Since I became interested in educational technology many years ago, I had a professional and personal goal to create a blog of my own—one in which I could share “cool tools” and the positive impact they can have on learning. However, as I surfed through the Internet reading and learning from a variety of awesome sites, I always remembered thinking that I would never be able to create a site that could possibly even come close to those I admired.

Well, despite second guessing myself, I was able to cross another item off of my bucket list in February 2012, when I officially entered the blogosphere via Edutech for Teachers. Although my site is by no means perfect, I am very proud it and the effort I have put forth to develop and maintain it. In fact, writing posts and sharing them with others has become one of my most favorite activities!  My only regret at this point is that I wish I would have taken the plunge much sooner!

In any event, the Edublogs nominations for the best of 2012 are now open, so I thought I’d take a few minutes to share some blogs, wikis, tools and apps that have recently inspired me. Just my way of saying thank you to those who have encouraged and motivated me to become an edutech blogger! Although there are numerous possibilities, the rules stipulate one choice per category, so with that said, here are my nominations:

» Best edt tech/resource sharing blog — Cool Tools for 21^st Century Learners

» Best teacher blog — Cool Cat Teacher

» Best individual tweeter — Donna Baumbach/Aunty Tech

» Best twitter hashtag — #edtech

» Best free web tool — Thinglink

» Best educational wiki — ICTmagic

» Best educational use of a social network — Free Technology for Teachers on Facebook

» Best mobile app — Dropbox

» Lifetime achievement — Larry Ferlazzo

Learn more about how you can nominate your favorite edutech people, places and things for an Edublog Award here!