Activity

New Student Survey

In this face to face meeting we will review the outline of the course and the requirements. We will look at the primary tools of the class: class discussion board , the Link Share, and the two major browsers, Netscape and MS Internet Explorer (IE).

Assignments and Homework

1. At home: After returning home from this class send Paula an email and introduce yourself.
   1. Send the email to edmiston@matrixmagic.com
   2. The Subject line should read Fulton Net Class
   3. Be sure to use the email address that you will use (have access to) when you sit down to work on this class.

      Once I've received all of your emails I will set up the class mailing list and begin posting. So please send me this homework email ASAP so we can all begin using the class mailing list!

   4. At home review the material on this page. Be sure you understand what a URL is, and how the various parts work together. If you're not already familiar with your browser then the links to the Tips and Tricks on browsers will be helpful. Post any questions you have to class mailing list.

   We are all in this together. The class mailing list is a place where all questions and comments are treated with respect and patience.

The following assignments will take place during our face- to-face orientation class.

3. We'll discuss Netguide, the class mailing list.

4. Post to Section One of the class discussion board.
   The Subject Line of the Post should be the type of teacher you are. If you teach 3d grade, then the subject line will read Third Grade Teacher or if you have a non-teaching position then enter that, for example, Librarian.

   Introduce yourself and share your experiences with the browsers. How do you like being able to make note of sites you've visited so you can return? If you're using Netscape, do you find the description section of a bookmark to be a valuable addition? If you're using IE do you find the access to Favorites off the Start Menu very useful? Feel free to discuss other issues as well.

5. After making this post, wait a few minutes and then return to the class discussion board. Read posts made by the other students and choose one (or more!) to respond to.

6. Post to the Link Share page a site that you are already familiar with, or use the example site provided in class.

Resources

These handouts will help you use your browser more effectively. I recommend that you print the handout(s) for the browser you plan to use. If you use Netscape, then don't bother with the MSIE handout. Printing the handout is recommended so that you can easily consult it while trying out commands in the browser.

• Face to Face Handout This handout is in PDF format and requires the free Adobe Acrobat PDF reader. This handout is enormous because of all the example images it contains. It will be handed out to you in class and hopefully you will hang on to it and not have to suffer the lengthy download time!

  These browser tips and tricks are offered to enhance your work in this class. If you're not already familiar with your browser, take a look at these handouts. You be surprised and pleased with the terrific features of Netscape and MSIE.

• Netscape Tips and Tricks
  
• Netscape Bookmark Files
  
• Internet Explorer (MSIE) Favorites

How the World Wide Web Works

The World Wide Web is a service of the Internet as a whole. The Internet is a collection of services; the Web is arguably the most important service, but it is not the only one. Other services on the Web include email, telnet, FTP, Use newsgroups, etc. Use the word Internet when you want to refer all of the services broadly; use WWW only when you are referring specifically to this single service.

One perspective of how the Internet works is the client/server system. Each task that we engage in: email, the world wide web (WWW), file transfer (FTP), etc., is dependent upon two types of software programs. We the users must have a client program to transmit our request and to receive the reply. And the computer we are connected to must be running a server program to interact with our client, to provide the response to the client's (our) request. We the users never really see the server programs directly and are usually unaware of them. But the programs we do use, the client programs, must contact these server programs. One example of a client server relationship is the world wide web. The client program that we use is called a web browser. There are many of these web browser programs to choose from. The two most browsers are Netscape and Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

When a URL is entered into a web browser, the browser makes a connection to the domain (ie, the computer) where the web page (or other resource) is stored. Once connected to that computer, the web page is found and displayed in the browser. www.fultonschools.org is a domain on the Internet. It is a computer that is connected to the Internet. matrixmagic.com is also a domain on the Internet. It is a computer connected to the Internet.

The URL for this web page is:

Figure 1: The Parts of a URL

There are four parts to a URL. See Figure 1.

1. The first part of the URL is called the protocol. This simply means, "what kind of web resource is this?" A protocol is a type of service. http:// stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol and is a web page. FTP:// stands for File Transfer Protocol; this is a kind of document delivery, not as versatile as http. telnet:// is a protocol for logging on to another computer and executing programs on that foreign computer. There are other protocols but these are the most common.

2. The second part of the URL contains the domain. The domain is the computer on which the web page (and web site) resides. This computer might be as close as your www.fultonschools.org computer, or it may be located anywhere in the world. Note that the domain in this URL does not begin with www; not all domains begin with www.

3. The third part of the URL is the path to the web page. Where on the computer is this specific web page located? In figure 1, the path, /fulton/net/, represents the directory path (folder structure) to the specific web page.

4. FINALLY we come to the really important part of the URL. The fourth part of the URL is the name of the file that contains the content that you see displayed in the browser window. Figure 1 shows the file name for this section: section1.html.

Note
Although your web browser will allow you to type in a URL excluding the http://, when you are entering a URL into the Link Share page you must include the http://. it's also extremely useful to include the http:// in a URL when sending it to someone via email. If the email program sees the http:// it can turn the text into a clickable hyperlink; if the http:// is omitted, the email program will not turn the text into a hyperlink.

Web Browsers

We'll be spend time in this first class looking at how the browsers collect, store and organize the addresses of web sites you visit. Most of the work for this class will be documented in URL collections, called Bookmarks by Netscape and Favorites by Internet Explorer (IE). Once you get home you'll want to print the major resources for this section:

http://matrixmagic.com

  
Last Edited:   
Matrix Magic edmiston@matrixmagic.com