Information Technology
Outcome 3: Searching the
Internet
Windows XP Text Version
[ACCESS 3]
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
Part 4:
About this section
The Internet and the World Wide Web
Searching the World Wide Web
SAQ answers
1
2
5
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© Learning and Teaching Scotland 2004
This publication may be reproduced in whole or in part for educational purposes by educational
establishments in Scotland provided that no profit accrues at any stage.
Microsoft and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation
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ABOUT THIS SECTION
PART 1
What is this section about?
This section will help you learn how to extract and present
information from the World Wide Web (WWW).
What will I learn?
At the end of this section, you should:
 understand that the WWW is an information service on the
Internet
 understand how the WWW is organised
 connect to the Internet and search the WWW for information
 print out information from the WWW.
How long should it take to do this?
You should complete this section in about 7–8 hours.
What do I need?
You will need access to a computer connected to the Internet.
How will I be assessed on my work in this section?
You will be assessed through a practical task. This task will be to
search for information on the Internet and then print it out. You
will do several activities like this throughout this section to help
you prepare for your assessment.
Your tutor will give you the assessment task when you are ready
for it. Your tutor will watch you doing it to make sure that it is
your own work.
You can be re-assessed if you need it.
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THE INTERNET AND THE WORLD WIDE WEB
PART 2
The Internet
All over the world there are computers that can connect with each
other. The connections are made through different technologies,
but most often through phone lines. This network of computers is
called the Internet.
The Internet is the term for all the hardware in this worldwide
network – computers, cabling, phone links, radio masts and
satellites. The purpose of the Internet is to carry inform ation
quickly and cheaply and directly into businesses and into homes.
Your computer has to have the correct software for connecting to
the Internet. This software is called an Internet browser. Here
are the icons of the most popular browsers.
Internet Explorer
Your computer must also have an Internet address for receiving
information from the Internet. Imagine what would happen to all
the letters and parcels sent by mail if the buildings on our streets
did not each have a different address!
So now you know that the computer that you use to connect to the
Internet will have:
 An Internet address
 A browser installed in it
 A connection into a telephone system.
The World Wide Web (WWW)
There are a number of services on the Internet, which help to organise
the sharing of information. You may have heard about some of these,
such as electronic mail, user groups and chat rooms. The World Wide
Web is one of these information services on the Internet.
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THE INTERNET AND THE WORLD WIDE WEB
The WWW provides information in the form of text, pictures,
graphics, sound, animation and video. That means it uses
multimedia.
The WWW is used by:
 art galleries to tell people about their collections of paintings
 shops to advertise and sell their goods
 education to make learning more fun
 cinemas and clubs to advertise their programmes
 travel agencies to sell holidays and flights
 and many, many other organisations.
Organisations like those above that want to provide information
create a WWW website.
A website is a collection of web pages with information on the
organisation and what it has to offer. People who want
information on an organisation connect to the Internet and visit its
website.
The first page of a website is called the home page. This is often
the starting point of a visit to a website because the home page
has links to other pages in the website.
Home
Page
Page 1
Page 3
Page 4
Page 2
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
The home page has a web address so that people can find it.
You often find the web address of an organisation’s home page at
the bottom of its adverts.
There is an online animation available called ‘Websites’
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THE INTERNET AND THE WORLD WIDE WEB
The question below will check your understanding of the Internet
terms that you have just met.
The answers can be found in Part 4: SAQ Answers but don’t look
till you have tried the question yourself.
Questions 1
What am I thinking about?
The answers are terms you have just met.
Correct term
A worldwide network
of computers
The kind of software
for connecting to the
Internet
A collection of pages
on the WWW about an
organisation
A multimedia
information service on
the Internet
The first page on a
website
There is an interactive version of these questions called
‘Quiz 1’
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SEARCHING THE WORLD WIDE WEB
PART 3
Searching for information
You often search for and find information without realising how
you do it.
You really answer two questions in searching for information:
1.
2.
What am I looking for?
Where should I look?
Here are some examples:
What am I looking for?
What’s on TV on Tuesday
night?
The phone number of Joe
Smith, Ayr
Train times from Glasgow
to Ayr
Where should I look?
TV magazine on the Tuesday page or
Tuesday’s newspaper and after 6pm.
Phone book of the Ayr area under
‘Smith’
Train timetable for the Glasgow to
Ayr route
Your choice of words in the column What am I looking for? is
very important. They tell you exactly where to look for the
information. The clearer you are about what you are looking for,
the quicker and easier it is for you to find it.
The words you choose are called the key words for your search.
Here are the key words for the searches above:
What am I looking for?
What’s on TV on Tuesday night?
The phone number of Joe Smith,
Ayr
Train times from Glasgow to Ayr
Key words
TV, Tuesday, night
Phone number, Joe Smith,
Ayr
Train, Glasgow, Ayr
Your skill in choosing good key words is important for searching
for information on the WWW.
