MCTP Student's Guide to Exploring the Internet Tom O'Haver Maryland Collaborative for Teacher Preparation and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry University of Maryland at College Park Fall, 1994 There are basically two different ways to access the Internet: direct access and remote access. Direct access can be done only in the networked computer labs, e.g. the WAM labs and other public computer labs. The direct access method uses specialized tools to give the Internet an easy-to-use point-and-click interface. (The direct access examples given here are for the Macintosh; however, similar programs are installed on the IBM-PC's in the public labs on campus). Remote access can be done either on the networked labs, using the telnet program, or by modem dial-up from home: dial 4034333 (2400 baud) or 4034444 (9600 baud or higher), type "t wam" at the "annex:" prompt and type "vt100" if asked for your terminal type. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gopher Gopher is a global distributed information system based on a hierarchical system of linked menus. It can be used to access information from "gopher servers" all over the world. Direct access (Macintosh WAM labs): Click on the InforM Gopher button on the main menu screen. When The first gopher menu appears, you can double-click on any menu item to access it. Menu items with a little folder icon are directories that contain further directories; double-click on them to open. Items with a little page icon are text files can be displayed and read on-line. Each menu and text article opens up in a separate scrollable window. To save a text article as an ASCII file, select Save as text... from the File menu, and to print an article, select Print... from the File menu, just as in any standard program. You can click on the "close box" in the upper left of the window to close (get rid of) any window. To quit gopher , select Quit from the File menu. Remote access (Telnet or dial-up): Log on to your WAM account in the usual way. At the % prompt, type "gopher" and press return. This will give you the main menu of the local (College Park) gopher, a.k.a. InforM. You can use the up and down cursor keys to move this arrow up and down to point to different menu items. A "/" character at the end of a menu item means that it leads to another menu. The --> arrow indicates the current menu selection. Then you use the right arrow key to "go into" the selected item and the left arrow key to "back out" to the previous menu. Or you can simply type the number of the desired menu selection and press RETURN. To remember an interesting place that you'd like to get back to later, just type an upper-case A and the current menu will be added to you personal "bookmark" menu. To view your bookmark menu, press v. The bookmark menu operates just like any other gopher menu. To quit Gopher, press q, then press the RETURN key to return to the % prompt. You can then run another service (e.g. pine) or logout. Some paths to explore: ERIC Educational Resources/ Academic Resources By Topic/ Education Resources/ Ask ERIC (Educational Resources Info. Center) Classroom guides Educational Resources/ Academic Resources By Topic/ Education Resources/ K-12/ CICNet Select Education Resources/ Classroom Activities and Projects/ MDK-12 help sheets Educational Resources/ Academic Resources By Topic/ Education Resources/ K-12/ MDK-12 Stuff/ K-12 activities Educational Resources/ Academic Resources By Topic/ Education Resources/ K-12/ K-12 Networking/ Children's e-mail conversations Educational Resources/ Academic Resources By Topic/ Education Resources/ K-12/ Kidlink/ Directly Access The KIDLINK Archive LOG Files/ RESPONSE - Answers to The Four Questions/ KIDCAFE Log Files/ Science and math network resources Computing Resources/ Network Information/ Reading Room/ Internet_Resources/ internet resources for math and science Subject guides Computing_Resources/ Network Information/ Reading_Room/ Internet_Resources/ Clearinghouse for Subject-Oriented ... Guides/ Gopher-Jewels/ Educational gophers Educational Resources/ Academic Resources By Topic/ Education Resources/ K-12/ CICNet Select Education Resources/ Gopher Servers/ Lesson plans for K-12 Educational Resources/ Academic Resources By Topic/ Education Resources/ Ask ERIC (Educational Resources Info. Center)/ Lesson Plans/ U. of Md. Library Library Information and Resources/ Victor - UMS Online Library Catalog Maryland gophers Access to Other Information Resources/ Gopher Servers - All over the WORLD!