Intel® Education K-12 Resources | www.intel.com/teachers
Technology Literacy
Research, Write, Publish | Online Research Web Basics
Key Concept You know that the World Wide Web is part of the Internet. Do you know why it is called the World Wide Web? You know that the Internet is global, so World Wide makes sense. But why is it called the Web? It is not because it connects computers to one another. Networks and the Internet do that.
The Web is called the Web because it uses hypertext to connect documents to one another. The Web also connects Look Ahead multimedia to documents, which is called hypermedia. The Task: Analyze the URLs of Web is the part of the Internet that contains hypertext and your sources. hypermedia. Goal: Show that you know how the World Wide Web Hypermedia makes the Internet more powerful and more works. useful. Some people say that the Web is the graphical part of the Internet. Before the Web was invented, everything on You may want to review an example of a URL analysis the Internet was plain text. The Web has transformed the before you begin. Internet from an academic research tool into a common household appliance. See the example: Web Basics Example
The more you know about technology, the more you can do with it. If you want to understand the Web, you have to understand hypertext and hypermedia. The more you know about hypertext and hypermedia, the better you will be able to use the Web.
1 Copyright © Intel Corporation. All rights reserved. Adapted with permission. Intel, the Intel logo and the Intel Education Initiative are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and other countries. *Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.
Intel® Education K-12 Resources | www.intel.com/teachers
Technology Literacy
Vocabulary
Words to Remember This page gives basic definitions for some important terms that can help you learn about the Web. You can get a more complete definition of each term from Fact Monster*.
New Words Browser: A computer program that uses HTTP and HTML to display hypertext documents.
Domain: A network of computers on the Internet owned by a single person or organization.
Graphics: Using pictures and other visual elements to communicate information.
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language): A set of commands (also called tags) that tells a browser how to display a file or set of connected files as a Web page.
HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol): A set of rules that controls how computers on the Internet exchange hypertext.
Hypermedia: A method of storing multimedia on a computer so that related information is connected by links.
Hypertext: A method of storing documents on a computer so that related information is connected by links.
Multimedia: Combining more than one type of information, such as words, numbers, images, audio, and video.
URL (Uniform Resource Locator): The address of a Web page consisting of the protocol and domain name and sometimes the path and filename.
World Wide Web (WWW): The part of the Internet that uses HTTP to transfer hypertext and hypermedia from one computer to another.
Review Words Internet: A network that connects millions of computers in more than 100 countries around the world.
Network: A system of computers connected either by wires and cables or wirelessly by antennas and towers.
2 Copyright © Intel Corporation. All rights reserved. Adapted with permission. Intel, the Intel logo and the Intel Education Initiative are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and other countries. *Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.
Intel® Education K-12 Resources | www.intel.com/teachers
Technology Literacy
Protocol: A set of rules that controls how computers on a network exchange information. Exploration
Learning from the Web
Explore some Web sites about the Web itself. You must understand that reading on the Web is different than reading a book in print. You may want to learn more about Reading on the Web* from Fact Monster* before you explore.
While you explore the following Web sites, think about the guiding questions. You may want to take notes to help you answer the questions. If you think of other questions about the Web, keep those in mind too.
Guiding Questions
How does hypertext work? What are the main parts of the World Wide Web? How is the Web different from other parts of the Internet?
Web Sites
World Wide Web* from Fact Monster* What's a Domain?* from Fact Monster* The Internet* from Welcome to the Web* An Overview of the World Wide Web* from The HelpWeb* Answers for Young People* from the Inventor of the WWW*
3 Copyright © Intel Corporation. All rights reserved. Adapted with permission. Intel, the Intel logo and the Intel Education Initiative are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and other countries. *Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.
Intel® Education K-12 Resources | www.intel.com/teachers
Technology Literacy
Information
What to Know This page summarizes some of the information from the Web sites you explored. This information helps you learn what you need to know for this activity about the Web. You may want to take notes to help you remember the most important points. You can return to the Web sites for more exploration if you want to learn more.
How the Web Works The World Wide Web is the part of the Internet that contains hypertext and hypermedia. Hypertext and hypermedia perform two very important jobs:
Hypertext links related documents together. It enables you to move around the Web by clicking hyperlinks. A Web site is a collection of hypertext documents in the same domain. Tim Berners-Lee invented the text version of the Web in 1990. By default, hypertext links are displayed in blue underlined text by a web browsing application, but the appearance of hypertext links can be customized. Hypermedia combines various kinds of information into a single document. It enables a Web page to include images, sounds, and video as well as words. The Web contains multimedia. Marc Andreessen invented a multimedia browser in 1993. He was still in college at the time!
