A Guide To K12Net
by Rob Reilly

What is K12Net? 

K12Net is a decentralized network of electronic bulletin board systems (BBSes) extending throughout North America, Australia, Europe, and Asia (including the USSR), which was created to serve students in the Kindergarten through 12th grades. K12Net  nodes share curriculum-related conferences or “echo forums”, making them available to students and educators at no cost and usually on a local phone call. We currently have 150+ FidoNet nodes.  The weekly K12Net traffic is about 70-90K which is roughly 800 to 1100 messages.

K12Net provides millions of teachers, students and parents in metropolitan and rural areas throughout our planet with the ability to meet and talk with each other to discuss educational issues, exchange information and share resources on a global scale.

Unlike other school-oriented networks, K12Net’s explosive growth since its founding in September, 1990, can be attibuted to several factors which make it separate and distinct:

1. K12Net provides students, teachers and community members with access to FREE international telecommunications capabilities with an educational orientation via a local call. This frees up classroom, student and home budgets for other things.

2. It is relatively easy and inexpensive to set up a K12Net BBS. The only equipment required is an MS–DOS or Macintosh computer, and a modem and phone line which may already be available. System software is very low cost, if not free, and technical operation skills are developed in-house. When trained, students can act as system operators.

3. It is decentralized. Each participating BBS is locally owned, controlled and operated. It can be oriented to serve the needs of the local school and is an excellent vehicle for developing community relations.

4. It is a superb vehicle for providing students, teachers and
parents with a gentle introduction to telecommunications as a classroom tool to promote literacy, a global perspective and competency in 21st Century information technologies.

What can K12Net do for you and/or your classroom? 

K12Net is a window to the world. It allows you to transcend rural isolation and community colloquialism by freely, conveniently and inexpensively conversing with people in Canada, Hawaii, Sweden, or Australia. You will develop friendships, explore other cultures, gather insight and exchange opinions with other people all over the world.  You will become a bona fide member of the “Global Village.”

K12Net provides a vehicle for wide–area collaborative classroom projects using telecommunications. Use K12Net to jointly gather data and draw conclusions about the distribution of acid rain across North America. Publish a classroom-based electronic newsletter for immediate international distribution. Compare fast food prices in a multitude of different currencies throughout the world and develop theories as to the economic reasons for their variations.

K12Net lets you rub elbows with other professional educators throughout the world. Find out how educators in the next school district, state or nation are using technologies, materials and methodologies to improve education. Discover why the “movers and shakers” in the educational world meet here to gather and explore new ideas and concepts.

K12Net is a great equalizer. Online discussions transcend social stigmas based on age, learning disabilities or other handicapps which might otherwise tend to limit dialogue. No one needs to know that you may be 12 years old or in a wheel chair or have dyslexia. All anyone else will see is your words…

K12Net is an information-gathering facility. The online world is particularly well suited for asking “Say, does anyone know…” questions to large groups of people.

K12-Net  FidoNet conferences 

Public Conferences

K12_ART_ED
                                          Arts & Crafts Education (excluding music)
K12_BUS_ED
                                          Business Education
K12_COMP_LIT
                                     Computer Education: Technical assistance and

                                    
                                     exchange for computer educators and students.
K12_HLTH_PE

                                     Healthy & Physical Education
K12_LIF_SKIL

                                      Life Skills: Home economics, career skills,

 legal issues, safety education.
K12_LANG_ART

                                 Language Arts Education: reading, writing, literature, 

                                    
                                    grammar, composition, etc. 
K12_MATH_ED

                                    Mathematics education .i.K12Net: conferences;
K12_MUSIC_ED

                                   Music & Performing Arts education
K12_SCI_ED
                                           
Science Education
K12_SOC_STUD

                                  Social Studies Education: History, Civics, Social

                                     
Sciences, etc.
K12_SPEC_ED

                                       Compensatory education: learning disabled, etc. 
K12_TAG

                                                   Talented & Gifted Education: challenges specific to 

                                    
                                    
educating intellectually and/or artistically gifted 

                                    
students.
K12_TECH_ED

                                     Technology education: Robotics and engineering,

                       
industrial & manufacturing technologies, drafting, 

                       
design, CAD/CAM, and Vocational Education.

                                    Ancillary Conferences
K12_NEWS

                                             K12Net NEWS (all should read): A place for announcements 

                                    
                                      at the network level.  Should be designated READ ONLY.  
K12_ELE_CHAT
                                    Elementary School Chat: All-purpose chat echo for Grades

                                    
 K-6
K12_JR_CHAT

                                       Middle School Chat: All-purpose chat echo. Grades 7 and 8
K12_SR_CHAT

                                      Senior High School Chat: All-purpose chat echo. Grades 9-12

Foreign Language Conferences

K12_FRANCAIS

                                    French-only discussion for level 1 students. 
K12_SPAN_ENG

                                    Spanish-English practice echo. Native Spanish speakers 

                                    
                                        are  urged to correspond in English and native-English 

                                        speakers are urged to write in Spanish providing exciting, 

                                    
   interactive practice for beginning and intermediate-level 

                                    
   students.
K12_GERM_ENG

                                    Same format as K12_SPAN_ENG but for German language.

Restricted Access Conferences

K12.SYSOP

             K12.SYSOP: This is for sysops-ONLY. For discussion

                                        
of network operation, coordinating echo installation and 

                                    
                                    
    distribution, technical problems with system software and

                                    
                                        hardware, etc. This is solely for people directly involved 

                                    
                                         with
system operation. Do NOT allow non-sysops in here! 

