Introduction to the World Wide Web

Pamela J. W. Gore
Georgia Perimeter College

What is the Internet?

The Internet is an international communication network on the computer. It has been called the "Information Superhighway".

What is the World Wide Web?

The World Wide Web (WWW or the Web) is "the universe of network-accessible information". It is like a library that you can access by computer (called a virtual library).

The Web uses hypertext, which means that certain words (or graphics) are highlighted and underlined (often in in blue), and if you click on them using your mouse (left button), you will be connected to additional information on the subject. You may also click on graphic images, or on icons.

If you observe your mouse pointer arrow, when it turns from an arrow into a pointing finger, you are on a clickable hyperlink. Also note that if a hyperlink is in red (or another color), it just means that it is a site you (or someone on your computer) has visited before.

What is Netscape?

Netscape is a multimedia program which allows you to access the Web so that text, graphics, and video can be viewed, and sound can be heard.

These features are useful for education because they provide tutorials, classroom activities, and up-to-the minute data and photographs (such as pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope, satellite weather maps, maps of the ozone hole, current earthquake information, etc.)

As you view the hypertext files, I recommend that you read (or at least skim) the entire file before clicking on the highlighted words.

Entering addresses:

Each file you access in Netscape has an address (called a URL or Uniform Reference Locator) in a long white rectangle near the top of the screen. Most addresses begin "http://".

If you wish to access a particular address, you can type in the address you need. (Using your mouse, click on the first part of the address, and holding the button, drag it along until the current address is highlighted. Then, just start typing the new address.)

Doing your web-based assignments

To do your assignments, use the Web page for the assignment as your home base. You will visit various sites by clicking on the links. When you are finished at a site (and you may link to several more pages before you are finished with a site), click on the "BACK" button at the top of your screen until you return to your assignment page.

Or, you may want to "bookmark" the assignment page, to return to it.

Print out the assignment page, and write your answers on it to turn in.

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This page created by Dr. Pamela J. W. Gore,
Georgia Perimeter College, Clarkston, GA
pgore@gpc.edu
Revised May 11, 2000.