There will be a formal press release about this in the coming weeks, but I'm so excited that I wanted to share the news. We have selected the first Totally Wired Teacher to be recognized at the 2007 Mashup in July. Drumroll please...It's Ben Wilkoff, a 7th and 8th grade language arts teacher at Cresthill Middle School in Highlands Ranch, Colorado.

We received several amazing nominations of totally wired teachers from across the country and the globe. It was inspiring to read about how they are all using social media like blogs, wikis, photo/video sharing sites and social networking in educational ways at school. I worked with Jim Daly, the editor-in-chief of Edutopia, and the amazing team from Yahoo! for Teachers to narrow it down to two finalists. We interviewed both finalists. It was a tough choice, but in the end, we felt like Ben was trailblazing the use of social media and skillfully navigating the challenges of the public school bureaucracy, convincing other teachers, administrators and parents that what he's doing is showing real results.

We are flying Ben to San Francisco, where our founding sponsor, Yahoo! will present him with the award. I want to thank everyone who submitted nominations this year. I look forward to discovering even more innovators next year. You can learn more about Ben through his links:

The Academy of Discovery
Discourse About Discourse (Ben's podcast)

In Ben's own words:

My Twitter account says, "I teach. And learn. A lot." This is no small understatement. My passion for teaching and learning increases with every blog post I read or write, every podcast I create or listen to. Just one meaningful comment from student to student on a blog or a great revision on one of our wiki projects is something special, something authentic, something worth striving for.

Yesterday, I was at Yahoo! giving a presentation to their marketing department. Afterwards I had the privilege of meeting the Yahoo! for Teachers team who gave me a demo of what they are building in collaboration with teachers around the country. I was impressed. The tool they have created allows teachers to build their handouts and other teaching materials online through a version of Yahoo! search limited to content teachers can actually use and that ensures they are complying with state standards. The site also enables teachers to share their teaching materials with other educators throughout the world. It's very exciting. Yahoo! has done their homework and gets that they can't just give teachers another cool tech tool without offering training and support. They are building up a small army of trailblazing teachers, like Ben, that they hope will train other teachers at their schools. In addition, they are offering workshops for teachers on how to use their tool across the country. Here are the upcoming free workshop dates and locations:

Chicago, IL July 2nd, 8:30 a.m. - 4 p.m.
New York, NY July 11th, 8:30 a.m. - 4 p.m.
New York, NY July 12th, 8:30 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Austin, TX July 19th, 8:30 a.m. - 4 p.m.
San Diego, CA July 28th, 8:30 a.m. - 4 p.m.

If you know a teacher in these areas, tell them to apply here.

Register today for the Mashup.