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| - The Internet might seem intimidating at first.
- A vast communications network spanning the globe with billions
of web-pages that are made to satisfy and inform their constituents.
Indeed the Internet is quite large with many"pages."
However, in this lesson we will simplify the Internet to allow
you to become masters of it. |
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| The
Internet - |
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The Internet, the web, cyberspace,
and the ‘net are all terms that generally mean the same
thing, in this case, we will call it the Internet. The Internet
is a NETwork of computers, all over the world, INTERconnected
to each other and available to any individual. The Internet is
used for many different activities including shopping, communicating,
learning, and distributing information. Unfortunately,
you cannot open a door to a house, and expect to “go into
the Internet.” Computers are primarily the tool you utilize
to use the Internet. The Internet is somewhat difficult to describe
because you cannot touch it. Sometimes it is best described
in comparison to a library. The Internet is made up of many
individual components, just like a library is made up of many
books. The Internet’s components have even more individual
parts, just like a book has pages. |
Changing Constantly -
Because information, such as news, sports,
and money, changes so quickly in this day and age, the Internet
must change along with it. This might seem confusing. However,
it is not necessarily so. The Internet can be thought of as
a dynamic living organism that changes and adapts to its environment.
Thus, one web “page” that you saw yesterday, might
be gone the day after tomorrow. |
| Purpose/Content
of Websites - |
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On the Internet, there
are many web sites. These are usually made for one specific
purpose; it might be telling you the news, or it might be
informing you on the benefits of stamp collecting. The best
analogy for a web site is probably a comparison to an entire
book, or an entire newspaper. Web Sites are made up of “pages,”
just like a newspaper or book. Web sites are usually independent,
however sometimes linked together by hyperlinks (also called
links) that allow you to jump from one web site, to another
website. These links allow you to “turn the page,”
and move around on the Internet. They are usually underlined
and blue, however they can be any color and sometimes even
can be a picture. How to identify a hyperlink - when your
mouse hovers over a hyperlink, the arrow changes into a
pointing hand. |
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These pages
are what you see and read on the Internet. They are primarily
made up of text (words), digital media, (pictures, movies, music)
and hyperlinks. The Internet, unlike a book or newspaper, is
in no order, and thus, at times, can seem slightly confusing.
However, there are tools on the Internet that fortunately organizes
it and allows you to use it comfortably and easily.
Applications to Access the Internet -
On the computer, you use an application,
or program, to see the Internet. This is called a web browser
– you “browse” the web with it. Some common
web browsers include Internet Explorer, Netscape, Firefox, and
Mozzila. There is no major difference between these, however,
they look a little different, and appeal to different Internet
users. They share a common purpose, to navigate the Internet,
and have basically the same buttons. (Collectively, buttons
make a toolbar) For instance, we will take a look at the buttons
of Internet explorer. You use these buttons to also help you
navigate the Internet:
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| Each button has a specific purpose:
The Back Button - This
button allows you to go back to the previous page that you were
at. It is the most used and if you accidentally click a link,
this is the button you would use to get back to where you were.
The Forward Button -
If you accidentally clicked back, you don’t have to hunt
for the hyperlink on the webpage to go back to the previous
page. |
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| The Stop Button
- If the webpage you are loading takes a long time to load, and
you are in a rush, you can click this button to make it stop loading.
This is very useful if you are looking at many pictures. Pictures
take up a lot of space on the Internet, and it takes a long time
for them to be transported from the Internet onto your computer.
Thus, you can conveniently use the stop button.
The Refresh Button -
This button is especially useful if you are looking up the news,
sports scores, or the weather. By pressing the refresh button,
the web page is loaded again, and also updated. (Very useful
for websites that change a lot i.e. news, sports, weather, etc.)
The Home Button - When
you open your Web Browser, the first website that is displayed
is your home page. This web page is called your home page. It
is essentially the first page you come to when you open your
web browser. You can change your homepage to your preferences.
