As I read though some of the posts that have built up over the New Year, I've been wondering about some of the awards that have going around lately and whether they are a productive thing or not. I worry that perhaps we are starting to create Edublogger Celebrities where some bloggers are getting excessive peer acclaim that could be counter productive to an equal connective conversation. When an Award winner starts to question this focus, I know it's not just sour grapes on my part for not being a nominee. Anne Davis writes:

Then what about our educational blog awards? I want blogs to be recognized, but I've had mixed feelings about educator blogging rewards. It is truly nice to be recognized and it feels good but at the same time there are so many worthy blogs that this type of comparison is so very difficult, really almost impossible. How in the world do you choose from a list of four when you value each one in different but such worthwhile aspects ? They all add so much to the conversations and learning. It seems to bring out a lot of feelings that are counter productive to what I believe we are all trying to accomplish. Yet at the same time this type of recognition does bring some validation to educational blogs which usually are not even valued enough to be acknowledged as a category in the various blog mentions, awards, etc. It also seems to be a topic that we shy away from as an item for discussion. So how do we resolve it? Do we even need to? Probably not.

Anne's probably right. But being aware that there are so many blogs that can't be acknowledged by these formats for awards should put them in some sort of perspective. It's all about what speaks to you as a reader. Which means if you think I'm talking out of my hat, you wouldn't have made it this far through my post.