World Wide Web Guide * for Students to the Internet

Presentation F Definition of the Internet F Approach to the Internet F History of the Internet F Searching the Web & evaluation F Internet tools software

The Internet is a......distributed hypermedia network of networks

Distributed F Information on the Internet is located on many millions of computers F No one agency has jurisdiction of the Internet; everyone plays a part

Hypermedia F The Internet supports many different formats of information Ù Text files Ù Pictures Ù Photographs Ù Sound files Ù Video files

Network of Networks F Network : two or more computers hooked together F TCP/IP is the language of the Internet that allows unlikecomputers to “talk” F Network of networks : over 40,000 networks of computers all hooked together

The Internet is a... F Distributed F Hypermedia F Network of networks

How to Approach the Internet F Don’t get frustrated F Keep it simple F Give yourself time to explore F Find a mentor to help F Look for personal interests first

History of the Internet F Started in 1969 by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) F The Department of Defense wanted a system that would still work if part of it were destroyed F In 1983, the research computers that were networked became ARPANET

History of the Internet F In 1986 the National Science Foundation took the initiative and ran the network backbone F In 1995, the NSF stepped out and commercial providers took over the Internet

Addresses F Username followed by symbol F Computer name and domain F Domains : net, org, edu, mil, gov, com UsernameComputer name & domain

Different Domains on the Net.comcommercial.netnetwork.edueducational.orgorganization.netnetwork.milmilitary.govgovernment

URL: Uniform Resource Locator F “Address” of a file on the Internet F Contains type of protocol followed by the computer name, directory and file name transfer protocol (WWW) ftp://file transfer protocol gopher://gopher site news:newsgroup telnet://telnet mailto: address

Speaking “URL” h-t-t-p colon slash slash w-w-w dot capecod dot net slash tilde kschrock slash index dot htm

Anatomy of a URL F Hypertext Transfer Protocol Address of ISP Network domain Directory on the server File name (HTML format) html – Hypertext Markup Language

The World Wide Web F A global network of information servers F Information may be in the form of text, audio, video, or animation F Many millions of sites containing documents with links to other documents F Fastest growing area of the Internet

Finding Information on the WWW Search Engines F Software programs that scan the contents of Web servers to create large indices of information F User can perform keyword searches of these indices; combining of terms F AltaVista, Lycos, Webcrawler, HotBot

Finding Information on the WWW Directories F Collections of resources compiled and organized by a person F May be searchable via keyword F May be general or subject-specific F Yahoo, Magellan, Lycos A2Z

Evaluating Information on the Net F Who wrote it? F When was it written? F Why was it written? F Is it biased? F Is it authentic? F Is the author an expert? F Is the page easy to use? F Is the page free from HTML errors? F Are the graphics useful? F Can you verify the information? F Is a bibliography included?

World Wide Web Browser F Allows you to view WWW sites which contain text, pictures, and sound F Netscape vs. Internet Explorer vs. Mosaic F After installation, browsers must be configured for your machine F Easy to move back and forth between pages due to cache

Parts of a Browser Window  Menu  Tool Bar  URL Field  Document viewing area  Status Bar

Browser Configuration and Helper Applications F The browser can display text and certain formats of pictures F For other formats the browser needs to have “helper applications” configured Example: If you choose a sound file, you have to have told the browser what piece of software on your machine is to be run to play the file

Saving File to Disk F File-Save on browser menu F Choose whether you want to save as a HTML or text file F Choose location for saving F Does not save graphics, only text F To save graphics, position cursor and use right mouse button to “save this image as...”

The Internet is useful when you need to know something that is... F not in your textbooks or library F based on data collected by the government F likely to require specialized knowledge F best understood from eyewitness accounts F fast-breaking news

The Internet is not useful for... F a quick overview or definition of a topic F face-to-face interaction with other students and teachers F drawing, writing, building, planting, or any other type of hands-on activities

The Internet is also good for : F collaborating on projects with students all over the world F finding and contacting experts F getting real-world experience in researching and evaluating information F publishing students’ projects and publications

THE END Original Concept By Ms. Daphne Elms Addition Editing by Clarence Hamilton Washington Middle School MCPSS Mobile, Al. Booker T. Washington Middle School Library