Introduction to the Internet ______________________________________________________________________ What is the Internet? The Internet is made up of millions of computers linked together around the world in such a way that information can be sent from any computer to any other 24 hours a day. These computers can be in homes, schools, libraries, colleges, government departments, or businesses small and large. They can be any type of computer and be single personal computers or workstations on a school or a library network. The Internet is often described as 'a network of networks' because all the smaller networks of organizations are linked together into the one giant network called the Internet. Once connected to the Internet, all computers are pretty much equal. The only difference will be the speed of the connection which is dependent on your Internet Service Provider and your own modem. Source: www.netforbeginners.about.com Why would you want to use the Internet?  exchange e-mail  socialize (chat rooms, instant messaging)  look for a job  up-to-the-minute news  academic research  shop, trade, and sell  driving directions  browse libraries  tour museums Copyright © 2005 ASCPL All Rights Reserved       listen to music watch videos read online books plan vacations consumer information taxes, investing, personal finance  health information  genealogy research Intro to the Internet 4/8/2009 12:20:15 PM/MMS/KJ 1 of 27 What do you need to surf the Internet? 1. Computer with Internet connection: PC or Mac is fine. There are also coffee shops "Internet Cafes" that will rent connected computers to you. 2. Internet account with a connection provider: Often called "ISP" (Internet Service Provider), these are usually phone or cable companies that charge you a monthly fee for Internet access, depending on what types of connection you subscribe to. (a) Dial-up: phone line and modem – slow but sufficient, least expensive (b) DSL (digital subscriber line): digital, very fast connection, more expensive (c) Cable: faster, rather expensive (d) Wireless: the computer connects to a wireless router, which sends out a radio signal searching for service. Once a signal is found a connection is made with your service provider. (Note: To use wireless, you need to have cable or DSL service in your home or visit a place that has service like the library or Panera.) (e) Cellular Broadband: high speed internet connection through your cellular phone network 3. Internet browser software: Though the most popular used to be Internet Explorer ("IE"), Mozilla Firefox is gaining popularity with its more secure features. For other choices of browsers, read evaluation by CNET.com at the site http://www.download.com/Browsers/?tag=dir. 4. Anti-virus software: Symantec/Norton or McAffee are the two most common. These will help defend your computer against nasty programs that will erase parts of your hard drive. You can read reviews and ratings at this site: http://anti-virus-softwarereview.toptenreviews.com/. Optional: 5. Email software: If you have Microsoft Office on your computer, you can use Outlook or Outlook Express to retrieve messages sent to an existing e-mail account like the one you receive when you sign up with Road Runner. If you prefer to use a web-based email service like Yahoo, Hotmail, or Gmail, you will not need e-mail software. 6. Plug-In software: You don’t NEED plug-in software to surf the web, but you won’t have full functionality if you choose forgo the installation of these. Here are the most common you will need: Java Virtual Machine, Adobe Flash Player, Windows Media Player, Real Audio music player, Apple Quick Time. They allow you to see interactive pictures and menus, watch videos, hear sounds, and play games. Copyright © 2005 ASCPL All Rights Reserved Intro to the Internet 4/8/2009 12:20:15 PM/MMS/KJ 2 of 27 What’s the difference between the Internet and the World Wide Web? Sometimes people use the words Internet and World Wide Web (WWW) synonymously, but they are different. The Internet is the means by which you connect to the World Wide Web. The Internet is a collection of thousands of individual computer networks connected together by communications hubs. The networks work cooperatively to share and exchange information. The World Wide Web is the collection of web sites and web pages that you are able to access by connecting to the Internet. Think of the World Wide Web as a big electronic library, with websites being the “books” you would remove from the shelves. The Internet is the transportation you use to get to the library, but you have to take the “books” or web sites home before you can look at them. Internet World Wide Web Using the Library’s computers to connect If you use the Internet in the library, please follow these instructions: 1. Use any computer with this screen. 2. Press any key to begin. Copyright © 2005 ASCPL All Rights Reserved Intro to the Internet 4/8/2009 12:20:15 PM/MMS/KJ 3 of 27 3. If the PC is not reserved for anyone, you may click on the word Available to continue. 