Lely Nuñez Coronel, Uruguay.

The KIDLINK Newsletter
Global Networking for Youth 10-15 Years

September 28, 1995. Volume 6 : Issue 3. ISSN 0805-8881

Note: Throughout this newsletter, references are made to the LISTSERV. The full email address to this resource is LISTSERV@VM1.NODAK.EDU . Note that all commands to the LISTSERV must be written in the body of your mail.

1. "I can tell my views to my friends"

The goal of KIDS-96 is to involve as many 10-to-15-year-old youth as possible in a GLOBAL dialog continuing until May 4th 1996. On May 5th, 1996, we will start the KIDS-97 project.
All participating children are required to answer these questions: 1) Who am I? 2) What do I want to be when I grow up? 3) How do I want the world to be better when I grow up? 4) What can I do now to make this happen?
KIDLINK has received answers to these questions from over 42,000 kids living in 72 countries around the world.
Here are some recent responses:

** From Guam **
(1) Hi my name is LENNY S. GARCIA. I am 11 years old going 12 on november 28. I am a girl , on guam . I go to F.B. Leon Guerrero Middle School. I like pizza,chocolate,and lots more.
(2) I want to be a teacher when I grow up. I want to teach fourth or fifth grade.
(3) I want the world to be peaceful,clean no pollution,and crimes or violence.
(4) I can help the world by picking up trash around the Island.

** From Sandys, Bermuda **
(1) My full name is, Candace Jantzen-Marson. I'm 12 years old. I'm a girl and I live in Sandys, Bermuda. The name of my school is, The Bermuda High School for Girls, or BHS.
I like working on or with computers, especially games, or E-mail, or InterNet-ing. I am on a computer every night writing ot friend Tara by using E-mail. We have fun. I am in a swim club and have been for 4 years now. I enjoy swimming and I'm pretty good at it. We swim 3 times a week every week, except during our 3 week break in the summer, and about a month in the winter when it's too cold.
I also like to read. When ever I have some spare time, or I'm bored, I arm myself with a good book and get involved in it. I like mysteries, horrors, comedies, adventure stories, and just basically anything else that is interesting or exciting to read. Oh, I also like Archie comics. They're good for a bit of relaxing fun.
Some of my concerns are, basically what has happened to the earth in just over 60 years. It scares me. We have created a hole in the Ozone, something that has been around for more than 60 million years, undamaged. We have seriously reduced the amount of the earth's resources left unharmed. We have lost so many animal species that we didn't even now existed. We might have already lost the cure to cancer. We have lost much of a prime resource of Oxygen... The trees. It is sad to think that trees that had been standing in one spot for more than 50 years, producing Oxygen, and homes for animals, in a harmonized environement, have been cut down in 3 minutes and burned away in 5. I am also worried about the crowding in Bermuda, and the rest of the world. I am scared to think what will happen if someone finds the "Fountain of Youth" and people will live for longer than forever. The world will be "packed" full of people. Most of all I'm scared for the animals, they are becoming extinct, I'm sure that in 2095 the only place you will be seeing a Bald Eagle or an Elephant, will be in a museum, stuffed. I don't want these magnificet creatures dieing off because off greed. Selfish Greed.
I think others should know that I care about the environement, I enjoy Rollerblading and shopping, I am tall for my age...5 feet 11 1/4 inches, and proud of it!
(2) When I grow up I want to be an engineer or a "problem solver" like a counselor only more advanced. Helping people advance their lives by using technology. I want to build things to give the earth an advantage, and to give us adventages too. I'd like to teach people to learn to live in synchronization with the earth. By using less and reusing more.
(3) I'd like to inprove the way we treat ourselves. I think that is the first step in being able to treat others the way they deserve to be treated. If we learn to respect ourselves then we can learn to treat everyone the same, without predjudice or judgement. When we can do that we can learn to respect each others property which is really the earth. The earth is our responsibilty, and if we can learn to preserve it instead of wasting it then it will still be here for our great-great-great-great grandchildren to enjoy it the way we did and do. Everyone needs to realize that before we can go on to do anything else.
(4) I think I can begin to respect the environment more and to treat it kindly. I can also try to tell my views to my friends who in turn will tell them to people they know, and eventually the prospect will spread. I think I can learn to be more caring and try to live up to my standards. And most of all I can do something about it, we all can.

2. "Virtual Transactions" in KIDFORUM

KIDFORUM is set up to promote exchanges between classroom groups of students on topics related to the KIDLINK themes (the four KIDLINK questions). Through this forum, it is easier for teachers to have whole classes participate in KIDLINK.
The "Virtual Transactions" topic lasted for almost 60 days and ended in early September. Moderators Marisa Lucena (Brazil) and Pat Fiero (USA) challenged the kids to discuss how best to spend $100.
Marisa says: "We had good moments. We had lots of aspirations, and we learned several things about other countries. After all wasn't so bad to dream...with $100!!! One thing is for real...We made some friends! We saw that with $100 dollar we could do several things in some countries and few things in others. Life is more expensive in some countries and less in others. I think we know CD's price in several different currencies ;-)"
Several kids participated from a personal computer at home, like Yedidah from Israel, Russ, Sara, Peggy, Sheryl, Judy, Kevin and Heidi from USA, Jody from Great Britain, Simon from New Zealand. As usually, most came with their classes from USA, Japan, Uruguay, South Africa, Brazil.
The kids were allowed to write in several languages, not just in English. Their teachers translated their messages into English, and sent both to the KIDFORUM mailing list to promote the dialog across language barriers. Very exciting!

3. "Travelling in the World" revisited

The current KIDFORUM topic is "Travelling in the world." It started on September 4 and will end on October 31. Oldtimer Mary Esborn (USA) and Mariko Fujita (Japan) are moderators. 12 schools from the United States have already joined with kids from New Zealand, Norway, Brazil, the Netherlands, and Uruguay.
In this topic, the students are to write a descriptive essay about their area, and send it to the KIDFORUM list. They are to give the global address of their place (longitude and latitude), and tell about the population, population density, and any other interesting facts.
They are also to plan a 3 day visit for guests their own age. The "actual" meetings of travellers will take place in the IRC #travel channel, thus the term "virtual travel". Here, travellers can talk about what they are doing while "visiting."
For more details about the Travel Topic, send an email to the LISTSERV containing the command /SHIP KIDFORUM 2437
There is more. This is KIDFORUM's schedule for the duration of KIDS-96:

1. TRAVELLING IN THE WORLD (Sept 4 - Oct 31). Virtual Vacation will have kids write a travelog about their area in the world, plan a tour for guests, decide what they want for their vacation...
2. HOPEFULL HEADLINES (Nov 1 - Dec 23). Students will first discuss locally about environmental hopes for their community. Each class will then post a community profile which identifies a local environmental issue...
3. BLUE PRINT EARTH (Jan 1 - Feb 29). Blue Print Earth will focus on our environment today - and give the participants an opportunity to use their creative talents and imagination to design gadgets, invent articles...
4. CHILDREN'S BILL OF RIGHTS (March 1 - April 20). Students will voice their opinions about the rights of children. One topic a week will be introduced in the form of a question. Students will answer individually or in small groups...
5. THE TRAFFIC PROJECT (April 21 - June 16). We will discuss problems related to traffic and solutions found in different communities around the world.

The full schedule is available by email to the LISTSERV by putting the following command in the TEXT of your mail: GET KIDFORUM SCHEDULE
KIDFORUM also plans IRC chats for each topic, so kids will also be able to meet interactively.

4. The World Wide Web

The KIDLINK WWW is maturing rapidly. Just listen to this:
All the messages from the archives of the following mailing lists are now available: KIDLINK, KIDPLAN, KIDLEADER, KIDLEADER-HEBREW, KIDLEADER- JAPANESE, KIDLEADER-NORDIC, KIDLEADER-PORTUGUESE, KIDLEADER-SPANISH, KIDCAFE-COORD, KIDFORUM-COORD, KIDIRC-COORD, KIDPROJ, KIDFORUM, and RESPONSE. Each list has 12 indexes for up to 200 recent messages. The name for the above lists can be substituted in this example for the index intro page for the KIDLINK list: http://www.kidlink.org/KIDLINK/listmail.html
Full text searches of the RESPONSE archives via WWW. This service will be expanded to include all lists available via KIDLINK WWW and enhanced to allow greater variety searching criteria. The URL for searching RESPONSE: http://www.kidlink.org/RESPONSE/searcher.html
The messages from KIDLEADER-HEBREW are available on KIDLINK WWW in actual Hebrew fonts. For more information: http://www.kidlink.org/KIDLEADER-HEBREW/msg/kidleadh.000019.html
The KIDLINK Web Team is still looking for help. We need people to code (and keep current) one or more pages for the KIDLINK Web. To see who is currently involved, try: http://www.kidlink.org/society/support.html#wwwg
Other things in the works for KIDLINK WWW include:

