What is the Internet?What is the Internet?
What is the World Wide Web?
What is the difference between a web site and a web page?
What can I find on the Web?
Why use the Web?
What is wrong with all caps?
What is a browser?
What is a URL?
What is html?
How do I begin?
What is the World Wide Web?The Internet is an international computer network made up of smaller networks. Originally designed as a way for government and academic researchers to share information, the net now connects universities, schools, corporations, non-profit organizations, and individuals. Unlike most networks, the Internet remains usable even if one or more of its network connections should fail. Therefore the Internet is a very robust tool both for sharing information and, more recently, for conducting electronic commerce.
What is the difference between a web site and a web page?
The term "World Wide Web" refers to the Internet’s ability to display and link files containing text, images, and a variety of other information. For example, a person creates a web site containing a series of pages that describes a science project. These files can also contain links to other files located anywhere in the world. The links are typically based on content related to the page containing the reference. The result is an ability to continually branch from a single starting point to any number of pages of related content located at sites all over the world.
What can I find on the Web?A web site is made up of a web page(s).
A web site is similar to a file folder. A folder contains and organizes information and documents. These documents are similar to web pages.
For example - www.teachersfirst.com is the main page of the TeachersFirst web site. The links from this page are separate web pages. All of these pages together make up the web site.
Many personal web sites consist of a single page. On the other hand, the site created by IBM for the 1998 Winter Olympics contained over 30,000 pages.
For consistency, we will refer to information placed on the Web as web sites since these encompass web pages as well.
Why use the Web?Content on the Web is as diverse as the people and cultures of the world. Web content covers an array of subjects that makes it more extensive than even the largest bookstore. The originality of the Web has no comparison and thousands of new web sites and information is added to the Internet every day.
Web sites are created by individuals and companies and contain the variety of information one would expect from such organizations. While the Web was originally conceived as a way to share academic information, today it contains far more. There remains a wealth of academic content for all levels, as well as a huge amount of corporate information that range from sites seeking to sell or advertise everything from computers to real estate. There are also promotional and informational sites operated by non-profit, political, and a variety of other organizations. In many respects, the Web is an international library, almanac, yellow pages, and flea market all rolled into one. Unfortunately, the Web contains a fair amount of material which is unsuitable for children and young adults. So while it is a powerful teaching tool, it is a tool which should be used with deliberate caution.An important thing to remember is that the Internet is huge; it is unstructured, and it is growing rapidly. Therefore, if you can not find the information you want today, it may be available next week. Keep looking!
What is wrong with all caps?The World Wide Web is an invaluable tool in today’s teaching environment. You can find a seemingly endless amount of information on the Web: teaching materials, pictures, videos, sound clips, exercises, games and so much more to enhance your instructional materials. Keeping students motivated and interested in learning is the goal of all teachers. TeachersFirst links can help you do that.
What is a browser?You should not use ALL CAPS when using Internet applications. This is important! If you use all caps you are YELLING at someone, not emphasizing a point. Unless you really are upset and wish to yell at someone, use normal sentence case. Internet users can be very touchy about this. They will know you are a newbie and if they are in a bad mood they may send you a nasty reply (flame) or get others to spam you.
What is a URL?A browser is a software program/application which allows users to view and navigate the content of the World Wide Web. The two most popular browser programs are Netscape’s Navigator and Communicator, and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Basic versions of these programs can be downloaded free from their publishers web site, or you can click on the icons in the TeachersFirst Toolbox to download either program. TeachersFirst has a complete browser tutorial, but the following paragraphs should give enough information to get you started.
Browsers do not have precisely the same features, but their basic capabilities are very similar. If you are a typical user, you’ll probably find that 80% of your time on the Web is spent using 20% of your browser’s capabilities. These capabilities are:
1. Viewing and navigating the Web. A browser displays web sites. As you move from one site to another you have the option to go back to the previous page as well as going forward to a page you just viewed if you have used the back key. These keys are very useful when viewing a web site that has not placed links to different pages on their site.2. Marking favorite pages. Browsers can store a list of sites to which you want to return. Netscape calls these "bookmarks," and Explorer calls them "favorite places." Remember that these are links to web sites and are not stored copies of the files themselves. This means that when you click on a bookmark/favorite place, your browser will load the most recent version of that website.
3. Saving pages. Your browser has the ability to save the contents of a page to your computer. It is important to remember that a single web page may contain numerous pictures and graphic files. Each of these files must be saved separately. You must also have software applications that are capable of viewing those images or you are saving them for nothing.
For more on web graphics click here
What is html?The acronym URL stands for "uniform resource locator," a fancy term for the unique location of a particular web file on the Internet. A typical URL looks like this:
http://www.TeachersFirst.com/history/ushistory.htm
Why is this important? If you know what a URL means, you can tell a lot about the source of the pages you are viewing. THIS IS IMPORTANT. Let’s begin by breaking the URL into its component parts.
http:// is the protocol (a set of operating rules) by which computers on the Internet send files back and forth. The protocol for the Web "http" is called " hypertext transfer protocol."
www.TeachersFirst.com is the domain name. The domain name is the unique name for the network which contains the web site you are viewing.
/history/ is the pathname. A pathname is the location within the web site where a specific web page is located. This is similar to a subfolder or a folder within a folder. Also, this is not always part of a URL. Pathnames can be called anything that the web sites creator came up with. In most cases, the use of a tilde "~" in a pathname indicates a web site reserved for a given individual’s personal use.
Ushistory.htm is the file name. It is the name of a single hypertext file, web page, located on the Internet.
All Internet addresses contain these components in varying combinations.
How do I begin?HTML stands for Hyptertext Markup Language. This is the code that creates the page format (layout, font, size, color, pictures, etc.) of a web page. HTML was developed in order to have a standard to ease communication across the Internet. Since all browser applications read HTML, it eliminates the necessity to convert files or data so that all users can read them. The HTML standard is responsible for the ease in access and ultimately, the growth of the Internet.
There are only three requirements to begin using the World Wide Web.
1. a computer
2. Internet access
3. browser software
Since you are viewing this page you have these items or are borrowing them from someone.
The World Wide Web’s greatest frustration is locating the information you need. That’s why we created TeachersFirst – to provide content which concentrates entirely on the needs of K-12 teachers. This site is designed to save you time and facilitate finding useful information for your teaching and your students.
If this is your first experience with the World Wide Web, we suggest the following:
1. Work through the browser tutorial to learn how to use your browser software. Navigating the Web is a lot easier once you master a few simple commands and how to use them.
2. Take a look at the "URL Anatomy" tutorial. It will help you understand those long web addresses to which we constantly refer.
3. Browse through the TeachersFirst contents, especially the "Classroom Materials" section.
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