Logo Listserves

Connecting with the Global Logo Community

Since 1995 hundreds of Logo users around the world have shared information, ideas, and technical tips through Logo-L, a listserve sponsored by the Logo Foundation and the Global SchoolNet Foundation. In recent years several other Logo listserves have started up. Even an old computer with a low speed modem will do. If you are in an out of the way place with few other Logo people around, you can still connect with colleagues and share in the worldwide Logo community.

How does a listserve work?

A listserve is a mailing list made up of the email addresses of people with a shared interest. The listserve itself also has an email address. The address for Logo-L is logo-l@gsn.org. A message sent to logo-l@gsn.org is automatically resent to the individual email address of everyone on that list. To become part of the list you subscribe, usually by email. (The specific procedures for joining the various Logo listserves are on page 3.) Once you are subscribed to the list you receive all messages sent to it as part of your regular email.

What do people talk about?

The exchanges on Logo-L include novices asking for more information about Logo, a source of Logo software, or a good Logo book for beginners. People often post Logo programs and ask for help in debugging them. No matter how elementary or sophisticated the program is, there are usually several people who help.

Members post references to books, articles, and Websites that they feel are of interest to the community. They exchange ideas for classroom projects and activities. There are discussions about educational philosophy and practice. Issues in computer science are sometimes raised, especially as they relate to the design of Logo and other programming languages meant for educational purposes.

One sometimes gets the impression that there are a few people doing all the talking. There are some very active regulars on Logo-L while the majority of members rarely or never post a message. This is generally true of listserves. Many people use them more as information sources than as discussion forums.

Who's in charge?

For the most part Logo-L takes care of itself, but there are some people behind the scenes. Erica Zubkoff of Global SchoolNet Foundation keeps the technical side of Logo-L running smoothly. John St. Clair of Global SchoolNet, and Michael Tempel of Logo Foundation are the Logo-L moderators.

Managing the email traffic

Some people are reluctant to join listserves because they are concerned about overflowing emailboxes. There are generally 5 to 10 messages per day on Logo-L. Most email programs have ways to manage incoming email so as to separate the listserve messages from other email. Logo-L also has a digest version. It sends a single daily message that includes all the messages that are sent that day to Logo-L.

If you prefer not to include the Logo-L messages in your email your can access them through the Internet Newsgroup, comp.lang.logo. John St. Clair cross posts messages between Logo-L and comp.lang.logo so that people using either forum receive all the messages posted to both.

Other Logo listserves

Logo-L has been in continuous operation since 1995. There are several other Logo listserves, including La Lista de Educación Logo en Español, where the discussion is in Spanish, and La Liste Logo in French.

Click here for information about how to join Logo-L and the other Logo listserves described in this article.