Information & Research Support

What is a mailing list? | How to join a list
Finding lists | Newsgroups

Mailing Lists

What is a mailing list?

Mailing lists allow for group discussion by using email. Once you have subscribed to a mailing list, you will automatically receive copies of every message that is sent to the list via email. Lists allow you to send email messages to a large number of people with the same interests simultaneously.

There are many lists for teachers and student teachers, some of which are general and cover all types of professional issues, while others are intended for the discussion of specific topics.

There are two main types of mailing lists: a person-controlled list and a computer-controlled list. This will affect the manner in which you subscribe to the list. The person-controlled lists may or may not be automatic, and in most cases messages are reviewed prior to sending to the list. Computer-controlled lists use a robot program to administer the list, the most common being LISTSERV.

• E-mail List Communities Orientation Course
  This course from oz-TeacherNet is designed to assist first time e-mail list community members and can be taken at any time.

How to join a list

• To join a list, you must send a message to the computer hosting the list - this could be majordomo, listserv, listproc or mailserv.
• This message must be in the correct format to be recognised by the computer at the other end.
• You will receive a message to confirm you have joined the list, giving information about the list and various commands you can use.
• There are standard conventions or "Netiquette" attached to using lists. Read the advice at the site Email and Newsgroup Netiquette or at Email and Netiquette

Finding lists

There are many lists to join. The following are some examples either of individual lists, or "lists of lists".

• EdNA Online Forum
  EdNA's online discussion about teaching and learning
• The Forum Australian electronic mailing lists for teachers from the oz-TeacherNet site.
  For example:
  
  • Oz-teachers. A list for all Australian teachers. Education students are welcome to join.
  • Connected Leaders. For educational leaders in schools
• Education Queensland Discussion Lists

  The following links allow you to search for lists.

• Ozlists
• CataList, the official catalog of LISTSERV lists
• Directory of Scholarly and Professional E-conferences - Mailing lists, Newsgroups etc.
• Liszt: Searchable Directory of Email Discussion Groups Includes many newsgroups.
• Mailbase: UK's major electronic mailing list service for research in Higher Education.

• Tile.Net: Listserv Discussion Groups

Some specific lists are:

• Big6 Electronic Discussion Group Forum on information and technology literacy programs
• Web66 List. Discussion group for educators implementing and managing WWW servers in K12 schools.

USENET News or Newsgroups

Newsgroups are special interest groups where people can post and reply to messages about their particular interest. Anyone can post a message to a newsgroup, and anyone else can read and answer it. There are thousands of these special interest groups, which can be accessed via a browser or pine email.

• K-12 Newsgroups

Education Resources

JCU Library | Tropicat | School of Education | JCU Homepage

Please contact Helen Hooper if you have any comments, suggestions or additions.

Links checked January 2002; Page updated January 2003 by lbcy,
Information and Research Support, James Cook University.