This was sent to me by one of my best friends. I intend to follow this recipe for the next year and although I can't take credit for the writing, although I did edit it a bit, I wanted to pass it along!

I've found a few sites of interest I thought I would pass along. Of course there is a variety but I tend to find sites that are educationally related. I hope you enjoy and find them useful.

Some might be asking what is ATutor? ATutor is only one of two open source learning management systems I would recommend. Although I'm always looking for new LMS's to review and add to my toolbox.

According to their site, "ATutor is an Open Source Web-based Learning Content Management System (LCMS) designed with accessibility and adaptability in mind."

ATutor 1.6.2 has been released. This is a significant release, with the addition of quite a number of new features, and further support for accessibility and interoperability standards.

If you watch the news then you get all the negative economic information, the unemployment rate is going up - some predicting we'll get to 10% - but remember that means 90% of people have jobs! That is an important thing to remember in our trying times and I've found a site that you'll want to visit to read about good news.

If you've ever doubted the power of love and connection between animals and people then this story will give you a new outlook. This story was brought to my attention today and wanted to share it. Make sure you have some tissue handy because it brought tears to my eyes and it might do the same to you.

Do you remember where you were 13 yrs ago when O.J. Simpson was acquitted? I remember sitting in my condo in San Diego writing for my website (we didn't call it a blog then) and posting my thoughts. I was in grad school, getting ready to go to visit my family in Colorado - and now I'm living in the Colorado mountains.

Where were you? Do you remember?

Everyday new companies are launched on the backbone of Twitter and as it evolves users are discovering new ways to manage and use the tool to network, communicate, and connect with people. You'll also find sub-cultures of people in the community who are 'purists' who use the tool to only connect with people they've met or want to invite into their home. Then you have others who use it as a tool. For example, Guy Kawasaki recently shared his strategies in using Twitter as a tool, a marketing and networking tool.

I don't totally disagree or agree but am still marinating my thoughts and opinions to form my own strategy but think it might be somewhere in the middle. I often meet people on Twitter where I feel an instant connection even though I've never met them - we share similar interests or backgrounds. Then there are other people I'm looking to learn from -- but then there are some that seem to be annoying.

I found three sites I'd like to share today.

The first, TubeGuide.tv is a site I'm sure my son will enjoy, the next is CampusCompare (similar to sTuVu.com), a site with a familiar theme and finally Visual Explorer .

A personal vote of confidence is one of the greatest marketing tools and sTuVu offers students the opportunity to share their views of their campuses. This kind of site is great for prospective students and could be a college PR person's dream or nightmare!

Just wanted to let everyone know the call for proposals is out for the Distance Teaching and Learning conference in Madison, WI. This is a great conference that has been around for 25yrs - I would guess it is the first distance teaching and learning conference in the US! And if you'd like to present then make sure to get your proposals in and I'll see you there!