The internet - introducing the World Wide Web

What is the World Wide Web?

We have already explored the use of one internet based tool - email - and we will now look at another, the World Wide Web. The web was first developed by Tim Berners-Lee, working with scientists at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research in the late 1980s. Berners-Lee developed the web as a means for scientists to share information via the internet, overcoming the problems of incompatible programs and computers.

The web is based on two important ideas:

hypertext - hypertext is a means of creating interactive documents - for example, a weblink like this - www.bbc.co.uk - is known as a 'hyperlink'. On the web, this means that documents and resources can be cross-referenced and linked to one another. In a traditional library, on the other hand, books sit on the shelves and it's up to you to do the donkey work in drawing links between one book and another!

Uniform Resource Identifier (URL) - a URL is the address where a webpage can be found. With billions of webpages in existence, it's vital that each has its own, unique address. While early webpages often consisted largely of numbers, by the mid-90s the web had become more user-friendly, with descriptive titles like www.stow.ac.uk. URL endings are important - '.com' is the most common, and often indicates a US or international site. '.co.uk' indicates a UK site, usually a business, while '.org' indicates a not-for-profit organisation. Only schools, colleges and universities are allowed to use the '.ac.uk' that indicates an academic site, while other countries have their own endings, such as '.fr' for France and '.au' for Australia.

Web protocols

Web protocols refer to the 'rules' of creating websites. Most of these refer to the technical 'behind the scenes' information of the internet, although some are important to understand:

FTP - no West of Scotland football jokes, please - FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol, and is the main means of transferring information onto the internet. When a webpage is designed, files are stored both on a hard drive - the 'local' files - and on a server owned by an ISP, the 'remote' files. For example, the social science webpages (http://socialscience.stow.ac.uk) files are stored both on the hard drive of a college PC, and on the college server. Files are updated on the 'local' computer and then uploaded to the web using FTP.

HTML - another important internet protocol is that of html, hypertext markup language, the 'language' or code used to write webpages.

HTML is based on a series of commands, all of which must be opened and closed. For example, if I want to define the size of my text, I must open the size command (and close it again if I want to change size). <h1> is the largest size of text </h1> <h4> while h4 is much smaller </h4>.

Exercise - using html

Go to the start menu > all programs > accessories > notepad. This is a simple text editing program which allows you to create html files.

Type in the text below, exactly as it appears on the page (putting in your own name, obviously).

<h1>hello</h1><p>

<h4>Welcome to my webpage!

My name is xxx</h4></body text>

</body></html>

The returns are there to make it easier to read - only the <p> (paragraph) command will create a new paragraph on a webpage. Note that this command will work without being 'closed'.

Double check that you have entered the text correctly, and then go to file > save as. Save the file to your desktop, and call the file 'webpage.html'. It's important that you tell the computer that it's an html file, as it won't know otherwise! Underneath the 'file name', change 'save as type' to 'all files'. Click OK.

Minimise the programs that you have open (leave notepad open so that you can make changes, if necessary). You should see the 'webpage' file on the desktop. Double click to open it - it should open as a webpage. If it reopens as a text file, go back and check that you have saved it as an html file.

HTML vs WYSIWYG

In the early days of the internet, all webpages had to be written in html, an extremely time consuming and frustrating task! These days, a number of packages such as Macromedia Dreamweaver offer WYSIWYG design. Pronounced 'whizzy-wig', WYSIWYG stands for What You See Is What You Get, similar to other packages such as Word - what you see on the screen is what you see on the finished page!

While WYSIWYG packages have certainly made life easier for web designers, some feel that they take away control and produce 'messy' code. It can certainly be a useful shortcut to know some html, particularly the codes for different colours. To read more and find colour charts, go to www.webmonkey.com. We will return to web design later in the unit to create a simple class site, but we will be using a WYSIWYG package rather than html!

Searching for information on the web

Search engines are a vital part of the World Wide Web – without them, it would simply be a chaotic mess of unordered files. As no one company ‘owns’ the web, there are a number of different search engines which use different techniques to find information.

Simple keyword search engines

If you are familiar with the internet, you will probably have used simple keyword search engines. The most popular of these is Google (www.google.com), which became prominent from 2001 onwards, recognised for its simple design and effectiveness. Other keyword search engines include Altavista (www.altavista.com), which also includes a translation service into other languages.