When you press the home button, it takes you to your home page.
The Search Button - the
search button is another way of looking up something on the
Internet.
The Favorites Button
- This loads a panel that lists all of your pre-programmed favorite
websites.
The Address Box - This
displays the URL of a webpage. URL stands for Universal Resource
Locator. It is essentially an address for the webpage. Each
URL is unique for the webpage. You can type a specific URL into
the address box by left clicking in it once and then typing.
Although URLs are all different, they share common characteristics.
The basic diagram of a URL is shown below: |
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| This is different than an E-mail (Electronic
Mail) Address, which we will get into later: |
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Scrolling - Again! -
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One thing to keep
in mind when viewing the Internet is that a bunch of information
might be displayed on a webpage, however, only a small portion
can be seen immediately when you load the webpage. Thus,
it is important to look at your scroll bars to the right
and bottom to see if there is more information you are missing.
If you are tired of using the mouse to scroll up and down,
try using the arrow keys. These are easier to manipulate.
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Aggravations! -
On the Internet, there are things that help you, and things
that can make you aggravated. One aggravation is the Pop Up
Ad. These irritating advertisements are caused by aggressive
marketers who want you to see their “amazing” product
and buy it. Pop ups create their own window and usually appear
on top of the information that you are interested in. How irritating!
If you click on these, they will take you away from the information
you are looking at, and direct you to a phony website that tries
to steal all of your information or hurt your computer. The
simple solution to these menacing advertisements is not falling
for the phony outrageous deals they are advertising by clicking
the X at the top right of the window immediately. Another type
of advertisement is the Banner. Unfortunately, banners cannot
go away. They are on web pages and are there to stay. Just like
Pop ups, they are used by marketers to sell phony items and
usually damage your computer if you click on them. Be careful
not to click on them and the only solution to them is to ignore
them. |
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Another unfortunate
webpage that you might come across on the Internet, is that
sometimes, when you go to a webpage, you might come up with
a screen that looks like this: This
essentially means that a website has either disappeared,
been deleted, or is unavailable. Sometimes try clicking
on the refresh button in the toolbar, and the web page
may load. Other times it may not. This error may also
be caused by an incorrect typing of a URL. If you manually
entered the URL, try double-checking to make sure you
spelled it correctly, or if you accidentally used a comma
instead of a period. Unfortunately, if these solutions
don’t work, you might be out of luck!
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Web traffic
is a common thing on the Internet. Sometimes, a website
can become very sluggish or inaccessible because too many
people are trying to visit the website. This is just like
too many people crowding the highway at rush hour when
they all are trying to get home! Heavy web traffic usually
occurs during the early evening hours, when many people
get home from school or work. It is a good idea to not
surf during these hours, or you might wait quite some
time to visit a web page. If traffic is too severe, web
pages might display a “404 Page Not Found”
sign that encourages you to try again later. Unfortunately,
there is nothing that you can do to stop this.
Congratulations! You have now passed the
basic principles of the Internet. Now it is time to find
out more about what you can do on the Internet. –
E-mail is coming up soon!
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On the Internet, there are websites specifically designed to
help you find websites and organize them. These are called Search
Engines and Subject Directories. We shall explore two of these.
Google
www.google.com
Google is a search engine, a Web site used to search for information
on the World Wide Web. Google collects Web sites using a computer
program (called a wanderer, crawler, robot, worm, or spider).
Google then creates an index of these sites that you can search.
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Use a search engine when
- you have a narrow topic or idea to research
- you want to retrieve a large number of Web pages on a topic
- you want to search for information from a particular type
of site or domain (.org, .gov, .edu)
- you want to retrieve certain file types (e.g., images, audio,
video)
- you want to retrieve pages in other languages
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Performing a search in Google
- Think of keywords to use in your search.
- Click inside the search box with the mouse, then type in
your keywords.
- Click the “Google Search” button or press the
Enter key on your keyboard to start the search.
