Many teachers at present are in danger of suffering from A4-itis... undue bombardment from all quarters by masses of information, catalogues and news of innovations. So this month Beebug Education presents its topic - where to get yet more such information - very warily.

This column looked (Vol.9 no.1) at the NERIS on-line information service, which is accessed direct and is concerned chiefly with curriculum material. During recent months, the price of modems has fallen and it has become more usual for many schools and colleges to decide to use a portion of their IT budget on several such services.

One of these, which deserves your attention if you do not already know of it, is provided by Campus 2000 on Prestel. Hence its format is viewdata (teletext frame-based, rather than scrolling) but is none the worse for that. Videotex has come a long way since the early days of the BBC Teletext service and a collection of rather unappealing pages in a hard to find corner of Micronet on Prestel.

Prestel Education begins on page 888 and can either be obtained by typing *888# (hash) or *EDUCATION#. From that header page two apparent routes are possible: Campus 2000 itself and a subject index to education services on Prestel. In fact keying the option for the latter also leads you to the pages provided under the Campus umbrella.

And a very wide umbrella it is indeed. At this point there are several guides, quick guides and A-Z indices as well as 'What's New' and 'Information' type pages.

There are some two dozen major areas of interest and sources of information. Indices on pages 88800 and 88862 give some idea of what information is available and which organisations have pages on the main database.

These range from the familiar - an on line UCCA (Universities Central Council on Admissions) database (actually on page 211290) - to the less so (such as the British Olympic Society, on page 20275).

Several services (including these latter two) are not actually inside the 888 area of Prestel but, because they are relevant to learning and teaching, are signposted here, which is very useful. They can be consulted even by pupils unfamiliar with the conventions of Prestel, often by following single-digit routing from within Campus 2000 or limited keywords. One way or the other this is true of every page mentioned in Beebug Education this month.

Nor are the information and resources within this area of Prestel restricted to any one age group: there is, for example, a very dynamic Special Needs database, SEND, beginning on page 515. And, although infants would find less than older pupils and teachers, there is material suitable for early readers.... graphics (try page 887462) and interactive stories etc. Indeed, one of the better types of service is that provided by users themselves.

A good example is called "School Time" (page 88761), provided under the aegis of one of the longer-standing IPs (Information Providers) on Prestel, School Link. Pages up at the time this month's Beebug Education was being written included a simple adventure game written by pupils from a school in Scarborough, where choices about dilemmas (over losing homework) encountered by many a school age pupil are dealt with by routing you through different pages in the School Time database. For example: press '1' for "tell a lie" (that you haven't lost it) or '2' if you decide to own up.

This is a simple but appealing idea and one which could be used very effectively to introduce pupils who are already familiar with text adventure games of this sort to the concept of Prestel frames. Indeed, certain GCSE and Adult Education literacy courses where students opt for a viewdata module (e.g. that taught for the RSA CLAIT 1, Computer Literacy and Information Technology) could also make good use of this and similar "games" on Prestel Education.

By a similar token, use of the educational E-Mail features would meet head on the National Curriculum requirements (English AT 2) that pupils have experience of communicating in this way. Not only is there the (now somewhat enhanced) regular Prestel Mailbox facility but also, for example, on Prestel Education (also by School Link) a service for electronic pen pals called RSVP (page 8870071). There is a mailbox directory covering specifically educational establishments on page 88804.

In common with most (though not all) of the services provided on Prestel Education, School Link is particularly good at updating its pages. Most IPs seem to respect school holidays, which is no great handicap and pupils who log on once a week in term time can expect to see new material in the majority of cases.

Continuing the tour, there is much to interest the subject specialists (an index is on page 888420) or indeed those teachers/lecturers who want to keep abreast of maths, sport, geography, home economics etc. There is also a large (separately maintained) health education section (16211).

For those responsible for administration and the "world of education" in general there is much on Prestel to meet their needs....ECCTIS, the Educational Counselling and Credit Transfer Information Service (888188), has information on 60,000 award bearing courses currently offered in colleges of further and higher education in the UK. Like several others, it is accessed through a gateway. There is copious information on bibliographies, correspondence courses, open and distance learning, and libraries as well as a specific "Universities Database" (page 2112). A wider careers service called Signpost can be found on page 270270.

Campus 2000 even provides an editing service for anyone wishing to promote their organisation within its pages (page 21150). There are also several 'training agencies' such as PICKUP (8881881) run for the DES, no less. Ample information on all manner of educational aids and resources exists, too. Pages covering this begin on 8885. Educational telesoftware, much of it of a very high standard and in a variety of downloading protocols exists in various places (try pages 8802 and 8803).

A most useful area of Prestel Education is the Notice Board area (an index to the main services is on page 888454). At the time of writing it contained, for example, news relating to school trips, American Football and career material for teachers.

Like much else, such a spot encourages us, the users, to put up information of our own and thus be part of the enterprise. Anything of interest to other pupils or staff could well be sent in: dates of events, competitions and results, visits and news of special offers to schools. Such an area also begins on page 8888811. There is also - and it would be a positive move to extend it - some room here for teacher-teacher debate of the kind that happens in the press.

Some services actually require you to join them. They operate as Closed User Groups (CUGs), and most of their frames are inaccessible to the general user. It would be as well to explain this to pupils, for whom the signposting to areas they cannot actually visit might be confusing or disappointing. You are also invariably warned if any page is going to carry a frame charge. It is usually only nominal anyway (usually 1, 2 or 5p).

Once you know your way around (and this is likely to take the greatest amount of time) you can go straight to your favourite pages and be reasonably sure that they are where they were when you last looked. Most decent comms software will let you assign page numbers to the BBC/Master's function keys to help here. Into the bargain, you'll need soft and hardware that can access Prestel preferably at 2400/2400 and capture frames in a buffer for later saving and printing off line to save as much money as possible. Modem Master from BBC Soft is one such typically suitable package.

So, having cleared the expense with the powers that be, you are recommended to look into Prestel (at local call rate for the vast majority of UK users).... there will surely be something for you and much more than you thought!