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SEARCHING THE WORLD WIDE WEB
Searching for information on the WWW
How do you find the information you want when there are mill ions
of WWW websites? How do you find the correct website? Could
there be more than one website with the kind of information you
want?
The answer to all these questions is that a special kind of program
searches the WWW for you. This program is called a search
engine.
A search engine looks through all the WWW websites and gathers
details of those that have the kind of information you want. It sends
these details back to your computer. You can then look through
these details and decide which websites you want to visit.
Now it is time to start searching the WWW for specific information.
Imagine that you are going wind surfing off the west coast of
Scotland. You need information on what the Met Office is saying
about tomorrow’s weather.
You must follow carefully the steps set out for you. The first step
is to connect or log on to the Internet.
Step 1: Logging on to the Internet
 Start up your computer.
 Look for one of these two icons on the desktop.
Internet Explorer
 Click whichever icon you find to start up the browser.
Remember the browser connects your computer to the Internet.
The first WWW page you see may take a while to appear,
especially if it has lots of graphics.
It may be the home page of your own school or college, or the
home page of a computer company, or a blank page.
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SEARCHING THE WORLD WIDE WEB
Step 2: Starting up the search engine
There are many search engines. Some popular ones are Google,
Yahoo, Lycos and Altavista.
You are going to learn how to use Google.
Start by entering the address of Google’s home page:
www.google.com
(you can also use the UK home page www.google.co.uk)
You enter it in the address bar near the top of the WWW page on
your screen.
Just now, the address bar holds the address of your organisation’s
home page. You have to change that.
 Click in the address bar.
The address there becomes highlighted in blue.
 Enter www.google.com and press Return.
The Google home page will open on your screen.
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SEARCHING THE WORLD WIDE WEB
Step 3: Entering the key words for the information search
Enter Met Office
UK here.
Click Google
Search when
finished.
The Google program eventually sends back to your screen details
of pages which mention ‘Met Office’. A WWW page similar to this
will open.
Pages found
by Google
mentioning
‘Met Office’.
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SEARCHING THE WORLD WIDE WEB
Step 4: Moving to the correct page using a link
 Move the pointer slowly down the list of pages on the left.
Notice that it changes at times into a hand with a pointing finger.
For example, it happens over the underlined text in blue.
When this happens, the pointer is over a link to another page.
 Click on the link Met Office UK Forecast (see previous screenshot).
A page like this will appear:
This page shows the weather forecast for the next three days.
You may need to use the scroll bar to see the whole page.
You have successfully searched the WWW to find what
tomorrow’s and the next day’s weather will be like.
Step 5: Printing the information you find
You can print any WWW page in the usual way.
 Click File on the menu bar at the top of the window.
 Click the mouse button when the highlight is on Print.
 Find and click the OK button on the Print window.
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SEARCHING THE WORLD WIDE WEB
Step 6: Finding your way back to Google
It is quite easy to get lost ‘surfing’ the WWW. You find a link on a
page and you click it to see where it takes you. Suddenly, you
feel lost because you do not know how to get back to whe re you
were.
There is a simple way to get back to the Google page.
Below File on the menu bar you will find this icon:
 Click on this Back button once to go back to the previous
page.
You can click Back as often as you need to get back to the Google
page.
You could enter key words for a different search when you are
back at Google’s page. However, let’s disconnect from the
Internet so that you can practise all the steps again.
Step 7: Disconnecting from the Internet
This is done in the usual way.
 Click the Close button in the top right corner of the browser
window at any time. You do not need to be on your
organisation’s home page.
Clicking the Close button shuts down the browser in your
computer. Your computer automatically disconnects from th e
Internet.
You have now followed the steps that you will use when your tutor
gives you an assessment task.
You should practise these steps so that you can do the
assessment task with confidence. The steps are set out clearly
on the next page.
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SEARCHING THE WORLD WIDE WEB
Searching the WWW for specific information
Step 1: Logging on to the Internet
 Start up the browser.
Step 2: Starting up the search engine
 Enter www.google.com in the address bar and press
Return
Step 3: Entering the key words for your search
 Choose and enter the key words
 Click Google Search when finished.
Step 4: Moving to the correct page using a link
 Read the page links that Google sends you.
 Click the one most likely to have the information you want.
Step 5: Printing the information you find
 Click on File and then on Print.
 Keep your printouts in case your tutor wants to see
them.
Step 6: Finding your way back to Google
 Click on the Back button till you reach the Google page.
 If you do not want to do another search…….
Step 7: Disconnecting from the Internet
 Click Close to shut down the browser in your computer.
Have a copy of this page at hand whenever you do a search.
