INTERNET TUTORIAL FOR BEGINNERS
Find your own personal reason to be on the net.
What turns you on? What is personal to you? What do you really want to know about?
You have to understand what it means to you then you'll help other's find what is valuable to them. That is what this is about, using a computer or a pencil and paper, what does it help you do personally? This whole internet thing is just like having the biggest library on earth.
TIPS FOR THE VERY VERY NEW COMPUTER USER
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Navigating Around a Web site -
You already know this stuff from the last page -
Go Back To The Previous Page if you want to review
- The Internet - How to Get To Other Sites On Purpose
- The Computer - How to find out what you need to Know
- Using Technology in General - No Pressure about this stuff
- More tutorials for beginners
- SIT UP STRAIGHT - just like you mom told you . . .
Avoid problems when sitting in front of a computer
How to NAVIGATE AROUND a Web Site Top
To get around just point your mouse arrow and click on it. You should go there. If this doesn't work then don't worry, it's not your fault. This Hot Link is probably screwed up for some reason.
First notice the menu above, it is there for you to get back and forth from where you were to where you are now.
If you get lost in a site cause you forgot how you got there. This happens all the time at first. When you want to go back to where you were in the beginning, just click the BACK button on your menu that should take you to the page right before the one you're on now, and so on, until you get back to First page which is at the beginning.
To go to the beginning immediately, click on the button on the left side of the window that says Home page. This is pretty much how all the web sites work. Some have a menu at the top, some at the bottom, or side of the page. If you are reading something very long just scroll up or down to find your way to a menu.
Scrolling happens when you use your mouse to place the cursor on the button on the left side of this screen. See it? Practice getting your mouse over it then CLICK AND HOLD DOWN THE MOUSE AT THE SAME TIME now push the mouse along the mouse pad going forward (NORTH ) and then if you want to scroll down pull the mouse towards yourself (SOUTH).
Very big clue! Reasons To Play Here and you will go somewhere right on this site. In other words, you stay here on The CyberPlayGround. I've tried to have a lot of info located right here to save you time. BUT, you will definitely click on a word and find that this link will take you away from this site, you will leave here and this means you'll have traveled out through cyberspace to another completely new web site.
Now what do you do? You'll have to learn to click some other buttons to get back to this web site again. This is really no big deal once you get used to doing it. Anyway the upside is that this is just the beginning of acquiring life long learning skills which is the best reason to learn to use a computer. Surfing around is part of the fun. You never know what might interest you and where you'll end up or what you can find out about.
BTW: (By The Way) : - ) These are call smiley's, click if you want to see more stuff about ART
BOOKMARK The Educational CyberPlayGround using the Menu in your Browser (Netscape? AOL? Explorer? ) and start a file of web site places you want to go back to.
Did you know that you can change your settings?
Under Preferences, set your Web Graphics to use Uncompressed graphics. Then clear your cache and reload the page...your "fragmentary" graphics should no longer be a problem. Unfortunately, AOL ships their software with the "Use Compressed Graphics" as the default setting.
THE INTERNET - How to Get To Other Sites On Purpose. Top
The Internet connects all the computers to each other. It's like getting into your car - going up the ramp onto the expressway to get to the web of interconnected highways that will take you to your destination. Every destination is located in what people call "cyberspace".
Cyberspace is really great because it's like the wild west. A frontier - boundaryless! You can find out anything you want to. You will learn to use search engines, be able to locate high profile people. Email people who you otherwise wouldn't ever get to talk to in a million years, and all because you can get past their secretary! Forget the old days -- this is the future -- boundaries are disappearing. I think the only reason to turn on and use a computer is to be able to cyberspace, where all the fun is. So, go read up on internet terms. And don't worry be happy, nobody is "fluent" in this language. Things change to fast to keep up with all of it. Remember, if you can throw some of these words around you can fool people into thinking you are a netizen (citizen of the internet).
FREE TUTORIALS Top
- HOW DOES THE INTERNET WORK?
For more information about the internet in general, see the big picture. - Developing Keyboarding skills
- LEARN ALL ABOUT EMAIL
- Learn all About Mailing Lists and Newsletters
Manners & etiquette on internet mailing lists = Net Etiquette aka Netiquette. This is a good article about how to be a thoughtful participant in an email list. - HOW TO MAKE THE LETTERS BIGGER ON A WEB PAGE SO IT IS EASIER TO READ
- LEARN HOW TO SEARCH THIS WEBSITE OR THE INTERNET
- DEFINITIONS OF INTERNET WORDS used to describe the Internet, World Wide Web Terms
- Recommended Safe Starter Sites for Internet Beginner
THE COMPUTER Top
Did you turn the computer on? Turn it on, and then GET SOMEONE TO HELP YOU install programs. You can choose a friend, a high school kid, a fellow educator anyone who knows more than you do, ask the Media Specialist or Tech Head in your neighborhood school, someone who understands this stuff. DON'T BE SHY about it, believe me THIS IS HARD FOR EVERYONE! Even the computer heads I know, have to sit there and monkey around with this for hours. It isn't easy. That's because all this stuff is really just at the beginning stages. In 50 years it'll be like The Jetsons cartoon, but right now it's still a really primitive technology. Believe me, I just want to turn this stupid computer on and go to work. It's just like driving a car, all I want to do is put the key in the ignition and go, I don't want to know what's under the hood. And until a computer gets this easy to use, we are all struggling.