                                         Direct all
other conversation to K12.TCH_CHAT. 

K12.TCH_CHAT

                                    TEACHER CHAT: For K12 professional educators ONLY

                                    This is an all-purpose CHAT echo with emphasis on the 

                                        design 
and evolution of K12-Net. Access should be provided 

                                        through 
“flags,” or security levels in individual user 

                                    
    accounts. 

K12.PROJECTS
                                          
TELECOMMUNICATIONS PROJECTS: for ALL 

                                    
    professional
educators. For the discussion of various 

                                    
                                    
    curriculum-driven, 
classroom projects, advertising for 

                                         “partners” for specific projects, etc. Suggest user account level 

                                    
                                          access. Note that K12.CH0 is for administration of project 

                                          currently in progress. 

Channel Conferences 

Channel conferences are used for special projects. These could be things like writing a class book. In order to get a channel assigned to you, you need to send a message to the Channel Coordinator, Andy Vanduyne, 1:260/375. Note: you must carry all of the above conferences in order to be eligible to carry Channel conferences. 

Library and Node listings

To get hold of the K12Net library listing, file request K12FILES.ZIP from FidoNet node 1:321/218. A listing of K12Net nodes (which you’ll need in order to find the nearest site to connect with) is available for file request as K12NODE.ZIP. 

USENET newsgroups corresponding to K12-Net Fido echoes

FidoNet Echo  

                                    Usenet newsgroup

 K12.TCH_CHAT

                              k12.chat.teacher      
 K12_ELE_CHAT

                              k12.chat.elementary
 K12_JR_CHAT

                                  k12.chat.junior
 K12_SR_CHAT
                                  k12.chat.senior
 K12_ART_ED

                                     k12.ed.art
 K12_BUS_ED

                                     k12.ed.business
 K12_COMP_LIT
                                 k12.ed.comp.literacy
 K12_HLTH_PE

                                  k12.ed.health-pe
 K12_LIF_SKIL

                                   k12.ed.life-skills
 K12_MATH_ED

                                k12.ed.math
 K12_MUSIC_ED

                               k12.ed.music
 K12_SCI_ED

                                        k12.ed.science
 K12_SOC_STUD

                               k12.ed.soc-studies
 K12_SPEC_ED

                                    k12.ed.special
 K12_TAG

 k12.ed.tag
 K12_TECH_ED

                                   k12.ed.tech
 K12_LANG_ART

                              k12.lang.art
 K12_GERM_ENG
                               k12.lang.deutsch-eng
 K12_SPAN_ENG

                              k12.lang.esp-eng
 K12_FRANCAIS

                               k12.lang.francais

USENET sites carrying K12Net

bellcore.bellcore.com

          Bell Communication Research
bbn.com

          

       Bolt, Beranek and Newman
bonnie.concordia.ca

          
  Concordia University
decwrl.dec.com

          
           Digital Equipment Corp
dove.hist.gov

          
          
   US National Institute of Standards & 
Technology
csus.edu          

          
          
       California State Univ at Sacramento
europa.asd.contel.com

       Contel Federal Systems
fernwood.mkp.ca.us

          
Anterior Technologies
gateway.sequent.com

        Sequent Computer
infonode.ingr.com          

     
InteGraph Corporation
jhereg.osa.com

          

Open System Architects
lll-winken.llnl.gov

          
 Lawrence Livermore National Labs
news.tcs.com

          

Teknekron Communication System
piccolo.cit.cornell.edu          

Cornell University
pmafire.inel.gov          

        Idaho 
National Engineering Lab
spool.mu.edu          

          
      Marquette University
vuse.vanderbilt.edu

           Vanderbilt University
world.std.com          

          
   
Software Tool & Die
sendit.nodak.edu

          
       North Dakota Higher Educ Computer Network
m2xenix.psg.com

          
         Pacific Software Group
uunet.uu.net          

          
          UUNET Technologies

For more information

For more information on K12Net, you can also contact any of the following K12Net Council (board of directors) for further information. If you would like information on K12Net echoes, contact the K12Net curriculum coordinator Gleason Sackmann. An information packet (which contains much of the same information presented here) is also available anonymous ftp from ftp.uu.net as /doc/k12net.tar.Z or by UUCP as uunet!~/doc/k12net.tar.Z. Once you’ve got the file, you’ll need to use Compress (or MacCompress) to uncompress it and then Tar or (MacTar) to de-archive it. 

K12Net Council of Coordinators

Gordon Benedict, Calgary, Alb, Canada  1:134/49, benedict@ucnet.ucalgary.ca
Jack Crawford, Stanley, NY USA 1:260/620  jack@k12net.org
John Feltham, T'ville, QLD, Australia  3:640/706 jfeltham@sol.deakin.oz.au
Janet Murray, Portland, OR  USA  1:105/23 jmurray@psg.com
Rob Reilly, Lanesboro, MA USA   1:321/218 rreilly@athena.mit.edu
Gleason Sackmann, Bottineau, ND USA  1:288/5 sackman@plains.nodak.edu
Mort Sternheim, Amherst, MA USA  1:321/109  sternheim@phast.umass.edu
Helen Sternheim, Amherst, MA USA  1:321/110  hsternheim@phast.umass.edu
Andy Vanduyne, Norwood, NY USA  1:2608/75
Louis Van Geel, Mortsel (Antwerp), Belgium  2:295/3