4. Enter your full library barcode (e.g. 23938001234567) and your PIN number. Your PIN number is the last four digits of your phone number on file, but you may go onto the webbased catalog and change it at any time. 5. Click OK to continue. 6. Click on Use this Computer to continue. 7. You must click on Accept to accept the Guidelines for using A Public Workstation. 8. Your screen will open to Desktop. Copyright © 2005 ASCPL All Rights Reserved Intro to the Internet 4/8/2009 12:20:15 PM/MMS/KJ 4 of 27 Starting Internet Explorer Double click the Internet Explorer icon on your desk top. If there is no shortcut on the desktop, click on the Start menu > All Programs > and select Internet Explorer from the list. Click on Internet Explorer Copyright © 2005 ASCPL All Rights Reserved Intro to the Internet 4/8/2009 12:20:15 PM/MMS/KJ 5 of 27 The Library Home Page will open up in the Internet Explorer Browser (because the Library page was set as the home page). We’ll discuss setting your home page later. Title Bar: Always appears at the top of Windows programs. Tells you what program you are in, in this case, Internet Explorer. It also displays the file or page name. Menu Bar: Drop-down menus that allow you to select various commands in the program you are in. (Note: If your menus are hidden, click on the Tools button on the right side of the toolbar and click on Menu Bar.) Tabs: You can have more than one page open at a time. The first page is open on the first tab, and additional pages will be opened on other tabs. To start a new tab, just click on the additional one. Copyright © 2005 ASCPL All Rights Reserved Intro to the Internet 4/8/2009 12:20:15 PM/MMS/KJ 6 of 27 Address Bar The address bar is where you type in a web address, otherwise known as a URL – Uniform Resource Locator. It provides a direct link to a particular page on the www. http:// Hyper Text Transfer Protocol is a protocol used to request and transmit files over the Internet or other computer network. Newer browsers will put the word http for you if you do not type it in the Address bar, yourself. For example, you may just type in www.akronlibrary.org in the Address bar and Internet Explorer browser will automatically put http for you upon loading the page. akronlibrary is the domain name and is part of the library URL. A domain name is typically the name of the organization that is responsible for that particular web page. Companies pay for use of this name, usually $10 to $15 a year. .org is the domain name suffix which means that the website represents any organization. There are other generic top-level domain names, which you will probably recognize:      com: generally for commercial businesses net: for network providers mil: for military organizations gov: for government organizations edu: for educational organizations There are also a number of top-level domain names for individual countries, including countries like Canada (ca), Australia (au) and the United Kingdom (uk). Visit a Different Page Let’s navigate to Google’s and Yahoo’s pages for practice. We know their URL (or web address), so we can type that right into the address bar. • • • Click somewhere on the address of your current page. When the letters are highlighted in blue, type in google.com. Hit the Enter key on your keyboard to go to that page. • Try entering yahoo.com and visit that page, as well. (Open a new tab, as described on the previous page. Use the second one for Yahoo’s page.) Copyright © 2005 ASCPL All Rights Reserved Intro to the Internet 4/8/2009 12:20:15 PM/MMS/KJ 7 of 27 Internet Explorer Toolbar Back button sends you to the previous page you visited. (Click on it now, and watch what happens.) Forward button allows you to return to a page after you have used the Back button. Click on the small arrow on the right of the button to see a list of pages you have already visited. Stop button stops the browser from loading the current page. This is useful if: • • • you are trying to load a page that is taking a very long time to load, and you change your mind about wanting to see it. you click on a link by mistake and want the browser to stop loading. you discover a typo in the spelling of a URL after you have hit the Enter key and want the browser to stop loading. Refresh button reloads the current page. Sometimes all the elements of a web page do not load properly or the web page is updated frequently, as in a news service page. By reloading the page, you are pulling the most current version of that page onto your computer. Home button will always take you back to the first page displayed when you opened the browser. Print button lets you print a hard copy of the current screen. Internet Explorer Status Bar It shows how much of the page needs to be loaded while loading a particular page, and when the page is done loading. When a page is not currently loading, the status bar