Basic Guide on Using the Internet for Junior Secondary Students
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks of private, public, academic, business and government networks. This guide will help you
This is the first part of using the internet: beginners’ guide. This guide is devoted to teaching beginners, and junior secondary school students on how to use the internet. It is tailored along-side the curriculum provided for Junior Secondary school students in Nigeria. It begins with definition of basic terms, then delve into how to create emails, etc.
Internet: The Internet is a
global system of interconnected computer networks of private, public, academic,
business and government networks. It uses the standard Internet protocol suite
(TCP/IP) to link several billion devices worldwide.
World Wide Web (www): This is a highly
organized system of retrieving documents through the internet. According to the
World Wide Web Consortium, it can be defined as is
an information system of interlinked hypertext documents that are accessed via
the Internet.[1]
The documents accessed through the www are formatted in a markup language
called HTML (HyperText Markup Language) which supports links to other
documents. www has the capacity to deliver different documents ranging from
texts, graphics, audio, to video. The hypertext documents make it easy for one to jump from one document
to another simply by clicking on hypertext links.
Electronic Mail (E-mail): Email is a system of
exchanging digital messages from one person (sender) to another (recipient)
through the internet. Digital messages can be composed, processed, stored and
managed using web-based emails such as Yahoo,
Gmail, etc or specialized email
applications such as Microsoft Outlook,
Mozilla Thunderbird, etc.
Email address: Before a digital
message can be sent, the sender and recipient need to own email accounts from
where their addresses would be used to send and deliver the message
respectively. An email address is, therefore, an email account or email box
identifier to which digital messages are sent and received.
Website: A website can be
defined as related web pages with information of the owner, hosted in a web
domain. These pages are documents created using HTML (HyperText Markup
Language) or XHTML (Extensible HyperText Markup Language) format and are delivered
as text, audio, image or video to the public via the internet using www.
Companies, institutions, government agencies, businesses, etc own websites
which can be browsed on the internet using web browsers. To browse a website,
one should be familiar with the website address otherwise called URL (Universal
Resource Locator).
A web browser or simply browser is a software application used to browse the World Wide Web. Different web browsers have evolved since 1991, beginning with www (Nexus), however, the most popular browsers since 2010 include: Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Google Chrome. These browsers can be downloaded from the internet free of charge.
When using the internet in any part of the world, a web browser is required. To identify these browsers in a computer system, look out for the following icons on the desktop:
You can simply open free webmail using any of Yahoo mail, Gmail, or Hotmail. To create an email account, follow the following steps:
Type the URL of the free webmail you want to use in the address bar of your favorite web browser, e.g. www.gmail.com, www.hotmail.com, etc. We are working with yahoo mail so we type www.yahoomail.com. Then, press Enter.
Wait for some time,
depending on your internet connection speed; the page shown below will open. (Note: The page may vary, depending on the advert on display. What’s important
is the YAHOO!
pane).
In
the above window, in the YAHOO! pane, click on CreateAccount
or on Don’t have an account? Sign up. The page below will open.
Fill in all the necessary information in the form above, starting with your first name, last name, username (the name you want for your email account, e.g. chidex2015; (do not add @yahoo.com)), password (a secret key which only you should know. This key must be eight characters including uppercase, lowercase, and number, e.g. Agam2016), mobile number (Click the drop-down arrow and choose Nigeria from the box, then enter your mobile number leaving the first 0), birthday and sex.
Click Createaccount.
In the next window that appears, confirm your phone number and click send. A code will be sent to your phone for confirmation. Confirm the code and you’re good to go.
Click on Submit code. Your account has been created.
The following
are the benefits of using the internet.
Information Exchange: With the internet, it is faster and easier to communicate. Both formal and informal communication had been easier and faster through various internet communication applications such as email, Whatsup, 2go, Skype, Google Voice, Instant messaging, etc.
E- learning : The internet has popularized the acquisition of education online. Hence, geographical location, time and distance is no longer a barrier to attaining heights in education. One can be in Nigeria and study at the University of Liverpool at the comfort of his home or office. Also, multinational companies and large organizations can train and organize conferences for their staff through online platforms.
E-Business: Online buying and selling, banking and different marketing activities have been made popular through the internet. One can place an order for goods or perform a banking transaction from his/her home or office without going to the business location.
E-Library: Education and research have taken a new dimension through the use of e-library, made possible by the internet. Anyone wishing to conduct any form of research or looking for information on any field of study can log on to an e-library service. This is relatively cheaper and easier to use. Users will always avoid physical confrontation and congestion.
E-Entertainment: The entertainment industry has grown larger and access to entertainment media has also grown through the use of the internet. Through the internet, several entertainment industries have been able to market their products and increase their popularity. The internet has also made finding the latest updates about celebrities and exploring lifestyles become a day-to-day activity.
Social Networking: Family and friends, colleagues and different people all over the world can stay connected, keep in touch and share ideas through the use of various social networking platforms made available through the internet.
In spite of the
numerous benefits of using the internet, the internet has been abused by many.
