1. The INTERNET

2. What is the Internet?
Many computers can be connected to share information. This is called a network.
The Internet is a collection of networks, in which all the computers can “talk to each other” and share information.
It isn’t a thing…you can’t touch it.
And it isn’t a place…you can’t actually go there.
Use your classroom as an example of a network…on the Internet our classroom is connected with many other networks like ours. All of them together make up the Internet.

3. Who made the Internet? Started in 1969 by the Department of Defense.
In the late 1980s companies found a way to move information through the internet faster and cheaper.
This is when the public started to hear about the Internet.
Ask students if they remember when they first heard about the Web or the Internet? What did they think?

4. What is the World Wide Web? (WWW)
The name for the part of the Internet that most people use.
The World Wide Web lets you click on things, see pictures, hear sounds, and watch video.
Also called The Web or The Net
Without the WWW everything on the Internet would just be text and we would have to type instead of clicking with the mouse.

5. MODEM
A piece of computer hardware that changes computer signals to analog signals that can be sent across phone lines.
I often use an analogy of an interpreter. The modem translates and interprets the information being sent between computers.

6. BROWSER
A program that lets you see a Web page. Also known as a Web browser.
We will use Microsoft Internet Explorer.
What are other programs that we have used in class?
Now walk them through opening the web browser on their computers.

7.
Electronic Mail. Text messages sent through a network to one person or a group. messages can also carry attached files.
Often at least one student already uses and can explain it to the class.

8. Spam or Junk Mail
messages from people you don’t know that you don’t want.
Usually advertising a product.
An message from someone you don’t know can have a virus. Don’t open it!
This is a good opportunity to talk about the risks of using the Internet: Viruses, pornography, and privacy.

9. Chat
Live communication over the Internet Relay Chat service or an online service. As one person enters text it appears on the other person's screen in "real time", or almost instantly.

10. URL http://www.exploratorium.edu Uniform Resource Locator.
It is like an address for the website. It tells the computer where the information is and how to access it.
This is also known as the "Web site address."
Help students find the address bar and type this URL.

11. Web Address Endings .com operated by a company
.org operated by a non-profit
.gov operated by a branch of the government
.edu operated by a school or college
Call attention to the ending of the website address. What does it tell us about the website?

12. LINK
A word or phrase that you can click on to show a web page with more information. Links in a Web browser are usually underlined and are a different color than the rest of the text.
Demonstrate how the cursor changes as it moves over each link. Have students move around the page to identify links.

13. Going Back
Click on the BACK button to go to the webpage you saw before this one.
You can click on the BACK button many times.
Have student try to go back to the exploratorium homepage.

14. Search Engine
A tool that we can use to find information through searches for keywords and phrases.
Have students imagine a room full of papers. When they type a word like “dog” into the search engine it begins to sort through all those papers. It scans each paper for the word dog and makes two piles: what she wants, and what she doesn’t want. The computer then shows you a list of “what you want”. All in a matter of seconds. The more dramatic you make this…the better it works. Students could even be enlisted to help act it out.