Scenario 4 - Netiquette and sending attachments

Email is an evolving form of communication. Perhaps due to the often rapid exchange of email messages and replies, the style is generally much shorter than more formal written communication, and frequently degenerates into a telegraphic form.

There are certain conventions adopted by users of email, newsgroups and mailing lists, in particular. These are known as Netiquette. Expected behaviour will vary between groups; so look out for any special, local rules.
A common convention is not to write sentences in capital letters, as this is taken to be equivalent to shouting. You may see people using ‘emoticons’ or ‘smilies’ such as :) ;) etc, to hint at humour, sadness, and so on. Another convention is not to quote very much of previous contributions to a list in your follow-up message. If your new points are buried in a lot of quoted text it makes it more difficult to follow; so delete all the quoted text, except that which is necessary.

To send non-text files, such as pictures, Word documents, etc, you must select them from your email program as Attachments. This means that they are appended to the email in a special form for safe delivery. Some file types (but not JPEG image files, for instance) can benefit from compression. This process removes redundant information from the file, saving on transfer time. The process must be reversed after reception, to restore the original data. This requires compression software, such as WinZip or StuffIt.

Attachments may be large, and therefore not welcomed by forum users with a slower connection. If you intend to send a large file (say over 500kB), even directly to an individual, it is polite to first ask if it is convenient.

Example 4

A teacher set up an email link with a similar school in Canada. The pupils were writing to their Canadian penfriends about a visit they made to the Millennium Dome. They had taken photographs with a digital camera on the visit and one of the pupils asked if he could send a photograph with his message.
His teacher showed him how to send it as an attachment. This stimulated an exchange of images between the schools.
On occasions when there were several images to send they were compressed first using compression software, which enabled them to be transferred more quickly.

Key Skills and equipment

The key skills for the above example are:

• operating a digital camera
• saving digital photographic images
• using compression software
• sending an email attachment

The key equipment is:

• a digital camera
• compression software such and Winzip or Stuffit
• a computer linked to the Internet
• email software

Scenario 5 - Newsgroups and bulletin boards

Newsgroups and Bulletin boards also provide platforms for discussion groups, and are accessed through the newsgroup facility provided by your ISP. You can subscribe to any number of the thousands of newsgroups available, but unlike email forums they do not send all messages out automatically to every member of the group. Messages sent to a newsgroup stay on the news server for a preset time. Subscribers request delivery of the messages when they decide they want to read them. The messages cannot be deleted or edited but disappear automatically after the predetermined passage of time. One newsgroup that might contain useful discussions is uk.education.teachers. However teachers should be aware that most newsgroups are un-moderated and subscribers may receive irrelevant or even offensive material.

The World Wide Web (WWW)

The World Wide Web (also known as WWW or just ‘the Web’) is the source of vast amounts of information on individual Web sites connected together via the Internet. A Web site is a location on the Internet that is rather like a book, but it is not linear. Like a book, each Web site contains a number (often a large number) of individual pages. Links (hyperlinks) on each page will take you to other pages, and so on, all around the Web.

You can get access to the Web through your ISP using software called a browser. The two most commonly used browsers are Internet Explorer and Netscape. You can find out just about anything from the Web if you know where to look but searching must be done online so it can become expensive.

Each Web site has its own unique address known as its Uniform Resource Locator (URL). Web site address begins with http:// (hypertext transfer protocol) but you do not usually have to type it in because the browser uses this by default. Throughout this Unit addresses are written without the http:// beginning. Most URLs, but not all, next have the letters ‘www’ followed by a full stop (dot). The information on a Web site is downloaded onto your computer when you connect to the Internet and type its URL into your browser.

For example: www.inclusive.co.uk

Like email addresses, URLs must be typed accurately; but typing addresses each time can be a laborious task. One way of making the job easier is to use the hyperlinks or hotlinks written into most Web pages. Hyperlinks are usually indicated by appropriate words written in underlined blue letters, or they may be shown as buttons (icons or simple shapes) with messages such as ‘Click Here’. When you click on a hyperlink it automatically opens up a different Web page and in this way you can move from one page to another without having to type in addresses. In ‘Web-speak’ this is known as surfing or browsing.

Scenario 6 - Browsing

A primary school has recently had a network of computers installed and each classroom now has Internet connection. The computers are set up to open with the Home Page of the Internet Service Provider. Because the ISP is an educational provider the choices available from the home page are mostly relevant to the teachers’ needs.
At the first training session led by the school’s ICT Co-ordinator the teachers are exploring the Web by clicking on some of the Hyperlinks, shown as underlined words or icons. Every time they visit a new page, the browser remembers where they have been so that they can move backwards and forwards through their choices by clicking the arrow buttons on the toolbar.

Key skills and equipment

The key skills for the above examples are:

• logging on
• using the toolbar navigation buttons
• using hyperlinks

The key equipment is

• a computer linked to the Internet
• browser software

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