Lesson 5

The Internet and the World Wide

Web
2
 Learning Outcomes
 Illustrate the nature and characteristics of the Internet and the World
Wide Web.
 Evaluate and critique the instructional value of the World Wide Web.
 Create real life scenarios to illustrate both the positive and the negative
use of the Internet and the Web.
3
📌Introduction
The internet is said to be the most fluid, coercive and demanding type of
communication medium that has brought dramatic changes in the way people work
and learn. The internet offers a wealth of information ranging from primary source
of material to statistics on just about everything. As pre-service teachers, how much
do you know about the internet? How can you optimize the use of internet in
teaching and learning? One does not need to be an IT savvy to make the internet a
viable tool because it offers a rich set of useful features and functions.
The development of the internet and the World Wide Web has gone a long way
in terms of their features, capabilities and applications. The first time the author
made use of the internet is in the early 90s. The experience was memorable one
because of her desire to learn more about it, she went out her way to hire a private
tutor to conduct a one-on-one session. Well at that time, access is not as speedy as it
is today and the amount of information was not as enormous as they are now.
📌Introduction

When people think of technology, information, access and the like, it seems
that the first thing that comes to their mind is the Internet and the World Wide Web.
These two terms are usually associated with Information Communication
Technology (ICT)
Lesson 5 introduces the Internet and the World Wide Web, their historical
development, nature and characteristics with emphasis on their instructional value.
 Directions:
 Visit the interactive website on the Internet Live Stats
URL: http://www.internetlivestats.com
 Interact with this website in five (5) minutes and record the latest
statistical data reported per day of the following:
- Video viewed__________________
- Facebook active users___________
- Twitter active users ____________
- Photos uploaded on Instagram_____
- Pinterest active users___________
- Skype calls___________________
 You may look for additional data on the usage of the internet in this site.
 After five (5) minutes, share your insights and learning experiences while
catching up with the speedy transmission of internet statistical data and
information.

Note: This activity require internet access

Learning Activity
Duration: 10 Minutes
6
 Internet Live Stats puts the total number of websites
online today at a little over 1 billion, while close to 1.7
billion of us have now signed up for Facebook. The site
pulls together all this information from more than 250
sources and uses a customized algorithm to try and make
an educated guess about what’s happening online.
 “
According to Brantner, (as cited in Nield, 2016) in his report at
Motherboard, the reach of the web continues to grow rapidly; there
are now 3.4 billion people online (46.1 percent of the world’s
population), while internet-savvy young adults spend an average of
27 hours online every week. By this time this book reaches your
hand, you will be amazed how these figures you saw in the
Internet Live Stats have increased immeasurably and have been
outdated.

8
 “
Users across the globe typically perform 54 907 Google
searches, 7 252 tweets, 125 406 Youtube videos and
send
2 501 018 emails every second- numbers that are only
growing larger as more larger as more people get online.
(Nield, 2016)

9
 Reflect… Reflect… Reflect…

As pre-service teachers, what are

these statistical figures trying to
tell you? To what extent will
these developments in the internet
and the World Wide affect or
transform today’s education?
Your answer is as good as the
author’s.

10
📌The Internet and the World Wide Web

Every time this author introduces this topic about the internet to her class in
Educational Technology, she usually begins with this simple question, “Is Internet a
place? The usual answer she receives from the majority of her students is the
shaking of their heads to convey their “NO” answer. While a few will outright say
“yes”. For those who expressed a “YES” answer, this author pursues this with her
follow up questions, if it is a place, then where it is located?” A long silence prevails
in the class because those who opted to say “YES” cannot cite the physical or the
geographical location of the internet. But suddenly someone cried out his answer
and said” Out there in space! Yes the internet is located there (making a hand
gesture to refer to a space). So is really in space? Where can you find this space?
📌The Internet and the World Wide Web
How do we define internet? Several users of internet may express their
definition of internet in different perspectives depending again on their orientation.
A computer programmer and technical people may define the internet from a
technical point of view. They would probably say “Internet is a collection of wires,
cables and networks. It is a network of networks connecting thousands, millions or
even billions of other networks. It is a global system of interconnected computer
networks that use the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to link billions of devices
worldwide (Internet n.d.). So the internet is not a place and therefore, does not
have a specific physical location.
How about the World Wide Web or the WWW? The web for short is basically
a system of Internet servers that supports specially formatted documents. The
documents are formatted in a mark-up language called HTML (HyperText Markup
Language) that supports links to other documents, as well as graphics, audio and
📌The Internet and the World Wide Web

