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| STEP 5: INTERNET, WORLD WIDE WEB, INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS, SEARCHING AND BROWSING THE INTERNET, EMAIL, THE ADDRESS BOOK, NEWSGROUPS | |||
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| THE INTERNET | |||
The Internet is also referred to as the Information Super Highway, Web or Net, is probably the most compelling reason the average person has purchased a home computer. Most refer to the Internet and the World Wide Web like synonymous twins, which is not exactly the case. The World Wide Web is a division of the Internet. The average person need not know the history of the Internet to use a computer effectively, but they will be able to enhance their experience if they learn a few divisions or basics.
The World Wide Web, referred to sometimes as the Web, WWW, or W3, is an Internet server that offers multimedia and hypertext links. The Internet address breaks down into sections and tells how and where the computer will go to access the information sought. The address goes from the general to the specific.
The .com part is the domain or section of the World Wide Web division and the microsoft.com completely is the domain name, meaning that Microsoft publishes and maintains this site on the World Wide Web, (www. part), in the commercial or .com part of the World Wide Web. This site can be as small as one page or hundreds of pages long like Microsoft’s. After arriving at the site it can be navigated by clicking on different divisions for specific information. The part to the right of the domain name is the most general and the part to the left is the most specific. At the top of the domain hierarchy (the part on the right) is the country code for all countries except the United States. Common country codes are
Within the United States, the country code is replaced with a code denoting affiliation categories.
These are the most common while more are being created because the Internet is growing by leaps and bounds. When clicking on a division at a large site such as Microsoft’s the address will change slightly and forward slashes will be added to the address denoting a specific directory location because Microsoft’s site is so large it had to be divided it into sections. If you type in an address with some of these slashes already in the address the computer will access a specific section of the website without forcing you to start at the home page and clicking on the different hyperlinks to access specific information. Located within websites sites are coloured lines called hyperlinks, which connect the user to other sections within a site or an entirely different website. Hyperlinks are not expressed as actual addresses, which may be a little difficult for the beginner to read but are expressed in plain language and in a different color, usually blue, than the regular text, or are sometimes even contained in a picture graphic, called hot spots. You can tell if there is a hotspot contained in a graphic when the pointer changes to a hand on the graphic. By clicking on the colored text the computer (using a browser) goes to the actual Internet address, which is likely to be located on a different network server entirely. The actual Internet address is displayed in the status bar while the computer is accessing the site. After clicking on a hyperlink the text changes color and when revisited sites the next time the link is in the new color indicating you have accessed that particular link previously. The servers hosting particular sites generally many hundreds of miles apart. The browser performs this function seamlessly and you will not even be aware of the process; except you may have to wait a few seconds or even minutes for the site to download to your classroom computer. |
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| The World Wide Web | |||
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The most important fact to remember about the WWW is that there are few laws governing usage. This is one of its strongest points because it means that vast amounts of information are available to anyone with access to it; but it also means that there are no controls or filters for the information. This is significant because there aren’t publishing restrictions for anything on the Web. Teachers, parents and ISP providers are aware of the issue of pornography being readily available, so steps must be taken to filter this from the children in the home and classroom. Another issue teachers need to pay attention to is seeing to it that students learn to evaluate the quality of data found on the web for quality and authenticity. America enjoys its constitutional right to freedom of speech, but the individual user has to be aware of data reliability. Other media formats have editors to oversee what is published, document authors, sources and information reliability. This allows one the assumption of reliability. However, the computer user who accesses the Internet has to do the editing job. The individual should keep in mind, who publishes the information and for what purpose. Advertisers are not necessarily dishonest and they perform a real service in that they also sponsor Web sites for individuals. The individual who uses this service of the advertiser therefore is able to publish what they wish, in many cases free information on a particular subject that interests them. This type of site can be very informative, factual, and interesting. The WWW is an exciting and beneficial learning tool. Remember that learning tools require a basic understanding to make the best use of it. Have fun creating your lesson plans for this one! |
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| INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS | |||
