As a newer blog on the educational block, this year is the first time I am submitting nominations for the 2012 Edublog Awards, a longterm community-based effort to recognize and promote the value of social media for educators and education. These awards truly are a way to give credit where credit is due as well as collect and share some of the best educational finds throughout the web all in an effort to improve the current state of education across the world. Personally, I am finding that just reading through the nominations themselves has led to finding amazing blogs, twitter chats, and social networks, among other things, that I have bookmarked and referenced frequently. One of my favorite blogs, Gridjumper?s Blog, is one such site I found through the Edublog Awards nomination listing. Now, I know, follow, and chat with her often, and I have learned so much about virtual words and machinima from her, enriching my own approach to education.
Don?t forget to nominate as well! Nominations are open until November 27th, 2012. ?
The following are my nominations for the Edublog 2012 Awards. I hope my readers might find something intriguing in this list as well!
Best individual blog
This amazing blog by Dr. Scott McLeod is the first blog I check on my Google Reader in the morning. That should say enough for this nomination (I write more about him and his blog below as well).
Best group blog
Hybrid Pedagogy is ?an academic and networked journal that combines the strands of critical and digital pedagogy to arrive at the best social and civil uses of technology and digital media in education.? Contributors come from a wide, interactive audience of all realms of education and embrace participation and social media in education. They hosted a mini-MOOC recently and established their own Twitter chat: #digped. The community is active and the ideas are emergent, exciting, research-based, and thought-provoking. Hybrid Pedagogy is not just a collaborative online journal but also a movement in the pursuit of professional and ?scholarly? blogging.
Best new blog
EdCamp Atlanta Unconference has its inaugural event this September, but they have been actively establishing an active and amazing blog on their website that includes posts from local educators as well as national figures in education. Ed Camp Atlanta takes pride in having a blog that makes their unconference more than just a one-day-and-nothing-more event. They use their blog as an outreach and networking resource for Atlanta-area educators and should be commended for their blogging activity.
Best ed tech / resource sharing blog
Gridjumper has been actively blogging and contributing to both the emergent topics of Game-Based Learning, Virtual Worlds in Education and Machinima to the point where her blog has become a leading authority in those topics. She is constantly sharing and contributing to the growing wealth of knowledge, especially at the helm of Machinima in education, and writes some of the most straight-forward and intriguing posts that anyone might find in an educational blog. The resources that she shares are indispensable?and very useful and her clear descriptions of easy to use albeit very emergent educational technology makes these topics palatable to even the most technology-resistant of educators.
Best administrator blog
This blog by Dr. Brett Jacobsen, Head of School for Mount Vernon Presbyterian School in Atlanta, Georgia, features his forward-thinking and open-minded leadership style as well as his emphasis on the emergent Design Thinking movement in education. He dedicated this blog and his work to the improvement of K-12 education by using new movements, thought-processes, and research and not being afraid to experiment. He advocates a ?fail up? mentality, embracing the fearlessness and illustrating himself that not being afraid of failure can mean amazing amounts of success in your endeavors.
Most influential blog post
Best individual tweeter
David Kapuler shares some of the most useful and interesting content on Twitter that I frequently read, reference, and retweet. I enjoy his recommendations for #FollowFriday, which is where I find some of the most interesting EduTweeps to follow and enjoy their content.
Best twitter hashtag
As the Game-Based Learning MOOC leaves its second iteration and goes possibly into its third iteration, the related #gamemooc hashtag and Wednesday night Tweet Chats are constantly going stronger and stronger. There is no other better hashtag, other than #gbl, that can give you the best information on games in education, MMORPGs, gamification, learning badges, virtual worlds, and so much more under the umbrella of Game-Based Learning. Also, the #gamemooc Wednesday TweetChat is in a league of its own, as there is no other TweetChat of which I am familiar that actively discusses and engages in debates regarding GBL.
Best free web tool
What better way to have free, multiuser F2F or audio only discussions, speakers, and presentations that also includes a live stream to YouTube with backchannel chat window for including larger audiences as well as Slideshare, screenshare, interactive Google Docs in the Hangout and much more? This is a SUPERB service that more educations need to use ASAP!
Best educational use of audio / video / visual /?podcast
EdReach is an amazingly comprehensive site featuring news and views on all points of education by the educators themselves. EdReach has ?channels? on which they host a multitude of podcasts as well as video both traditionally-recorded and Google+ Hangout on Air-recorded. The variance of perspective as well as the multiplatform usage of audio and visual is what makes EdReach extremely unique in the online social educational world, and I STRONGLY believe EdReach should receive credit for their hard work in corralling so many contributors and making their various presentation platforms function well! Not to mention that EdReach is also on web RADIO! How many educational group sites can claim that feature?
Best open PD / unconference / webinar series?
G.A.M.E. (Gamers Advancing Meaningful Education) broke ground with their multiplatform speaker series gathering experts in games and simulations in education to speak to a large audience interested in learning more and interacting with others interested in the topic. There is no other similar free development and networking opportunity that is hosted both using Google+ Hangouts on Air as well as with a backchannel in Second Life, YouTube chat, and Twitter chat.
Best educational use of a social network
I cannot possibly express this better than the website itself:
Gamers Advancing Meaningful Education (G.A.M.E) is an online community of global educators who game. At its core is an online synchronous gaming community. This intellectually curious network of educators develop curriculum, offer online open courses, webinars and F2F presentations on the opportunities and deeper learning that takes place in games.
G.A.M.E. is for educators who game, want to learn how to game, and want to incorporate gaming strategies into teaching and learning. Participants will become familiar with the use of massively online roleplaying games, commercial off-shelf games and sandbox genre games in their quest to innovate teaching and learning.
All educators are welcome, novice, dabbler, and hardcore gamer. Come game with us to level up on teaching and learning. It?s more than an affinity space for educators who game ? it?s a guild.
Best mobile app
I have been a fervent fan of Remind101 for quite some time. Their fast, secure, and safe SMS text messaging for teachers is so incredibly useful (and not just for reminders!), so when they came out with their iPhone app and later with their Android app, I jumped with joy. I use this app so frequently that I have it on my first page of app icons on my iPhone. They were able to take something complex and make the app so simple to use, even for first-time users and/or educators who struggle with new technologies. They are an remarkable educational startup who heard us teachers asking for an app and responded extremely quickly.
Lifetime achievement
Another nomination for the amazing blog by Dr. Scott McLeod. He really is one of THE most influential people in education today and has been for quite some time. He co-created the infamous ?Did You Know?? video series (aka ?Shift Happens) and constantly produces research as well as presents and keynotes. Meanwhile, he founded CASTLE (Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education) and his personal blog is incredibly riff with ideas and thoughts as well as information and motivation for those of us trying to make the change happen in education. If you are reading this list of nominations, I want to to walk away at the very least with this leader?s name and links to his work.
from your own site.
Source: http://www.ctrlaltteach.com/eddies2012/
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