Edublog awards for 2011 - tough choice

  

It's very hard to choose your favourite blog, wiki, twitterer, video site and so on, as for me, there are so many great things and it's so difficult to decide. But, being a part of a wonderful online community for let's say almost a year I decided to nominate those who shared the things that had been of the most interest to me at least this year. Here are my nominees:

Best educational wiki:Welcome back Egypt, - really nice and beautiful blog created by Azhar and her wonderful students.

Best teacher blog: http://teacherbootcamp.edublogs.org/ by Shelly Terrell as I have really learned  a lot by visiting her blog and her wonderfull Free Friday TESOL Webinars. Go,go Shelly!

Best individual tweeter, there are so many but the one who shared some great resources  relevent to me is @missnoor28 

Best educational use of audio / video / visual / podcast: Teacher Training videos by Russell Standard - doing a great job Russell

Best new blog: A journey in language by Brad Patterson - funny, imaginative and creative
Best individual blog, hard choice again, but I picked Dave Dodgson's blog as I read it reagulary and Dave really has some great and simple ideas on teaching and things in general.

Best ed tech / resource sharing blog: Free Technology for Teachers by Richard Byrne

Best twitter hashtag: #ELTchat

Best open PD / unconference / webinar series: The Reform Symposium - overwhelming and powerful

Lifetime achievement: Ken Wilson  can't wait to listen to him at HUPE hopefully next year

Best class blog: http://techmunoz.edublogs.org/
Best free webtool:Photopeach
Best librarian blog: http://esl-library.com/
Most influental individual post: How did she get here in the first place?  by a wonderful teacher Vicky Loras.

I love these educational "Oscars" :), it's a pity we can't suggest more than one for a certain nomination

My top tools for learning in 2011

I hope I am not too late to submit my top 10 tools for this year. I became an avid user of Internet and web tools almost a year ago.  I read a post at aCliltoClimb written by a great PLN and a friend on how"Jane Hart, is taking votes for their annual Top 100 Tools for Learning", so I became encouraged to write my own 10 tools.

I have chosen those I have been using almost every day for the past year, and I must say some are same or similar to the ones Cheiw Pang mentioned.

My top 10+ - no particular order

 1. Google - have it as my homepage, use it every day, I remeber I was still at University when it was presented as a new search engine. Wow, long time ago! Am getting old!
2. Google Translator - use it now and then, have some good laughs sometimes, but in general when I can't think of the right word in my head, it helps a lot.
3. Blogger - Oh, yes I have used it for the past year, maybe not often as I should have. I still don't have time to write more. I hope to be more encouraged as I write in English which is not my mother tongue.
4.Facebook- well this is a social network I have been a member since 2008. There have recently been so many changes . Some don't prefer it any more, some are still too addicted to it. I know that I haven't been to aware of its posibilities until I found out about some great FB teacher groups, and great webpages. I don't use it any more just for fun and family, but also for education.I also have a FB secret group with some of my students.
5. Twitter - WOW! I became a real fan of it during RSCON3. It's like a big "global staff room" as my friend Arjana Blazic would say.
6. Youtube - I love it so much. My sons have become aware of it's possibilities so when they search for some game tutorials they first visit Youtube. I found a lot of great video materials there, that I can use in class, or sometimes I just watch movie trailers as being a big movielover.
7. Skype - use it everyday, in class too, had my first class project by using Skype. Will continue using it for the same reason. I love when my students have a posibility of interviewing other English teachers  world wide.
8.  Almost forgot Gmail - but mentioned so many Google tools. This is so far my favourite email,even though I must say I am getting use to Yahoo mail as well.
9. Photopeach - love this slideshow tool. I was introduced to it at BAW11, and it's so easy to use, I have already created 3 videos. A lot for me.
10. Linoit - my PLN use it a lot on Twitter, so I gave it a try and I loved it. Easy and simple, I have introduced it to my students, and one has created a Halloween lino we used later in class.
10+ Wordle(Tagxedo) love them both, as I like to create word clouds. I use it a lot in class for motivation, grammar practice,everything...

This was written in a hurry, so don't mind any grammar or spelling mistakes.

There are still so many new tools I am getting used to, hope I can share them next year.

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