shows what site you would go to if you were to click on a link. Copyright © 2005 ASCPL All Rights Reserved Intro to the Internet 4/8/2009 12:20:15 PM/MMS/KJ 8 of 27 Links on the Web Page When you point the mouse to a hyperlink or link on the Internet, the pointer will turn from an arrow into a pointing hand. Left click the mouse on the link when the pointer changes to a pointing hand. The cursor will change to an I-Beam over a text box when you point to one. Left click one time on a text box and then enter your text. Your cursor will be the regular arrow when clicking in that area does nothing. Search Engines Search Engines are tools for searching the World Wide Web. A search engine looks for the keywords you have entered and returns a list of websites and web pages that it thinks match your search. Examples: Google, Yahoo, MSN.com, Ask, Dogpile, etc. Let’s visit Google: • • • Use your back or forward buttons to navigate to Google.com (or type it in, yourself). Click in the search box and type pizza. For now, just ignore the box that appears below with suggestions of other search terms. Hit the Enter key or click on the Google Search button to conduct a search. Copyright © 2005 ASCPL All Rights Reserved Intro to the Internet 4/8/2009 12:20:15 PM/MMS/KJ 9 of 27 A new page will appear with a list of other websites that Google thinks are most relevant to your search term. Notice that your search of the word pizza took 0.07 seconds to complete, and Google found 147,000,000 sites that match your word. We are looking at page listings for numbers 1-10. Result #1 Result #2 Result #3 One page listing is usually four to five lines long. Some information is provided to give you a small glimpse of what you can find on that page. The words in blue are the page’s title. The two lines of black text under that is a quote from the page in which they found your search term. The green text is the URL (or address) of that page. Notice that your search term is highlighted in bold. To see the contents of a page, click on the blue title. To go back to the list of search results, click on the Back button at the top of the window. If you are not happy with what you see on the first page, you can navigate to the second page to see results 11-20. Scroll down to the bottom of the page, and click on the number 2 or the word Next. Copyright © 2005 ASCPL All Rights Reserved Intro to the Internet 4/8/2009 12:20:15 PM/MMS/KJ 10 of 27 Sponsored Links Go back to page one of your results. Did you notice the two areas of the page that list "Sponsored Links?” The Sponsored Links section lists websites that have paid to have their site listed in a place where you are sure to see it. They have signed an agreement that states they will pay “per click.” This means that they have agreed to pay a set amount of money each time someone clicks on the link to go to their site. The other ten results on that page have not paid Google a penny to be listed at the top. Sites that are listed under the Sponsored Links section are usually trying to get you to purchase something. It won’t cost anything to click on the link to visit their site, but you should be warned that they are hoping you will spend your money on their site. Flash Player Do you remember hearing about Adobe Flash Player? It was listed under one of those things that are optional for viewing Internet pages. Click on the Pizza Hut link to go to their site. Do you see the moving images in the left, center section? That uses Flash Player. If you don’t have it installed, you wouldn’t be able to see anything in that box. The flashing “Order Now” button would also be empty. Websites rely on things like Flash Player to attract customers. The more impressed you are with their site, the more likely you are to purchase something from them. Copyright © 2005 ASCPL All Rights Reserved Intro to the Internet 4/8/2009 12:20:15 PM/MMS/KJ 11 of 27 Search Tips Tip #1: Your search can be too broad. We typed in the word “pizza” for our initial search. We found 147,000,000 sites with that word because we weren’t specific enough. What, exactly, did we want to know about pizza? Did we want to know the history of pizza? Did we want to purchase a pizza? Did we want a pizza recipe? Did we want to find pizza shops in our area? Our search term was too broad, so we need to try again. This time, let’s look for local pizzerias. Click on the Back button so that you are back to your search results. Look for this section, right above result #1: Click once in the box, and then type a city and state or a zip code. (i.e. Akron, Ohio or 44326) Your search results screen will change to look like this: If you know which pizza shop you are looking for, you can click on the name of that business from the list. If you want to see more details, click on the map to the left. Google will take you to the Maps section of their site. Every dot on the map represents a pizza shop. Click on a dot to see the address and phone number of that