The Internet is a network of networks connecting computers around the world. It began in 1969 as a result of the Cold War to guarantee that communications would remain intact in case of a national disaster such as a nuclear war. This was the ARPAnet (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network ) first created for military and scientific personnel and consisted of 4 computers. It is hard to establish exactly how many millions of computers are connected now.

Data is transmitted between computers using a standard called TCP/IP (Transmission Protocol/Internet Protocol)

Originally we had only UNIX based programs such as Telnet, FTP, Archie, and Gopher to locate and download sites and files. Each had its own rules or syntax , and allowed only plain text to be transmitted.

 In 1991, the WWW (World Wide Web)(The Web) was introduced. This could deliver pictures, sound, and video to a computer (client) requesting it from a server ( computer making the hypermedia documents available). In order for all clients to be able to receive hypermedia, a standard protocol called http (HyperText Transfer Protocol) must be adhered to. That is why most addresses or WWW sites begin with http://www
 
Connecting to the Internet requires software to connect your local computer to a host computer, and if you are remote from the host, you will also require a modem and an internet provider. The internet service provider (ISP) supplies you with the software and connections for a specified number of connect hours per month.

Once you are connected to a host computer, in order to access sites, you also need a program called a browser such as Netscape Communicator or Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Netscape Communicator - is the browser we are using . It has a component bar docked on lower right hand of window

To switch between components or applications, just click on icons for Mailbox, Composer, etc. These main components are also found under Communicator in Menu.  Most commonly used components are:

1.      Navigator - web browser
2.      Composer - easy to use editor for creating web pages
3.      Messenger Mailbox - e-mail program

Buttons:

1. Back takes you to previous site visited
2. Forward to next site visited
3. Reload the site if it has been a while since you have visited it.
4. Stop loading sites - if you have to wait too long or you change your mind
5. Home is the designated startup page each time the program loads. It can be changed to your own choice:
 EDIT--> Preferences--> Navigator-->type the URL of the Home Page you want in the Location Box.

Any Web address or URL(Uniform Resource Locator)  that begins with http is a WWW site.

http://juliet.stfx.ca/people/fac/rmackinn/rmackinnon.html#menu    - Ron MacKinnon's Bookmarks - Excellent page to use as a Start Page

A Home Page is the first document located at a Web site. Ex: The ST.F.X.U. Home Page. http://www.stfx.ca/ From there we can go to sub pages. My Home Page is at http://juliet.stfx.ca/~rjmackin/welcome.html . It is customary to name all home pages welcome.html.
My Ed467 course Page is at http://www.stfx.ca/people/rjmackin/ed467/ed467.htm
All Web pages have the file extension name of either .html  or .htm

Moving around page: scrolling, CTRL + HOME & END, and arrows

Finding text in long document :- CTRL + F --> fill in text you are looking for (use key words or partial words )

History - lists all URLs previously visited CTRL + H can be edited and viewed sorted in various ways.  You can connect directly to previously visited sites by clicking on them here.
 
Status bar shows how accessing and loading the site is progressing

Going to Web Sites or Entering URLS can be done in several ways:

1. Type the whole URL into the Location Box
2. If the beginning is www and the ending is com, just type in what's in between such as yahoo for www.yahoo.com.
3. If you want to return to sites you have been before, click on link in Bookmarks or History (CTRL + H)
4. Use a search engine and fill in query. Then click on links brought up by search.
5. File--> Open Location-->  type or paste URL

         Bookmarks - can be added simply by:
                 Clicking on Bookmarks next to Location --> Add --> this will add the URL to the end of your bookmark collection

Organize your bookmarks by creating folders for each subject area. Ex. If you are a social studies teacher, you might have folders for history, geography, projects, lesson plans, & general references.

To create a folder:Click on Bookmarks next to Location --> EDIT --> FILE --> NEW FOLDER --> type name of folder --> Enter.
To File bookmarks to certain folders: Click on Bookmarks --> FILE-->select folder in which you want to place them.

