Cast Your Vote in the Edublog Awards by December 9th

On November 25th, I posted my nominations for the 2012 Edublog Awards. The nominations are now all in, the finalists have been named, and voting is open. You should go vote!

Why vote? Because the educators who are recognized by these nominations have given freely of their time and talent to share their thoughts and ideas and in some cases create tools which benefit the entire education community. A little recognition goes a long way toward encouraging these folks to continue to contribute, and I believe it can encourage those who are still lurking in the online world to move into more active participation. When the lurkers see that contributions are valued, they might just make the effort to begin sharing themselves. (Sidebar: No one should think they have "nothing" to share. What's obvious to you might just be amazing to others...)

How do I know the recognition given by being nominated is encouraging? Because for the first time ever, I received a nomination! [Note the nomination icon I am displaying in this blog post. :-) ] I didn't make the finalist list, but the fact that someone took the time to acknowledge that my blog has been a valuable resource to them fills me with a sense of accomplishment. Say what you will about writing just for the sake of writing or for the therapy of it, it's nice to know your efforts are appreciated by someone out there.

Another benefit of voting is you will probably be exposed to some new bloggers, tweeters, web tools, or apps you haven't come across before. The fact that someone recognized the nominees' contributions probably makes them worth a look.

Hopefully, I've encouraged you to take a few moments and cast your vote in the 2012 Edublog Awards. Give your colleagues a virtual pat on the back! Below are some links you'll find useful:

• All of The Nominees (Be sure to click the tabs at the bottom of the spreadsheet to see each category.)
• Vote for the Finalists Here (Not sure who to vote for? Do a Google search for "Edublog Award Nominations" and read the individual posts to see why people made the nominations they did. Remember though, not all nominees make the finalist list.)

Congratulations to all of the nominees, and best wishes to the finalists. Here's to a high voter turnout!

2012 Edublog Award Nominations

It is Edublog Award nomination time again! I participated in the nomination process last year, and really enjoyed getting to give shout-outs to some of my favorite resources. So, here I go again!

It's always hard to narrow down the best of anyone or anything, so I choose to focus on resources that have been valuable to me recently or have been resources I return to again and again over time. Which is why a couple of my nominations are repeats from last year. After reading my nominations, you may be inspired to make some of your own in as few or as many categories as you want. Be quick about it, though, because the nominations are due by Monday, November 26th.

My 2012 Edublog Award Nominations Are:

Best Individual Blog: Cool Cat Teacher by Vicki Davis
Vicki not only blogs about education and educational technology, but she also shares her personal struggles balancing family and professional life. She is a refreshing, honest voice in the blogosphere, and I continuously benefit from her reflection and sharing both personally and professionally.

Best Administrator Blog: The Principal of Change by George Couros
Writing from his experience as Division Principal of Innovative Teaching and Learning for Parkland School Division in Alberta, Canada, George's reflections on education, teaching, and learning are amazing resources for the education community. George practices what he preaches. As a huge proponent of teaching students to produce positive digital footprints, George can point to his own blog as an example of what it means to contribute positively to the greater education community.

Best Individual Tweeter: George Couros (@gcouros)
George Couros shares a wide variety of information on Twitter, from practical tool tips to informative articles on the art of teaching and learning. When George puts "Read This" in front of a Tweet, I know the information he's sending out is going to be valuable! I appreciate George's contributions to my learning.

Best Twitter Hashtag: #txed
Educators across Texas are sharing resources for teaching and learning and sharing political insights as our biennial legislative season ramps up in 2013. The hashtag is used throughout the week, and Wednesday nights at 8:30 CST Texas educators can be found chatting on the topic of the week. I believe #txed is a great model for teachers in all states to emulate, as it allows discussion in the context of what is unique about the needs and conditions of education in our state.

