Re: thank you

Lianne <emi...@columbus.rr.com> wrote:
>Colin,

>     I have come out of lurk mode to try to make a point.  One of the greatest
>things about the Internet is its great diversity.  That includes age.  The
>Internet has provided a great place to get information from, and many kids log
>on every day to get information for homework or to chat with their friends.
>Newsgroups are another one of the great things that comes with the Internet.
>They provide a chance to share things with other people across the world and to
>get the opinions and ideas from them.  If you do not like listening to what the
>kids have to say, then maybe you should be the one to go, not the kids.

>~Lianne, 14~


But you completely miss the major points of Net use and newsgroup
usage:


1) The Internet _is_ used by kids but they need to be supervised in
   its use by parents/guardians and teachers/tutors. It is clear
   that many kids are NOT supervised and use their home computers
   ...probably when no adults are home. Newsgroups are just one
   area of the Net.

2) There is a K12 hierarchy of newsgroups specifically for schools
   to help children of school age to learn to use the Net under
   teacher supervision and training.

====================================================================

                                 k12             9 Aug 1996

====================================================================


K12Net is a collection of conferences devoted to K-12 educational
curriculum, language exchanges with native speakers, and
classroom-to-classroom projects designed by teachers.  The
conferences are privately distributed among FidoNet-compatible
electronic bulletin board systems in Africa, Asia, Australia,
Europe, and North America, as well as available from uunet.uu.net
as Usenet newsgroups in the hierarchy k12.*

Classroom-to-classroom projects are featured in the K12 "Channels"
which are periodically reassigned based on usage and appropriate
project length.  They comprise the k12.sys hierarchy.

Forums for casual conversation among students are divided by grade
level in the k12.chat hierarchy; there is also an area for teachers to
exchange general ideas about using telecommunications in education.

For more information, contact one of the members of
the K12Net Council of Coordinators:

Terry Bowden      <bow...@vnet.ibm.com>
Robert Brault     <bra...@csmanoirs.qc.ca>
Wolfgang Hofmeier <who...@cln.etc.bc.ca>
George Perkins    <ggp...@homer.louisville.edu>
Geoff Shearsby    <g.s...@edfac.usyd.edu.au>
Les Turner        <ltu...@uranus.esc.k12.in.us>
Louis Van Geel    <elv...@cybcobe.cybco.be>

Mr. Brault is currently the chairman of the council, so he is probably
the best one to contact first.

k12.chat.teacher        Casual conversation for teachers of grades K-12.
k12.ed.art              Arts & crafts curricula in K-12 education.
k12.ed.business         Business education curricula in grades K-12.
k12.ed.comp.literacy    Teaching computer literacy in grades K-12.
k12.ed.health-pe        Health and Physical Education curricula in
                        grades K-12.
k12.ed.life-skills      Home Economics, career education, and school
                        counseling.
k12.ed.math             Mathematics curriculum in K-12 education.
k12.ed.music            Music and Performing Arts curriculum in K-12
                        education.
k12.ed.science          Science curriculum in K-12 education.
k12.ed.soc-studies      Social Studies and History curriculum in
                        K-12 education.
k12.ed.special          Educating students with handicaps and/or
                        special needs.
k12.ed.tag              K-12 education for gifted and talented students.
k12.ed.tech             Industrial arts & vocational education in
                        grades K-12.
k12.lang.art            The art of teaching language skills in grades K-12.
k12.lang.deutsch-eng    Bilingual German/English practice with
                        native speakers.
k12.lang.esp-eng        Bilingual Spanish/English practice with
                        native speakers.
k12.lang.francais       French practice with native speakers.
k12.lang.japanese       Bilingual Japanese/English ith native speakers.
k12.lang.russian        Bilingual Russian/English practice with
                        native speakers.
k12.library             Implementing info technologies in school libraries.
k12.sys.channel0        Current projects.
k12.sys.channel1        Current projects.
k12.sys.channel10       Current projects.
k12.sys.channel11       Current projects.
k12.sys.channel12       Current projects.
k12.sys.channel2        Current projects.
k12.sys.channel3        Current projects.
k12.sys.channel4        Current projects.
k12.sys.channel5        Current projects.
k12.sys.channel6        Current projects.
k12.sys.channel7        Current projects.
k12.sys.channel8        Current projects.
k12.sys.channel9        Current projects.
k12.sys.projects        Discussion of potential projects.

