Check out my project that I have been working on for awhile now, but I have just recently updated. I added a “Recently Added” link to show the latest 20 sites that have been submitted along with changing the long list of tags into two columns. This site has given me expierence with working with PHp and MySQL — which I need to learn much more about!

Check out the site: http://www.edutagit.com

The site consists of many resources for technology integration such as web 2.0 tools and programs, help resources, informational sites, etc. Basically a great site to come and get resources for technology integration. I also plan on having a submit link so users can submit their own resources.

busy..busy..

Life

I recently purchased a condo (with my parents assistance) in Plymouth, Minnesota. It’s not a bad place to live! So, I have been busy moving, fixing up and making it “home sweet home”. Work has been pretty busy ever since school began. This school year I am working more hours each day to help with our district’s Moodle site.

New Learning & Projects

Tech integration resource site/PHP & MySQL learning – Ever since last year I have seen tons of technology integration web resources and more each day. I wonder what is the best way to organize and share these resources? I have thought of a wiki, blog, Moodle, Delicious or maybe even just a regular web site. Each one of those ideas would be fine, really. However, whenever I start setting it up I have a change of heart and switch to another way. I have not come up with a solution I am 100% happy with.

What I want to do is create a web site, using a database, to display and organize these resources. Why? Well, I think the possibilities are great and I can change whatever I want with the look and feel. Also, I have always wanted to learn MySQL and PHP. What a great way to learn!

Check out what I have done so far: http://www.edutagit.com/beta http://www.edutagit.com

The above link is constantly being worked on. The main page is www.edutagit.com however, www.edutagit.com/beta will be the newest content

Sign up to be notified when Obama announces his running mate:

Barack is about to choose a running mate, and he wants you to know first. You have helped build this movement from the bottom up, and Barack wants you to be part of this important moment. Sign up today and we’ll send you an email announcing Barack’s running mate. You can also text VP to 62262 to receive a text message on your mobile phone.

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Very interesting! Compared with McCain I see Obama being much more tech savvy and realizing the importance of technology. Now, I don’t think a president has to be a tech nerd to have a good stance on technology – he can hire people to do this – however, if you don’t understand and believe the importance of it I think it’s hard to prioritize it. I was surprised to see Obama on Twitter. I just looked up John McCain on Twitter and there are a few accounts about him but I do not believe any officially run by him. I thought the notification by email and/or text message was a clever idea.

Of course Obama’s embracing and understanding of technology relates more towards the younger crowd, but did he already have much of the younger crowd? I wonder how much his “web presence” is helping him out. I think having a web presence (whether it’s political, musical or just wanting to get your name out there) is highly underestimated. Maybe it’s just because I’m a computer geek and I’m online all the time but I really believe embracing the Internet and technology can have some huge advantages. Sort of getting off-topic here–but sort of like musicians trying to fight the Internet and the whole copyright issue. If they spent the same amount of time they do on lawsuits and legal stuff than they do on using the Internet I think it would have a much more positive impact. In college (a year ago) I did a paper on the Internet and it’s impact on the music industry. There was a lot of research on the positives but there was no real hard, cold facts. Well, I officially got off-topic! Follow Obama’s Twitters if you’re interested. Don’t know what Twitter is? You’re living under a rock, so check Twitter out!

“Elgg is an open, flexible social application engine, designed to run at the heart of any socially-aware application. Building on Elgg is easy, and because the engine handles common web application and social functionality for you, you can concentrate on developing your idea.”

I’ve been testing out Elgg 1.0 for a couple of weeks now and it looks great so far. I never used the classic version of Elgg but from what I understand Elgg 1.0 is a big, big update.

Every day they are updating and adding new features, changing the look and working out bugs. The release date for Elgg 1.0 is August 18th, 2008. Today they posted a blog asking for more users to help test the product.

The reason why I have a big interest in Elgg 1.0 is because I work in a school district with technology and we are looking at Elgg 1.0 as a possibility as a staff intranet.

I highly suggest checking this product out even if you pass up the opportunity to test it out. Elgg has already made a huge impact in the education world (and will continue to) but now they are trying to emphasize the use in the business world.

In no particular order:

Firefox

Simply the best browser out there (imho of course ). I find that Firefox works the best with handling web design and CSS and since I do some web work I rarely run into problems.

But the real reason why I could not live without Firefox is because of the add-ons. Firefox add-ons simply make my time on the web more productive and much more efficient. I can know instantly whether I get an email from multiple accounts, keep track of my twitters, have multiple tabs open, view media on websites, get the weather, use FTP…you get the point. Whatever you do on the web there is more than likely an add-on for it.

Gmail

I will only say a few things about Gmail because a lot of the reason why I like it so much is because there is a sweet Firefox add-on for it and I use other Google applications, which makes it easy to navigate. First, I like the easy and powerful search. Second, I like the concept of labels and third, I will never run out of space.

Social Networking

I am going to bundle in Facebook, MySpace, Ning and all of these social networking sites. Sure some of these things are for play and waste a lot of time but honestly networks like Facebook and MySpace have connected me to old friends and keep me connected with current friends that I would not have any connection with otherwise.

Notepad++

This is a great free source-editor that I use daily. Sure, there are other fancy editors like Dreamweaver but Notepad++ does the trick for me.You can open multiple files (using tabs) and it will work with HTML, CSS, PHP, etc. Since I do a lot of web design work, this is a must-have resource.

ESPN.com

I love sports! I get all of my sports news and updates from here. I visit this site multiple times a day. A boring pick, but hey I couldn’t live without it.

Rationale

The above are resources in all areas of my life, no specific area. I know these resources are no secret and a bit boring but they are sort of at the core of my experience online. I will be posting another post about must-have resources in a more specific area soon.

The Republican candidate for president, famous for admitting that he doesn’t know how to use a computer without assistance, has no plans for the future of technology in America.

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(Note: I tested out the “blog this” option in Digg that allows me to blog a Dugg article automatically. It works! Nifty!)