Best Free Web Tool: Socrative
We are launching iPads in limited settings in my school district, and our teachers were extremely excited when we introduced the Socrative student response platform to them. Accounts are easy to set up and quizzes are easy to create. Formative assessment using "on the fly" questions is also possible. The beauty of Socrative is it can be used via the web or via an app on iOS or Android, so even in a BYOD environment where you have a mixture of devices, as long as they can download an app or hit a website, all students in your class can participate. Great tool for promoting student engagement!

Best Educational Use of Audio/Video/Visual /Podcast: 
Teacher Training Videos by Russell Stannard
If you haven't stumbled upon this website containing numerous professional quality training videos that are provided free of charge, you've missed a gem! These are the "missing manuals" on Web 2.0 tools such as Edmodo, Skype, Twitter, and Second Life. Not to mention software tutorials on programs such as iTunes and Camtasia. And these topics don't even scratch the surface. There are advertisements on the site, but when you are accessing a training video, you no longer see the ads. Through my job, I have accessed video tutorials that had subscription fees attached, and I can confidently say that Russell's videos equal and in some cases are better than the videos we paid for.

Best Mobile App: Socrative
See all my reasons for nominating this resource in my Best Free Web Tool nomination above! Having mobile apps developed for both iOS and Android makes this tool invaluable in environments where any number of mobile devices are being used.

Lifetime Achievement: Wesley Fryer
I have been following Wes's work and using his resources since my early days as an instructional technology facilitator. I first discovered him through his Tools for the TEKS website (no longer maintained), and in recent years I have been fortunate to continue to benefit from his ideas and resources via Twitter (@wfryer was one of the first people I looked for and followed when I joined Twitter) and his Moving at the Speed of Creativity blog. I could continue the list but Wes's CV speaks for itself. You might expect someone with so much experience and so many credentials to be arrogant or unapproachable, but in all of his online interactions and the few in-person presentations of his I have been fortunate enough to attend, Wes is kind and down-to-earth. He has consistently advocated for the advancement of educational technology integration by sharing the facts and benefits with authoritativeness that is respectful. I can think of no one more deserving of a Lifetime Achievement recognition than Wesley Fryer.

Full Disclosure: Because my reasons for nominating Wes have not changed, I copied and pasted them from last year's nomination post. 

2011 Edublog Award Nominations

After watching the Edublog Awards process for a few years, and even voting in the final round before, I've decided it's time for me to get involved at the grass-roots level by making some of my own nominations in 2011!

As many have lamented in other posts around the edubloggersphere, it is often difficult to pick the people/resources that are "the best," but if I look at it from the perspective of  "Who has influenced/helped/inspired me most recently?" it makes the process a bit easier. I think giving a shout-out to these people/resources benefits the entire online educational community by highlighting great resources others may not know about and giving those of us less experienced in blogging and PLN building examples to learn from.

Here are my Edublog Awards nominations for 2011:

Best Individual Blog: Cool Cat Teacher by Vicki Davis - Vicki has been nominated for best teacher blog in the past and won the award in 2008, and she deserves every nomination and win. Her dedication to promoting the noble calling of the teaching profession and teaching digital citizenship to students through real-world, world-wide collaborative projects is inspiring. I rarely come away from reading one of her blog posts on these topics and others without having much food for thought to chew on. Best of all, Vicki is real in sharing her own questions and struggles, which makes her ideas and experiences that much more accessible to the rest of us. Vicki's blog helped inspire me to start blogging myself.

Best Individual Tweeter: @jdthomas7 aka Jeff Thomas - Jeff consistently tweets practical information and resources that add to my personal education and technology toolkit. I find myself passing his tweets along to my own followers quite often and appreciate the quality of what he shares.

Best New Blog: Terice T. Schneider's Digital Home by Terice Schneider - Terice has just gotten started with blogging this school year, but the information she is sharing about the 1:1 iPad initiative at a middle school in her district is invaluable to the edtech and education community as there is a lot of experimentation but very little quality reflection/documentation on what implementation looks like in this arena. Terice's post on what she would do differently before deploying iPads to 735 middle schoolers went wild on Twitter, so I know the information she is sharing is important to a wide audience. (As a disclaimer, I  have worked with Terice before and know her personally, but this adds to my nomination of her because I know the thoughtfulness she puts into her work!)


