle) gets Retweeted. It’s also gotten a great response from the Moodle Community and is already being listed on sites as recommended Moodle links.

Well..that was the first of many “Life’s a Blog!” posts about Moodle : )

Hey, World I haven’t written any blog posts yet as I am re-working and combining both my web site and blog. Come back soon : )