- To view a site in the list of results, click on the blue
underlined title of the site.
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Google searching tips
- Google will return pages that include all of your search
terms. There is no need to include the word "and"
between terms. For example, to look for information about
parks in Cincinnati, simply type Cincinnati parks.
- Google is not case sensitive. Typing reggie miller is the
same as typing REGGIE MILLER or Reggie Miller.
- The “I’m Feeling Lucky” button will take
you directly into the first Web site on the list of results.
- The more words you include in your search, the more specific
your search will be.
- If you don’t find what you need in the first 20-30
sites, try another search engine.
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Use Google’s Advanced Search when you want
to
- search for a phrase
- exclude words from your search
- find pages in a specific language
- find pages from a particular type of site or domain (.com,
.org, .gov, .edu)
- search for images
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| Yahoo! www.yahoo.com
Yahoo! is a subject directory, a Web site that offers a collection
of links to Internet resources submitted by site creators or
evaluators and organized into subject categories. Most subject
directories are searchable.
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Use a subject directory when
- you have a broad subject, or just want to browse.
- you want to see a list of sites on your topic often recommended
and annotated by experts.
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Two ways of searching Yahoo!
- Using the categories, you can find information by browsing
through each subject.
- Click on the category you wish to search.
- Follow the categories by clicking on the links until
you find the information you want.
- By entering keywords into the search box, you can make your
way quickly to any of Yahoo’s categories.
- Think of keywords to use in your search.
- Click inside the search box with the mouse, then type
in your keywords.
- Click the “Search” button or press the
Enter key on your keyboard to start the search.
- To view a category or Web site in the list of results,
click on the blue, underlined title.
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Yahoo! searching tips
- Results from your search are presented on the “search
results” page with links to Yahoo! categories first
and then to individual Web site matches.
- Links to Yahoo! categories are in bold faced type. Links
to Web sites outside Yahoo! are not in bold.
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Try these questions to test your searching skills
using Google or Yahoo!
- Look for recipes that use eggplant.
- Browse for Web sites about container gardening.
- Find the lyrics of the official state song of Indiana.
- Browse for Web sites about harps.
- What is the phone number of the Office of Admission at Otterbein
College?
- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has
useful information on travelers’ health issues. Can
you find this information without knowing the Web address
for the agency?
Hint: To find specific information, a search engine works best.
Browsing is easiest in a subject directory.
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| Browser - A software program that
allows Internet documents to be viewed, also called a Web Browser.
Cyberspace - The world of computer networks.
Domain Name - A unique name that identifies
a specific computer on the Internet.
Download - A term for transferring software
or other files from one computer to another.
E-mail - Electronic Mail - Messages sent from
one specific user to another using a network
E-mail address - The way a specific user is
identified so that they may receive E-mail. An e-mail address
can be identified by the "@" sign. E.g., Support@seniorconnects.org
Hits - The number of files downloaded from
a computer on the Internet, or the results of a query performed
with a Search Engine.
Home Page - The first page of a Web Site,
similar to a table of contents.
HTML - HyperText Markup Language- A computer
language used to make hypertext documents that are sent via
the World Wide Web and viewed using a Browser.
HTTP - HyperText Transfer Protocol - The way
that hypertext documents are transferred over the Internet.
Hypertext - A way of presenting information
that allows words, pictures, sounds, and actions to be inter-linked
so that you may jump between them however you choose.
Link - A highlighted word, phrase, or image
that allows you to jump to another document on the World Wide
Web.
Metasearch Engine - Allows one to search several
search engines at one time.
Search Engine - a web site that indexes and
allows searching of information gathered from the Internet.
URL - Uniform Resource Locator – The
entire address for a piece of information of the Internet. E.g.,
www.yahoo.com
Web Page - a hypertext document available
on the World Wide Web.
Web Site - A collection of Web Pages.
World Wide Web - A collection of resources
available on the Internet using a Web Browser. |
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