Monday, December 14, 2009

The 2009 Edublogs Awards Ceremony Is Thursday (and Be Sure to Vote Quickly!)

We've just announced the time and date for the 2009 Edublog Awards Ceremony, which will be this Thursday December 17th US Time 4:00pm PST / 7:00pm EST, which is Friday December 18th 12:00am GMT / 5:30am Mumbai / 11:00am Australia EST.  Here's a world time link so you can be sure you have the exact time in your part of the world:  TimeandDate.com.

Remember, voting closes before this -- at 11:59pm US Eastern Standard Time on Wednesday December 16th.  That's 8:59pm US PST. Other international times here.  Don't delay!  Vote now!

The Awards Ceremony will be held in Elluminate this year (my favorite real-time web meeting platform, and--of course--my employer).  Sue Waters from Edublogs and I will be co-hosting the show.  The link to enter the show is http://tinyurl.com/edublogawards.

If you are new to Elluminate — please make sure that your computer is configured for Elluminate before the event by visiting Elluminate Support.  We'll open up the Elluminate room 30 minutes before we start, and we encourage you to come in a few minutes early to set your microphone up and make sure you're connected.  Those who would prefer, or have any difficulty connecting, can use the telephone bridge by dialing 913-312-1029 (US toll-free at 877-880-7307) and then using the PIN 495124.  

If you are a potential award winner we just want to make sure you know that should you win we'll give you a minute or two to say a few words.  We expect the show will last around 90 minutes, but we make no guarantees!  Following the show we'll open the mics and webcams and have a "virtual" post-show / year-end party.  We hope you'll join us for what you can.

I want to express my personal appreciation to all who are involved in education and contribute through blogging, social networking, social media, and educational technology.  The Edublog Awards are admittedly an imperfect methodology for recognizing all of those contributions, but hopefully they are a way of celebrating some of the contributions that appreciates all that we accomplish together.  If you feel someone was overlooked or under-recognized, we'll have a chance for you to shout out "well done" to them during the show!  And from me, Thank You!

I also wanted to explain why I have not encouraged voting for my Classroom 2.0 social network in the social networking category.  Since it has won the Edublog Award for the past two years and is several times the size of the next largest network nominated, I don't think it needs additional recognition.  As well, my being co-host this year has inclined me to want the spotlight on some of the other wonderful networks that have grown in this space.  If we had removed Classroom 2.0 from the nominations it would have created confusion, but I've withdrawn it from consideration for an award.  A special thanks to all of you who use Classroom 2.0 to learn and explore the potential of social networking in education!

See you online!

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Voting Has Started at the 2009 Edublog Awards


Thanks to Sue Waters and the great folks at Edublogs, the nominations have been tallied for the 2009 Edublog Awards and it's time to vote for your favorites!  There are actual, genuine, prizes (as well as tasty badges and the respect of peers) so your votes count! The winner of each category will get a years free Edublogs Campus subscription for themselves or their institution and an Elluminate 10-seat vOffice for a year!
Voting is now open and ends Wednesday 16 December!
Winners announced at the Edublog Awards Ceremony (more on that to come soon)!
To get started, select a category from below to see the nominations and vote, or visit the Edublog Awards site.

The Edublog Award Categories….

  1. Best individual blog
  2. Best individual tweeter
  3. Best group blog
  4. Best new blog
  5. Best class blog
  6. Best student blog
  7. Best resource sharing blog
  8. Most influential blog post
  9. Most influential tweet / series of tweets / tweet based discussion
  10. Best teacher blog
  11. Best librarian / library blog
  12. Best educational tech support blog
  13. Best elearning / corporate education blog
  14. Best educational use of audio
  15. Best educational use of video / visual
  16. Best educational wiki
  17. Best educational use of a social networking service
  18. Best educational use of a virtual world
  19. Lifetime achievement
Good luck to all!

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Elizabeth Kanna on "Virtual Schooling"

Part of the FutureofEducation.com interview series and cross-posted from http://www.stevehargadon.com.

Date: Thursday, December 10th, 2009
Time:
5:00pm Pacific / 8:00pm Eastern / 1:00am GMT (next day) (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Elluminate. Log in at http://tr.im/futureofed. The Elluminate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Elluminate, please visit http://www.elluminate.com/support. Recordings of the session will be posted within a day of the event.

Join Steve Hargadon for a live and interactive hour with Elizabeth Kanna, author of Virtual Schooling: A Guide to Optimizing Your Child's Education.

Elizabeth Kanna is a transformation expert who consults clients ranging in size from start-ups to market icons. Kanna’s visionary transformative work includes repositioning and rebranding, and renaming for prominence, effective strategies for the social Web, reinvention of business models, new media business development, innovative public relations and national promotions for customer acquisition, and world-class partnerships to increase the top line and market share for clients.

Kanna aptly pulls together disparate business segments, establishes frameworks for foundational shifts in business practices, builds publishing franchises in print and digital, and identifies emerging markets and technologies to monetize from education to new media. She has re-engineered brand positioning, and created national promotions with Dun & Bradstreet’s AllBusiness.com, The Grammy Foundation, Yahoo!, jetBlue Airways, Hilton and Sharp USA.
Kanna has been featured on TV networks Fox News, ABC, CBS, CNBC, CW, and in magazines and newspapers, including Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, U.S. News and Review and Women’s Day. As an emeritus advisor at an annual elite business retreat since 2003, Kanna has consulted with more than 500 business owners in taking their company to the next level. She has also consulted for billon-dollar companies, world-renowned scientists Sally Ride and Bob Ballard, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Business Week best-selling authors, philanthropists working in 50 countries, and well-known entrepreneurs and celebrities.

A market leader and pioneer, Kanna co-founded a leading authoritative education portal that Forbes magazine named as one of the top 45 sites on the Internet in 2000. Kanna has consulted with leading education companies on the development of new online learning platforms from Web 1.0 to virtual schooling and mobile education platforms. Kanna is also the co-author of two market-defining books that stand as authoritative analyses of the effectiveness of educational methodologies: Homeschooling for Success, and the first book ever written on Virtual education: Virtual Schooling: How to Optimize Your Child’s Education.

Her website is http://www.elizabethkanna.com.

Angela Maiers on "Classroom Habitudes"

Part of the FutureofEducation.com interview series.  Cross-posted from http://www.SteveHargadon.com.

Date: Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
Time:
5:00pm Pacific / 8:00pm Eastern / 1:00am GMT (next day) (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Elluminate. Log in at http://tr.im/futureofed. The Elluminate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Elluminate, please visit http://www.elluminate.com/support. Recordings of the session will be posted within a day of the event.

Join Steve Hargadon for a live and interactive hour with Angela Maiers, author of Classroom Habitudes: How to Teach 21st Century Learning Habits and Attitudes.

As an author of several books, articles, and curriculum support materials, Angela Maiers continually strives to connect research and scientific theory to real world practices. For the past six years, she has created, developed, and organized multiple literacy institutes reaching thousands of educators across the United States. Her work is featured in the National Research Council Yearbook, multiple professional journals, and most recently in Urban Schools Most Promising Practices, published by the International Reading Association. You can keep up with her at http://www.angelamaiers.com/