EIGHT REASONS FOR TEACHERS & STUDENTS TO GET ON THE WEB
Reason #1: To reinforce Writing Skills
• Electronic letter exchanges and bulletin boards provide interesting ways for students to reinforce spelling, punctuation and writing skills.
• Buddy Systems: older students can help first and second graders correspond with a penpal.
• Students can write reports summarizing the results of their database or survey searches and share those results with classes around the world.
• Many web sites offer poetry and writing contests.
• Students can interview scientists or other students from throughout the world and then write and print the interviews; several web sites now offer on-line mentors in a wide variety of academic areas who offer their knowledge in their field and communicate with students
• Students can create a newsletter based on their writings and the essays of E-mail penpals and share it electronically.
Reason #2: To understand other cultures
• Students can have long distance penpals or create surveys for children from throughout the country or another country.
• Students can stage forums to express their views on a current issue or any areas of interest or concern and then teleconference with students from all over the world.
• Students can take an imaginary trip through the country, learning about the culture and geography as they follow their itinerary, a Tele-Field Trip.
• Students can create databases and share information about their community with others to compare and contrast their lives with the lives of other students.

Reason #3: To facilitate hands-on science and math projects
• Web Sites allows students access to weather databases and services, so students can chart daily weather, compare their climate with weather throughout the country through E-mail, analyze weather data, and forecast the weather.
• NASA at http://quest.arc.nasa.gov offers up-to-the minute photographs, videos, teleconferencing with scientists and astronauts, weather and space data
• Ask Dr. Math at http://forum.swarthmore.edu/dr.math provides math lesson plans, links and homework help.
• Kid’s Web Mathematics at http://www.npac.syr.edu/textbook/kidsweb/ math.html provides math history, games, puzzles and hands-on activities
• There are many web sites that provide stock market quotations and advice and even have investment simulations. Try http://www.younginvestor.com

Reason #4: To facilitate social studies projects
• Many newspapers are now online, providing current events and headline news. Students can be reporters and use the up-to-the minute news stories to create their own newspapers. Or students can compare the presentation of news items with local and national coverage of the same items.
• Many teacher resource web sites offer lesson plans, activity sheets and curriculum suggestions for using the current events information. These can be downloaded.
• Students have access to extensive databases to use as inquiry tools to understand demographic, cultural, political, and economic information.
• Several web sites offer interactive simulations on current events, where students take the roles of various real-life people and enter into electronic dialogs to achieve world peace. Students predict the outcomes of their negotiations, write press releases and research current events.
• There are many social action projects on-line including learning about the rain forest, ecology, politics both local and global, women’s issues, health issues, ad infinitum.
• Many web sites offer up to the minute information about countries and cities around the world, perfect for research reports and projects
• There are online tours of the White House, Plymouth Plantation, Historic Sites in Philadelphia and Jamestown, etc.

Reason #5: To facilitate exchange of teacher information
• Teachers gain access to educational software reviews, participate in forums with educators from throughout the country, consult with computer experts on hardware and software issues, download programs and templates created by other teachers for classroom activities. A good starting point is Classroom Connect’s web site at http://www.classroom.net

Reason #6: To provide equal access to an increasingly important tool for all of our students
• If we are passive in not using telecommunications in our classrooms, then there is no equalizer for all of our students. The same “short boys wearing glasses” who convinced one of my capable math students in 1979 that mathematics was not her territory now have taken over the world of modems, downloading files, web searching and so on. If we don't provide modem access for all of our students, then this situation is likely to be exacerbated. But even if we do, it is not enough. Only by appropriating this new technology and requiring all of our students to use it do we set in place a common denominator of skills and techniques. If everyone is forced to use e-mail or electronic searching, then The Internet no longer is the domain of males and hackers only .

Reason #7: To provide practical applications to theoretical problems
• One of the great strengths of the internet is the wealth of real world data available; students can learn about weather patterns and then view weather maps and chart weather throughout the world to see their theoretical knowledge of weather fronts and Highs and Lows applied in actual terms. Similarly the study of economics and the stock market can be supplemented by following stock quotes and analysis easily found online.

Reason #8: To have some fun
• There are sites where you book flights, hotels and check out a vacation destination.
• There are infinite numbers of sites on a huge variety of sports, hobbies, crafts, museums, music, collecting, etc.
• There are a vast number of online shopping malls where you can buy books, CDs, clothes, gifts, flowers, etc.
• Almost every new movie has a web site and there are many movie database sites that provide info and reviews so that you won’t rent a clunker at the video store or have to rely on the advice of the sixteen year old cashier.

