Prescreened K12 Newsgroup Services

Newsgroups exist on a wide variety of topics. Each newsgroup focuses on a particular issue or topic. Some examples of newsgroup names include soc.culture.quebec, misc.kids.health, sci.med.diseases.cancer, k12.chat.teacher and rec.skiing.nordic. The names give you some idea about the topic the particular newsgroup addresses. Newsgroup names do not have a "@" like email addresses.

Newsgroups are organized and named in a hierarchical manner. The first part of the newsgroup name is the newsgroup's category. The standard categories include:
comp Computer hardware, software, and protocol discussions.
misc Topics that don't fit anywhere else, such as job hunting, investments, real estate, and fitness.
news Groups that deal with UseNet software, network administration, and informative documents and announcements.
rec Recreational subjects and hobbies, such as aviation, games, music, and cooking.
sci Topics in the established sciences, such as space research, logic, mathematics, and physics.
soc Topics of social and cultural interest.
talk Lengthy debates and discussions on various current events and issues - politics, religion, the environment, and so forth - often controversial.

There are a growing number of "alternative" newsgroups. These include groups beginning with "alt", "clari", "biz" and "gnu". The alt groups are temporary or controversial or new newsgroups that don't belong in the other categories. They are not carried by all UseNet sites. The "clari" groups are part of an electronic newspaper out of ClariNet Communications. There is usually a fee for these groups. "biz" is for business and commercial interests. The "gnu" groups are discussions about the Free Software Foundation.

There is another class of newgroups which are fed to UseNet from some other source. "bit" groups are BITNET listservs which have been fed into UseNet so that they may be read as news. The k12 groups originate from FidoNet.

Since the Internet is entirely uncensored, due to the fact that no one is really in charge or responsible for what's posted on it, you'll find there are many conferences unsuitable for K12 use; alt.devilbunnies, for example. In response to the needs of K12 educators for "sanitized" collections of newsgroups, several commercial enterprises have been formed that offer subscription services to Internet Host Systems and provide prescreened newsgroups that are generally free of objectionable material. Global SchoolNet and Clarinet are two such newsgroup services.

Finally, each service provider can choose which newsgroups they want to carry and which not to carry. If a school were to set up their own server they could screen out the more objectional newsgroups. In addition, server sites can create their own newsgroups but don't necessarily have to share these newsgroups with other systems. If a school or district had their own server, a teacher could have her own newsgroup for an online group activity.