internet guide (basic)

The internet can be a big and confusing place. Take the first steps in navigating around sites and finding the information that you need. Using links and searching are two of the most fundamental skills to have, and are explained here.

Basic browsing
If you've got this far then you have already managed to get on line and use a web browser. The world wide web, the part of the internet you are using now, is made up of pages of text and graphics. Web sites will have a home page that acts as a front door to the site and should allow users to easily find their way to the pages that interest them. To move from page to page, you use links (sometimes called hyperlinks).

Clicking once on a link should take you to a new page on the internet. Links are easy to spot in text as they are usually in a different colour and often underlined. However, the best way to find links is to move the mouse and notice when the mouse pointer changes to a hand. This is particularly useful in very graphical sites, where the link may be an image or part of a larger picture.

Well organised sites (such as Just for teachers) have a hierarchical structure that allows users to navigate through categories and sub-categories. The buttons on the left of the site are the main areas. Clicking one will open up the sub-categories, to enable you to locate pages of interest quickly. Clicking one of the sub-categories will then present you with a list of articles and a short summary. The links are the headings, clearly identifiable by the underlining and colour.

For example, if you click on the word Development on the left hand side of the screen, you will open up a list of sections within the topic of Development. Clicking any one will provide a list of article titles. At all times a list of featured articles that are particularly relevant at the current time is shown.

Re-tracing your steps
If you click a few links you may end up lost! Don't worry, web browsers have a built-in memory of your trail. You can click the Back button to return to the previous page, or, more usefully you can click the small downward pointing wedge next to the Back button to list the last pages you viewed. Clicking on any one will take you back there, useful to return quickly to a previously viewed site. Having gone back, the Forward button works in the same way. However, once you click on a new link the Forward button will become inactive as you have started a new trail.

Finding what you want
A big problem for teachers and students using the Web is finding what you want. There are a few things you can do to make your search more fruitful.

1. Know your address The simplest strategy is to find the address of a useful site from other places. Many organisations put their web address on their stationery or in their printed publications. Simply type this into your browser, in the box labelled Address and then either press the Enter key or click the Go button. It sounds simple, but with more organisations publicising their web addresses, this is the big time saver.
2. Find a link Rather than starting from scratch, many websites have links to other related sites. For example, clicking on the Knowledge Base button on the left of the screen will bring up a list of sections full of links to useful organisations. For teachers, most of the professional sites you might wish to visit are listed here (such as examination boards and curriculum sites). This is a good general strategy as well; find a site that you know and use links on it to visit related ones.
3. Search sites There are many websites that specialise in finding suitable pages. Many sites also have a facility to search the site's content (as this one does). A typical search site is Lycos (www.lycos.co.uk). Type the address into the address bar, click Go and you will see the Lycos home page. The big mistake is to now just type a word into the box labelled Search and click the Go button.

• Type many words (in fact as many as you can think of). The more words, the closer the match.
• Type specific words. For example, if looking for cars, type the names of the manufacturers as well as "car".
• Use quotation marks for phrases. For example "tower bridge" in quote marks will get pages about the London landmark, whereas the two words on their own will find pages about towers as well as pages about bridges.
• Words you don't want are important! If you do a search and get lots of articles that you don't want with a common theme, try doing the search again and putting a minus sign (-) and then the word you are not interested in, for example -boats would exclude any article with the word boats.
• Require a word! Put a plus sign immediately in front of a word to compel it to be in the documents listed.

The best way to get to know how to use the search sites on the web is to experiment with them. You won't damage your computer and by seeing the sorts of pages that are found you will be able to find content quicker when you are in a hurry.