Across the Twitterverse

It's that time of the year when the edublog community honours its members with awards. The 2011 Edublog Awards have come around again with frightening speed, and once again this year I am both honoured and humbled to have been nominated in two categories - best individual blog and best individual tweeter (for my @timbuckteeth account). I'm very much aware that there are many, many active and creative edubloggers out there who could and should have been nominated and included in the list, but even without them, the list is still quite impressive. As I have previously said during past Edublog Awards, it really doesn't matter that much who wins in each of the categories, the real spirit of the Edublog Awards is about honouring those who have served another year by writing, blogging, tweeting and otherwise freely sharing their ideas and wisdom with their community through social media. I learn so much each year from these people, and my own professional and personal worlds would be poorer without my daily dose of news, views and commentaries throughout the Edublogsphere and across the Twitterverse. 


So congratulations to all those who made it to the final cut, and please - everyone, show your appreciation for your colleagues by voting for your favourites. And one final thing - you are allowed to vote in as many categories as you like, each and every day, right up to the deadline on December 13th.

Image courtesy of Edublog Awards


Across the Twitterverse by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Show your appreciation

This year's Edublog Awards are bigger and better than ever with over 400 nominations in 23 catagories. There are awards for best individual blogger, best individual tweeter, best new blog, best teacher blog, most influential blog post and even an award for the best use of a PLN (Personal Learning Network). I feel both honoured and humbled that this year my peers have once again decided to nominate me in the best individual blogger and best individual tweeter (as @timbuckteeth) categories. I don't really care who wins, it's just very pleasant to know that people appreciate what I'm doing in these spaces, and I'm sure most of the other nominees will feel the same.

Perhaps the most prestigious award, as always, is the Lifetime Achievement award. In this category, there are a number of luminaries, including some very good friends of mine such as Alec Couros, Alan Levine and Jane Hart. But I predict the winner of this category is going to be Sir Ken Robinson - his work, more than anyone else's this year, has influenced our thinking as educators, and he has been doing this successfully for a very long time now. If you are a regular blogger, tweeter, or social media enthusiast, you will be familiar with many, if not all of the nominees. Now it's time to vote. It's time to honour those who have contributed to our understanding and sharpened our practice in the use of tools for learning. I wish all those who have been nominated success - they are all winners for reaching the final stage. Let's all vote to tell them just how much we appreciate their contributions. Voting closes on 14th December.

Image source

Eddie and me

Well, as you can see in the column on the right, my three nominations for best individual blog, best e-learning blog and most influential blog post in this year's Edublogger awards have been confirmed. This morning I posted up the new style badges that have been issued, and whatever the outcome of the voting, I will be able to keep them up there for ever. It's a very nice feeling to be honoured in this way by one's peers. I feel as though all the late nights and early mornings I spend thinking up and writing out these posts is worthwhile, because I have an audience that seems to appreciate what I do. It's great having comments back on posts, particularly if they either challenge or inform further. It's a great learning experience.

Earlier this month I posted up my 7 reasons for blogging. I received some great comments on that one. I do not count being nominated for awards as an eighth reason. That is simply a bonus and a nice surprise to me. A positive stroke that encourages me to keep going and blog some more. Whoever you vote for in this year's Edublogger Awards, I am sure you will bring encouragement to them and add to the value that blogs clearly bring to the learning process. If I win an Eddie, I will feel extremely honoured, but if I don't I will still feel very proud of the fact that at least 3 people have seen fit to nominate me in three separate categories. All the nominations can be found on the Edublogger Award website, including voting instructions. So, good luck to everyone who has been nominated in all the Edublogger Award categories!

Image source (Photo by James Clay taken at 2009 Plymouth e-Learning Conference)

Edubloggers 2009

It's that time of the year and the Edublogger Awards are upon us again. Josie Fraser has done a remarkable job over the past few years organising this event. She deserves all of our thanks for the impact and reach it has had over the last few years in encouraging a veritable phalanx of creative and energetic posts on every educational topic imaginable.

I felt very honoured last year to be nominated in two categories - best individual blog and most influential blog post (neither of which I stood a cat's chance in Hell of winning of course...)

This year's awards are being organised by another old friend of mine, Carol Daunt, and feature some new categories, including most influential series of Tweets around a discussion. Voting is open to all and the full list of categories is:

Best individual blog
Best individual tweeter
Best group blog
Best new blog
Best class blog
Best student blog
Best resource sharing blog
Most influential blog post
Most influential tweet / series of tweets / tweet based discussion
Best teacher blog
Best librarian / library blog
Best educational tech support blog
Best elearning / corporate education blog
Best educational use of audio
Best educational use of video / visual
Best educational wiki
Best educational use of a social networking service
Best educational use of a virtual world
Lifetime achievement

To nominate in any or all categories, simply post on your blog stating who, and linking to both their blog and to the Edublogger Awards site. My nominations will be in my next post, but I already have a fair idea who I would like to see win the Lifetime Achievement award this year. ;-)

Splendid bloggers

I was surprised and delighted to hear I had been nominated in two categories for this year's Edublog Awards - the 'Eddies'. I'm not sure exactly how this works, but apparently people post their nominations on their own blogs and fill out a form. These are then collated and posted onto the Edublogger Award site, after which there is a short period of voting and then the winners for each category are announced. There are 16 categories in total, including one for lifetime achievement.

I have been nominated for the best individual blog Eddie, along with several very notable bloggers including Ishmael Pena's ICTlogy blog, Sarah Stewart's Sarah's Musings, Kim Cofino's Always Learning and Newly Ancient (which has now ceased blogging I'm told).

I have also been nominated for the most influential blog post of the year for my Edupunk rant 'Monkey Business', which has received much attention in the form of responses, supplementary blog posts and even a live panel discussion which has since been podcast on James Clay's e-learning stuff. I am in competition here with the likes of Stephen Downes' mammoth post entitled 'The future of e-learning: Ten Years on' (which is actually more like several books chapters) and Jim Groom's 'The Glass Bees' post - also about Edupunk. I don't stand a chance against these guys to be perfectly frank, but it is very gratifying to be cited in the same company as all these splendid bloggers.

So get in there dear blog reader, and vote for your favourites at the Edublog Awards site! (You know you want to!)

Magnificent seven?

It was good to read the Josie Fraser interview today featured on the blog Information World Review. With the strapline "Information professionals guiding you to the best bits of the blogosphere", it's one not to miss for all those who want to know the latest on the practice and art of blogging. Josie is well known for her work in learning technology, and has also run the influential EduBlog Awards for the last three years. It's an annual bash that celebrates best blogs, most influential blog posting, coolest educational wiki, etc, you get the drift....

Best of all, I have been mentioned in dispatches..... Josie lists my blog as one of her top seven favourites, and I find myself in the elevated company of Graham Attwell, Helen Keegan, Steven Warburton, Scott Wilson, Frances Bell and Brian Kelly. Wow - are we the magnificent seven already? If so, I'll be the one who gets shot dead whilst being distracted by a small and demanding child.

Seriously, I'm deeply honoured to be included in such distinguished company. Keep up the good work Josie, and when this year's Edublog Awards come around, I hope there's a new category for the blog containing the most dots ...............