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Date: Thu, 3 Feb 1994 23:18:16 -0500 (EST)
From: Nancy Ammerman <emoryu1!phoenix.Princeton.EDU!nancyamm>
To: Jackie Ammerman <
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Chapter 12: EDUCATION AND THE NET
12.1 THE NET IN THE CLASSROOM
If you're a teacher, you've probably already begun to see the
potential the Net has for use in the class. Usenet, ftp and telnet have
tremendous educational potential, from keeping up with world events to
arranging international science experiments.
Because the Net now reaches so many countries and often stays
online even when the phones go down, you and your students can "tune
in" to first-hand accounts during international conflicts. Look at
your system's list of Usenet soc.culture groups to see if there is one
about the country or region you're interested in. Even in peacetime,
these newsgroups can be great places to find people from countries you
might be studying.
The biggest problem may be getting accounts for your students, if
you're not lucky enough to live within the local calling area of a
Free-Net system. Many colleges and universities, however, are willing
to discuss providing accounts for secondary students at little or no
cost. Several states, including California and Texas, have Internet-
linked networks for teachers and students.
12.2 SOME SPECIFIC RESOURCES FOR STUDENTS AND TEACHERS
In addition, there are a number of resources on the Internet aimed
specifically at elementary and secondary students and teachers. You
can use these to set up science experiments with classes in another
country, learn how to use computers in the classroom or keep up with the
latest advances in teaching everything from physics to physical
education.
Among them:
AskERIC Run by the Educational Resource and Information Center,
AskERIC provides a way for educators, librarians and
others interested in K-12 education to get more
information about virtually everything. The center
maintains an e-mail address (
[email protected]) for
questions and promises answers within 48 hours. It also
maintains a gopher site that contains digests of
questions and answers, lesson plans in a variety of
fields and other educationally related information. The
gopher address is ericir.syr.edu.
Health-Ed: A mailing list for health educators. Send a request to
[email protected]
K12Net: Begun on the Fidonet hobbyist network, K12Net is now also
carried on many Usenet systems and provides a host of
interesting and valuable services. These include
international chat for students, foreign-language
discussions (for example, there are French and German-
only conference where American students can practice
those languages with students from Quebec and German).
There are also conferences aimed at teachers of specific
subjects, from physical education to physics. The K12
network still has limited distribution, so ask your
system administrator if your system carries it.
Kidsphere: Kidsphere is a mailing list for elementary and secondary
teachers, who use it to arrange joint projects and
discuss educational telecommunications. You will find
news of new software, lists of sites from which you can
get computer-graphics pictures from various NASA
satellites and probes and other news of interest to
modem-using teachers.
To subscribe, send a request by e-mail to kidsphere-
[email protected] or
[email protected] and
you will start receiving messages within a couple of
days.
To contribute to the discussion, send messages to
[email protected].
KIDS is a spin-off of KIDSPHERE just for students
who want to contact students. To subscribe, send a
request to
[email protected], as above. To
contribute, send messages to
[email protected].
Knoxville Using the newspaper in the electronic classroom. This
News- gopher site lets students and teachers connect to
Sentinel the newspaper, and provides resources for them derived
Online from the newsroom. Use gopher to connect to
gopher.opup.org
MicroMUSE This is an online, futuristic city, built entirely by
participants (see chapter 11 for information on MUSEs
and MUDs in general). Hundreds of students from all
over have participated in this educational exercise,
coordinated by MIT. Telnet to michael.ai.mit.edu.
Log on as guest and then follow the prompts for more
information.
NASA Spacelink: This system, run by NASA in Huntsville, Ala.,
provides all sorts of reports and data about NASA, its
history and its various missions, past and present.
Telnet spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov or 128.158.13.250.
When you connect, you'll be given an overview of the
system and asked to register. The system maintains a
large file library of GIF-format space graphics, but note
that you can't download these through telnet. If you want
to, you have to dial the system directly, at (205) 895-
0028. Many can be obtained through ftp from
ames.arc.nasa.gov, however.