• RESPONSE Forms: Answer the Four Questions On-Line
• Greater Multi-Language Support
• Exhibitions from the KIDLINK Gallery of Computer Art

The KIDLINK Gopher is now on the same machine as the World Wide Web server. Many of the same files are available to both systems. All documentation archives are now in the same directory, but also available by subject menu. Using a Gopher Client, try:

gopher global.kidlink.org
Or use your WWW Browser:
gopher://global.kidlink.org

For information about how the new file name specifications, see section 1.3 of the KIDLINK TIPS file, available from LISTSERV or Gopher:

gopher global.kidlink.org
-> Finding and Using KIDLINK Services
-or-
gopher://global.kidlink.org/00/arc/KIDLINK.TIPS

The new KIDLINK Gopher has a much faster full-text search option on the main menu. Using this, you can search for single words or phrases contained in KIDLINK documentation: gopher://global.kidlink.org/77g/allmenu
The KIDLINK SEARCHER has been re-built. This automatic program, using e- mail, helps you compose and send LISTSERV search jobs of the KIDLINK lists message archives. For information, send a message to: SEARCHER@KIDLINK.ORG. Put the word HELP in the SUBJECT of the message. Any TEXT in the message is ignored.

5. The KIDPROJ Progress Report

Eighteen KIDPROJ projects are now in progress. They cross over many content areas including math, science, social studies and language Arts.
Those who participate in KIDPROJ projects are encouraged to subscribe to the KIDPROJ-COORD list. This is the place where projects can be discussed among those who are participating. The actual text for the projects should still be posted to the KIDPROJ list. Students and adults may have dialogue within KIDPROJ and this interaction is encouraged.
KIDCLUB, our regular Saturday IRC planned discussion, is still a weekly event and plans are under way to expand the times to include more students from various time zones.

6. KIDLINK's private IRC Network

The KIDLINK IRC is a private, multi-user, multi-channel chatting network. It allows children all over the world to talk to one another in real-time. If you don't know what it is, send a mail to the LISTSERV containing the command GET KIDLINK IRCHELP. On the Web, try http://www.kidlink.org/IRC
The KIDLINK IRC Team now has the following members under the management of David Lloyd and Hannah Sivan (Israel): Laurie Williams (USA), Lely Nun~ez (Uruguay), John Ost (USA), Andraz Tancek (Slovenia), Tryggvi Jonsson (Iceland), Carolina Capatto (Argentina), Jody Ghani (England), Robbert Uittenbroek (Holland), Nathan Willis (Australia), Phong Huynh (USA), Sarah Goodwin (USA), Graham Taylor (Canada).
So, what do these good people do, really? They help new users in their first steps online. Some of them are almost always on the KIDLINK IRC, monitoring the dialog for problems, helping people to solve them.
"We think that the KIDLINK IRC is still underused," says Hannah Sivan. "This is a very powerful tool for meetings and for distance learning and we would like to see more of our friends using it as a part of their work."
She also wants you to know that: The KIDFORUM team decided to add moderated IRC sessions to each of their subjects this year. That the KIDCLUB meetings will continue Saturdays, at 17:00 GMT on #KIDCLUB. The KIDCLUB is operated by a young and international team that is doing a great work - setting the topics, inviting guest speakers and moderating the discussions.
Nathan Willis has started a South Rim KIDCLUB, operated by the Kidclub team on Mondays, 05:30 GMT, while Lely Nun~ez has started a KIDCLUB Spanish. We are planning a KIDCLUB Atlantic Rim, to be coordinated by Stellan Kinberg (Sweden) during the school hours of European schools.
Lely <lnunez@varela.reu.edu.uy> writes:
"El viernes 29 de setiembre a las 19:00 GMT comenzara' el KIDCLUBS y continuara' realiza'ndose todos los viernes a partir de esta fecha en el mismo horario.
Una vez por semana todos los chicos de habla hispana, de cualquier parte del mundo, discutira'n en espa~ol, sobre un tema especi'fico y diferente. La reunio'n se realizara' en el canal #kidclubs en la IRC de KIDLINK.
Los temas a tratarse sera'n propuestos por los chicos a trave's de la lista KIDCAFE-SPANISH, o por los adultos en la lista KIDLEADER-SPANISH. Se tratara' de planificarlos mensualmente para una mejor organizacio'n de los docentes en sus proyectos de aula. La publicacio'n de los mismos se hara' en estas listas y en la lista KIDIRC-COORD."
There will soon be a Wednesday Roundtable. Laurie will start with IRC Help by IRC team - for KIDLINK IRC users.

