INTERNET INDEPENDENT LEARNING GUIDE

USING THE ADDRESS FIELD

October 7, 2007

 

OBJECTIVE

This step-by-step instruction was designed as a guide for anyone wanting to learn to use the Internet independent of classroom instruction. However, in some cases it may be used to augment classroom instruction.

Learners can use this instruction individually or with help from a knowledgeable person such as a computer knowable person

 

THE MOUSE

HOW TO HOLD A MOUSE

The mouse should be held with the wire pointing away from you and with the heal of your hand used as a pivot. The index finder should be over the left button and the middle finger over the right button. The thumb should be holding the left side, and the ring and pinky holding the right side.

 

PROPER USE OF THE MOUSE

Note: in the instructions below, when it says click it means to click the left mouse button.

It is important to know that a click is made up of three actions as follows:

1. Pointing the arrow of the mouse at an icon or word

 

2. Quickly but firmly pushing down on the left mouse button without moving the mouse.

 

3. Then quickly letting up without moving the mouse.

 

Note: Use of the right button of the mouse will be covered in another instruction

 

STARTING A COMPUTER SYSTEM

If the computer is already on you should see the Desktop with all its icons. (PLEASE SEE EXHIBIT A –TYPICAL DESKTOP DISPLAY)

If the computer is not already on, follow these instructions:

 

1. Turn on the monitor by firmly but briefly pressing the button on the front right panel below the screen. (The monitor may already be on, if so look for an amber light next to the power button on the right side of the panel below the screen)

2. Now turn on the console (the computer) by firmly but briefly pressing the power button. It is located about half way down on the front panel of the console.

 

Wait while the computer starts up, it may take a minute or two. When it has finished, you will see the Desktop screen with all its icons. (Please see EXHIBIT A)

 

START THE INTERNET BROWSER SOFTWARE CALLED INTERNET EXPLORER. (please see EXHIBIT A)

NOTE: The Internet Explorer Icon on the desktop looks like a lower case e and it usually says “Internet Explorer” under the icon. Starting Internet Explorer is a two-step operation as covered below:

 

1. On the Windows Desktop, using your mouse, point at the Internet Explorer Icon and click once. That will highlight the icon.

 

2. Now just peck the Enter key. That will start the Internet Explorer software. You should now see the Home Page of the web site on your monitor screen.

 

WEB SITE ADDRESS

Notice the Address in the long box in the upper part of the screen. It says: http://www.xxxxx.com or http://www.xxxxx.gov or http://www.xxxxx.org

The http stands for hypertext transmission protocol the language of the world wide web

The :// is a separator

The www stands for world wide web

The xxxxx stands for the domain name of this web site

The suffix .com tells you it is a commercial site; a suffix of .org stands for organization, a .gov for government, and .edu for educational institutions. There are other suffixes like .net and .biz.

The web site you see on your screen is the default Web site for this computer lab

 

PRACTICE SCROLLING THE WEB SITE SCREEN UP AND DOWN

 

USING THE UP AND DOWN ARROWS

Notice the little up arrow on the upper right side of the screen, and the little down arrow on the lower right side of the screen.

1. Click four times on the down arrow

2. Now click four times on the up arrow.

Notice how the screen scrolls up and down.

 

USING THE SCROLL BAR

Locate the gray scroll bar on the right side of the screen between the up and down arrows

 

1. Put the mouse arrow on top of the scroll bar,

2. Then while holding the left button down, drag the scroll bar down by moving the mouse toward you; and then up by moving the mouse away from you.

The screen will scroll up and down.

 

USING THE MOUSE WHEEL

There is wheel in the middle of the mouse between the two buttons. Gently turning this wheel with your index finder will also scroll the display on the screen up and down

 

USING THE UP AND DOWN ARROW KEYS ON THE KEYBOARD

BUT BEFORE YOU CAN USE THE UP AND DOWN ARROW KEYS YOU MUST HAVE CLICKED ONCE ON THE SCREEN

1.         1.        Peck the down arrow key several times. That will make the screen scroll up.

2.      2.     Peck the up arrow key, that will make the screen scroll down

 

INTERNET LINKS

On most all web pages it is not possible to get all the information on one screen, so the web designers have developed a way of linking to other pages using the pointing finger method. When you move your mouse around a web page you will notice that the mouse arrow turns into a painting finger when passing over some of the text or pictures. When this happens it is called a link. When your mouse turns into a pointing finger and you click, it will automatically take you to the link that you clicked on. This is one of the features that make the web so powerfully useful.

 

PRACTICE DOING INTERNET LINKS

Run the mouse arrow over one of the lines of text until you get a pointing finger, and then click. See how it transfers you to another web page. Notice the new address. It is possible to continue linking and linking and linking. Linking is one of the activities that provide the tremendous power of the Internet.

Jumping is another activity that you will learn later that is also very, very powerful.