The World Wide Web may likewise be defined as an information system on

the Internet that allows documents to be connected to other documents by hypertext
links, enabling user to search for information by moving from one document to
another.
Let us make our understanding of the Internet and the web using a simple
analogy. I encountered in my readings one author (sadly I cannot recall his name)
who made use of an analogy to define internet and the web. He said, “the Internet is
like a megamall and the websites are likes stores inside the megamall.” The act of
surfing in the net is also like widow shopping.
📌Historical Development of the Internet and the World
Wide Web
September 2, 1969 marks the birth of the Internet. Historical record tells us
that it is on this day that two computers communicated with each other. And on
October 29, 1969 message was sent from computer to computer in different
locations. On January 1, 1983, ARPANET adopted the standard TCP/IP protocol.
About two decades after the discovery of the Internet, Tim Berners-Lee invented the
World Wide Web in March, 1989. The first email was sent in 1971 and Mosaic
became the first web browser (Cellania, 2009).
The World Wide Web is the key to development of the Information Age and
the principal tool that billions of people use today to interact with the Internet. The
speedy access to the internet gave rise to the emergence of social media which today
is the buzzword for the both young and the old. According to an infographic from
social media monitoring platform Simplify360, there are eras to show the
development of social media namely; The Primitive Era, The Medieval Era, and the
📌Historical Development of the Internet and the World
Wide Web

In 2001, there was already a continuous stream of social innovation that

started with the first crowd sourced encyclopedia- the Wikipedia. This was followed
by Friendster, MySpace, Facebook in 2004, and Twitter in 2006. While Facebook
and Twitter are the two top social media platforms today, MySpace has undergone
several pivots and is still in quiet operation.
There are several launch of apps as shown on the next slide, however, it did
not show the impact of mobile technologies on the increased use of social media all
over the world. Let us take a closer look on the three (3) eras of social media.
📌Historical Development of the Internet and the World
Wide Web
THE PRIMITIVE
Usenet
1979 • Posts news to newsgroups ERA
BBS (Bulletin • Late 70s, first site with
Board
System) Login option for interaction

• CompuServe (First Chat Introduced)

1980

1984 • Prodigy Communications

Corporations pioneered online.
📌Historical Development of the Internet and the World
Wide Web
• Introduction to Internet Relay Chat File Sharing, link
1988
sharing and keeping in touch

Novembe • Introduction to ICQ Multiuser messaging, Multiplayer

r games, made emoticons, and abbreviations such as
1996
LOL and BRB became famous
• Six degrees (glimpse of first
1997 social media resembling that of
today’s features like create profile
and add friends)

• Live Journal
1999 First to introduce dynamic content on the blogs and
forum, create groups and interact.

THE MEDIEVAL ERA OF SOCIAL

📌Historical Development of the Internet and the World
Wide Web THE GOLDEN ERA OF SOCIAL
• Wikipedia MEDIA
2001 The online free encyclopedia was launched.
• Friendster
2002 Operated by allowing people to meet new people and increase their
network.

200 • Hi5
3 Included photo sharing, user groups, social gaming and status update.
• MySpace
Private messaging, public comments posted to user’s profile, bulletins
sent to friends

200 • Facebook (for Harvard University students use only.

4 • Orkut (owned by Google, meet old and new friends,
rate friends, change themes, etc.
• Flickr (photo sharing platform)
📌Historical Development of the Internet and the World
Wide Web THE GOLDEN ERA OF SOCIAL
MEDIA
• Reddit (entertainment and social networking platform)
2005 • YouTube (first organized video streaming and video sharing platform)
• Facebook (best performing social media platform till date with 1.44
billion active users
2006 • Twitter (a microblogging platform with a question and answer format.)

200 • Tumblr (live streaming and microblogging platform.)

7
200 • WhatsApp (iOS, Android and Windows based
9 application for personal and group chats)
📌Historical Development of the Internet and the World
Wide Web THE GOLDEN ERA OF SOCIAL
MEDIA
• Snapchat (new platform for chatting by posting pictures.
2012 • Tinder (a social discovery application for iOS and android devices.

2013 • Vine (a multiple platform video sharing social application.)

2014 • Pheed (a social platform with live broadcast option.)

📌 Basic Web-Related Terms and Concepts
• Bandwidth
It refers to the amount of information your connection to the Internet can carry,
usually measured in bits per second.
• ISP
“Internet Service Provider”, it’s the company that provides you with access to
the Internet.
• URL
“Uniform Resource Locator”. It is the global address of documents and other
resources on the World Wide Web. This first part of the URL is called a protocol

identifier and it indicates what protocol to use, and the second part is called a
resource is located. The protocol identifier and the resource name are separated
by
📌 Basic Web-Related Terms and Concepts
• Bandwidth
It refers to the amount of information your connection to the Internet can carry,
usually measured in bits per second.
• ISP
“Internet Service Provider”, it’s the company that provides you with access to
the Internet.
• URL
“Uniform Resource Locator”. It is the global address of documents and other
resources on the World Wide Web. This first part of the URL is called a protocol