business. Note: If you were to perform this search prior to typing only “pizza” you would have typed “pizza 44326” or “pizza Akron Ohio” in the search box to get to the same place. Copyright © 2005 ASCPL All Rights Reserved Intro to the Internet 4/8/2009 12:20:15 PM/MMS/KJ 12 of 27 Now we want to know the history of pizza. Click on the word Web in the upper left corner of your window to return to regular web searching. Click in the search box. Depending upon where you clicked, you may have to use the Backspace and/or the Delete key(s). Delete will always erase things from the right of the cursor. Backspace will erase things from the left of the cursor. Once the box is empty, type in “history of pizza” and hit the Enter key. Because we were more specific with our searches, we were able to find exactly what we were looking for—a list of websites that will tell us where pizza came from. The trick is to come up with the terminology that will help us find the information the fastest. Copyright © 2005 ASCPL All Rights Reserved Intro to the Internet 4/8/2009 12:20:15 PM/MMS/KJ 13 of 27 Tip #2: Your search can be too specific. If you type 20 words into a search box, the search engine is going to look for a page with all 20 of those words. What if the page you are looking for only has 19 of those words? Because it is missing that one, last word, the page you wanted to find will not appear in the list of search results. Tip #3: Be creative. Your goal when searching is to find information that other people have already put up on the Web. They have already called it something, and you have to determine what they called it in order to find it. You may not use the same terminology as they did. That’s why it’s helpful to come up with a list of synonyms for your search terms. Tip# 4: Use different search engines. Google does not know of every website out there. Neither does Yahoo. They do their best, but they are not omniscient. If you can’t find something with one search engine, try using another one. They also rank pages in different orders. We’ve been spending all of our time on Google’s search page. Type yahoo.com into the address bar and practice going to another web site. Compare the home pages of search engines Yahoo and Google. Copyright © 2005 ASCPL All Rights Reserved Intro to the Internet 4/8/2009 12:20:15 PM/MMS/KJ 14 of 27 Google gives you a simple search box unless you want to try more specific searches. Tip #5: Be aware of advertisements. The purpose of an advertisement is to get you to visit someone’s website. The website owner will either try to get you to spend money on their site or try to get you to give them your information so they can make money off of it. Most advertisements are not malicious, but you should watch out for those that are. It’s a good idea to refrain from giving out any personal information to a site you navigated to through an advertisement unless you completely trust them. This includes things like home addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, credit card numbers, etc. Copyright © 2005 ASCPL All Rights Reserved Intro to the Internet 4/8/2009 12:20:15 PM/MMS/KJ 15 of 27 Did You Mean…? Search engines are pretty good at spelling. If you type in a word with the wrong spelling, the search engine will ask if you meant the word with the correct spelling. To redo the search with the correct spelling, click on the underlined, correctly spelled word next to the words Did you mean: ….. Try a few! (Here are a few for you to try: aparant, calender, embarass, noticable, seperate) Evaluating Web Content Let’s look at some of the results we came across when looking for the history of pizza. (Type “history of pizza” into the Google search box.) How do we know the information is valid? The person who wrote the website may have made the information up. Click on the title that says History of Pizza. This will take you to a page on a site called About.com. This is a professionally made website that I would be more inclined to accept the accuracy of. I know (from personal experience) that they hire writers to create the content of their pages. But if you didn’t know that, how would you be able to tell? Here are a couple of clues: • They have a clean layout to the top section, with a nice looking logo. Tabs across the top allow us to easily move to other pages. • The article has an author, and we are able to click on her name to read her credentials. Copyright © 2005 ASCPL All Rights Reserved Intro to the Internet 4/8/2009 12:20:15 PM/MMS/KJ 16 of 27 • The bottom of the page has links to their User Agreement and Privacy Policy. It also lists a copyright date and allows you to learn more about their company. Click on the back button so we can look at another page. This time, click on the Wikipedia page. Wikipedia is a free, online Encyclopedia. Its articles can be written by anyone, but they have moderators that check for accuracy. Notice its nice, professional-looking layout. This page