Some of the abuses include:
Fraud and theft of personal information: The use of the internet limits our privacy and make our personal data vulnerable to theft. Most times we supply our personal information during online banking, social networking, etc; these private data may sometimes be intercepted by fraudsters and hackers. These fraudsters can access our sensitive information through unsecured connections by planting phishing software.
Pornography: Pornography and age-inappropriate content are one of the major abuse of the Internet. There are thousands of pornographic sites on the Internet that can be detrimental to children and teenagers. Lack of control over the distribution and unrestricted access to pornographic material is damaging to teens and children, however, parents can lock these harmful sites as well as monitor the sites viewed by their children.
Malware attacks: The internet usually leaves our computer open to malware attack. Virus, worm and Trojan horse can easily attack and harm our computers and important files through the internet. Virus programs are unobtrusive and may get activated by clicking a seemingly harmless link or email. In addition to attacking our files, malware attacks may end up crashing our system.
Spamming: Spam emails are unwanted e-mails which serve no purpose to the receiver but serve a purpose to the sender. These emails clog our mailboxes and make it difficult for us to access our emails. Though email service providers have security systems that attempt to guard against spamming, most times, spam emails find their way into our mailbox.
The term
“internet environment” in this section refers to the browsing window. That is,
the environment an internet user interacts with when he/she is browsing the
internet. Students should be acquainted with the icons, buttons, links, and menus on a web page which will enable them to use the internet without difficulties.
A web page is a page that is displayed when a website address (URL), typed in a
web browser’s address bar opens. We have different web browsers, as identified
in the previous section, however, for
illustration purposes, we shall use the internet explorer.
Internet Explorer is a browser that is shipped with the Microsoft Windows operating system. Thus, it is readily available in every system that has Windows operating system installed in it. When you open the internet explorer, a typical window, as shown below is displayed.
We shall concentrate on identifying some of the icons on this window.
When an
internet user opens a web page or browser, he/she can easily understand the
uses of the icons and buttons on the internet environment by simply pointing at
each icon or button and reading the displayed information. For example,
consider the following web page: http://www.waecdirect.org/
This is WAEC
result checking webpage. It is very simple to use and self-explanatory. Simply
enter your examination number, card serial number and pin in the spaces
provided; then choose the year and type of exam and click submit. Your result
is displayed (if all information is correctly entered). You can also click on
the hyperlinks: click here to
visit our corporate website, FAQ, Scratchcard Outlets, Alternative
Channels to display each of the web pages.
For example, clicking on click here to visit our corporate website
displays the following web page:
The above
webpage has the following menus with their submenus: Home, About us, WAEC Profile,
Council Members, Examinations, FAQ, Result, Contact us and News. When you click on any of the
menus or their submenu, the selected webpage will be displayed.
Electronic mail
is fast replacing fax in the corporate world and this is made possible through
the use of the internet. You can use the internet to send and receive emails if you have an email account. In our
previous section, we discussed how to open a free webmail account. If you already have an email address, then sending
and receiving mail is simple.
Type your webmail
address in the address bar of your browser: e.g. www.yahoomail.com, www.gmail.com,
etc. The sign in to account page will appear.
In the sign in page,
type your email address in the Email
address box, e.g. ike4power@yahoo.com and the
password in the Password box.
Click the Sign in button. Your email account will
open, displaying the emails in your inbox. (Note: Mails with the bold
title are emails that have not been read
while emails with the normal title have been read.)
In your inbox, click
the title of the mail you want to read to display the content, then click the inbox button to go back to the inbox
after reading the displayed mail.
If your mail has an attachment,
click on the attached file icon to download the attached mail.
Below is the description of the items labeled in the diagrams above.
Item No.
Item Name
Description
1
Compose
Click on compose when you want to send mail to
someone
2
Inbox
Displays all
your received emails. Click on inbox when you want to check mail
3
Unread mail
The bold
title indicates that the mail has not been read
4
Read mail
The normal
title shows that the mail has been read
5
Attachment
icon
The icon
shows that the received mail has an attached file (attached file could be
video, music, image/picture or document files)
6
Attached
files
Displays
attached files ready for download. Click on each file to download it
Since you
already have your email account open, you can send mail by doing the following:
Click on compose to display the write mail
window.
Type the email address
of the recipient (the person you are sending the mail to) in the To box, e.g. UTMERegistion.info@jamb.gov.ng,
you can type as many email addresses as you want.
If you want to send a
copy of your mail to other recipients, such that they know that similar mail is
sent to them, use the cc (carbon copy) box. In this case, a copy of the mail is
sent to all the recipients in the cc field.
Similarly, if you want
to send a copy of your mail to other recipients, such that they do not know
that similar mail is sent to them, use the Bcc (Blind carbon copy) box. In this
case, a copy of the mail is sent to all the recipients in the bcc field without
each one knowing that the other received a similar mail.
Type the subject or
topic of your mail in the Subject
box.
Type your mail in the
space provided.
If you want to attach
a file/file(s) in your mail, click the attach file icon in the right of Send icon below the write message
window.
A dialog box will
appear, select the file(s) you want to attach and click open to attach your file(s).
When you are done,
click Send icon, to send your mail. A message will appear showing that your
message has been sent.