STEPS TO GET STARTED

What you will need to get started
• a fairly powerful computer with at least 16-32 meg of RAM
• a modem capable of at least 28,800 bps
• a standard telephone line (but remember that when you are getting increasingly frustrated surfing the web, people trying to call you on the telephone will be getting increasingly frustrated with the busy signal; so some aggressive web users decide to get a second phone line).
• an account with an Internet Service Provider (ISP), either a local business or a national company like America Online or Compuserve.
• Internet Software that you get from your Internet Service Provider, like Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Explorer or the software that comes on all those thousands of America Online discs you get in the mail.
How a typical online session works
• You use your computer to dial up and connect to your ISP either through the proprietary software given by America Online, etc. or you open your PPP connection.
• Your ISP then connects you to the Internet.
• Launch your Web browser or the Internet Connection of AOL.
• That’s It.

WHAT IS THE WORLD WIDE WEB?

There is always confusion about the differences between the World Wide Web, The Internet, and Netscape. The Internet is really the cabling that allows millions of computers throughout the world to communicate with each other. It is simply a giant network that allows you to log on, i.e. connect to, millions of other computers and to the information that is stored on the hard drive of those computers. The World Wide Web-WWW-is a subset of the Internet, those computers that have information stored on their hard drives that is in a multimedia format, a format that incorporates text, music, sound, video, graphics and a special kind of text called hypertext. Netscape Navigator (or Microsoft Explorer) is the software that allows your computer to gain access to and then display on your monitor the information available on the World Wide Web.

Some Terms You Need to Know from A to Z:
• Browser (or Web Browser): Software that lets your computer display computer information that includes multimedia. The two most popular titles are Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Explorer. Commercial Online services, like America Online, have their own web browser software. The term browsing the web has become synonymous with surfing the web or simply spending way too much time on-line.
• Cable Modem: some cable companies are now offering more than Sports Channel and HBO; they are offering access to the Web. A cable modem connects to your cable TV box instead of your phone line and can operate at speeds up to 1.5 million bps.
• Domain: part of the official name of a computer that is on the Internet, for instance nobles.edu, sony.com, whitehouse.gov.
• Download: to transfer data, files or software from one computer to your own computer hard drive.
• GIF (Graphics Interchange Format): a graphics file; files in this format end with .gif and are called gif files and are basically just pictures
• Hit: what the Red Sox sorely need, but also a term for the results you will get when you enter keywords into a search engine; the subsequent list of web sites are called hits.
• Home Page: the web site that your browser automatically displays upon opening; you can set the preferences of your web browser to open to a page that is most useful to you, maybe Yahoo or maybe Noble and Greenough School or maybe a page that provides many good links for educators. The term can be confusing because people also use it to describe the main-or starting page-of every web site. So that when you type in a URL like www.sony.com you will arrive at Sony Corporation’s Home Page.
• HTML (Hypertext Markup Language): The programming language used to create web pages; HTML allows the page to contain codes that will then display graphics, sounds, and hypertext. You don’t have to know anything about HTML to browse the web, except that many web addresses end with the letters HTML or HTM. You have to know HTML codes only if you want to create your own web site.
• HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol): the method used to transfer web pages on the Internet, thus when trying to connect to a web site you begin the address with HTTP.
• Hypermedia: graphics, sounds, videos all on web pages; pictures that are hypermedia links usually have a blue box surrounding them.
• Hypertext: the clickable text on a web page; usually hypertext is a different color than the rest of the text on the page and/or it is underlined. When the cursor moves over hypertext, the cursor changes to an icon of a hand-another clue that the words are hypertext. Hypertext contains embedded links to other web pages or other web sites so clicking on these words will bring you to new information.
• ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network: a digital, hence faster, phone company protocol that allows speedier relays of information through the internet; usually operates at speeds four times the rate of a 33,600 bps modem connection. Right now ISDN lines are probably too expensive for most home use.
• ISP (Internet Service Provider): a company that provides connection to the Internet; there are local and national ISPs. You establish an account with an ISP which then provides you with a local phone number for your modem to dial that will then gain you access to computers throughout the world.
• JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group): pronounced jay-peg, this is a type of graphic file that is found on many web pages; graphic files in this format have file names that end with .jpg or .jpeg.
• Link: a connection to another web site on the Internet, another web document in the same domain, or another part of that web page; you follow links by clicking on hypertext or hypermedia.
• MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group): pronounced em-peg, this is a type of video file that is found on many web pages; video files in this format have file names that end with .mpg or .mpeg.
• Packet: chunks of data sent through the phone lines from one computer to another over a network or over the Internet.
• Page (or Web Page): basically a file or document that is available through the World Wide Web; this is like a page in a book, similar to a page in a multimedia encyclopedia on a CD-ROM that can contain hypertext, graphics, video, and sound files.
• Plug-in (or helper programs): computer applications that you add to your web browser to help the browser handle certain special files found on web pages, like sounds, movies and animation; these are usually available as freeware to download from web sites. One well known plug-in is Real Audio which turns your computer into a radio so that you can connect to the Boston Celtics web page and listen to the radio announcement of the game even if you are not in Boston.
• PPP (Point to Point Protocol): a software scheme that allows your computer to make a connection via the phone lines to other computers on the Internet; you open or close your PPP connection to your ISP.
• Surfing the web: just a euphemism for saying that you are wasting inordinate hours of time clicking on links and browsing numbers upon numbers of web pages; too much web surfing means you should get a life.
• T1: a special connection to the web that allows data to fly into your computer at the rate of 1.44 million bps; many schools now have established T1 lines that allow all their computers on their network to connect immediately and speedily to the internet without having to use modems.
• URL (Uniform Resource Locator): the address of a web site; you enter the URL in the go to: box of your web browser and then press Return and your computer will then be connected to another computer with the web address or domain that you entered; then that computer will immediately load the specific file that is stored on that computer’s hard drive and the web page will be sent to be displayed on your computer monitor.
• WWW (World Wide Web): that subset of the Internet that is a hypermedia network system that provides access to a wealth of information-some fascinating, some arcane, and some downright wrong-that is almost always overwhelming.

