The nominations for #eddies14 are open through November 24th. The most nominated make it to the next round, so maybe I provide you with a nominee to consider for YOUR nomination?
While you can make your official nominations HERE, I prefer to expound on my nominations below:
- Best individual blog – My Island View – Tom Whitby, or as I like to think of him my grumpy old man, always shows the same challenging attitude to all his interactions in the blog commentary or on Twitter. He is a critical friend of education and sharpens me to back-up my points or obtain a new point of view on topics. I enjoy reading his words of wisdom and hope he never changes!
- Best group blog – eLearning Feeds – this is more of an aggregator, but very focussed on the topic of e-learning. I find perspective by people in the industry longer than I knew there was an industry for this.
- Best new blog, hmmm, still thinking…
- Best class blog, hmmm, still thinking…
- Best student blog, hmmm, still thinking…
- Best ed tech / resource sharing blog – Shake Up Learning – Kasey Bell is an instructional technologist consultant outside of Dallas. She offers very authentic tips as many blogs do, but I really like her for her speciality in Google, her presence on Google Plus AND Pinterest. She is worth adding to your blog following category!
- Best teacher blog – The Nerdy Teacher – who doesn’t like a Michigander after all? He is epic in what he will try to he is transparent about how Taylor Swift didn’t give him the time of day, that sums it up for me.
- Best library / librarian blog – The Unquiet Library – Buffy Hamilton has been killing it in her libraries and working hard, so it is possible you have not met her yet. However, if you take the time to look over her blog I doubt you could ever mistake her as someone who talks about doing things – this gal *is* a doer.
- Best administrator blog – The Principal of Change – George Couros has had my attention for a while, but I have taken him on as my personal guide into the mind of an administrator since hearing him speak on Leading Innovative Change at #ISTE2013 in San Antonio, TX.
- Most influential blog post of the year – Ariel Norling’s bombshell about sexual harassment at #ISTE2013 in San Antonio, TX. When it was posted things progressed rapidly and the original post is no longer available, but she does set a few things straight here. I felt bad that she revealed some poor choices on her part and then seemed to implicate someone I think very highly of in the process of probably giving a needed reminder that even an event so popularly attended by women still holds dangers for those same women. This was sad all around, yet the single most influential post of the year.
- Best individual tweeter, hmmm, still thinking…
- Best twitter hashtag or chat – #BFC530 – branding themselves as a “spark chat,” TheBreakfastClub generates one question and endless goodwill at 5:30 AM ET and 5:30 AM PT. A low pressure, high positivity chat with which to start your morning.
- Best free web tool, hmmm, still thinking…
- Best educational use of media (audio / video / visual / podcast), hmmm, still thinking…
- Best educational wiki, hmmm, still thinking…
- Best open PD / unconference / webinar series –K-12 Blended & Online Learning taught by @LokeyVega out of Kennesaw State University in Georgia through Coursera. See my review of the course here. But also know that after finishing three by last summer this one was still so good that I want to shepard others in my district through this #MOOC when it is offered again this January. That means you should check it out too!
- Best educational use of a social network, hmmm, still thinking…
- Best mobile app, hmmm, still thinking…
- Lifetime achievement, hmmm, still thinking…
And of course, I have my own categories apparently snubbed by the Awards Committee:
- Your Pinterest Best Friend – this spot is currently held by both Shelly Terrell and Vicki Davis for me, but let’s face it you probably have your own. In case you don’t, follow me on Pinterest and maybe we can be each other’s new besties.
- Person whose blog you would read religiously if-only-they-would-write-one already – John Hardison, @johnhardison1 and contributing writer to the Getting Smart blog, is all content. Content oozes out of him when he thinks, what he is willing to try with students, and how he encourages his peers. I would read his stuff if he wrote it on the side of a LaffyTaffy wrapper. This is a call to action for @johnhardison1, your potential audience awaits, who are you to hold your ideas back from the public?
I invite you to add your favorites/nominations! You can see I left a good number blank – if you think I’ve overlooked some. please chime in and maybe you can persuade me to nominate them as well!