I would like to congratulate all winners of the Edublog Awards 2007 and Student 2.0 for receiving the Convener’s Award. While this blog didn’t win in it’s categories, being a finalist for three different Edublog Award categories is reward enough, especially when you realise I have only been blogging 8 months. Thanks to all the people who nominated and voted for this blog.

The Award Ceremony

The Award Ceremony held at Joykadia in Second Life was incredible as it was my first time experiencing a large gathering. Thankfully all my playing in SL over the past few months meant I managed okay, even if I did have an “out of body” experience where I went for a look around without my avatar and then realised that getting back to my body was not as easy as I thought. Photo by Betchaboy.

Unfortunately so many people in a small area with everyone’s avatars names floating above their heads was overwhelming — I did get a headache!!! And to make matters worse, now that I look at the Flickr photos people have taken, I now realise that I could have turned off the names!!!!!! @#*@ Let’s hope Jo Kay does not take away “my Second Life License”. Looks like my punishment will have to be more time hanging out with friends in SL.

I should point out that it is great our readers support us! Telling my hubby, family and students, about the Awards went well until asked where the Award Ceremony was going to be held — after which there was much laughter at the idea of it being held in Second Life. Us bloggers are soooooo misunderstood by those close to us!

While I did not worry too much about my clothes I have to give full marks to Kathryn for creating a new Avatar for her blog for the Awards — thankfully she IM me or I wouldn’t have realised it was her.

Check Out The Finalists

Make sure you take the time to check out both the Winners and the Finalists of the Edublog awards because there are great blogs and resources worth reading.

I already subscribed to many of the finalists, and it is impossible to showcase all the great work done by all of them, however here are a few of the gems I have gained from some of the “new-to-me’ blogs I have found as a result of the awards:

• I really love Martin Weller’s The Ed Techie blog – loved his visual representation of My Personal work/leisure/learning environment and his What Web 2.0 apps would you least like to lose?
• Great tip on customising YouTube Videos from Jim Gate’s Tipline – Gates Computer Tips blog – congratulations on winning best resource sharing blog
• Enjoyed reading many articles from LeaderTalk especially that my blogging block may indicate stress. Lets hope my doctor does not hear about this 🙂

FINAL THOUGHT

Blogging can be very lonely if you feel what you are saying is not being heard. Thanks to all my readers who take the time to read my posts and for letting me know that what I write makes a difference in your life.

If you have checked out the Finalists, please let me know what gems you gained.

Also I am always on the lookout for new blogs to read, so please feel free to recommend ones you think I would like.