Newton: Run by the Argonne National Laboratory, it offers
conferences for teachers and students, including one
called "Ask a Scientist."
Telnet: newton.dep.anl.gov.
Log in as: cocotext
You'll be asked to provide your name and address. When
you get the main menu, hit 4 for the various conferences.
The "Ask a Scientist" category lets you ask questions of
scientists in fields from biology to earth science.
Other categories let you discuss teaching, sports and
computer networks.
OERI: The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational
Resources and Improvement runs a gopher system that
provides numerous educational resources, information and
statistics for teachers. Use gopher to connect to
gopher.ed.gov.
Spacemet Forum: If your system doesn't carry the K12 conferences, but
does provide you with telnet, you can reach the
conferences through SpaceMet Forum, a bulletin-board
system aimed at teachers and students that is run by the
physics and astronomy department at the University of
Massachusetts at Amherst.
Telnet: spacemet.phast.umass.edu.
When you connect, hit escape once, after which you'll be
asked to log on. Like K12Net, SpaceMet Forum began as a
Fidonet system, but has since grown much larger. Mort
and Helen Sternheim, professors at the university,
started SpaceMet as a one-line bulletin-board system
several years ago to help bolster middle-school science
education in nearby towns.
In addition to the K12 conferences, SpaceMet carries
numerous educationally oriented conferences. It also has
a large file library of interest to educators and
students, but be aware that getting files to your site
could be difficult and maybe even impossible. Unlike
most other Internet sites, Spacemet does not use an ftp
interface. The Sternheims say ZMODEM sometimes works over
the network, but don't count on it.
12.3 USENET AND BITNET IN THE CLASSROOM
There are numerous Usenet newsgroups of potential interest to
teachers and students.
As you might expect, many are of a scientific bent. You can find
these by typing l sci. in rn or using nngrep sci. for nn. There are now
close to 40, with subjects ranging from archaeology to economics (the
"dismal science," remember?) to astronomy to nanotechnology (the
construction of microscopically small machines).
One thing students will quickly learn from many of these groups:
science is not just dull, boring facts. Science is argument and standing
your ground and making your case. The Usenet sci. groups encourage
critical thinking.
Beyond science, social-studies and history classes can keep busy
learning about other countries, through the soc.culture newsgroups.
Most of these newsgroups originated as ways for expatriates of a
given country to keep in touch with their homeland and its culture. In
times of crisis, however, these groups often become places to
disseminate information from or into the country and to discuss what is
happening. From Afghanistan to Yugoslavia, close to 50 countries are
now represented on Usenet.
To see which groups are available, use l soc.culture. in rn or
nngrep soc.culture. for nn.
Several "talk" newsgroups provide additional topical discussions,
but teachers should screen them first before recommending them to
students. They range from talk.abortion and talk.politics.guns to
talk.politics.space and talk.environment.
One caveat: Teachers might want to peruse particular newsgroups
before setting their students loose in them. Some have higher levels of
flaming and blather than others.
There are also a number of Bitnet discussion groups of potential
interest to students and teachers. See Chapter 5 for information on
finding and subscribing to Bitnet discussion groups. Some with an
educational orientation include:
biopi-l ksuvm.bitnet Secondary biology education
chemed-l uwf.bitnet Chemistry education
dts-l iubvm.bitnet The Dead Teacher's Society list
phys-l uwf.bitnet Discussions for physics teachers
physhare psuvm.bitnet Where physics teachers share resources
scimath-l psuvm.bitnet Science and math education
To get a list of ftp sites that carry astronomical images in the GIF
graphics format, use ftp to connect to nic.funet.fi. Switch to the
/pub/astro/general directory and get the file astroftp.txt. Among the
sites listed is ames.arc.nasa.gov, which carries images taken by the
Voyager and Galileo probes, among other pictures.
Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253
