Awards? Symbols of excellence, good work and recognition, or worthless tributes to ego boost and idolatry. Not sure if I am using that word correctly or not, but I don’t care. Not sure how you feel about the suckers, but I know I fluctuate between the two views.  Sometimes they validate my thoughts on work  well done, while at other times I see them as shallow popularity contests. I am still extremely upset that Forrest Gump won best picture over Pulp Fiction. I mean come on! Really?

The world of Edtech is no different. We stroke each other’s egos in this quaint and sometimes claustrophobic echo chamber we have deiced to call a PLN this year. Don’t get me wrong! I love the place, but do we really need awards for what we all already know. I mean isn’t a Retweet and a Hyperlink validation enough for our fragile egos? I don’t know about you, but it’s not enough for me!

I write, I tweet, I do all the things I do because I want my voice heard and shared with as big of an audience as possible, and if handing out little statues made of HTML code will do that for my work or the work of those I admire than so be it. Call me vain, call me egotistical, but I didn’t get into this game to scribble bad poetry in my journals. I am done with that. I want to share and create and connect, and to do so I need you. It is only a shame I cannot nominate myself for every category. (Not so subtle ploy to get you to do it for me) But in the mean time, my nominees for this year’s Edublog awards. The irony of course being I have nominated people who could careless about awards. They are dedicated passionate educators doing their thing. Getting an award may actually upset them. My nominations:

Best individual blog– John T. Spencer I have been gushing about John lately, perhaps a bit too much for his comfort, since he prides himself on his humility, but I can’t help it. His blog is the one blog I look forward to reading the most every time I open my Reader. We are operating on a very similar wavelength, but he continues to challenge my thinking and forces me not to become lackadaisical with my pedagogy and world view. Short, deep, powerfully reflective writing. What blogging should be all about!

Best individual tweeter– melaniemcbride When she is not busy bad mouthing the corporate agenda of Ed reform, or sharing the groundbreaking work of non-ed-tech types, she is opening my mind and keeping me in check. Her suggested Twitter follows have been spot on nearly every time, and her intense critical view of eduction and technology is a breath of fresh air in the chamber. Truly an outside of the box thinker, you need her in your network.

Most influential blog post– Not sure what is meant by most  influential. Most hits? Most comments? Most ReTweets?All I know that is that there were two posts this year that really struck a chord with me. Strangely they were both on the topic of teacher burnout and endurance. A Heart So Empty by Paul Bogush and They’re Breaking Teachers by Zac Chase. They said only one nomination per category, but I will let Edublogs sort that out.

Most influential tweet / series of tweets / tweet based discussion– Comments4Kids by Will Chamberlin What needs to be said? Kids new to blogging need support, they need comments, and they need an audience. Will has done, what I feel is the best job connecting classrooms. It is why we are all here and Comments4Kids is doing a fantastic job!

Best use of a PLN: If leading by example and modeling the power of the network is reason enough to hand out an award, than I can think of no better candidate than Alec  Couros‘  eci831 class. The course has brought together hundreds of learners and mentors and blurred the lines of who is teaching and who is learning. Alec has used his Network as a sort of social network wateringhole, where people converge, share and learn.

Lifetime achievement- Gary Stager, because let’s face it while he may claim not to want an award like this, he is dying to have it, and no one else has been so intensely kicking ass and taking names for so long as Gary. A thorn in everyone’s side, a true provocateur and rabble-rouser, Gary has been passionately and intellectually arguing for children’s rights for over twenty years. Gadgets and fads may come and go, but Gary Stager will always champion the power of the teacher learner relationship and for that he should be awarded.

So there you have it! Even if these people are not officially nominated or win, I hope they understand what an impact they have had on this writer, blogger, teacher. Thanks guys!