Getting Started in Searching
Many people avoid the Web like the plague because after several confusing and frustrating hours spent looking for information that never seems to appear, they decide that the Web is more hype than hypermedia. But after spending a few more hours, they might just decide that Surfing the Web is more fun and certainly more rewarding than watching the Boston Celtics.

There are basically two ways to find information in the incredibly rich, but sometimes frustrating, wealth of resources on the Internet: Search engines, like AltaVista, Infoseek, WebCrawler, and Subject Directories, Like Yahoo, Excite and Galaxy.

What's an Internet subject directory?
Subject directories categorize Internet sites by subject; Searchers of information can select a starting broad category and then browse the list of resources in that category. Users conduct their searches by clicking on progressively more narrow search terms from a number of subcategories. In this way, you move through increasingly more specific subgroupings until you reach a final list of resources that fits your needs.

For example, if you were using the Yahoo subject directory to find Social Studies lesson plans, you would start at the First Page of Yahoo (www.yahoo.com) which presents the top level of the directory where there are approximately 15 general categories, including “Business and Economy” and “Education.” Selecting “Education” would lead you to a list of about 40 subheadings, including “K-12,” “Humanities,: “Teaching,” and “Math and Science.” Selecting “K-12” would lead to another page of Subheadings, including “Newspapers,” “Social Studies,” and “Resources.”

If you click on “Social Studies,” you will arrive at a webpage with a list of resources for teaching Social Studies, including indexes specifically designed with links to many more Social Studies resources, and specific links to other helpful web sites, like Amazon Adventure, a New Zealand-based project, aimed at K12 students and schools, an online tour of Amazônia, placing special emphasis on the region's history, people, and environment; or Computers in the Social Studies, a journal dedicated to the encouragement of the use of computers and related technology in K-12 social studies classrooms; or Great Canadian History Page, dedicated to learning and teaching about Canadian Social Studies/History; or History and Social Studies Web Site for K-12; or Teachers Lesson Plans and Resources for Social Studies Teachers. Clicking on the last choice will take you to a website with the URL of http://www.csun.edu/~hcedu013/ index.html. This page was designed by a middle school History teacher to provide other educators easy access to web resources such as Lesson Plans and Teaching Strategies, Online Activities, Newsgroups and Mailing Lists.

Subject directories will not have links to every piece of information on the Internet. Since they are created by humans (rather than by computer programs), they are much smaller than search engine databases. Moreover, every directory is different and its value will depend on how widely the company searches for information, its method of categorizing the resources, how well information is kept current, etc. As the Web grows, these directories are really more of a “Best of the Web” than a complete database of web sites. It it helpful to think of Subject Directories as your local librarian who can guide you through a card catalog and provide helpful suggestions about valuable books and resources in your own library.

What's an Internet Search Engine?
A Search engine is basically a computer program that collects information about roughly 50-100 million Web pages and then indexes the information into a database and then allows you to search that database. There is no human being categorizing and evaluating the quality of individual web sites. But using an index search gives you access to greater numbers of web sites than a subject directory like Yahoo. Search results from these engines use an algorithm to sort through documents to determine their relevancy--for instance, the number of times a key-word appears as well as its proximity to the top of the document. But indexes are basically brute force idiot machines, meaning they are unable to grasp the subtleties of the English language like recognizing context, matching synonyms, or figuring out homonyms. A search using the keyword “beat” might return links to sites about Jack Kerouac but you will also get links to pages about the rare game when the Celtics beat the Suns, The Beat Goes on, and Music Central.