Ron MacKinnon's http://juliet.stfx.ca/people/fac/rmackinn/rmackinnon.html#menu - huge selection of educational sites

Nova Scotia Department of Education  Learning Resources and Technology http://www.EDnet.ns.ca/educ/program/lrt/ - mainly for LRT Updates and recommended software

Canada's Schoolnet - http://www.schoolnet.ca/ - a must resource for Canadian teachers

Bluewebn - http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/bluewebn/ - star rated award winning Online Lessons and Projects created by teachers

Web66: K12 Schools-  http://web66.umn.edu/ Web66 - school web pages from all over the world and web page construction tutorials

B.J. Pinchbeck's Homework Helper http://www.bjpinchbeck.com/ - The WWW from a student's point of view
 

1) Site has disappeared (most frequent)
2) Incorrect URL
3) Site is too busy

Copying text from WWW - Highlight text you wish to copy --> Ctrl + C ---> Turn to your word processor and paste it with CTRL + V

Copying images from web Pages - Right click mouse on the image --> Save image as --> select name and folder on the computer's hard drive --> Save

 How to Find Good Stuff on your Own

 Search Engines- help you find sites related to a specific topic. You enter a query or keyword search onto a search form --> submit -->search engine will return many links containing those words. Some will rank the relevancy of the links depending on how many times the words appeared in the pages.

What Search Engine you use depends on the complexity of your topic and also is a matter of personal choice. Trying various search engines using the same search terms is a good idea to see which one gives you the best results.
For example Altavista is a type of engine that often brings back too many irrelevant hits and it is best used for very specific information that other search engines miss.. Other search engines categorize data and then let you search when the topic has been narrowed down somewhat producing more relevant results- Yahoo is such an engine. Others incorporate several search engines and are called meta search engines such as MetaCrawler. Among the best search engines are: Excite, HotBot, Altavista, and Infoseek. PC Magazine rates Excite as #1.

An excellent place to find search engine addresses and guides is on the University of Toronto Search Page http://www.fis.utoronto.ca/internet/search.htm

See ratings of search engines at: http://searchenginewatch.com/reviewchart.htm

Searching techniques - Each search engine has its own searching rules. Be sure to follow the help guidelines given.

Common rules for entering most search strings involve:

Using quotes around a string of words which helps in many instances, such as "Mona Lisa".  Otherwise you will get all Monas and all Lisas on the net
Use AND , OR, and NOT to narrow down the topic, such as in "Prime Minister" AND Cretien. - makes sure that we only get Cretien who is also Prime Minister.
Using + in front of words makes sure the word is included. Using - in front of a word excludes it.  Ex.   NATO +Kosovo - is same as using AND , NATO -Kosovo will get all information about NATO except for Kosovo

        Practice using Search Engines: 15 minutes - we will discuss which search engine did the best job

Working in groups of two with your neighbor - divide up the search engines above ( three each) and do one of the following searches - use the same search string in all 6 and write down your results: How many hits you get and whether you think the hits are relevant or not.

1.    Let's try a broad based search for science fair project ideas
2.    You are looking for a Marsh lesson plan
3.    Suppose you want to write a report on child labor in third world countries.
4.    You want to find a tutorial on writing essays:
5.    You want to find a very specific topic such as an old high school chum who may have a web presence.

Newsgroups - are discussion groups where messages are posted to web bulletin boards. For a Yahoo listing of Educational Newsgroups go to http://dir.yahoo.com/Education/K_12/Usenet/

To read messages left by teachers on thousands of different topics go to Dejanews PowerSearch at http://www.dejanews.com/home_ps.shtml
Enter the search string in the same manner as in search engines and for results format use threaded. (by topic)
Try this Ex. Ask for Hamlet Lesson Plans by using Hamlet  + lesson plans. Then follow the threaded messages that interest you. If you like you can post a reply to a message or create a new thread.

Listservs - are discussion groups or mailing lists you subscribe to and depending on how much talking the group does, you will get few or many messages sent to you via your email account. There are hundreds of educational discussion groups. For a listing and directions on how to subscribe, see: Mailing Lists for Teachers at http://www.sfusd.k12.ca.us/resources/listserv.html
Also see Edweb's http://metalab.unc.edu/edweb/lists.html
If you can't keep up with a lot of mail, see if the list has an archive you can check instead. For example Edtech is a great list but you can get up to 10 letters a day from this list. They have archived messages where you can  read the messages you want.

To subscribe to one of the mailing lists above

1. Simply click on the mailing list you would like to subscribe to.
2. In the message area of the email, type subscribe name of list.
3. leave the subject box blank  For example if you want to join the BIOPI-L list, you would be sending a message to address: listserv@ksuvm.ksu.edu and in the message area: Subscribe BIOPI-L
4. Send the mail to the listserver that hosts this particular list.
5. If you get a message to confirm your subscription follow the exact directions
6. Save the final subscription message to consult later for directions on handling the subscription such as directions as to how to unsubscribe.
7. To unsubscribe, you usually have to send a message back to the original listserver or host and in the message either type unsubscribe or signoff and the name of the list.