Best EdTech/Resource Sharing Blog: Ask A Tech Teacher by Jacqui Murray - Jacqui shares technology tips based on questions she gets from parents, fully developed lesson plans for teaching technology to elementary students, and tips and techniques for managing and teaching in a student computer lab. Her resources are practical and classroom tested for teachers and technology specialists alike. Jacqui is also good about engaging with her readers when they leave comments or have questions and is equally gracious in promoting other bloggers by linking back to them when something they've written or posted inspires her to make a post.


Best Twitter Hashtag: #eduit - I am fairly certain Howard Chan (@socratech) started this hashtag a couple of years ago. It blends the educational side of technology with the technical side. I follow this hashtag to better understand the technical implications and aspects of some of the pedagogical/instructional initiatives that are going on in the edtech world. It has given me a heads-up on a few challenges ahead of projects we've started in our own district, and as a result I've been able to pass along helpful information to our technical staff before they hit the roadblocks themselves.

Best Librarian/Library Blog: WHS Library by Carolyn Foote - This library blog promotes traditional and digital literacy resources for students and teachers alike. Throughout the posts, you'll also see how Carolyn partners with instructional technology to promote their initiatives, including a 1:1 iPad program that her school has implemented this year.

Best School Administrator Blog: Reflections from an Elementary School Principal by Jessica Johnson - I was just recently introduced to Jessica when someone suggested I follow @PrincipalJ on Twitter. I love how Jessica is transparent about her own learning in her reflective blog posts as she documents her administrative experiences. She is providing a strong example of being a life-long learner for her students and teachers through her blog.

Best Free Web Tool: Thinkfinity.org sponsored by Verizon Foundation - Thinkfinity is 100% free and provides a one-stop-shop for educators who are looking for quality lesson plans and online resources. Through a partnership with nine highly-respected educational content providers, Thinkfinity provides a powerful search engine that will return results which have been vetted for their educational appropriateness and aligned to state teaching standards. In recent years Thinkfinity has expanded to include an online networking community for educators. When I get a last-moment request for a resource to support teaching and learning, I often start with Thinkfinity. In addition to providing quality resources, Thinkfinity is also dedicated to providing professional development to teachers so they can get the most out of the resources the site and its partners have to offer.

Best Use of Audio/Video/Visual/Podcast: Learn it in 5 by Mark Barnes - Learn it in 5 provides short, practical videos which classroom teachers can view to learn about how to use specific web tools in their classrooms. Mark is an experienced educator which makes the free tutorials extremely relevant to classroom practice.

Lifetime Achievement: Wesley Fryer - I have been following Wes's work and using his resources since my early days as an instructional technology facilitator. I first discovered him through his Tools for the TEKS website (no longer maintained), and in recent years I have been fortunate to continue to benefit from his ideas and resources via Twitter (@wfryer was one of the first people I looked for and followed when I joined Twitter) and his Moving at the Speed of Creativity blog. I could continue the list but Wes's CV speaks for itself. You might expect someone with so much experience and so many credentials to be arrogant or unapproachable, but in all of his online interactions and the few in-person presentations of his I have been fortunate enough to attend, Wes is kind and down-to-earth. He has consistently advocated for the advancement of educational technology integration by sharing the facts and benefits with authoritativeness that is respectful. I can think of no one more deserving of a Lifetime Achievement recognition than Wesley Fryer.

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Wow, that took a lot longer to write than I thought! If you are interested in making nominations, visit this link for instructions, and please know that your "reasons" don't have to be as detailed as mine. I really wanted to give some kudos to the folks I listed, though, to let them know why their contributions are valuable to the online education community and to me personally.