THE BACK BUTTON

Locate the Back button in the upper left corner of your screen. After linking to another web page, you can use this Back button to return to the previous page by clicking on it.

 

PRACTICE USING THE BACK BUTTON

After linking, practice clicking on the Back button in the upper left of your screen, to return you to the previous web page

 

THE FORWARD BUTTON

The Forward button can be used after you have used the Back button. You can use the Forward button to take you forward to where you were before you clicked the Back button. The Forward button is usually just to the right of the Back button.

 

REVIEW OF LINKING

Linking is one of the ways to surf the Internet. Linking is always done using the pointing finger of the mouse to identify the link, and clicking with the left mouse button. Linking can be done from either text or a picture on a web page. Jumping is the other method of surfing the Internet which is covered below

 

JUMPING TO ANOTHER WEB SITE (also called opening)

The Internet would be quit boring if you were limited to just one web site. (There are several million web sites on the Internet) So now we will learn how to jump to other web sites. To jump to, or to “Open” a different web site, you must know its address. There is an attachment to this handout listing a sample of web site addresses.

Lets take a look at this attachment. As we said above there are millions of web sites on the Internet, so the attachment does not do justice to that fact.

 

BE PREPARED! The internet is mostly paid for by advertising, so other than the .gov sites you will probably we overwhelmed with it. Just learn to ignore it. On the other hand there are the POP UPS. These can be somewhat controlled with popup stopper software but again not entirely. To get rid of a popup click the X in the upper right corner of the popup frame.

 

STEPS FOR JUMPING

There are several different ways of jumping; but for simplicity we will cover only one way for now.

 

1. Locate the Address field near the top of your monitor screen. There is already a web address there.

 

2. Put your mouse arrow on a clear part of that field and click only once. That will highlight the address that is already in the field.

 

3. Now just type in the address of the web site where you want to jump

Lets just pick one out of the air like www.cnn.com. Type that address in the address space

 

4. Now simply peck the Enter key once, and you should now jump to that web site

 

PRACTICE SCROLLING

Again you will have to use the scroll bar, the scrolling arrows, or the up and down arrow keys, or the mouse wheel to make the screen go up and down.

 

PRACTICE LINKING

And again when the mouse appearance is a POINTING FINGER over a sentence, or a series of words, or a picture, that tells you that that is a LINK. When you find a link that looks interesting, click on it.

You will get a new page of information on your monitor screen.

You can use the Back and Forward buttons to go back and forth between screens

 

PRACTICE JUMPING TO SEVERAL DIFFERENT SITES

In the next few paragraphs you will practice jumping to the National Gallery of Art, Reference Desk site, the AARP site were there is a good on-line internet course, the Louvre in France, and Google which is a fantastic search engine site. Go to it!

 

 

PRACTICE JUMPING TO THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

1. Click once in the clear space in the Address field.

2. Type www.nga.gov

3. Peck the enter key

Try linking now by clicking on some of the phrases at the side.

 

PRACTICE JUMPING TO THE REFERENCE DESK WEB PAGE

1. Click once in the clear space in the Address field.

2. Type www.refdesk.com

3. Peck the enter key

Scroll around this site it is terrific!

 

PRACTICE JUMPING TO THE AARP WEB SITE

1. Click once in the clear space in the Address field

2. Type www.aarp.org

3. Peck the Enter key.

 

For lots of good information about computers click on the “Computers and Technology” link on the left side of the first page.

Also try jumping directly to: www.aarp.org/learninternet

 

PRACITCE JUMPING TO THE LOUVRE

1. Click once in the clear space in the Address field

2. Type www.louvre.fr

3. Peck the Enter key.

 

PRACITCE JUMPING TO THE CHINAVIEW NEWS

1. Click once in the clear space in the Address field

2. Type www.chinaview.cn

3. Peck the Enter key.

 

PRACTICE JUMPING TO google’s news WEB PAGE

1. Click once in the clear space in the Address field

2. Type www.google.com

3. Peck the Enter key.

4. Peck News below the word Google

 

PRACTICE DOING A GOOGLE SEARCH

After viewing Google news, try a Google search using “florida birds” as your search criteria. Do as follows:

 

1. Scroll to the top of the Google screen

 

2. Click in the BACK button located in the upper left corner of the screen.

 

3. In the search area provide type “florida birds”. Be sure to use the quotation marks

 

4. Click on the “Google Search” button

 

REVIEW LINKING VS JUMPING

Linking can be accomplished by simply clicking on a desirable link that appears on any web page when the mouse appearance as a pointing finger. That will take you to the linked page you clicked on.

 

Jumping is when you want to transfer to a different web site entirely.

First you must know the web address of the site you want to jump to. Then click on “File” on the Menu bar, then on “Open”.

In the space provided type in the web address of the site that you want to transfer to.

Then peck the Enter key.