Search engines such as Google work by using a web crawler or spider – an automatic browser which can follow links and categorise sites according to their titles, heading and meta tags. Meta tags are keywords which website designers use to try to draw the web crawler’s attention to their site. For example, if you were designing a site for a friend’s dog-sitting business, you might include the name of the business, ‘dog-sitting’ and ‘Glasgow’ as meta tags.

Exercise

Try this now using ‘Stow College’ as your search term. What do you find? How have these links been ordered?

OK, so that was a very simple example, and you would have been surprised to find anything other than the college’s own website at the top of the list.

Try searching again, this time using ‘health statistics’ as your search term. What problems are there with searching for such a broad area?

As you will probably have found, the broader your search, the broader your range of sites.

Try searching again for ‘health statistics Glasgow’, ‘health statistics Glasgow, Scotland’, and ‘health statistics Glasgow, Scotland, heart disease’ and note how the results change.

Read the pages overleaf for Google’s own guidance on using their search engine.

Hierarchical/Directory Search Engines

While you are probably all familiar with using search engines such as Google, you may not have come across hierarchical or directory search engines. Rather than using a web crawler, these directories rely on human editors to maintain their list of sites.

A good example of a directory search engine – the Open Directory Project - can be found at http://dmoz.org.

This extensive directory is maintained entirely by volunteers – click on ‘about ODP’ if you think you might be interested in getting involved – and is so successful that it is even used by Google as a ‘core directory’ of sites.

As you will see from their homepage, ODP is organised rather like a gigantic Yellow Pages.

To view the pages, click on a category. Try clicking on psychology (under ‘science’).

This then brings us to the main page for the psychology sub-directory. Now click on personality.

At the top of the new page, you should see a list as below:

Top: Science: Social Sciences: Psychology: Personality

You can click on any of these links to go back to that ‘level’.

If you scroll down the page, you will see further sub-directories such as ‘Myers-Briggs Type Indicator’ – a type of personality test commonly used in workplaces by occupational psychologists. Scrolling down further still, you will find individual webpages which have been placed in the category of ‘personality’, such as the ‘Alphabet Soup Personality Types’ page. Take a few minutes to explore any which sound interesting.

Which do you think is more effective – human-edited directories, or computer run searches? Clearly, neither is perfect – what are the advantages and disadvantages of each?

For more information on search engines, how they work and their history, go to www.wikipedia.org – like the ODP, this is a freely developed resource run by volunteers and web enthusiasts.

Metasearch engine

Lastly, we will look at metasearch engines such as AskJeeves. These search engines work on the principle of taking one search request – such as ‘cystic fibrosis’ – and running it through more than one search engine simultaneously. In theory, this should make the search quicker and more effective!

Try searching AskJeeves for information on cystic fibrosis. This time, we are going to move beyond just searching for sites to actually finding some useful information!

Using the sites you find, answer the following questions:

1. Cystic Fibrosis can be cured by an operation

TRUE / FALSE

2. Cystic Fibrosis is a hereditary disease

TRUE/FALSE

3. List three symptoms of cystic fibrosis:

Online databases

In addition to these three types of search engines, you will also come across online databases, particularly if you are using the internet to help you with your coursework and academic research. Like directory search engines, these are compiled and maintained by human editors, but unlike directories, these do not try to cover everything - instead, they focus on websites, articles and other resources covering one specific area, such as social science, medicine, or psychology.

The main online database for social science in the UK is Sosig - the Social Science Information Gateway.

Go to www.sosig.ac.uk and type in 'women domestic violence' as your search terms.

This brings up dozens of sites and resources. You could work through them, but if you scroll down the left hand side of the page, you will see a box headed 'resource type'. Click on 'government publications' and your search is narrowed to government publications on women and domestic violence (note that search engines will assume you mean AND when you have more than one search term).

Try searching Sosig again for a subject that interests you - perhaps an area you will look at in your integrative project, or a topic you have covered in class.

Library catalogues are another common type of online database that you will come across - you can access the Stow catalogue from the desktop of any student PC. Stow also has a subscription to Athens - a collection of different online databases with a wealth of information - you can get further information and a password from the college Library.

Finding the information again!