has another important feature to look for when evaluating web content— references. Did you notice the footnote numbers as you scrolled down the page? These numbers refer to the source book or website that the information was collected from. The list can be found at the bottom of the page. Copyright © 2005 ASCPL All Rights Reserved Intro to the Internet 4/8/2009 12:20:15 PM/MMS/KJ 17 of 27 Now that you know where they got the information from, you are free to research the sources. Click on the Back button to return to your search results. This time, we are going to look at some sites that are not professionally made. Click on the Pizza-pedia link. One red flag we can see right away is the address of the page. It’s created with Geocities, which is a free, web-building resource. It’s not used by professionals. Copyright © 2005 ASCPL All Rights Reserved Intro to the Internet 4/8/2009 12:20:15 PM/MMS/KJ 18 of 27 The bottom of this page doesn’t have any contact or copyright information. If we click on the link that is supposed to tell us where the information came from, we find out that the sources aren’t available any more. Note: These facts do not discount the accuracy of the site, outright, but they should force you to take a closer look at what is printed on the page. Use some common sense and cross-referencing before you believe what you read, here. Click on the Back button to return to your search results. We are going to look at one more page. Click on Pizza, History and Legends of Pizza. Right away, we can tell that the author has written a book on cuisine, so she should know what she’s talking about (theoretically). The site is not professionally made, but it does have copyright info at the top. The links section is rudimentary, but works. There are no extra logos, graphics, or section breaks. Notice that there is a sources section at the bottom of the page. This is a good example of a site that is not made by a professional, but has the important ingredients needed to make us believe that it states valid information. To see an exhaustive list of the other things you should keep in mind while browsing web pages, see Appendix A. Copyright © 2005 ASCPL All Rights Reserved Intro to the Internet 4/8/2009 12:20:15 PM/MMS/KJ 19 of 27 Setting the Home Page As mentioned earlier, your home page is the Internet page that is displayed when you start Internet Explorer. To set your home page, 1. Navigate to the page you wish your home page to be. Let’s use Google. Click in the address bar at the top of the window and type in google.com. Hit the Enter key on the keyboard to go to that page. 2. Click on the Tools menu. Choose Internet Options. 3. Click on the Use Current button. Computer Viruses What is a virus? A virus is a manmade program or piece of code that causes an unexpected, usually negative, event. Viruses are often disguised games or images with clever marketing titles such as "You just won some money”. What is a Worm? Computer Worms are viruses that reside in the active memory of a computer and duplicate themselves. They may send copies of themselves to other computers, such as through email or Internet Relay Chat (IRC). What is a Trojan Horse? A Trojan horse program is a malicious program that pretends to be a benign application; a Trojan horse program purposefully does something the user does not expect. Trojans are not viruses since they do not replicate, but Trojan horse programs can be just as destructive. Many people use the term to refer only to non-replicating malicious programs, thus making a distinction between Trojans and viruses. Copyright © 2005 ASCPL All Rights Reserved Intro to the Internet 4/8/2009 12:20:15 PM/MMS/KJ 20 of 27 Why do people spread viruses? Either to obtain long lists of e-mail addresses so that mass mailings may be sent (also known as “spam”) or to retrieve personal information from your computer so they can steal your money. How are viruses spread? Corrupt files or software downloaded from the Internet. Through e-mail messages. Sending files from an infected disk to others. Opening an infected file or disk that was sent to you. What are some signs of viruses on my computer? An annoying message appearing on the computer screen. Reduced memory or disk space. Modification of data. Files overwritten or damaged. Hard drive erased. What should I do if I receive a computer virus? Install anti-virus software on your computer and scan your system and all of your disks. If you can identify who may have transferred the virus to you, notify that person, or several people, so that they can remedy the situation and prevent spreading the virus further. How did I spread a virus if I didn’t see it on my computer? Your computer or disk may be a “carrier” for the virus and may not show up until someone to whom you transfer a file opens it. How can I avoid contracting or spreading viruses? Install anti-virus software on your computer. McAfee and Norton are two reputable producers of very