/ Gopher Servers in the USA/ maryland/ You may jump directly to any gopher server whose address you know. At the % prompt, simply type "gopher " and press return. In TurboGopher, pull down the File menu and select Another Gopher.., then type the server's name into the Server name field and click OK. Here's a list of suggested gopher servers; the server address and a suggested directory path is given for each one: Math, Science & Technology resource collection unix5.nysed.gov /K-12 Resources/Math, Science & Technology Exploratorium www.exploratorium.edu U. of Maryland freeware and shareware Software Archive. inform.umd.edu /Computing_Resources/Software/ New Space Telescope Pictures in GIF format stsci.edu /stsci/epa/gif/ CNN newsroom classroom guide nysernet.org /Special Collections: k-12/CNN newsroom classroom guide Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing gopher.cse.ucla.edu Mathematica notebooks (all subject areas) gopher.wri.com History of Science gopher.hs.jhu.edu /Scientists.On.Disk Macintosh Science and Math Shareware and Freeware. sumex-aim.stanford.edu /info-mac/Math&Science Shareware and Freeware for various microcomputers gopher.archive.merit.edu (type 7055 into the Server port field) Searching for specified topics: Gopher has a searching tool called Veronica that you can use to search for gopher-accessible items that match keywords that you specify. From the main gopher menu, select in sequence Access to Other Information Resources/ Gopher Servers - All over the WORLD!/ Search titles in Gopherspace using veronica/ Search gopherspace at U. of Manitoba (or, if that does not work) Search gopherspace at University of Cologne Note that the last item here has a at the end. This indicates a search item. When you go into it, you get a search prompt. Type in a keyword and press return. After the search is complete (it may take several seconds), the "hits" will be displayed in a standard gopher numbered menu items, which you can access like any gopher menu. Keywords for a Veronica search can include boolean operators (AND, OR, and NOT), parentheses, and you can even use * as a "wildcard". (Note: Sometimes the network gets overloaded and these searches may not be available. If that happens to you, try again later or try one of the other "Search..." items). ------------------------------------------------------------------------- World Wide Web (Mosaic) World Wide Web is a global network of linked "hypertext" documents. Each document contains highlighted (underlined or color) words that serve as "hot links" to other documents. You navigate through the documents simply by selecting the links that interest you. The best way to explore it is to use Mosaic, a multimedia WWW brouser that supports embedded graphics and sounds. Direct access (Macintosh WAM labs): Click on the Mosaic WWW button on the main menu screen, then scroll through the first page and follow interesting links by clicking on them. To go back to a previous page, click on the left arrow icon at the top of the Mosaic window. You can also jump directly to several interesting pages by pulling down the Navigate and HotList menus at the very top of the screen. These two menus list several pages that give pointers to other information and demonstrations. (For example, select for a menu item that reads Starting Points for Internet Exploration, then look for the link that says Information by Subject). To save a text article as an ASCII file, select Save from the File menu. To print an article, select Print... from the File menu. You can open any specific WWW server by selecting Open URL... from the File menu and typing the Universal Resource Locator (URL) into the field and clicking OK. When you are ready to quit Mosaic, select Quit from the File menu. Remote access (Telnet or dial-up): Type "lynx" at the % prompt and press return. You should see a welcome page that has several hot links highlighted. Use the up and down arrow keys to move between the highlighted links in reading order, the right arrow to follow a link and the left arrow to go back. Use the (P)rint command to mail, print, or download a file. For starters, move down to the bottom of the page and follow the link that says "NCSA Internet Resources Meta-Index". Lynx has a bookmark system just like gopher's: To remember an interesting place that you'd like to get back to later, just type an upper-case A and the current page will be added to you personal bookmark menu. To view your bookmark menu, press v. Type Q to exit. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Journal article search. At the % prompt type "telnet victor", then "PAC", then "8", press enter until you see the VICTOR main menu. Select Journal Indexes/Article Delivery UnCover (table of contents/article delivery). Then enter the 14-digit barcode or OCR number from your library ID card and follow the further on-screen instructions. UnCover searches operate just like U. of Md. card catalog searches. These searches return bibliographic citations but also offer to FAX you the article for a specified charge, usually several dollars per article. Type "//exit" to exit. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- File Transfer Protocol (FTP) FTP is a method of transferring files to and from remote computers over the Internet. It is most easily done by direct access using an FTP Client such as Fetch. Click on the FTP File Transfer button on the main WAM screen, then click on the Fetch button. Here is an example step-by-step procedure for using the Macintosh FTP client program "Fetch" to log onto a remote host and download a file. 1. Fill in the name of the host that you want to connect to in the Host field, in this case ra.nrl.navy.mil, which is a computer at the Naval Research Laboratory that holds an archive of science-related shareware and freeware for the Macintosh. 