Tips for Protecting the Home Computer
- Don't share your computer (on which you pay your bills) with your children (who download games).
- Use a firewall program that warns you about outgoing connections that botnets make to communicate with control software.
- Don't use the same password on more than one financial site.
- Don't let your browser store your password for such sites.
- Don't buy anything offered by a spammer.
- Don't click if someone offers you something too good to be true. It is.
- U.S. Department of Education's Parents Guide to the Internet
- Computer Hacking Results In Armed Police Raid
You have to make sure your computer is protected from bad things getting into it. See Security
Bad things get inside of your computer and spy on you. Bad things will take over your computer and tell it to do stuff and you don't know it's happenings. You need to potect your computer from bad things with a fire wall. If your computer is working very very very very slowly - you might already have bad things on it and need it cleaned out. Don't run a computer without a firewall or the police may show up at your door one day - no kidding. - Zombie Computers and Zombie Networks
The real vulnerability of the Internet are those home users that are individually vulnerable and don't have the knowledge to protect themselves. They pose a threat to all the rest of us.
The increase is attributable to the rising number of computers in Asia, particularly China, which do not use software to protect against zombies and the worldwide proliferation of high-speed Internet connections. If you don't protect your computer with security software - turn it off when not in use. Security - Learn how to protect your machine from one of these "bots" getting a hold of it without you knowing.
USING TECHNOLOGY IN GENERAL Top
SCARY COMPUTER MESSAGES AND WHAT IT REALLY MEANS.
BEGINNER ALERT PAY ATTENTION
- If when you are using your computer and you see a box pop up on your computer screen telling you that you have done something "illegal" and that you are not allowed to shut down your computer DON'T WORRY- that is baloney. IT ISN'T REALLY ILLEGAL AND YOU ARE ALLOWED TO TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER ANYTIME you want to.
- You have to have the computer plugged into the outlet, the electricity has to be on and you have to turn on the computer for it to work.
- the wire has to be plugged into your phone outlet and the computer to be connected to the internet.
- Do Not print out your email - don't waste the paper
- Do not print out SPAM email and then actually mail that to people.
- There is nothing on your computer that holds a coffee cup. That tray that comes out when you push the botton is for a CD or DVD.
- After you put the DVD into your computer tower and watch the Windows Media Player or Real Player software try to open your DVD if it tells you that it wants to download all 1 zillion "pictures" to something called "My Pictures" and only an expert should try to play the DVD direct. DON"T LET IT DOWNLOAD - You DO NOT HAVE TO BE AN "EXPERT" You are allowed to make the DVD open up and show SOMETHING to you without downloading everything to your own computer.
- My friend at Soverign Bank named Delores told me that her brother Anthony Ballou who repairs computers went on a customer call. The client's computer wasn't working because the security program alerted her that the computer had a virus. The customer asked Anthony if he thought she should pour cough syrup into the computer opening where you would insert a disc to cure the computer from the virus. NEVER NEVER pour any liquids into a computer. You will kill your computer.
It's about hardware (the stuff you can put your hands on physically) and software - which are the programs, the discs you will put inside the computer that will tell your computer what to do. Software can also be downloaded from the internet right into your machine. Did you know your school has to connect to the internet, and all educators have to learn how to use it. It's the Law.
I hope you will enjoy the Educational CyberPlayGround. I made this site to help the Newbie (a beginner) learn to take their first baby steps - no pressure! or depending on your attitude leap right out there screaming' with your hair on fire. This is the place on the CyberPlayGround for Technology information.
DON'T SIT UP STRAIGHT
DO NOT do as your mom told you - do not sit up straight.
Avoid problems when sitting in front of a computer. "The longstanding advice to "sit up straight" has been turned on its head by a new study that suggests leaning back is a much better posture. Researchers analyzed different postures and concluded that the strain of sitting upright for long hours is a perpetrator of chronic back problems. Using a new form of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), researchers studied 22 volunteers with no back pain history. The subjects assumed three different positions: slouching; sitting up straight at 90 degrees; and sitting back with a 135-degree posture—all while their spines were scanned. "A 135-degree body-thigh sitting posture was demonstrated to be the best biomechanical sitting position, as opposed to a 90-degree posture, which most people consider normal," said study author, Waseem Amir Bashir, a researcher at the University of Alberta Hospital in Canada. "Sitting in a sound anatomic position is essential, since the strain put on the spine and its associated ligaments over time can lead to pain, deformity and chronic illness." When your nose hits the monitor, you've been sitting there too long get up and take a break!