Usenet. IRC. Chat. Blogs. Mailing Lists.

Check out this interesting site that provides an animated overview of the Internet: http://www.learnthenet.com/english/animate/animate.htm. Watch the animations. Did you learn anything?

Form five groups. Each group will explore one of the following Internet technologies: Usenet (Now Groups on Google), IRC, Chat (IM), Blogs, Mailing Lists.

Using the site or sites given below as a starting place (these are just starting places - also use Leu, Leu and Coiro and your web searching skills), thoroughly investigate your assigned technology and prepare to demonstrate it to the class.

Answer the following questions:

a. how does it work?

b. what do you have to do to use it?

c. what are its advantages and disadvantages?

d. what educational use might this have?

e. outline a lesson (any grade, any subject) that would use the technology to increase subject-matter or communication skills

Prepare an 8 minute introduction for the class. Be ready by 6:00.

Usenet, or News (Now Groups on Google)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet is a good introduction.

http://groups.google.com/ is an access point for Usenet discussion forums.

IRC

http://linux.about.com/cs/linux101/g/IRC__Internet_R.htm?terms=irc is a good introduction. See also http://www.irchelp.org/.

http://www.undernet.org provides a web interface for IRC. Other interfaces are available, including mIRC.

Chat (and IM)

http://www.learnthenet.com/english/html/18webchat.htm is a good introduction. See also http://www.howstuffworks.com/instant-messaging.htm.

http://chat.yahoo.com/ is an online chat site. You need to create a yahoo id if you don't have one.

Blogs

http://webdesign.about.com/cs/weblogs/a/aa060903a.htm is a good introduction

http://www.blogger.com/start is the most popular blogging site.

http://portal.eatonweb.com/ is a list of blogging sites.

Mailing lists

http://www.learnthenet.com/english/html/24mlists.htm is a good introduction

http://www.edwebproject.org/lists.html and http://www.theteachersguide.com/listservs.html are good lists of educational mailing lists.