Just Call Me Internet/Just Call Me Internet.iso/docs/ascii/internet/bd20/bd-ch12.txt/text0000.txt

Text File | 1994-02-04 | 11.0 KB | 206 lines

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 ([e-mail]) 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
                [e-mail]

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-
                [e-mail] or [e-mail] and
                you will start receiving messages within a couple of
                days.
                     To contribute to the discussion, send messages to
                [e-mail].
                     KIDS is a spin-off of KIDSPHERE just for students
                who want to contact students.  To subscribe, send a
                request to [e-mail], as above.  To
                contribute, send messages to [e-mail].

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.