A parent (Jim) has presented an introduction to the Internet and placed his outline here, on this page of our server. It is based on the Internet references at the start of our page of curriculum resources.

Jim's Introductory Internet Lesson

The Internet offers an incredible variety of information, using a variety of technologies. We'll touch at least briefly on most of the widely-used ways of using the Internet, and build our understanding from step to step in complexity. Among the rich resources of the Internet are lessons on how to use it, so instead of reinventing the wheel, the approach in this lesson is to take a tour of some of the lessons included in or reachable from our list of curriculum resources, mixed with some narrative of my own and some other helpful sources for learning about specific subjects. This is meant to introduce you to moving around the many resources on Internet, so you can explore more of the lessons that we list at your own pace. The Internet is so varied that we can't cover it all here, but everyone's lessons collectively do a great job. My goal here is not to tell you everything you'll ever need to know, but rather to get you started and show you where to learn more.

First, we're faced with the fact that for this lesson we're using one of the most advanced (as well as one of the most popular) Internet technologies: World Wide Web. So we need to detour and pick up some basics of how to navigate the Web. If you have a graphical interface, CLICK HERE where the text is underlined, in a box, or otherwise highlighted. (If you got here using a character-based interface, the words "click here" are probably highlighted, and you can press the "Enter" key or the right arrow key.) Eventually, you'll end up back here, and we can explore other topics, then work our way to a closer examination of the World Wide Web.

We'll start by exploring how the hardware and the software foundations of the Internet work. Next, we'll try electronic mail, using a simple computer-terminal method called "Telnet", and a menu system of finding things, called "Gopher". Then we'll find out more about World Wide Web. Along the way we'll learn about "FTP" (File Transfer Protocol). Our resources for "Learning about Internet" include some reviews that explore these topics from other perspectives, and explain some cultural issues of using Internet (like not getting lost in the maze of information, and "netiquette"). After that, since this introduction was written for an audience of teachers, there are a couple of references to lesson plans for teaching students about the Internet.

How Does the Internet Work?

I have an easier time learning things if I can get a physical understanding of them. With the Internet, I wonder how I get from here to there. The Oklahoma Geological Survey Observatory provides a lesson on the operation of the Internet with examples of a computer program called Traceroute, which finds the way from the Observatory to various remote computers. It compares it to your own city, town, village, etc.: the streets are the internet, and autos, bicycles, etc. are like the several types of Internet communications.

Its analogy to streets and vehicles is not surprising -- both the Interstate highway system and the Internet had similar goals and design principles. Part of their origins were military, for movement of materials and of modern communications. (Much of the Internet's subsequent development occurred to support research in universities, and the influence of university usage is still very visible. One of the references in our listing of educational resources is Honolulu Community College's "Internet 101" course, which can tell you more about "What is the Internet" and about Internet protocols and services.) Both the Interstate highway system and the Internet were designed with multiple paths from place to place, so that if one route was not available the system could still work, and with no single central control point, so that disrupting such a point would not be possible. (Also, both systems are able to handle multiple types of vehicles or communications.) Communicating great distances ends up being like driving between cities: you leave your home on a local path, round a few corners (maybe even moving away from your destination before you move toward it), then hit the highway where you move at high speed, and travel on local paths again as you reach your destination. If one major highway is congested, there is often an alternate highway. You may find bottlenecks on the local connections, but you rarely are slowed down on the major highways between cities. One difference is that on the highways you need to find your own route to your destination, while on Internet you just state your destination's address, and computers take you there. If you're interested in seeing more of how this works in practice, our own Experiment with Traceroute shows the way from Northern California to a variety of sites.

Electronic Mail

One of the most common uses of Internet is electronic mail, often used instead of the Postal Service (called "snail mail" by experienced Internet users) to communicate quickly or easily with other people. A number of different e-mail software programs exist, each with their own instructions. Here at Stanley school we'll probably be using a program called "Eudora", and you can find instructions on how to use it by clicking here. Most e-mail programs are reasonably easy to figure out just by trying them, but if you need instructions for different programs check with other users at your site for where to find help.

One approach for you to practice with e-mail would to be to find a friend with an e-mail address, send him or her a note, and wait for a reply. For our purpose here, it can take longer than the duration of this classroom session to wait for a friend to log onto his computer, find a message, and respond, and too involved to arrange for a friend to sit at his computer and wait for a practice message. So first get a quick introduction by clicking here (for the e-mail lesson from the Internet Exploration Guide for Teachers, included in our list of curriculum resources), then we'll try something unique to Internet -- exchanging mail with a computer. The exact methods vary between e-mail programs, but in general you will type in the e-mail address where you want your message sent, give a short summary when asked for the "subject", and then be able to type your message.