How do I get involved in the IRC? First, retrieve and read the IRCHELP file referred to above. Here is some additional information:

• For some time, we identified young graduates of KIDLINK activities that are helping to operate the KIDLINK areas as Mentors. They must now register as adults. Members of the IRC TEAM will have a T (team) before their names.
• Rules for Adult (teachers and parents) registration are being revised. In the future, new users will probably need to be sponsored during their first period on the IRC. The purpose is to help and guide new users of the IRC, and to prevent unwanted intruders from getting access. It has not yet been decided who the sponsor will be, and how the sponsorship will be done.

The IRC team is making many efforts to keep the KIDLINK IRC a safe place for kids. Unfortunately, we have been forced to deal with some people who have behaved in an unacceptable manner. They were banned from the KIDLINK IRC. One of them was also removed from all KIDLINK's lists.

7. Around KIDLINK

The number of participants continue to grow at a hectic pace, and the project organization is regularly strengthened to cope.
As you may already know, this process accelerated after the KIDLINK management meeting in Arendal, Norway, about a month ago. However, what you may not know is that many pictures from the meeting is available on the World Wide Web. So, if you really *must* see what they look like, and want to know what they *really did*, then look up this Web page: http://www.kidlink.org/KIDLINK/conference95.html
KIDFORUM has built an advisory team consisting of the following members: Ivette de la Guarda (Chile), Heather Ballantyne (New Zealand), Mary Esborn (USA), Mariko Fujita (Japan), Lely Nun~ez (Uruguay), Tor Arne Richvoldsen (Norway), and Indu Varma (Canada).
Who are these people? Here's a random self-presentation:
I'm Lely Nun~ez Coronel and I live in Montevideo, Uruguay. I have a teenager son.
I work at 'Colegio Nacional Jose Pedro Varela' as a 5th. grade teacher and I belong to the Coordination Group of 'Red Educativa Uruguaya'. I also work at an laboratory from 'Proyecto Infed 2000' (Informatic Education for public schools).
I suscribed at KIDLINK project three years ago. At first I participated in the KIDCAFE list with my pupils. Then I've been participating in the KIDLEADS and KIDCAFES lists, since they were created in 1994. We had a lot of children who can't communicate in english because they have just started to learn it and these lists allow them to communicate in Spanish, their native language.
I've got a long and interesting contact with teachers and students which hopefully continue. I think that getting into contact with new friends around the world was of course one important and thrilling thing for all the children.

---

Mtra. Lely Nu~ez E-Mail: lnunez@varela.reu.edu.uy
Montevideo, Uruguay

---

The KIDPROJ team has expanded and now has the following members who are here to help you propose, plan and present your project ideas: Mike Burleigh (United Kingdom), Patti Weeg (USA), Jan Dalton (Canada), Grant Dougall (Canada), Jo Mostert (South Africa), Ali Parsa (Iran), and Chop Ai Kuang (Malaysia).
In early September, KIDCAFE was divided into four separate lists. Three of them, KIDCAFE-INDIVIDUAL, KIDCAFE-TOPICS, KIDCAFE-QUERY, quickly became very popular. In KIDCAFE-INDIVIDUAL, there were 400 messages in only 17 days, while the two other lists had 400 messages after 21 days and 100 messages after 23 days respectively.
KIDCAFE-COORD, a new forum for adult coordinators, was also opened, and quickly established as an important meeting place for teachers with kids in the KIDCAFE lists.
For an updated view of KIDLINK's organization, send a mail to the LISTSERV using the command GET KIDLINK SOCIETY, or check out this World Wid Web page http://www.kidlink.org/society/

