From emoryu1!phoenix.Princeton.EDU!nancyamm Thu Feb 3 23:26:22 1994 remote from awwe Received: by awwe.UUCP (1.65/waf) via UUCP; Fri, 04 Feb 94 02:13:18 EST for root Received: from emory.mathcs.emory.edu by emoryu1.cc.emory.edu (5.65/Emory_cc.3.4.16) via SMTP id AA22412 ; Thu, 3 Feb 94 23:26:19 -0500 Received: from Princeton.EDU by emory.mathcs.emory.edu (5.65/Emory_mathcs.3.4.18) via SMTP id AA07761 ; Thu, 3 Feb 94 23:26:17 -0500 Return-Path: nancyamm@phoenix.Princeton.EDU Received: from ponyexpress.Princeton.EDU by Princeton.EDU (5.65b/2.104/princeton) id AA01769; Thu, 3 Feb 94 23:18:21 -0500 Received: from flagstaff.Princeton.EDU by ponyexpress.princeton.edu (5.65c/1.113/newPE) id AA11850; Thu, 3 Feb 1994 23:18:19 -0500 Received: by flagstaff.Princeton.EDU (4.1/Phoenix_Cluster_Client) id AA11811; Thu, 3 Feb 94 23:18:18 EST Date: Thu, 3 Feb 1994 23:18:16 -0500 (EST) From: Nancy Ammerman To: Jackie Ammerman Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII 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. Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253