Newsgroups and Education

To me, newsgroups seem like an innovation that was made the classroom.
Although from what I understand of Usenet I think it would be a little risky directing a class towards such an open resource. It seems like the probability of students coming across inappropriate content is too high. If there was a specific topic that the students were to research out a very restricted Usenet group could be of use and the students could assist each other in the research process. This does cause some problems when you get a student who is less than motivated and rather than contributing anything to the class group just takes the research of others. If such a resource was used guidelines would need to be put in place and the teacher would have to watch who is contributing closely.
On the other hand I think Google groups are fantastic. They are something I have used for years in my own education and have made things like group projects so much easier. Whether the group is used for discussion as a class, putting together pieces of a class project, or group work Google groups make these projects more convenient and allow the students to learn a new aspect of technology.