Newsgroups are an excellent source of accessing experts on a variety of topics. There are literally thousands of different groups covering nearly every topic imaginable.

The first step in using newsgroups is to understand how they are named. There is a hierarchy. At the top of the hierarchy are general subjects such as comp for computers, sci for science, and k12 for education. The next stage of the naming scheme divides the topics further.

If we look at the k12 groups, we see three general categories: chat, ed, and lang. k12.chat groups include general discussions for teachers, elementary, junior high, and senior high students. K12.ed groups cover a wider variety of subjects including art education, school counselling, special education, and science education, among many others. K12.lang groups focus on foreign language conversation.

Two special categories of k12 newsgroups are: