Chapter 12: Education (2 of 2) -- USENET EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

     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.
     There are also a number of  Bitnet  discussion groups of potential
interest to students and teachers.  See Chapter 4 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
 scimathl    psuvm.bitnet        Science and math education