Intro to the Internet

WWW stands for the world wide web which is a collection of resources that link to others and can be accessed by using a web browser.

To explain the Internet to my elementary age students I would tell them that it is a whole bunch of resources, like the encyclopedia, newspapers, magazines, etc. that you can use from your computer. I might bring in a set of encyclopedias and have my students try to find a very specific piece of information. I would then show them how to do a search for the same information. They could see how quickly information can be found using the Internet and that they can find the same information in lots of different places on the Internet. I would probably just explain the Internet as a great resource for finding information. They would find out that you can play games and buy and sell things on their own.

URL stands for uniform resource locator and it is the codes/words/address that are used to find websites.

Some common error messages you might encounter when using the Internet are:
401-Unauthorized: this means that you are not allowed on a website because you are not a member of a certain group or you have an invalid password for accessing the site.
404-Not Found: the website you are trying to access no longer exists or the server can't be found.
503-Service Unavailable: your Internet connection is down.

HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language which is the computer language that makes it possible to click on the text of one site to link to a new site.

HTTP stands for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. These are the rules computers follow to transfer files through hypertext (links)

I see the Internet playing a moderate role in my future classroom. I think it is a great resource and that anyone can benefit form knowing how to use it effectively. I also think it is important for kids to be able to find information in books and to actually manipulate resources. I would use the Internet for small group projects that are to be done quickly. I would limit how much information can come from the Internet with projects that have a longer time frame. I want my students to be able to use the Internet, but i also want them to be able to use other forms of resources.