As the world becomes a more complex, interconnected place, the job of educators becomes more difficult. Keeping up with advances in computer technology is a daunting task for anyone, but it can be even more so for those whose job it is to ensure that students are learning the skills necessary to operate in today’s society. Luckily, as the use of the Internet becomes more prevalent in schools, it has become easier for teachers to use this resource to exchange creative ideas and resources on any number of topics. Educators sharing ideas is nothing new, of course, but by using online resources, the process has been simplified a great deal.

Upon observing this trend toward electronic interconnectedness, one company has begun working with teachers to help provide online content for real-world classrooms. Project Power is an organization that makes educational content available to subscribers online. This content includes lesson plans, activities, assignments and even entire class projects, all of which can be assigned and tracked online or printed and handed out in the traditional way. Project Power offers over 500 of these resources on a wide variety of topics, with more becoming available daily as the company’s staff (all of whom have teaching backgrounds) create new lesson plans and as members submit curriculum of their own.

One of the unique features of Project Power is that is has compiled the educational standards of each individual state so that educators can have a quick reference for what their lesson plans must address. In this way, Project Power is able to serve educators in all fifty states rather than being limited to one location or region. Also, since every lesson on the site contains a list of standards and assessment criteria, teachers can easily scan multiple lessons to find the ones that will work best with the concepts they’re trying to introduce in the classroom.

Many teachers feel that the activities they already use are sufficient and that they don’t need additional material. However, Project Power is a good way not only to obtain new material but also to investigate ways of improving and upgrading old material. All of the lessons on the web site can be customized by users, adding or removing sections as they please to create the types of lessons that will integrate the best with their current curriculum. Project Power can also be used to make any lesson easier to track since it allows students to interact with their teachers in the computer environment with which so many of them are familiar. Students type the answers to questions online, they can attach files and submit work, review deadlines, and even send secure messages to their teachers about assignments. Once students have submitted work, it appears in their teacher’s section of the site and is automatically checked off the teacher’s list. The teacher can later review the work and give the student feedback on his/her submissions. Teachers can also provide students’ passwords to their parents so they can check up on how their children are doing on their assignments.

One of the most interesting benefits of using the system has been to help teachers become as familiar using the web as their students are. This familiarity comes out of using the site to interact not only with students, but also with other teachers. In the “Community” section of the site, teachers can exchange ideas, share resources and search for other educators in their state who use Project Power. Through using these resources, teachers will become familiar not only with using computers and the Internet but also with new classroom activities and methods of instruction.

These instances of cross-boundary learning are exactly the type of opportunities that Project Power is trying to create. After all, it is in the interest of students to have teachers who are well-informed and well-prepared with a variety of education approaches, it is in the interest of teachers to have students who can use a variety of methods to learn and have their progress assessed, and it is in the interest of the community as a whole to have students and teachers working together to create the best possible learning environment. With new resources being added to the site every day, the educators who make up Project Power will undoubtedly be helping people meet educational goals well into the future.

To learn more about Project Power, please visit their web site at http://www.projectpower.com/