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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 (askeric@ericir.syr.edu) 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 
                health-ed-request@stjhmc.fidonet.org 
 
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-
                request@vms.cis.pitt.edu or joinkids@vms.cis.pitt.edu and 
                you will start receiving messages within a couple of 
                days. 
                     To contribute to the discussion, send messages to 
                kidsphere@vms.cis.pitt.edu. 
                     KIDS is a spin-off of KIDSPHERE just for students 
                who want to contact students.  To subscribe, send a 
                request to joinkids@vms.cis.pitt.edu, as above.  To 
                contribute, send messages to kids@vms.cist.pitt.edu. 

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. 






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