Princeton, NJ – December 19, 2012 – edWeb.net, a professional social and learning network for the education community, has received the 2012 Edublog Award for ‘Best Free and Open Professional Development for Educators.’
The highly acclaimed Edublog Awards are a community-based, educator initiative that began in 2004 with a mission to help educators, schools, districts and institutions tap into quality blogs and PD sites for information sharing.
Now in its 9th year, Edublog evaluates all types of social media to responsibly support educators in the delivery of 21st century instruction within different contexts and strategies to meet a wide range of learners’ needs. Award categories include: best individual blog, teacher, class, librarian and administrator blogs; best web tools, Twitter hashtags, podcasts, wikis, mobile apps; and a lifetime achievement blog.
Lisa Schmucki, founder and CEO of edWeb.net said, “Early on, we held a strong belief that social networks could become a significant platform to serve the professional development needs of educators. Today, our platform helps educators learn about quality tools, connect with like-minded educators and improve the teaching and learning process. We are honored to win the Edublog award along with so many talented and innovative colleagues.”
Recent research, A 2012 Survey of K-12 Educators on Social Networking, Online Communities, and Web 2.0 Tools, sponsored by edWeb.net, demonstrates that 82% of K-12 educators have joined a social network this year and use Web 2.0 tools; a growth of 34% since 2009.
“Quality PD resources in social media can help educators move forward faster and smarter to evolve their practices and improve overall student achievement.” adds Schmucki.
Ms. Schmucki founded edWeb.net in 2008. The service began hosting professional learning communities in 2010 with free webinars on key education topics as a model to demonstrate how social networks could be used for technology-enabled collaboration. edWeb provides CE certificates for educators who view their PD webinars. This has been an especially valued part of the program.
growing schools cover The first community, “Emerging Technology for School Librarians,” was created with Michelle Luhtala, head librarian at New Canaan High School, and the winner of the 2010 National School Library Program of the Year Award. In 2012, Lisa Schmucki and Michelle Luhtala worked together to create a new model for free and open PD. Their work is published in a new book, “Growing Schools: Librarians as Professional Developers.”
Based on these successes, edWeb.net offers today more than 15 free and open PD programs on topics including game-based learning, mobile learning, Common Core Standards, the brain and learning, digital media, teaching students with autism, and leadership skills. Educators comment all the time how much they love these programs. Janie Hizer from Park Tudor School in Indianapolis commented last week, “I Love EdWeb.net! Best free PD ever!”
edWeb PD programs are supported by sponsors and partners including AT&T, BrainPOP, CoSN, Follett Software Company, Eden Autism Services, ePals, ETA hand2mind, Library Media Connection, NASSP, NAESP, SIIA, and more.
For more information, contact:
Lisa Schmucki, founder and CEO, edWeb.net – lisa@edweb.net, 800-575-6015 ext. 100
About edWeb.net
edWeb.net is a free professional social and learning network for the education community that makes it easy to connect and collaborate with colleagues, share information and best practices, and create professional learning communities. edWeb promotes online collaboration with easy-to-use Web 2.0 tools that can transform the way educators share information and receive professional development. The site sponsors professional learning communities with free webinars on key topics in education. Through a partnership with MCH Strategic Data, edWeb reaches 3.5 million educators to promote the value of online professional learning networks and to encourage all educators to become “connected educators.” For information contact Lisa Schmucki at 908-407-2755 or at lisa@edweb.net. Follow edWeb on Twitter @edwebnet.
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