What's better - a search engine or a subject directory?
There is only one answer: it depends. Much depends on the personal preferences and skills of the user. Some people, particularly those starting out with web searching, like directories because they can work their way through the categories, limiting the choices to specific topics. They don’t have to worry too much about coming up with Keywords to search on or figuring out Boolean terms. Subject directories work best if you have a specific theme or category in mind; for instance, you know that you are looking for writing projects for lower school science or links to teaching about the Holocaust.

Search engines allow for complicated search terms so that you can find more specific resources by either broadening or narrowing your searches with AND, OR, or NOT. Also, search engines have links to many millions of web pages so if your subject is complex and somewhat off the beaten path, then you might have more luck finding what you need with a Search engine. Because you don’t have to rely on the specific categories created by a Directory, you will have more flexibility with a Search engine. So Directories can be better for finding general information while Search engines can be better for finding specific info. But the truth is that there is no hard and fast rule and sometimes you will want and need to use both.

Both a strength and a weakness of the search engines is the very extensive amount of hits that they will give you. One search could produce thousands of hits, enough to make you crazy. Knowing how to create effective and efficient searches is a skill and there is a learning curve.

Are there search engines just for younger students?
The advantage of using search engine for kids is that they automatically filter out offensive sites and provide a shorter, perhaps easier to use, list of links. The sites are also screened to provide sites particularly appropriate in their depth of material and reading level required.
1. Yahooligans: http://www.yahooligans.com
2. Lycos for Kids: http://www.lycos.com/kids
3. AskJeeves for kids: http://www.ajkids.com
4. Disney DIG site: http://www.dig.com

What are some Searching tips?
1. Think up a few key words that describe your topic.
2. Use a thesaurus to find synonyms to broaden your search.
3. If at first you don’t succeed, alter your key words; maybe use a minus sign to eliminate those web sites that contain irrelevant information.
4. Be careful with capitalization: capitalize proper names but don’t capitalize more general terms.
5. Put quotation marks around words that you want to be treated as one phrase within a web site. “lesson plans” will be much more helpful than lesson plans because with the latter entry you will get web sites that include either lesson or plans, but not necessarily those much valued pages that will help out all teachers.
6. Most search engines let you put a + in front of the words that must be included (by the way, there should not be a space between the + and the keyword) and a - in front of words you do not want included. So if your students are doing a report on Boston, but you don’t want them bogged down with sports trivia, you would enter the search terms Boston -Celtics.
7. Learn that most search engines allow for simple keyword searches on their main page, but that you need to click on Advanced Search or a similar term to go to the search page that allows you to include the Boolean operators of AND, OR and NOT.
8. Learn to use one or two search pages well, mastering perhaps one Search engine and one Directory. All of them have their quirks so you will be most successful and the least frustrated if you spend some time learning the search features of one site. Don’t go crazy trying too many search engines.
9. Be persistent; it is easy to give up. Maybe all you need to do is add a keyword to your search or use an advanced search feature. Look at a several pages worth of hits that you have received to figure out where you went wrong in entering your key words. Or sometimes you just have to check your spelling or punctuation.
10. Bookmark a page once you find it.
What is a Boolean search and Why would I ever want to do that?
Most of the search engines allow you to either broaden or narrow your search by allowing you to put AND, OR, or NOT between your keywords. Most of the time you will have to go the Advanced Search Page or an Options Page; so you need to look for a link to the advanced search web page.

AND can be used as a connector between two key words so that you can narrow a search to a manageable number of hits. For example, with “women AND history” as the search term, you will get a list of links to sites which have both of these words present in a document. It will ignore documents which have just the word “women”" in it (e.g., Women in America) and it will ignore documents which have just the word “history” in it (e.g., Civil War History). These words, however, do not have to be contiguous. For even more narrow searches, you can use AND more than once. For example, "women and history and United States" would limit your search even more since all three terms would have to be present for a link to the document.

NOT narrows the search by forcing the search engine to exclude certain words. For example, the search term “women NOT history” would give you links to information on topics relevant to women but not if the term “history” is present. It is possible to combine AND and NOT. For example, the term “basketball AND players not Jordan” would give you information on various basketball players. But you would not get information on Number 23.

OR can broaden the search. You might use “or” if there were synonyms for your keywords. If you want to buy a car, then you could enter “car OR automobile” to get more hits. For wider searches, you can use “OR” more than once. For example, “museums OR galleries OR art history or paintings” would create a broad search. Below is a another way to search by using the options Lycos provides.