The Edublog Awards are back! And this year (#eddies11), I have a chance to join in the nominations since I now have this great new blog! When I realized I could add my own nominations, the first thing I did was check out the The Edublog Awards Blog to learn more about the process and history. As they state on their About page, “The Edublog Awards is a community based incentive started in 2004 in response to community concerns relating to how schools, districts and educational institutions were blocking access of learner and teacher blog sites for educational purposes. The purpose of the Edublog awards is to promote and demonstrate the educational values of these social media.”
I appreciated how clear their instructions were as well as the discussion they invite on their homepage, including a reference to the fact that some people are actually opposed to the Edublog Awards. Personally, I’m thankful for the opportunity to recognize the people and communities I’m constantly learning from and with and to share with others the resources that I’ve come across by participating in various online networks. I’m excited to see other nominations and add them to my own resource lists and continue the sharing that is so much a part of having a PLN. I would encourage you to post your own nominations (there’s not much time left – the deadline is Friday, Dec. 2nd!) so that we can all learn from the educators and colleagues who you learn from and begin to dialogue with them too.
My own nominations speak to my three main passions, early childhood education, global education, and educational technology. You’ll see a few nominations related to #kinderchat, or as they say, “The Little Chat that Could,” which continues to inspire me with new ideas and resources. If you have time, go check out some of the amazing projects they’re working on both locally and globally using some great tech tools and an amazing demonstration of virtual collaboration. I have also nominated some blogs focusing on technology in education and explorations with #edtech, something that I think should be a focus for all educators as we continue moving into a more technological age. There are tons of neat new tools out there but we should also be careful to examine the pedagogical implications of jumping onboard with any tool without fully exploring it first and determining how and why it should/could fit into a training, class lesson, or other educational setting. Finally, I made two #globaled focused nominated because I believe in connecting educators across the globe and both the Global Classroom Wiki and the Global Education Conference are working to do exactly that!
Maggie’s Edublog Award choices:
- Best individual tweeter: @hechternacht
- Best group blog: Kinderchat Blog
- Best new blog: Aspiring to Higher Tech
- Best ed tech / resource sharing blog: Mark Brumley’s Blog
- Best twitter hashtag: #kinderchat
- Best School Administrator blog: The Principal of Change
- Best free web tool: Lino – Online Stickies
- Best educational wiki: Global Classroom Wiki
- Best open PD / unconference / webinar series: The Global Education Conference
Margaret A. Powers 
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