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There are many different Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) available. They can be national, or local. America on Line and CompuServe 2000 are national ISPs. Local providers can also be quite large, covering a whole section of the country. A regional example is Bell Atlantic, which covers most of the northeastern region of the United States. Smaller ones may just cover a few phone numbers in a local area code. Most of these are commercial enterprises and charge a monthly fee to allow you to connect to the Internet. Recently, some browsers have begun to provide free access, for example Alta Vista; http://www.altavista.com/ offers nationwide service free of charge. Whichever one you decide to use, as long as you connect using a modem and the telephone line, they need to provide a local phone number for you to use to connect with or you will be charged for long distance calls every time you go on-line. The advantage of using a very large provider is the amount of services offered as part of a basic service plan. Most school districts have contracts district wide. Many companies allow you to customize the start up page any way you wish, receiving certain services, such weather reports, international and national news stories from sources like Ruters and the NY Times. These are great classroom tools. There are favorite book marking systems where you can keep addresses of sites you visit frequently. To access Alta Vista’s customized page just click on MY Live, local and then register a name and password. This service is free even if you don’t use their ISP service. After registering you may then access your own customized page by going to http://www.myav.com.) You may even wish to actually have two Internet Service Providers if you don’t live in a large urban area where the one you select provides many local phone numbers. You pay full price for the first, which has a local number for you personally, then connecting to a second, like America On Line, which is actually a commercial information service, rather than just an Internet Service Provider. In many cases the second service cost is usually a reduced rate because there is an ISP account in place. Many local telephone companies are willing to put in a high-speed line (ISDN), but this service is more expensive and is used mainly by schools and businesses. Cable companies are starting to provide Internet service along with their TV service for an additional fee. This will be really beneficial to rural areas. Currently it is only sporadically available in many areas of the country. One final way to connect has just recently become available and that is through the DirecTV people who provide satellite TV service. They now have a separate division to make satellite Internet available through the same pipe providing TV services. Unfortunately, it is only available to download the Internet to your computer, but you still need a way to upload to their computers. In other words, a way to connect to their service, (hopefully this will change in the near future), so you still need a commercial ISP such as AT&T or AOL. So again you would be paying two monthly fees, one to each. If this is within your budget range—great! Downloading from the Internet will be much faster than using your modem and the regular telephone line. |
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| SEARCHING AND BROWSING THE INTERNET | |||
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The Internet has millions of sites; information is out there in tremendous quantities. Getting to it can be fun and interesting, or sometimes it can be frustrating if you are looking for something specific. Choosing a site and then simply following the hyperlinks or choosing a category and browsing the options offered is generally known as Surfing the Web and can occupy a lot of time. The frustration occurs when looking for specific information and get too little or too much data in the search results. There are tools to help you in your search. If you are connected to the Internet you can generally see a dialogue box labeled SEARCH which connects the user to a search engine each time you sign on. They are part of the service package provided by the ISPs. The browser allows you to search the Web by entering a word or phrase in the little box. The only problem with using just one search engine is it cannot connect the user to all the information posted on the Web or all of the new information being added daily. Search engines are also commercial ventures on their own, therefore you are not limited to the search engine on your browser, but can utilize other ones such as http://www.yahoo.com , http://www.altavista.com or http://www.hotbot.com. When seeking specific information it is advisable to use several if you are searching for specific materials. After a search completion you see a displayed percentage score to the left of the found sites listed, these scores indicates how many times a search string was found. The underlying assumption being the more times it is found, the more chance the site will contain the information required. This is not always the case but is useful as a guide for the novice. The hits located is useful information to you also, I have seen as many as 2,000,000 pages listed as hits. Don’t give up—refine the search instead. Web guides are also available, such as Yahoo, http://www.yahoo.com or Excite, http://www.excite.com, which let you browse through menu trees of categories to begin your search. Search engines and Web guides use different methods of searching. Boolean operators refine searches. The method requires using the words AND, OR, and NOT. Some others require the use of + and - to aid you in achieving the results you are looking for. All searchers can use the "help" or "how to" tabs listed on the home page and it is advisable to familiarize yourself with the system each one uses. For example, if you are doing research on the reindeer population you would probably have no interest in the Christmas reindeer of Santa Claus, which you would receive in your search by just using the word "reindeer." Stating Reindeer NOT Christmas would eliminate those sites if you were using a search engine or Web guide that uses the Boolean method. |
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| It is quite simple to write and send e-mail, or electronic mail, to anyone that has access to a computer. It is much simpler and faster to send e-mail than it is to send what is now being referred to as snail mail through the U.S. Postal Service. No stamps are required because it is almost always part of the services provided by ISPs. For those that do not have one, free E-mail sites are available on the WEB, such as http://www.hotmail.com.