2. Leave anonymous in the User ID field. 3. Type your name or e-mail address into the Password field. 4. Then click on the OK button. If everything works you should see the root directory of the remote computer in a few seconds. 5. Items with a little folder icon are subdirectories that contain further files and subdirectories. 6. Double-click on MacSciTech to get into that subdirectory. Use the scroll bars to scroll through the directory. 7. Items with a little page icon are files; text files can be displayed and read on-line; just click once on the name to select, then select View file... from the Remote menu (or press -L). To save a text window as an ASCII file, select Save from the File menu, and to print it, select Print... from the File menu. 8. Double-click on chem to get into that directory. 9. Locate the file "ions.hqx". Click on it and click on the the Get file... button. 10. A dialog box asks you where you wish to save the file. Click on the Drive button until the name of your floppy disk appears, then click Save. The file will be downloaded onto your disk. 11. You may download other files in a similar manner. When finished, click on Close connection, quit Fetch (select Quit from the File menu). 12. Open your floppy disk (double-click on its icon). If everything worked, you will see the icon of a Hypercard stack labeled "ion". Test it by, double-clicking on it. You will find that it is a simple quiz about ion charges written by a high school chemistry teacher. Other FTP sites (hosts) that you can explore. The host name and a suggested directory path is given for each one: Mathematica notebooks (all subject areas) sol.cs.bucknell.edu /mathematica/ Molecular biology, chemistry, biochemistry fly.bio.indiana.edu Chemistry tutorials and courseware truth.chem.sfu.ca /pub/ archive.umich.edu /mac/misc/chemistry/ Smithsonian Digitized Photographic Archive photo1.si.edu Multimedia sounds and pictures and movies sunsite.unc.edu /pub/multimedia Macintosh Science and Math Shareware and Freeware. ra.nrl.navy.mil /MacSciTech/ Fetch has built-in help: select Fetch Help from the Windows menu. When you are ready to quit, select Quit from the File menu. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Usenet Newsgroups Newsgroups are topic-specific discussion groups, also called netnews or just news. Direct access (Macintosh WAM labs): Click on the Net News button on the main menu screen, click on the InterNews button, then click on the OK button. After several seconds, a screen appears that shows a list of news groups by name at the top. Scroll through this list and if you find an interesting group, click on it to open the list of messages threads in this group. Click on any message to read it. Remote access (telent or dial-up): Type "tin" at the % prompt and press return. Press return until you get to the main screen that says Group Selection at the top. If you know the name of a newsgroup you wish to look at (e.g. sci.edu, which deals with science education), type "g sci.edu" and press return. If you wish to find whether there is a newsgroup whose name contains a certain keyword, press "y" to "yank" in all newsgroups, then type a "/" followed by the keyword and the computer will search for any newsgroups whose names contain that keyword. (Newsgroup names are usually abbreviated: e.g., k12, kids, sci for science, bio for biology, edu for education; chem for chemistry, comp for computer, etc.) Press / and return again to go to the next match. Press "s" to subscribe to that group (i.e., add it to your Group Selection screen), "u" to unsubscribe. To read a newsgroup, use the arrow keys to move in, out, up and down. Press Q to quit. (Hint: "news.answers" has a good collection of "frequently asked questions" documents). Here is a list of some education. math, and science-related groups. misc.education Discussion of education misc.kids Children and their behavior misc.kids.computer The use of computers by children alt.education.distance Learning over nets etc. k12.chat.teacher Informal discussion among teachers k12.ed.science Science curriculum in K-12 education k12.ed.comp.literacy Teaching computer literacy in K12 k12.ed.tech Industrial Arts and vocational k12.chat.elementary Informal discussion among kids k12.chat.junior Informal discussion among kids k12.ed.math Math curriculum in K-12 education alt.internet.services Information about services available news.announce.newusers Explanatory postings for new users news.answers Repository for periodic USENET FAQs sci.edu Science education. sci.chem Chemistry and related sciences sci.math. Mathematics (several sub-groups) bionet. Biological sciences (many sub-groups) sci.physics. Physics (several sub-groups) sci.med.physics Medical physics alt.sci.physics. Physics (several sub-groups) sci.engr.biomed Biomedical engineering sci.stat.math Statistics When you are ready to quit reading news, select Quit from the File menu. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ____________________________________