effective anti-virus software. However, the following two software programs are somewhat free and extremely effective to have on your computer in addition to purchased anti-virus software. Spyware: The term "Spyware" is a contraction of the words "spy" and "software". Spyware collects information about the user's surfing habits or system configuration without his knowledge and transmits it to a predefined address. The information selected depends on the Spyware and can include anything from surfing habits to passwords. Spybot Search and Destroy, a.k.a. Spybot-S&D (or just plain Spybot), is one of the most capable anti-spyware packages available. It is also free. You can download this program for free at: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/ Copyright © 2005 ASCPL All Rights Reserved Intro to the Internet 4/8/2009 12:20:15 PM/MMS/KJ 21 of 27 Adware: The term "Adware" is a contraction of the words "advertising" and "software". It is difficult to draw a clear distinction between Spyware and Adware. Adware is often used for advertising purposes, by recording the user's surfing habits and offering the corresponding products (e.g. through links). Lavasoft's Ad-Aware SE is one of PCWorld.com's most popular free downloads because Internet users know it's a good tool for detecting and removing spyware that infects their systems. So why pay for the Plus version? The reason: real-time protection. You can download this program for free at: http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ Spyware and Adware usually reach the computer via downloaded programs; especially file sharing or music programs. Effects and risks  Stealing of confidential data (e.g. passwords)  Violation of privacy  Unsolicited advertising How to protect yourself Whenever possible, scan any files or software with your virus software before you download them to your computer or disk. Periodically scan your computer and disks with your virus software for healthy maintenance of your files and system. Do not open e-mail messages from someone you do not know or that have “suspicious” subjects. Delete them immediately without opening the message. If you do not know how to do this, consult the “help” screens/links when you log into your e-mail account. Keep e-mail forwarding of stories, chain letters, “warnings”, “giveaways”, etc. to a minimum. These are usually hoaxes and may also contain a virus. If you are not sure of a website’s reputation, reliability, or security, do not download any files or programs from it. Install a personal firewall. A firewall protects computer systems by monitoring incoming and outgoing connections and rejecting them if necessary. Like virus scanners, personal firewalls are available as add-on software. Some can be downloaded from the Internet for free. Some operating systems (e.g. Windows XP, Windows 2000, Mac OS X, and Linux) are already equipped with a personal firewall. Do make use of it. Copyright © 2005 ASCPL All Rights Reserved Intro to the Internet 4/8/2009 12:20:15 PM/MMS/KJ 22 of 27 Anti-Virus Software Producers These websites also include lists of viruses, hoaxes, and the most current infectious threats. Also, the website http://www.ratespywareremovers.com/ lists latest consumer review of Anti-spyware products. F-Secure http://www.f-secure.com/ Kaspersky http://www.kaspersky.com/ McAfee http://vil.mcafee.com AVG (Free) http://free.avg.com/ Panda Software http://www.pandasoftware.com/ Symantec (Norton Anti-Virus) http://www.symantec.com/ Trend Micro (PC-cillin) http://www.trendmicro.com/en/home/u s/personal.htm Avast http://www.avast.com/ Additional Virus and Hoax Lists Hoaxbusters http://www.hoaxbusters.org Symantec Security Response http://securityresponse.symantec.com/ McAfee Virus Hoaxes http://vil.mcafee.com/hoax.asp Viruslist.com http://www.viruslist.com/eng/index.html Snopes http://www.snopes.com Copyright © 2005 ASCPL All Rights Reserved Intro to the Internet 4/8/2009 12:20:15 PM/MMS/KJ 23 of 27 Frequently Asked Questions 1. What is the difference between ACORN and Internet Service Providers like America Online and Road Runner? ACORN is a community network, providing not just access to the World Wide Web, but local community information and web site hosting for Summit County non-profit organizations. As a community network, there are no charges for our services. You must be a resident of Summit County in order to register for an ACORN account. 2. What are my time limits for searching the Internet with an ACORN account? Each ACORN account is permitted to search the Internet for 60 minutes per day from home. Each member of your household, any age, may have an ACORN account. Users under the age of 18 must have a parent sign and return the registration form. 3. How do I choose an Internet Service Provider? Evaluate the pros and cons of each provider, just as you would any other product on the market, like a car, computer, television, or even a home!!! Your choice will be based on your usage needs and price limitations. The most obvious difference among ISPs is the cost for their services. More expensive services will promote their fast connections with high-speed digital and fiber optic lines. However, be aware that things like your modem speed, processor speed, and available memory space will also affect the speed at which your computer runs and possibly the speed of your Internet connection. 