To use the Internet to raise global awareness among youth and involve them in activities to create positive change in the world.

A group of educators concerned about the lack of global awareness among youth began a year-long investigation into ways to use the Internet to address this problem in 1997. These investigations led to a pilot project, the Mexico Trek, in the fall of 1998. This experience plus feedback from teachers and students formed the foundation of The Odyssey's first major project, the World Trek.

The World Trek takes students on an otherwise impossible field trip - a two year trek around the world. Students experience the world from their classrooms via The Odyssey website, their connection to a team of five educators doing a real two-year world trek. The educators are visiting ten major non-western countries to document their histories and cultures. The photos, video, sounds, and text they capture are posted on the website twice a week for students to follow along. The website also allows students to interact with the Team and prominent local figures such as Nobel Peace Prize Laureates. All content is archived and available for use anytime for free.

Beginning this fall, a team of ten educators will take over 400,000 students on a one-year journey across the US to visit historic places, interview historic figures, and meet experts in US History, all for free via The Odyssey website. Like the World Trek, the US Trek will feature the Team's reports, complete with pictures, sounds and video, along with regular chats with prominent figures and other students, as well as bulletin boards for students to post their own ideas and opinions. A partnership with PBS and integration of resources from the Library of Congress will also allow us to post historic audio and video clips.

The itineraries for these Treks directly support National Education Standards and follow the progression of most World and US History classes on the US. The Team visits sites and meets with people that bring the traditional curriculum to life, and can be easily integrated into teachers' existing curriculum. The Team then expands upon this to address current events and diverse perspectives that have a tremendous impact on the lives of our youth, yet are rarely addressed in schools. Then we bring it all together by having students apply what they learn in "Making a Difference" activities to help the communities they are studying and their own.

The itineraries are developed with the support of experts in the subject areas. In the case of the US Trek, over 40 professors have already been consulted from such universities as Yale, Cornell, UC Berkeley, William and Mary, Humboldt and others.