These are the Internet terms that you should now understand:
Internet
WWW
log on
Internet address
website
key word(s)
browser
website address
search engine
home page
Look back in these notes for any you do not remember or understand.
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SEARCHING THE WORLD WIDE WEB
Before you do another search, check your understanding of
Internet terms by trying to answer these questions. Remember
that you can find the answers to these questions at the back of
this section.
There is an online animation available called ‘’Searching
the WWW for specific information’.
Questions 2
1.
Underline what the letters WWW stand for:
Wonderful World of Web
World Wide Wonder
World Wide Web
2.
Complete this sentence by underlining the correct phrase.
The WWW is:
a worldwide network of computers
an Internet information service
a phone network
3.
Use the following words to complete the sentence below:
key words
A
4.
search engine
WWW pages
is a program that finds
that contain the
for the search.
Complete this sentence by underlining the correct phrase.
To log on means to:
switch on the computer
connect to the Internet
search the WWW
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SEARCHING THE WORLD WIDE WEB
The following two searches are very similar to the one that you
have just done. However, they search for different information.
They will help you to practise your skills of searching the WWW
for specific information. At certain points a screenshot will help
you check that you are making good progress on the search.
You should try to do each search on your own or with only a little
help.
Use the question in the box to help you decide before each
activity how much help you need.
Did you do the last activity…..
with a lot of help?
then try to do the next one with less
help.
with a little help?
then try to do the next one on your
own.
Use the notes on the previous pages when you need help. All the
steps are there and in the correct order.
Remember to ask your tutor for help if you get stuck.
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SEARCHING THE WORLD WIDE WEB
Activity 1
Imagine that you are a fan of the TV soap Coronation Street.
You have to search the WWW for the latest events in the street.
 Start up the browser.
 Enter www.google.com in the address bar of the browser and
press Return.
 Choose and enter the key words. (Hint: read the words
underlined on the first line of this page.)
 Click Google Search.
 Read down the page links that Google sends. They will b e
similar to this:
 Click the one most likely to have the information you want.
This one looked good when this was written but remember that
WWW pages are changing all the time.
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SEARCHING THE WORLD WIDE WEB
 Wait for the page to arrive. It takes time if the page has a lot
of graphics.
This flashing green bar in the bottom right of your screen tells
you a WWW page is on its way to your computer. You have to
be patient and wait.
A page like this should arrive but your one will describe more
recent events.
 Click on File and then on Print.
 Click on the Back button till you reach the Google page.
If you do not want to try the next activity at this stage then,
 close the browser window to disconnect from the Internet.
If you do want to try the next activity at this stage then,
 turn the page.
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SEARCHING THE WORLD WIDE WEB
Did you do the last activity…..
with a lot of help?
then try to do the next one with less
help.
with a little help?
then try to do the next one on your
own.
In this activity, you yourself will have to remember how to make
the steps to search the WWW for information.
Activity 2
Imagine that you are doing a project on Robert Burns, the poet.
Search the WWW for information on his life.
 Enter the key words for your search at the Google page.
 Read down the page links that Google sends you. They will
look similar to this:
 Click on one that looks as if it will have the information you
want.
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 Print the information you find.
 Click Close on the browser window.
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SEARCHING THE WORLD WIDE WEB
Extension activities
Now you should make some searches for information that you
really want to know. As you do these searches, remember:

Choose key words as specific as possible and watch the
spelling very carefully.
For example, David Beckham gets results, Beckem won’t.

Some pages may take time to arrive on your screen.

Some pages may not be available because they are being re designed.
The purpose of this activity is to build your confidence in
searching the WWW. If you have some difficulty, simply try
another search.
Now what information do you want or need? For example, you
could look for information on:
 your favourite singer or group
 your sports hero or team
 the background gossip to a recent film or TV show
 a medical condition that concerns you for some reason
 the latest BBC TV news.
Good searching, whatever you choose to look for.
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SEARCHING THE WORLD WIDE WEB
Did you do the last activity…..
with a lot of help?
then practise some more searches to
find:
 news of your favourite film star
 the latest news from 10 Downing
Street
 best offers from your favourite store.
with little or no help?
then speak to your tutor.
You may decide with your tutor that
you are ready for the information
search assessment task.
This assessment task will be very like
the activity that you have just finished.
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SAQ ANSWERS
PART 4
Answers 1
Correct term
A worldwide network
of computers
The kind of software
for connecting to the
Internet
A collection of pages
on the WWW about an
organisation
A multimedia
information service on
the Internet
The first page on a
website
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The Internet
A browser
A website
World Wide Web
Home page
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SAQ ANSWERS
Answers 2
1.
WWW stands for the World Wide Web.
2.
The WWW is an Internet information service.
3.
A search engine is a program that finds WWW pages that
contain the key words for the search.
4.
To log on means to connect to the Internet.
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