8. KIDS-96

is a project run by a non-profit organization called the KIDLINK Society. Most of the dialog between the kids is based on electronic mail.
KIDLINK is impartial as to what methods are being used to solve the problems of the world today. KIDLINK does not promote specific solutions to problems or political points-of-view.
The KIDLINK mailing list is an announcement service, KIDPLAN, and the coordinator forums are meeting places for teachers, parents and other adults involved with the KIDS-96 project.
KIDS-96 operates the following coordinator forums: KIDLEADER, KIDLEADER- PORTUGUESE, KIDLEADER-JAPANESE, KIDLEADER-SPANISH, KIDLEADER-NORDIC, KIDLEADER-HEBREW, KIDCAFE-COORD, KIDART-COORD, KIDFORUM-COORD, KIDIRC- COORD, and KIDPROJ-COORD.
KIDS-96 has the following mailing lists for 10 - 15 year old youth:

RESPONSE

this is where the children send their personal introductions (their responses to the four introductory questions). It has no dialog!

Several KIDCAFE forums. Here, kids can 'talk' about anything they like:

KIDCAFE-PORTUGUESE	Portuguese language KIDCAFE
KIDCAFE-SPANISH	Spanish language KIDCAFE
KIDCAFE-JAPANESE	Japanese language KIDCAFE
KIDCAFE-NORDIC	Scandinavian language KIDCAFE
KIDCAFE-INDIVIDUAL
KIDCAFE-SCHOOL
KIDCAFE-TOPICS
KIDCAFE-QUERY
KIDFORUM	for exchanges between classroom groups of students.
KIDPROJ	for long and short-term projects

To join KIDLINK through the Internet, send the command SUBSCRIBE KIDLINK Your Name to LISTSERV@VM1.NODAK.EDU. (Replace "Your Name" with your real name.) Put the command in the BODY of the text.
Our discussion forums are also available through conferencing system and mail exploders around the world. Write us for more information.
All forums are open for everybody, but only kids between 10 - 15 may write messages in the mailing lists set up for this age group (see above list).
A 130+ picture slide show about KIDS-96 is available for MS-DOS and Macintosh computers. For details about how to get a copy, send an email to the LISTSERV containing the command: GET KIDLINK KIDSHOW
Information about the project is also available on KIDLINK's interactive information servers:

World Wide Web address:		http://www.kidlink.org gopher://gopher.kidlink.org
Gopher to:		gopher.kidlink.org

If you only have email access to the Internet, it is still possible to use the Web and gopher services. This is explained in the KIDLINK GENERAL file. To retrieve this file, send the command GET KIDLINK GENERAL to the LISTSERV. Note: This file is a _must_ for all persons interested in KIDLINK!!
The KIDLINK newsletter is an information bulletin for teachers, parents, participants, sponsors, mediators, promoters, and others. Suggestions and contributions are invited.
The newsletters are distributed through the KIDNEWS mailing list, the KIDLINK announcement service, the Gopher and Web servers. This issue is at the following address: http://www.kidlink.org/KIDLINK/news695.html
Subscribe to KIDNEWS by sending email to the LISTSERV with the command "SUBSCRIBE KIDNEWS Your-full-name" in the text of your mail. (Please use your real name instead of "Your-full-name".)

Editor/Project director:		Odd de Presno
Mail address: Fax: Internet: email address:		Saltrod, Norway (Europe). +47 41 27111 opresno@kidlink.org

If you want to help out with KIDS-96, or participate, write to kidlink-info@kidlink.org
You can also contact one of our local contact persons around the world for information about how to join and more. For a list of contact persons, retrieve the file KIDLINK CONTACTS.
KIDS-96 has local representatives in Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia, Sweden, The Netherlands, Thailand, United Kingdom, Uruguay, and the United States.
Finally, you can also write to KIDLINK, 4815 Saltrod, Norway or just join ...