====================================================================

3) With the exception of those K12 groups ALL Usenet newsgroups are
   for ADULTS and _not_ children.

   Most contain material, language and discussion unsuitable for
   children and often incomprehensible to them so there is no way
   that children can interact adequately in such discussions.

   You should see what some of the mischievous, uncontrolled and
   unsupervised kids have done in and to many Usenet newsgroups...but
   not in "alt.ascii-art" where we have been relatively fortunate.

   The real problem is that alt.ascii-art comes early in the list of
   some 30,000 available newsgroups and kids see "funny pictures"
   instead of endless slabs of words they cannot even understand.
   So kids think " Oh goody goody...I can draw funny pictures...aha
   this must be a "Kids newsgroup"
   WRONG!  It is an adults newsgroup like all the rest which have
   no pictures only text and discussions.

4) Perhaps many parents do not care what their children are exposed
   to on the Net nor on how they use it. However many other parents
   _do_ care and try to only allow supervised use of the Net by
   their chldren. A problem with modern society is that because both
   parents often now work there is no one at home to supervise the kids.

> If you do not like listening to what the kids have to say, then
> maybe you should be the one to go, not the kids.

Bzzzt!  Wrong again.  This is NOT a newsgroup for kids...it never
has been. The time to get into Usenet newsgroups is at University.
Many university students get a Net account whilst they are studying
there.

If you want a kid's newsgroup for pictures then talk to your
schoolteachers and see if a group can be set up for you in the K12
hierarchy.

Also kids are welcome on most local BBSs ( Bulletin Boards ) where
the Sysops ( Administrators ) who privately own the BBSs, strictly
control what gets posted in them and anyone posting objectionable
material or language get stopped from using the BBS. They are have
strict controls because they know that many the BBS users are
children. Most BBSs are free and only require a local telephone call
to connect to them.

As far as me being the one to go elsewher. I will say this it once
again... but shouting this time..." THIS IS AN ADULTS NEWSGROUP ".

I have been here in alt.ascii-art since it was created in September
1998 and I am not going away.

Nope...on the contrary, if kids come in to alt.ascii-art and do or
say things I do not enjoy I will very likely to tell them about it
and in no uncertain words.

Please understand that Net users have no obligation whatever to
educate newcomers to the Net or to the adult newsgroups. Any help
and advice people may choose to give is entirely unpaid and voluntary.
It's cost is what you pay for it...nothing!

If you think any Net user owes you anything then think again. They
don't.

There are many hundreds of FAQ ( Frequently Asked Questions)
documents and advisory articles posted regularly every month in the
"news.announce.newusers"  and the "news.answers" newsgroups and
newcomers should spend some months studying them.

Most newsgroups do not like newbies jumping in and immediately
posting articles without having got quite a few clues. Newcomers who
do that can deservedly expect to be flamed.

Most of this discussion is actually off-topic for this newsgroup,
"alt.ascii-art", and would probably be better in "misc.kids".


        The problems of accessing Internet:
        -----------------------------------

  /mmm\        /mmm\        /mmm\
  (O o)        (O O)        (o o)
    U            U            u           /mmm\
  ||\  \\        / \\         .           (- -)
 oOOo__oOOo   _____oOOo  ___________      __u_oOOo
############  #########  ###########  ################
(BAD ANSWER)   (RETRY)   (ONCE MORE)  (Bored & Asleep)
                  -David Bourgin-


Bye,

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