I’d innocently wrote a blog post nominating some of the blogs I love when I first saw the competition, once their posts were up I then saw that many of these didn’t make the “cut” with the ridiculous excuse that they couldn’t feature all of them… plus they did not respond to my question and protestation about being only able to nominate one blog per category….

my blog was indeed featured in their list but when it came to how to get votes I felt distinctly yuck when I saw that I had to then go ask people to vote, put one of their buttons on my page and then go with begging bowl – I mean, you know, like – that smells so much of politics… and the rigging you mention – not blogosphere as a community – not quality over quantity of votes.

Thanks for this post.

I absolutely won’t be participating next year and will be brave enough to sound off on why not then too.

Two years on, and the Edublog awards are still centre satge, and the recognition of pupils achievement is still negligible. I really would like to see a celebration of the best of pupil work… and not necessarily an awards based celebration. There are plenty of ‘best student’ ceremonies already from the Exam Boards.

If I had the time and the know-how to do it, I’d rather create a virtual — regularly updated — gallery of great pupil learning, be that online or offline. Something that showcased the achievements and attainments of the pupils we are there to help…

Maybe in another two years?

I just don't think the awards are for the good of the whole community. There are other ways the same people – and more – can receive recognition and thanks.

@Dean: Feel free to get in contact with me for a discussion of individual bloggers. It’s not something I want to discuss in public as they’d obviously deny it and it would get ugly…

I just don’t think the awards are for the good of the whole community. There are other ways the same people – and more – can receive recognition and thanks.

Do you actually think anyone adjusts their blog writing to win a lousy award? i can't see it. Really, other than people pestering me to vote for them, I think it only can draw attention to good work. I see no downsides. Even if it's rigged, flawed or whatever. People enjoy awards. It's simply one way to highlight good work. Linking,technorati ratings are others and preferred methods but this is okay too, especially for newcomers. Most of these blogs are nominated because they do link to other blogs so in that sense, everyone wins. The fact you're writing about it and I'm adding a link to my blog here, also helps everyone win.

Again, if you can point to someone or some evidence that someone is adjusting what they write because of these awards, I'd like to see it.

Do you actually think anyone adjusts their blog writing to win a lousy award? i can’t see it. Really, other than people pestering me to vote for them, I think it only can draw attention to good work. I see no downsides. Even if it’s rigged, flawed or whatever. People enjoy awards. It’s simply one way to highlight good work. Linking,technorati ratings are others and preferred methods but this is okay too, especially for newcomers. Most of these blogs are nominated because they do link to other blogs so in that sense, everyone wins. The fact you’re writing about it and I’m adding a link to my blog here, also helps everyone win.

Again, if you can point to someone or some evidence that someone is adjusting what they write because of these awards, I’d like to see it.