4. Does the browser come with my operating system or ISP purchase? Generally, yes. 5. Should I use Firefox or Internet Explorer as my browser? It is generally a good idea to use the browser that comes with your ISP software or your operating system, simply to avoid confusion. Neither one seems to work any better than the other, but users develop personal preferences and biases for both. Copyright © 2005 ASCPL All Rights Reserved Intro to the Internet 4/8/2009 12:20:15 PM/MMS/KJ 24 of 27 Appendix A Evaluating Web Content Quality of information found on the web needs to be evaluated as all other information resources such as books, magazines, CD-ROM, and television. Be skeptical of everything you find. Compare and contrast different information resources. Consider the following criteria as stated in Teacher Tap: Professional Development Resources for Educators website. Authority: Who says it? • • • • • • Who created this information and why? Do you recognize this author or their work? What knowledge or skills do they have in the area? Is he or she stating fact or opinion? What else has this author written? Does the author acknowledge other viewpoints and theories? Objectivity: Is the information biased? Think about perspective. • • • • • • Is the information objective or subjective? Is it full of fact or opinion? Does it reflect bias? How? How does the sponsorship impact the perspective of the information? Are all other perspectives represented? Could the information be meant as humorous, a parody, or satire? Authenticity: Is the information authentic? Know the source. • • • • • • Where does the information originate? Is the information from an established organization? Has the information been reviewed by others to insure accuracy? Is this a primary source or secondary source of information? Are original sources clear and documented? Is a bibliography provided citing the sources used? Reliability: Is this information accurate? Consider the origin of the information. • • • • • Is the sources truth worthy? How do you know? Who is sponsoring this publication? Does the information come from a school, business, or company site? What's the purpose of the information resource: to inform, instruct, persuade, and sell? Does this matter? What's their motive? Copyright © 2005 ASCPL All Rights Reserved Intro to the Internet 4/8/2009 12:20:15 PM/MMS/KJ 25 of 27 Timeliness: Is the information current? Consider the currency and timeliness of the information. • • • Does the page provide information about timeliness such as specific dates of information? Does currency of information matter with your particular topic? How current are the sources or links? Relevance: Is the information helpful? Think about whether you need this information. • • • • • Does the information contain the breadth and depth needed? Is the information written in a form that is useable (i.e. reading level, technical level)? Is the information in a form that is useful such as words, pictures, charts, sounds, or video? Do the facts contribute something new or add to your knowledge of the subject? Will this information be useful to your project? Efficiency: Is this information worth the effort? Think about the organization and speed of information access. • • • Is the information well-organized including a table of contents, index, menu, and other easy-to-follow tools for navigation? Is the information presented in a way that is easy to use (i.e., fonts, graphics, headings)? Is the information quick to access? Copyright © 2005 ASCPL All Rights Reserved Intro to the Internet 4/8/2009 12:20:15 PM/MMS/KJ 26 of 27 BIBLIOGRAPHY Hamilton, John. Internet. Edina: Abdo Pub, 2005. 004.678 H218i Preston, Gralla. Internet annoyances: how to fix the most annoying things about going online. Sebastopol: O'Reilly, 2005. 004.678 G744i Cooper, Brian. The Internet: getting connected. New York: Dorling Kindersley, 2000. 004.678 C776i Cooper, Brian. Searching the Internet. New York: Dorling Kindersley, 2000. 004.678 C776se Glossbrenner, Alfred and Emily. Search engines for the World Wide Web. Berkeley: Peachpit Press, 2001. 004.678 G563s Harley Hahn's Internet & Web yellow pages. Berkeley: Osborne McGraw-Hill, 2003. 004.67 H285iw Hill, Brad. Yahoo! for dummies. Foster City: IDG Books Worldwide, 1999. 004.678 H645y Hock, Randolph. The extreme searcher's guide to Web search engines: a handbook for the serious searcher, 2nd ed. Medford: CyberAge Books, 2001. 004.678 H685ex Kaufeld, John and Steven Hunger. 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