identifier and it indicates what protocol to use, and the second part is called a
resource is located. The protocol identifier and the resource name are separated
by
📌 Basic Web-Related Terms and Concepts
• Domain Name
It is a name that identifies a computer or computers on the Internet. These
names appear as a part of a Website’s URL. E.g. www.bkmediagroup.com
bkmediagroup is the domain name
• Fold
It is the line past which someone has to scroll to see more content. Everything
that shows up when a page first loads is “above the fold” and “below” or “after
the
fold” refers to the content further down the page. This is a web-design term.
• Browser
It is the software you use to view web pages such as Google Chrome, Mozilla
Firefox, and the Internet Explorer. These are some of the more common
browsers,
📌 Basic Web-Related Terms and Concepts
• HTML
“HyperText Markup Language”. It is a cross platform language for creating and
formatting web pages. Elements and tags are used to affect copy, images,
sounds,
frames, animation and more.
• Hyperlink
It is an electronic connection between one web page or either other web pages
on the same website (internal linking), or web pages located on another website
(external linking).
• Navigation
It refers to the process by which users access information on the internet.
Usually, when we use the term, we’re talking about the menus, links, icons and
buttons on your site, along with where they are and where they take a use.
📌 Basic Web-Related Terms and Concepts
• PDF
“Portable Document Format”, they were first developed by Adobe. The idea
behind the PDF was to create a file format that is not dependent on applications,
software, hardware, or software for proper viewing. Every PDF file has a complete
description of a document, including the text, font, graphics, and other information
needed to display it.
• Search Engine
It is a program that searches documents (i.e. web pages, which are HTML
documents) for specified keywords and returns the list of documents. A search
engine has two parts, a spider and an indexer. The spider is the program that fetches
the documents, and the indexer reads the documents and creates an index based on
the words or ideas contained in each document. (Glossary of Website Terms, n.d.)
📌 Basic Web-Related Terms and Concepts

There are other terms cited in the Glossary of Web Terms

and those mentioned are the basic terminologies every user
especially students and teachers need to know to optimize the
instructional value of the internet and the web.
📌 Instructional Value of the Internet and the Web
In this era when access to knowledge and information is just a
touch away delivery of education has dramatically transformed. There
is so much talk about virtual schooling and indeed this has been what
many schools, colleges and universities worldwide are trying to face
as the greatest challenge of the 21st century teaching and learning. The
onset of online learning program gain popularity and acceptance in
the educational arena as another innovative approach in the business
of education. In addition, the Wikipedia is swiftly gaining legitimacy
today in the academic world. One cannot, therefore, negate that these
developments are immeasurably attributed to the Internet and the
World Wide Web.
📌 Instructional Value of the Internet and the Web
The following are the instructional values and benefits of the Internet and the
World Wide Web:
 Access to knowledge and information
 Access to instructional resources
 Extended learning opportunities
 Support lifelong learning
 Support Computer-Based Instruction
 Support delivery of distance learning programs
 Promote, facilitate and support other academic functions such as: enrollment,
access to program of instruction, and serves as communication channel between
and among parents, teachers and students
 Support social media apps such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others.
📌 Instructional Value of the Internet and the Web

You can add to the list of benefits of the internet and the web. If
you can recall in previous lesson, you learned the various instructional
softwares that are actually available in the internet. Some developers
of these instructional softwares offer them for free.
📌 Websites Evaluation Criteria

