FRONTLINE, produced by PBS, has long been an excellent provider of thought-provoking, informative, current events news programs. Nearly 100 FRONTLINE programs are available for free online viewing. To help teachers use FRONTLINE episodes in their classrooms, FRONTLINE created a teacher center. The FRONTLINE Teacher Center contains web-exclusive bonus resources (extra video clips and text) and lesson plans that teachers can download for use in their classrooms. You can search the FRONTLINE Teacher Center by subject matter, episode title, or air date. I found it easiest to browse the lessons by subject matter.

If you’re so inclined, FRONTLINE produces an e-newsletter for teachers that you can subscribe to. The e-newsletter informs you of the latest additions to the teacher center as well as planned additions. If you subscribe now, FRONTLINE will enter you in a drawing for an iPod Nano.

Applications for Education
I’ve found FRONTLINE to be a good resource for teaching lessons based on current events. In the past my classes have had some great discussions started by the FRONTLINE series Growing Up Online. In going through quite a few pages in the teacher center today I found that lesson plans varied in depth and breadth with “featured” lesson plans generally having more “bonus” materials than the non-featured lesson plans.

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
NOVA on Hulu
Digital Nation – Life on the Virtual Frontier