Hopefully, you now have a good idea of how to effectively search for the information you need on the internet - and you're starting to realise the sheer scale of the web!! It's very frustrating to find a fantastic page, tell you friend about it, drag them to the Flex to see…. and you can't find it. There are two solutions to this problem:

1. Using the history function

Each time you log on to the PC, the 'history' function records the sites that you've visited. This is a very useful tool if you are 'surfing' the web - flicking from page to page - or if you are just trying to look at lots of pages to find out what's out there.

Go to www.bruichladdich.com and answer the following question:

On which island is the Bruichladdich distillery located?

Answer: _____________________________

Now go to www.calmac.co.uk and find out where the ferry to this island sails from:

Answer: _____________________________

And go to www.citylink.co.uk to find out whether we can get a bus there, and what time the next bus leaves:

YES/NO Leaving at: __________________________

OK, we're all set for our trip, but first, we'd like to know a bit more about Bruichladdich. We could use the 'back' button to go back, but if we've looked at dozens of different sites, it's going to take a while.

A quicker option is to use the 'history' tool from the toolbar at the top of the page (the one that looks like a clock, with a green arrow going back).

This brings up a list of the most recent sites you've visited, down the left hand side of the page. Click on the Bruichladdich folder to see the pages you visited there, and then on bruichladdich.com to go back to the main page.

We'd now like to know when the distillery first opened:

Answer: _____________________

2. Saving to favourites

Back from our whisky tasting tour of the islands, and we've enjoyed ourselves so much that we might like to go back again in the future.

The favourites folder allows us to store particularly useful sites - and unlike the history tool, it's there for future reference.

Go to the Bruichladdich homepage (use your history tool if you have navigated away from it). To add this to your favourites, simply go to the favourites drop-down menu (to the right of the file, edit menus at the top of the page). Click on add to favourites, and you're done!

Now go to the Citylink and CalMac homepages and add them to your favourites as well. You should be able to see the Bruichladdich page at the top of the list when you do this.

To complete our collection, go to www.undiscoveredscotland.com and add this to the favourites list as well.

You can now use the favourites list to go between your favourite pages, without having to type them in each time.

If you click on 'organise favourites', you can create folders and manage your favourites as you did with the emails in LO3. You should spend a few minutes now organising your favourites - create an 'IT class' folder and put today's favourites into it. Then create a 'useful sites' folder and add two sites:

The Social Science webpages - http://socialscience.stow.ac.uk

Sosig - www.sosig.ac.uk

If you are happy with these tools, go on to the formative assessment over the page. If you are unsure, go back over the notes and practice some of the techniques you have just learned.

Summative Assessments - Internet: Theory and Practice

We have already completed the summative assessment for LO3, Using Email. Next, we will complete the summative assessment for LO2, which involves using the internet to find and manage information. In this assessment, you will be tested on your practical skills in using different types of search engine to find information on a specific topic, as well as finding information from a given website. You will also be asked to demonstrate to your tutor that you can use the history and favourites tools to manage information.

You will not be asked about the technical aspects of the internet and the terminology in the next assessment. This will be in the Learning Outcome 1 assessment at the end of the unit.

Once we have completed LO2, we will move on to LO4, which involves using the skills you have just learned to identify and review websites on a particular topic - the topic you have chosen for your integrative assessment.

We will then move on to a class project, to create a simple website of resources for you and other students to use for the integrative project. We will use the material from LO4 as the content for this site, and you will work in small groups to tackle different aspects of web design. This should help you to get to grips with the terminology, before the LO1 assessment on 'how the internet works'.

Exercise

Go to a keyword search engine such as www.google.com and search for three different sites relating to Scottish history.

Write the names and URLs below:

Name ____________________ URL __________________________

Use a site that you found through the search to answer the following questions:

1. When did ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’ die?

2. What is the famous last line of the Declaration of Arbroath?

3. When was the ‘Union of the Crowns’ and which king did it involve?

If you can’t find the answers you’re looking for, try another search with more specific keywords.

Go to a hierarchical/directory search engine such as http://dmoz.org. Find websites relating to three different types of martial arts, and write their names and URLs below:

Name ____________________ URL __________________________

Go to a metasearch engine such as AskJeeves. Use the search engine to get a quote for a one-way flight from Glasgow to London (any airport) next Saturday. Note down the name of the site and the URL.

Name ____________________ URL __________________________

Price of flight _____________________

Flying from (airport) ________________ to (airport) _______________

Flying with (airline) _____________________