As a student in teacher education, you spend longer time surfing

in the internet to do your school work, homework and other research
activities. In the course of navigating in the internet, you encounter
numerous and what seem to be countless websites. If you are looking
for a specific knowledge or information, these websites can create
confusion on your part because you cannot tell which of these sites
provides authentic and correct information? What indicators should
one look for in a particular site before making the final choice?
📌 Websites Evaluation Criteria
Due to the rapid development in information and communication technology,
it is difficult to define standards in web evaluation. Abdullah (1998), suggest the
following checklist derived from the summary of criteria for evaluating websites.
 Technical considerations
 Purpose
 Content
 Authorship and Sponsorship
 Functionality
 Design/Aesthetics
The technical consideration include among others, the website’s features and
capabilities, such as use of graphics and animations relevant to the subject matter
and the stability and the consistency of the pages because some sites require the use
of more advanced browser.
📌 Websites Evaluation Criteria
The purpose or the objective of the website should be clearly stated and content
should support the purpose. It should define whether the purpose is to educate,
entertain, advertise or evangelize. Advertising should not outshine the presentation of
the content.
The content should be comprehensive and easily understood by the visitors, of
the site. Information should be current and updated. There should be a logical order in
the presentation of the content. Copyright information should be reflected for
guidance to the visitors of the site. Links should be provided for additional
information to support the content.
Authorship and sponsorship are relevant information that should be reflected in
every authentic site. Name of individual or group responsible for creating the site
should be spelled out. The site should likewise reflect the author or manager of the
site and other contact information. References or other sources of information should
 📌 Websites Evaluation Criteria
Functionality covers the use of appropriate languages in messages, and directions
should be clearly stated and easily understood by the visitors of the site. The
navigation button, shape and location should be consistent along with the use of
features such as headers, background, fonts and color.
Design is one of the criteria that can hold visitors’ attention. It should be simple
and appealing to the intended audience. The design elements and features on the site
like the searchable databases, animations, graphics, sound files, and transitional pages,
should be clearly labeled. Large images should be presented in thumbnail, with links to
the larger versions. The use of appropriate color is equally important in a website. The
principle of contrast in the choice of color should be observed. While the above
mentioned criteria cover the overall elements that make up a website, it is more
important for you teachers to focus on the evaluation of the web resources or materials
you find in the website. After all, the very purpose of surfing is to search for the
correct knowledge, information and data.
 📌 Websites Evaluation Criteria
Alexander and Tate (1996-1998) cited five criteria for evaluating web resources
namely: authority, accuracy, objectivity, currency and coverage.
 Accuracy – How reliable and free form error is the information? Are there editors
and fact checkers? Almost anyone can publish on the web. Many Web resources
not verified by editor and/or fact checkers. Web standards to ensure accuracy not
fully developed.
 Authority- What are the author’s qualifications for writing on the subject? How
reputable is the publisher? It is often difficult to determine authorship of Web
resource. If author’s name is listed, his/her qualifications are frequently not
mentioned. Publisher’s responsibility is often not indicated.
 Objectivity- Is information presented with minimum of bias? To what extent does
the information sway the opinion of the web visitor? Web often functions as a
“virtual soapbox”. The goals/aims of persons or groups presenting the material are
often not clearly stated.
 📌 Websites Evaluation Criteria
Alexander and Tate (1996-1998) cited five criteria for evaluating web resources
namely: authority, accuracy, objectivity, currency and coverage.
 Currency- Is the content of the work up to date? Is the publication date clearly
indicated on Web pages. If included, a date may have various meanings such as:
 Date first created
 Date placed on web
 Date last revised
 Coverage- What topics are included in the work? To what depth are topics
explored? Web coverage may differ from print or other media coverage. It is often
hard to determine the extend of web coverage
 📌 Challenges of Web Resources
The following are additional challenges of Web resources and their
corresponding coping strategies:
 Use of Hypertext Links. The quality of Webpages linked to original Webpage may
vary. High quality Webpage may be linked to poor quality Webpage. Therefore,
evaluate each Webpage independently.
 Use of Frames. Each frame displays a separate webpage. Each frame should be
likewise be evaluated separately.
 Search Engines can retrieve pages out of context. Always try to return to “home
page” to determine the source of information.
 Marketing-Oriented Web Pages. In other media, there are usually clear visual
and/or audio distinctions between advertising and information. In the Web
distinctions between advertising and information can become extremely blurred.
Try to determine if advertising and informational content are supplied by the same
person or organization.
 📌 Challenges of Web Resources
The following are additional challenges of Web resources and their
corresponding coping strategies:
 Blending of Entertainment, Information and Advertising. The web has brought
“Infomecial” concept to new heights.
 Software requirements may limit access. Full access may require additional
software. Browsers may alter the appearance pf Webpages. Be aware that software
limitations may alter how much information is obtainable or alter the appearance of
information obtained.
 Instability of Web pages. Webpages may move or disappear without notice. User
may not be able to refer back to a webpage. Try to determine the stability of your
source. Document the source to the fullest extent possible.
 Susceptibility of Web pages to alteration. It can be deliberately altered or
accidentally altered. Verify information using other sources.
📌 Challenges of Web Resources

The development of evaluation techniques for Web resources is

an on-going process. The continuous emergence of new technology is
outpacing the ability to create standards and guidelines. However, the
five traditional Web evaluation techniques developed by Alexander
and Tate (1996- updated in 2001) can serve as basic techniques in
determining the authenticity of Web resources.
 Learning Activity
Directions:
 Look for at least one Website that will provide you with the
empirical knowledge and understanding about the true shape of
the world. Is it round or is it flat?
 Using the five techniques or criteria in evaluating Web resources,
assess the validity the authenticity of your chosen site.
 Refer to the five evaluation criteria in doing this activity.
 Write your answers in the empty spaces provided in the right
portion of the column.
 Learning Activity
Title/Name of your Chosen SiteWebsite Adress/URL
___________________ _________________
Web Evaluation Criteria Information/Data Obtained from the
Site
Accuracy

Authority

Objectivity

Currency

Coverage