For a fast, practice response, there are computer programs that will respond to your mail. Let's try one: send an e-mail note to almanac@oes.orst.edu with the instructions "send quote" in the body of the message (leave the "subject" blank), and depending on how fast your mail system works, you can have an answer in as little as a minute. (If you're feeling a little frazzled while learning new skills, say "send moral-support" instead of "send quote".) Getting a quotation this way may not be something you'd repeat every day, but you're now on your way to being an Internet user. There is an every day use of e-mail using computers -- exchanging mail simultaneously with a number of other users with similar interests, through mailing list servers ("ListServ"s). The Internet Exploration Guide for Teachers' e-mail lesson that we just used has references to a couple of these, and you can click here for more.

One more thing before we go on, so you'll catch the humor and not think everyone's making typos: because emotion is hard to put in short written notes, some people insert "smiley"'s in their e-mail. Turn your head to the left, and you'll see this :-) smile. ;-) is a wink, if someone's kidding a little bit. There are a lot of smileys, so enjoy them when you see them, and see how they add to the context.

Telnet

A fairly simple way of using Internet is called "Telnet" and basically consists of logging onto another computer and entering commands, selecting items from menus, or doing other things that the computer may offer. Many World Wide Web software packages allow use of Telnet, or you can use a specific-purpose program. For example, using World Wide Web software you can use the address telnet://k12.ucs.umass.edu (use a user name of "guest", which requires no password) to find a lot of information that's useful to teachers at the University of Massachusetts. Before things like the World Wide Web were invented, people constructed a lot of useful Telnet services that you'll be sure to encounter, but you'll usually find them self-explanatory. For more examples of them, see the Telnet lesson in the "Internet 101" lessons. For more details about Telnet, click here.

Let's Go Gopherin'

As the Internet developed, people found ways to simplify using it. Telnet servers can allow you to see menus (or folders) in which to look up information or even transfer to the control of a different computer, but then people at the University of Minnesota developed a program called "Gopher" that allows control to be kept at your own computer where it can call up documents from a variety of sources, within a single menu. (You might have the image of a gopher moving around underground, out of sight, or of something that will "go'fer" the things you want, but the name actually comes from Minnesota's mascot, the Golden Gopher.) To learn more about Gopher, click here.

Entering the World Wide Web

As Internet became popular, people got the idea of moving from menus to links between documents that are embedded in the text itself, and called this "hypertext"; the Internet service that uses it is called the "World Wide Web". The World Wide Web is new but is quickly becoming one of the most popular Internet services: read the details in a report Lynx, which is a character-based browser that you access using Telnet. To see some of the interesting places you can find on the Web, learn how to find Time magazine, or take the National School Boards Association's tour of the Web.

FTP

As you explore the World Wide Web, you may find yourself, without trying, using a service called "FTP", or File Transfer Protocol. The Internet Exploration Guide for Teachers describes FTP as "a program that copies files from one system to another", and it can be that simple. As you learn more about Internet, you may hear about "Anonymous FTP" and about other programs that are more specialized and more powerful for FTP than Web browsers; for how to use them, you can refer to Archie. (For finding things on Gopher, you'll probably run across "Veronica". I've also heard of "Jughead" for searching the World Wide Web, but haven't found a "Betty" program yet.)

Wrap Up --The Nature of Electronic Communications

We have covered a lot of material in a short time, so it may have been too much to absorb. But this lesson is here on our Internet server for you to review as you wish. A lot of Internet skills simply develop with practice.

Computers can be confusing until you develop a new set of work habits, especially when they're connected to the entire world. For one person's description of his habits, read this article.

Don't be afraid to make mistakes on your own computer, but do be aware of your public behavior. Proper behavior when using Internet is sometimes called "netiquette", and in a school setting is usually included in the school's "acceptable use" policy -- be sure to find and read this. One guiding principle is to always remember that you are a representative of your school (or other Internet provider) -- don't say or do anything that you wouldn't do publicly. Remember too that your tone of voice and nonverbal communications do not appear in messages that you write, and that your reader may be from a different cultural background -- ask yourself if what you've written can be misunderstood, before you send it. For a more extensive discussion of Netiquette, here.)

Once you're comfortable using the Internet, you may find yourself using it in your classroom. Our list of educational resources has some examples of lessons for teachers who are teaching Internet to their students. In particular, see: Learning the Internet with Commander G, AskERIC Internet Lesson Plan, Using Internet in the Classroom, and K-6 Students' Use of the Web. Remember that part of the process is teaching "netiquette" to your students: make sure they know the school's acceptable use policy. (If you have any doubts about the reasons for such a policy, read this anecdote.)

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