Understanding Web Addresses You can use the Web more effectively if you know how it works. Every hypertext document on the Web has a unique address, called a URL (pronounced you-are-el). A URL tells a web browsing application where to find a document on the Internet. Here is an example of a URL:
http://www.intel.com
The URL has three parts. The first part, http://, tells a web browsing application to use the Hypertext Transfer Protocol to communicate with other web browsers on the Internet. The second part, www, tells a web browser to expect an HTML file, a Web page. The third part,intel.com, tells the web browser what domain contains the document. Many different kinds of domains exist, depending on the Web site’s purpose or country of origin. In the United States, most Web sites belong to one of the following four major types of domains:
Domains that end in .com are usually commercial or unrestricted use. Domains that end in .org are usually organizations or unrestricted use. Domains that end in .edu are usually educational institutions, such as schools, colleges, and universities. Domains that end in .gov are for governments and government agencies in the United States.
4 Copyright © Intel Corporation. All rights reserved. Adapted with permission. Intel, the Intel logo and the Intel Education Initiative are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and other countries. *Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.
Intel® Education K-12 Resources | www.intel.com/teachers
Technology Literacy
How the Web has Brought Improvements The Web brings multimedia to the Internet and enables people to move around easily on the Internet by clicking. Hypertext and hypermedia have made the Internet more powerful and more useful to more people. Before the Web, the Internet mostly connected universities, large companies, and government agencies. Since the Web, the Internet has moved into schools, small businesses, and homes. The Web is a good example of how technology continually improves.
Here are examples of how new technologies build on old technologies to become more powerful and more useful:
Computers were invented to store and process information. Networks were invented to connect computers. The Internet was invented to connect networks. The Web was invented to connect information.
5 Copyright © Intel Corporation. All rights reserved. Adapted with permission. Intel, the Intel logo and the Intel Education Initiative are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and other countries. *Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.
Intel® Education K-12 Resources | www.intel.com/teachers
Technology Literacy
Task
What to Do Complete the following task to show what you have learned about the Web. While you work through the task, think about whether you are achieving the goal. You may want to review an example of a URL analysis before you begin.
Task: Analyze the URLs of your sources. Help Guide
Goal: Show that you know how the World Wide Web works. Use the Intel® Education Help Guide to learn See the example: Web Basics Example technology skills.
1. Open the document that contains the URLs of the sources Web Technologies you cited. Organize bookmarks or favorites with: 2. Save the document with a new file name. You will need the Internet Explorer* original document later. Mozilla Firefox* Safari* 3. Analyze the URL of each of your sources. For each source, write an explanation of what you can learn about a source Save page from: from its URL. Internet Explorer* Mozilla Firefox* 4. Save your document. Safari*
5. In your bookmarks, create a folder for each type of domain HTML Coding you cited. Organize your sources so that each bookmark is Start WordPad* in the appropriate folder. Search the Help Guide 6. Open one of your sources in a browser. Save the Web page to your computer. If you are not sure where to save the page, ask your teacher.
7. Open the Web page you saved in a text editor. Explain to your teacher why the page appears differently in the text editor than it did in the browser.
8. Review the checklist and revise your list of sources to make sure it is complete.
9. Share your source list and analysis.
6 Copyright © Intel Corporation. All rights reserved. Adapted with permission. Intel, the Intel logo and the Intel Education Initiative are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and other countries. *Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.
Intel® Education K-12 Resources | www.intel.com/teachers
Technology Literacy
Task Example
Student Name
Date
Annotated Web Citations
Asian Quake http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/26/asia.quake/index.html
This web site is authored by CNN News which is a company. I know this because it has .com in the address. I can also tell that the information on this page is going to be about an earthquake in Asia that happened on 12/26/04.
The Deadliest Tsunami in History http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/12/1227_041226_tsunami.html
National Geographic is a company. I know this because the URL contains the letters .com. I also know that this site is written by the News division of National Geographic. I can tell that this site is going to be about a Tsunami that happened in December of 2004.
Earthquake Spawns Tsunami http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/shownh.php3?img_id=12643
From the URL I know that this is a government site because it contains the letters.gov. I also know that it is written by NASA. I can also tell from the URL that it is about Natural Hazards. Earth Observatory gives me the feeling that it might contain pictures.
Lives Returning to Normal http://www.redcross.org/news/in/tsunamis/home.html
I know from the URL that this site is developed by the Red Cross. The domain is .org so I know it is written by an organization. I also know that this site is about the tsunami.
Tsunami-Sri Lanka http://www.ifla.org/V/press/tsunami-SriLanka-report.htm
This site is written by an organization because it ends in .org. I know this site is about a Tsunami that took place in Sri Lanka.
7 Copyright © Intel Corporation. All rights reserved. Adapted with permission. Intel, the Intel logo and the Intel Education Initiative are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and other countries. *Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.