Edublog Awards 2010 - My Nominations

The Oscars of online education are back in their 7th year! Until Friday, December 3rd you can nominate your favorites of 2010 for the Edublog Awards. What to do? Post your list on your blog or website, go to the Awards homepage and share the link of your list with the team at Edublogs. You can either nominate the whole list or take a selection.

I think the gals and guys at Edublogs and Classroom 2.0 are doing an awesome job with these awards and I think it is very important for our still young industry. Until today I get regular traffic and new readers from the Edublog Award website.

But now, without further ado, here are my nominations for the 2010 Edublog Awards.

Best individual blog: Tofugu
[http://tofugu.com]

Tofugu is a blog about Japanese culture and how to learn Japanese on your own, written by Koichi Ko. Koich is one of the first “teacher rockstars” who uses the web 2.0 to spread his message and style of teaching. A must read not only for people who would like to learn Japanese.

Best individual tweeter: Hiten Shah
[http://twitter.com/hnshah]

Hiten Shah is doing a tremendous job in educating young start-ups on essential strategies for the growth of their business via Twitter. A must follow.

Best new blog: Hello, Ko
[http://helloko.com]

Hello Ko is the professional blog of the famous teacher rockstar Koichi Ko. On this blog Koichi shares his journey building the Japanese Textbook Textfugu. He gives advice and shares strategies with online educators who would like to create their own online product or service.

Most influential tweet / series of tweets / tweet based discussion: #Edchat
[http://search.twitter.com/edchat]

Every week the #Edchat team brings together thousands of educators around the globe to discuss interesting and important topics. One the most influential gatherings in education.

Best elearning / corporate education blog: TeachStreet
[http://blog.teachstreet.com]

The TeachStreet blog provides learners and educators with a unique mix of information about the company, advice for teachers as well as highlights from the thousands of class listing on the platform.

Best educational use of video / visual: Khan Academy
[http://khanacademy.org]

Being Bill Gate’s “favorite teacher”, Salman Khan single handedly built an awesome free resource of learning videos on various topics using simple techniques of presentation.

Best educational podcast: This Week in Startups [http://thisweekin.com/startups]

Jason Calacanis, serial entrepreneur and angel investor, hosts his show This Week in Startups twice a week, inviting influential people and leaders of the startup world and giving advice to young entrepreneurs.

Best educational webinar series: Languages and Social Media – 6 Key Dialogues
[http://www.elearningeuropa.info/languagelearning]

A unique mix of activities exploring the relationship of language learning and social media in the web 2.0 era: Participatory debates, award-winning competitions, policy recommendations and reports, scientific publications and field studies.

Best educational use of a social networking: bab.la
[http://twitter.com/babladict]

bab.la the free online dictionary offers a Twitter service where people can tweet a word to get it translated in a chosen language.

Best educational use of a virtual world: Mingoville.com
[http://mingoville.com]

Mingoville is one of the most innovative companies for early ESL education. The virtual world they’ve built is fun, engaging, highly educational and covers all aspects of learning from the classroom to the mobile phone.

Best use of a PLN: The Educator’s PLN
[http://edupln.com]

Founded by one of the initiators of #edchat, Tom Whitby, the Educators PLN is one of the fastest growing networks for people in education from various backgrounds and walks of life.

Lifetime achievement: Bill Gates
[http://thegatesnotes.com]

Bill Gates is one of the driving forces to change education for the better. Besides talking about this topic on various occasions he also uses his wealth to drive innovation.

I wish all of my nominations the best of luck for the awards and hope that they will get on the short list. As I said, this is a great way to drive attention to great educators who work hard every year to deliver high quality content. Therefore I encourage everyone of you, who has a blog or website to nominate your favorites of 2010.

And of course, I would be more than happy to be nominated in one or two categories myself if you feel kirstenwinkler.com and/or edukwest.com add value to the development of education 2.0 . Thank you!