The first ALIA Top End Symposium: Powering our Territory
Teaching the internet in libraries
Stelios Podias
- Libraries as access points
- Choosing and training your trainers
- Initiating the Internet training programme
- Teaching to diverse groups
- Innovative training ideas
- Evaluating your programme
Our goal is to answer these questions:
- What is the internet?
- Where did it come from?
- How can you get on the internet?
- What will you find there?
- What in the world is the internet?
A connected community
- Cities and towns = networks and servers
- Connected by roads and highways = cables and wires
- A connected community
- Self governing
- Self organising
Internet history 101
- Government and scientific community alliance in the '60s and '70s
- Passed down to the universities
- GUIs bring it to the public
Network of computer networks
- These networks all communicate using common protocols (rules): TCP/IP.
- This allows the computers to talk to each other.
Addressing on the net
- Web Addresses (Uniform Resource Locators)
- E-mail
- spodias@darcity.nt.gov.au.nospam
How do people get on the internet?
- Through a network
- Schools
- Libraries
- Work
- At home
- With a computer, modem, and an ISP account
Choosing an ISP
- Orientation - business/personal
- Performance and availability - busy signals?
- Speed and types of connection - modem, cable, DSL?
Functions of the internet
The internet has many parts:
- Newsgroup servers
- Mailing list servers
- FTP servers
- Internet relay chat servers
- WWW servers
What is the world wide web?
- Collection of hypertext documents
- Linked pages for easy movement
- Popular new publishing medium
Why is the web so popular?
- Computers are more affordable and accessible.
- Connections are faster and more reliable.
- Graphical Web browsers are more user-friendly.
- WWW invites surfing.
Web browsers
- They might be Netscape, Microsoft IE, or another browser.
- You can use any browser to access the info on the web.
- Browsers are simply applications like our word processors or database programs.
What you'll find on the web
- Government information
- Consumer info and shopping/auctions
- Entertainment/popular culture
- Current research
- Online communities
- News and current events
- FAQs
WWW caveat: The web is not:
- Comprehensive in coverage
- A substitute for in-depth research
- Always reliable
- Censored
Our summary
The internet is a global community of people and computers that we can access via a network or from home with an ISP to browse the wealth of information available!
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