Ypulse Mashup, Yahoo! and Edutopia/The George Lucas Educational Foundation to Present the Totally Wired Teacher Award to Ben Wilkoff

Ypulse.com, the leading independent blog for teen media and marketing professionals, in partnership with conference producer Modern Media, has announced that Ben Wilkoff, a 7th/8th grade language arts teacher from Cresthill Middle School, Highlands Ranch, CO, will be honored with the first Totally Wired Teacher Award during a reception at the Mashup on July 17. The National 2007 Mashup (www.mashup.ypulse.com) takes place July 16 - 17 at the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco, CA.

New York, NY (PRWEB) July 9, 2007 - Ypulse.com, the leading independent blog for teen media and marketing professionals, in partnership with conference producer Modern Media, has announced that Ben Wilkoff, a 7th/8th grade language arts teacher from Cresthill Middle School, Highlands Ranch, CO, will be honored with the first Totally Wired Teacher Award during a reception at the Mashup on July 17. The National 2007 Mashup (www.mashup.ypulse.com) takes place July 16 - 17 at the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco, CA.

The 2007 Mashup Totally Wired Teacher Award, made possible by Yahoo! and Edutopia/The George Lucas Educational Foundation, honors a trailblazing teacher who successfully pioneered the innovative and educational use of social media (blogs, wikis, social networking, photo/video sharing) in the classroom. The award was promoted in the education "blogosphere," attracting nominees from around the country.

"We had several amazing nominees, but in the end, we felt Ben Wilkoff, our 2007 winner, overcame the challenges of using social media in a public middle school by engaging both parents and teachers," said Anastasia Goodstein, Ypulse founder and co-producer of the Mashup. "Ben has successfully used blogs and wikis to help middle school students improve their writing skills and created a podcast to share his experience with other teachers."

"We are thrilled to partner with Yahoo! in giving Ben this award," says Edutopia editor in chief James Daly. "His work using technology to educate students in a language they can understand and use to excel is completely in line with our mission at the magazine."

"My twitter account says, "I teach. And learn. A lot," said Ben. "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 one student to another on a blog, or a great revision on one of our Wiki projects is something special, something authentic, something worth striving for."

"When I started teaching in a middle school 3 years ago, I wanted something more for my kids, so we blogged our essay writing to harness the power of commenting and revision," Ben continued. "After that, our weekly blog post, 3 Wiki projects, multiple podcasts, and a lesson planning blog were born. The students started collaborating with one another on their ideas, and a true community of writers came to fruition. We expanded the walls of our classroom to show the world what we were doing, and the world responded with over 43,000 hits on our Utopia Wiki (http://academyofdiscovery.wikispaces.com ). It is our hope that this model will become the basis for our curriculum and practice in our classrooms, creating a truly authentic learning experience for all."

Yahoo! has invited Ben to become an Alpha Teacher for Yahoo! for Teachers, a new Yahoo! website that will allow teachers to find, create and share lesson plans and other curriculum. Yahoo! for Teachers will begin connecting teachers from across the country this fall.

To register for the national 2007 Mashup please visit www.mashup.ypulse.com.

About Ypulse:

Ypulse is an independent blog published by Anastasia Goodstein for youth media and marketing professionals. It provides news, commentary and resources about commercial teen media for teens (teen magazines, websites), entertainment for teens (movies, games, television, music), technology used by teens (cell phones, instant messaging, SMS), the news media's desire to attract teens (newspapers, cable news), marketing and advertising (targeting the teen market) and civic youth media (highlighting organizations' efforts at promoting youth voices in media). Ypulse.com reaches a highly influential audience of agency, brand and media executives as well as social marketers trying to reach youth. The blog has been featured in several leading publications including USA Today, BusinessWeek, Forbes and Fast Company. Anastasia Goodstein is an award-winning blogger and often-quoted expert on American tweens, teens and early twentysomethings. Goodstein was one of the first graduates of the Medill School of Journalism's new media program at Northwestern University where she earned an MSJ in 1999. Goodstein just completed a book about teens and technology called Totally Wired: What Teens And Tweens Are Really Doing Online, published by St. Martin's Press in March of 2007.

About Yahoo!:

Yahoo! is a leading global Internet brand and one of the most trafficked Internet destinations worldwide. Yahoo!'s mission is to connect people to their passions, their communities and world's knowledge.

About Edutopia:

Edutopia is published by The George Lucas Educational Foundation, founded in 1991 by filmmaker George Lucas as a nonprofit organization that chronicles and advocates innovative practices in education. In addition to publishing Edutopia magazine and the Edutopia.org Web site, it produces documentaries and publishes books and DVDs. To find out more about Edutopia and The George Lucas Educational Foundation's resources, go to www.edutopia.org.

About Modern Media:

Modern Media builds, produces, markets and sells business conferences and media brands. Publishers, media entrepreneurs, business marketers and associations rely on Modern Media to engage customers and increase revenue, launch new events and brand extensions, or revitalize existing products. The company produces high-quality business conferences, providing programming, speaker recruitment, conference management and attendee acquisitions services. Its brand marketing services include positioning strategy, sales tool development and sponsorship sales.

###