Chatting is a
system of internet communication that allows for the real-time transmission of messages from sender to receiver. These
days, mobile instant messaging applications have overtaken their computer
counterparts with WhatsApp taking the center stage. However, there are other
popular mobile chatting Apps, such as
WeChat, Viber, Kik messenger, etc.
Social websites
such as Facebook have a built-in chat
application that allows users to easily
chat with friends online. Other windows instant messaging applications include
Windows live messenger, Yahoo messenger, Google Talk, Pidgin, Miranda, Digsby, etc.
To use any of
the chat Apps, you must have it installed on
your phone or computer or use them through their online platform. We shall
illustrate using the Yahoo! Messenger. Yahoo
messenger has been officially discontinued on July 17, 2018.
Type www.messenger.yahoo.com
in a web browser and press enter. The Yahoo! messenger window will appear.
Click on the hyperlinkStart chatting on the web, Yahoo!
account log in page will appear. (Note: you must have a yahoo account to use
Yahoo! Messenger).
Log in to your yahoo
account and click sign in. The Yahoo!
Messenger activation window will appear.
Type your First and
last names in the boxes provided and click Continue.
The messenger window will appear.
Choose a friend to
chat with from your friend’s list, and
start typing your message. You can as well invite those who are not using
messenger presently.
When you are done
chatting, click your name’s (KA above) and select sign out to exit
messenger.
To chat on Facebook: Log in to your Facebook account and select a friend in your friend’s list (right side of the window) to start a chat. The chat window appears. You can chat with as many friends as you want.
Network Groups
Teachers and
students are using electronic networks in increasing numbers, in many cases
conducting exciting new network-based activities. It is recommended that
teachers and students be registered with one or more network groups that will
enhance their knowledge. Some network groups that teachers and students can
register with include: Nigerian Research and Education Network, Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), etc.
Using the Internet Search Engines
An internet search engine is software primarily designed to search for information on the internet. A search engine can return millions of results on a particular topic in less than a second. The search results are usually presented on search engine result pages with about 10 search results per page. There are many internet search engines, but we shall identify a few ones popularly used below.
This search
engine is mostly used by internet users in the world at the time of writing.
According to a ComScore report (October 2012) google powers up to 66.9% of all
searches on the internet.[2]
To use the
google search engine, simply type www.google.com in the address bar of
your browser.
Google also has
google scholar which is a special version basically used for scientific and
hard-research academic materials. Search results and materials displayed by
this engine is believed to have been scrutinized by scientists and scholars.
Bing is a
search engine developed by Microsoft. It runs on
all Microsoft sites and is the second most popularly used search engine with
about 16% market share. To use bing, type www.bing.com
This is a
Computational Knowledge Engine which can give facts and data for a number of
topics. Usually, when you are searching for a topic such as energy, it gives
you facts like the common symbol, basic
dimensions, standard unit, etc.
The search
engine is basically used to search for information on the internet. The
information to be searched for could be classified into research,
shopping/marketing or entertainment. A student using the search engine for
research is simply using it to find information on a particular subject or
topic. For example, information on HIV/AIDS prevalence and cure.
Using it for
shopping will simply allow the student to search and shop online for a book,
cloth, watch, notebook, etc. There are online retail outlets where one can place
an order for products and receive them
within 2 – 7 working days. Outlets such as Jumia, Konga, Slot, Kaymu, Dealdey,
etc
Finally, you
can use the search engine to search for information on entertainment.
Information on entertainment is best
searched for on Youtube, where video clips of your favorite artists are uploaded for viewers.
Type the web address
of your favorite search engine on your
browsers address bar, say, www.duckduckgo.com and press enter.
On the search box,
type the topic you are searching for. For example, if you want to download
information on Voter education handbook, type voter education handbook in the search box and click the Search
handle or press Enter
on the keyboard.
The search results
will appear, displaying a page similar to this:
Click on the topic(s)
that best describes what you are looking for. You have the option to scroll to
as many pages as you can until you are satisfied with what you want. Clicking
on the first topic (from the picture above: Nigeria:
Voter Education Handbook), the page displays as follow:
On the page above,
click on Voter Education Handbook.pdf
to download the handbook.
When the pdf file
opens, it will appear as follow, depending on the browser and browser version
you are using (I am using Mozilla Firefox).
Click on this icon in the top right corner of the file to
download it or on this icon to print the file.
When you select the
download icon, the following window appears:
Select Open with and click OK to open the file (Note: your computer must have a pdf reader to open such file).
When the file opens as
shown below, select File >> Save
As. When the Save As dialog window appears, choose the location you want to
save your file and click Save.
You can search
for videos, images, etc and download them as well. If your search result is an
image, then do the following:
I typed images of bread varieties in ASK.com to
have the following results.
Click on the third
image in the list of images to display the following window:
Right-click your
desired image and select Save Image As…
from the drop-down list.
In the dialog window
that appears, select a location for your image, type a name for your image in
the File name box and click Save. The image is saved.
Task One:
Download the
following information from the internet and save them in a flash disk:
i. HIV/AIDS
prevalence and cure
ii. Voter
education handbook
[1]
“World Wide Web Consortium.” The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)…”
