Madison County Public Schools
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Internet 201

  1. Addresses for E-mail Keypals and Classroom Exchange

    As more schools go online, sites are being developed to help educators realize the Internet's possibilities. Educators around the world can fill out a form and submit their classes into a database. Visitors then browse through this database and contact classes they would like to correspond with. If you or your students would be interested in this check out the links below:


  2. Addresses for E-mail Listservs

    A listserv is a wonderful communication tool that offers its members the opportunity to post suggestions or questions to a large number of people with the same interests at the same time. When you submit a question or other info that you want to share to the listserv, your submission is distributed to all the other people on that list.


  3. Etiquette on the Net (Netiquette)

    E-mail is a wonderful tool for gathering, exchanging, and collaborating information. Here are a few do's and don'ts when using e-mail.

    • Don't forward an entire message when responding to someone else's message.
    • Don't use all UPPER CASE LETTERS WHEN WRITING. IT IS INTERPRETED AS SHOUTING ON THE INTERNET!
    • Identify yourself to the person you are writing to. You can create a signature file that includes your name, title, and address at the bottom of your e-mail messages.
    • Use Emoticons to convey emotions more clearly.
      Smiley :-)    Winkey Smiley ;-)    Devilish Grin :->    Frowny Face :-(
      User Wears Glasses 8-)    Left-handed Smiley (-:    Staring at the screen too long %-)
    • Use Acronyms.
      BTW - By the way
      FYI - For your information
      HTH - Hope this helps
      IMHO - In my humble opinion
      LOL - Laughing out loud
      ROFL - Rolling on the floor laughing

  4. Advanced Use of the Internet Explorer Browser

    If you find a web site that you really like you might want to add it to your Favorites. All you have to do is click on the Favorites menu at the top of the browswer and then click Add to Favorites and it will add the current page into your favorites.

    To organize your favorites into folders, click on the Favorites menu at the top of your browser. Next, click on Organize Favorites. Now use the buttons to the left to Add, Delete, Rename, or Create new folders within your Favorites. You might want to create folders corresponding to the different type of favorites you have. For instance, you could creat a News folder for sites like wlos.com or usatoday.com. Once you have created a folder inside your favorites then you will want to add sites to the folder. To do this you would click on the Favorites menu like you would normally and then click Add to Favorites. This time, instead of just clicking OK to add the favorite, you will click the Creat In button and then choose the folder you would like to put the link it. Then click OK.

    To delete a favorite or folder, while in the Organize Favorites mode, simply click on the favorite or folder you want to get rid of and then click the Delete button to the left. You can also quickly delete favorites by clicking the Favorites menu and then go down to the favorite you want to delete and with the mouse cursor over the favorite click with your "right" mouse button and then choose Delete.

    If you would like to e-mail an interesting web page to another colleague, go to that page on the site within Internet Explorer and then click on the File menu and then the Send option. I would suggest using the Send Link by E-mail option because it will be a much smaller and easier to manage message. This will open up an e-mail window where you can type in your colleague's e-mail address and click on the Send button. When your colleague receives your e-mail message, the URL, or Internet address will be in the body of the e-mail message so they can click on it and go to the page.

    To send a file (attachment) via e-mail that you have already created in another program the first thing you do is open your e-mail program. This tutorial is for Outlook Express and Outlook users.

    1. Start a new e-mail message.
    2. Click on the paper clip button or click on the Insert Menu and then File Attachment.
    3. Once you find the file that you want to attach click on the file once to highlight it and then click the Insert button.
    4. The file should show up at the bottom of the message as an icon if it was inserted correctly.
    5. Now click Send and the message will be sent along with the attachment.

  5. How to Search the Internet Using Metasearch Engines and Boolean Logic

    Years ago when you wanted to look something up in a library you probably used the card catalog or card file. Today's web "card file" would have more than 50 million cards so it helps to narrow down a search by using more than one search engine at a time to find the most relevant material with the least effort. One way to spend less time searching the Internet and to get better results is to compose exact searches and use a metasearch service. The following are two such metasearch services.


    Boolean Logic enhances the quality of results returned by a search engine. There are four Boolean operators that nearly all search engines recognize: (AND, OR, NOT and NEAR). Briefly, here is how they work:

    How Boolean Operators Work:
    1. airplane AND "Wright brothers": This example says, "find everything containing both the words airplane and Wright brothers." If both terms are not included, then the document is not returned in the results list. The AND operator tends to narrow a search.
    2. airplane OR "Wright brothers": This search phrase use OR to return all documents containing the word airplane as well as documents that contain the words "Wright brothers". Both terms do NOT have to be present in the same document . The OR term usually broadens a search.
    3. airplane NOT "Wright brothers": The NOT operator in this case will return documents containing the word airplane but will not return the document if it also contains the words "Wright brothers". The NOT term often helps to elimina te certain phrases or words from a search.
    4. Airplane NEAR "Wright brothers": The NEAR operator is used by some search engines to find words that are in proximity to one another. The NEAR operator also might return documents that contain both terms if they are within ten words of one another or perhaps in the same paragraph. Each search engine deals with NEAR in a different manner, and not all of them support this operator.

  6. Finding Free Clip Art on the Web


  7. Saving Graphics from the Internet

    When you have found a graphic on the Internet that you wish to save, right click on that graphic. Choose Save Picture As and then tell the computer where you want to save the graphic, usually either on your hard drive or on a diskette.

  8. Inserting Graphics into Microsoft Word

    Once your graphic from the Internet has been saved, open a new document in Microsoft Word and click on the Insert menu and then the From File option. Next, you will have to locate your file and click on Insert. When the graphic is placed on your page, you can click on it to move, resize, crop, lighten or darken the graphic.

  9. Inserting Graphics into Microsoft Powerpoint

    After you have saved your graphic from the Internet, open a new document in Microsoft Powerpoint and choose New Slide from the Insert menu. If you want your slide to contain a graphic, chose one of the two layouts from the New Slide menu that has a picture of a man's head on it. Then click OK. To add clip art to your slide, double- click on the graphic icon (the man's head) in your clip art window. This will bring up the MicroSoft Clip Gallery 3.0. From here choose to import Pictures. Click on the Import Clips button at the bottom. When you have returned to the Add Pictures To Clip Gallery window, click the Insert button. Graphics can be moved, resized, cropped, lightened or darkened just like you did in Word. Those graphics will also be available from now on in your Clip Gallery.
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