E-mail can be sent to one person or to many simultaneously, listing all in the Send to box, separated by commas, or the first in the Send To box and the others in the Copy To box, also separated by commas. The first person you address it to can be yourself and then you can send blind carbon copies to any amount of people you wish. The only address visible is that it was sent to you by yourself and they have received a blind carbon copy. It is not really a carbon anymore, so maybe it is currently referred to as a courtesy copy, but no one will be able to see anyone else’s address or even how many copies were sent. Click on the Write Mail icon on the tool bar, then place your cursor in the box where it says send to and type in the persons e-mail address. If you are using AOL and the person you are sending it to is also on AOL it is only necessary to type in their screen name, but if you are using AOL and the recipient is using another provider, it is necessary to type in the full e-mail address. It should something look like this MyOwnNanna@webtv.net. The MyOwnNanna part is their screen name and the @ sign tells AOL where to route the message; in this case the person owns a Web TV and subscribes to their e-mail service. If you would like to send the same content to others at the same time, you can type each name followed by a comma but no space in either the Send To box or the Copy To box. To send a blind copy simply enclose all screen addresses, each separated by a comma in parenthesis in the Copy To box. The mail is delivered to their mailbox almost instantly. You can send any file on your computer by e-mail, although graphics or files sent as downloads, take a few seconds to a few minutes to upload depending on their size. Any service that offers e-mail also has instructions on how to use it so if you are not sure exactly what to do look for Help, which is on all toolbars. The colour of text, size of text, and even the style can be chosen easily and when writing personal letters it is fun to experiment with different styles and colors to make it seem more like it is handwritten. E-mail can also be used to exchange graphics and sound files and individuals who use the large ISP’s maintain lists that they will add you to, which they use specifically to send these types of files to others. All of these lists that I have come across so far are free and the only request made from the senders is that you credit them with anything they have created and not use what they send you for commercial purposes but only for your own entertainment. Mail that you receive may be either replied to or forwarded, (see COPY AND PASTE). In the case of forwarding, the whole message in the original you received, plus all the addresses it was sent to before, plus the new addresses you add, are sent on to whoever you address the form to that appears with the subject line already filled in. You don’t need to fill in any message part, just the addresses of where you would like the mail routed to, unless you wish to add a comment, then the comment and all of the previous content will be sent. When you click on Reply To a form appears with the person’s address and the subject of the mail filled in, and you just type in your message. None of the previous message will appear in your reply unless you wish to include something for their reference when reading your message. If this is the case then copy and paste whatever section you wish to appear in the new form and then type in your reply. You may subscribe to many services offered by individuals or Internet Companies that will be sent to your address automatically. The time periods that the mail is sent varies, for instance http://barnesandnoble.com will send you a list of special offers on their books once a week and http://www.learningkingdom.com will mail you a vocabulary word daily. You can send any file to a friend or colleague through e-mail. Simply click on attachments and tell the computer where to find the file you wish to attach. These are the directions for AOL email, but it is very similar in the other e-mail programs as well. If you have a different ISP e-mail program there is always help available simply by clicking on help and selecting the subject you want help with. |
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| THE ADDRESS BOOK | |||
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This service is especially handy even if you only know a few people’s email address now. You will probably add more rapidly as you find how easy it is to use and the amount of typing it saves you. It also saves trying to remember Aunt Sally’s screen name and which service she is using. Once you set up the address book, usually found in the write mail form, and clicking on new person a dialog box will be displayed where you can type in their first name, last name, or just type in Aunt Sally in the first name box. This is what will be displayed on the list of people when you access the address book. Then type in their complete email address, exactly, in the box asking for this information. It has to be exact otherwise it cannot be delivered. This information will not be displayed but the ISP’s program will automatically fill in the address in the proper box when you click on Aunt Sally and then click Send To, or Copy To, and will even add the parenthesis if you choose Blind Copy. You can send to many people just by a few clicks. If you find yourself sending mail to the same group of people all the time and wish to continue to do so without clicking on individual names just set up a group name like Colleagues or Friends. Create any combination you use frequently and include everyone’s e-mail address in the group. You may have one group or several groups and send to everyone included in the group just by clicking on the group name and Send To. It is much simpler to remove a name or two if you choose not to send a file to a specific person one time than it is to type in 10 or more addresses individually. The same person can be included in multiple groups if you wish.
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| NEWSGROUPS | |||
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On the Web there are thousands of Newsgroups on any subject imaginable. Each newsgroup discusses a particular topic. Usenet, short for User’s Network refers to all the computers that distribute newsgroup information. The name of a newsgroup describes the type of information discussed. A newsgroup name consists of two or more words, separated by periods. You can subscribe to a newsgroup to read on a regular basis via E-mail. You can post or send notes or a new article to a newsgroup to ask a question or express an opinion. Depending on the topic thousands of people around the world may read your writing. The FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) is a document that contains a list of questions and answers that often appear in a newsgroup. The FAQ is designed to prevent new readers from asking questions that have already been asked. Make sure you read the FAQ before posting any articles to a newsgroup. It may be best to read a newsgroup a few times to understand its culture before posting a message to it. The informal rules that govern newsgroup life are called Netiquette and are generally found in the Newsgroup area.
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