How to Use a Computer: Basic Internet
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LCC Library Services
In the Learning Commons
Define Task
Identify Options
Select Sources
Analyze Content
How to Use a Computer
Basic Internet Instruction
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Evaluate
Present Findings
How to Use a Computer: Basic Internet
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What is the Internet?
• The Internet is a network of computers from all over the world. Businesses,
governments and people share information on the Internet. The Internet has
new information every day. To read information on the Internet you need a
program such as Internet Explorer or Netscape. In this workbook, we will
use Internet Explorer.
• There is usually a lot of information on a web page. You don’t need to read all
the information. Look for the big words or color words – these are usually the
important words.
• Companies buy advertising space on web sites. Most web sites have a lot of
advertisements. It is easy to click the wrong place and go to another web
site. Be careful where you click.
• The Internet can be very slow. Sometimes it takes too long to connect with a
web site. If this happens, go to the next activity. Don’t wait more than a few
minutes.
• Web sites change often and some disappear. If this happens with the web
sites in this workbook, just go to the next activity.
Safety on the Internet
• You must be careful when you are connected to the Internet. There is a lot of
good information on the Internet, but there is also some bad information. If
you go to a web site that you don’t like, leave that web site and go to a better
one.
• Be very careful about giving personal information on the Internet. The Internet
is usually not private.
• Be very careful about giving your credit card numbers on the Internet.
• There are no shopping or banking web sites in this workbook. People must be
very careful when doing shopping and banking on the Internet.
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Vocabulary
Cursor – the arrow or bar that shows where you are on the screen
or web page.
Download – to get a program or files from the Internet and put
them in your computer.
E-mail address – an E-mail address has a person’s name or nick
name followed by @ and then the Internet company’s name.
For example, this is an E-mail address:
Library.reference@lcc.ctc.edu
Icon: a link which you see as a picture.
Internet – an international network of computers.
Internet address – an address that you need to type to get to a
web site. All Internet addresses start with ‘http://’. Many
Internet addresses have ‘www’ as the first letters, but some
don’t. For example, this is an Internet address:
http://lowercolumbia.edu.
Link – a word or a picture in a web site that takes you to another
web site when you click it.
Offline – you are using your computer but are not connected to
the Internet.
Online – you are connected to the Internet by telephone line or
cable line.
Web page – one page of a web site.
Web site – a business, government or person’s page on the
Internet where you can put information for people to read.
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How to Use a Computer: Basic Internet
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How to Use a Computer: Basic Internet
Getting Started
The Mouse
How do I click?
1. Put your hand on top of the mouse.
Hold onto the mouse with your thumb
and two smallest fingers.
2. Put your first finger on the left mouse
button.
3. Quickly push your finger down and up on the left mouse button.
How do I double-click?
1. Put your hand on top of the mouse. Hold
onto the mouse with your thumb and two
smallest fingers.
2. Put your first finger on the left mouse button.
3. Quickly put your finger down and up on the
left mouse button two times, just about as
fast as you would say – “Click. Click.”
Tips for using the internet:
The pointer for your mouse changes shape when it does some activities.
Normally, it looks like this:
I
When it is pointing to something, it looks like this:
When you need to wait, it looks like an hourglass.
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How to Use a Computer: Basic Internet
When you can click and get more information, it looks like a hand.
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How to Use a Computer: Basic Internet
Microsoft Explorer and the Internet
How do I open Microsoft Explorer?
On the computer desktop, find the icon for your browser.
Double click the icon.
This will bring you to a web page where you can type a computer address or search
for information.
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What is a computer address?
The computer address is the set of words and letters that stands for a web site. It is
sometimes called a “URL”. For example, this is a computer address:
lowercolumbia.edu/Common/learning-commons/
It is important to type an address correctly. It doesn’t work and is frustrating if you
type the address wrong.
How do I say an computer addresses?
You see
you say
@
at
.
dot
_
underscore
URL
the name of the computer address
:
colon
/
slash
The address above is said: “lowercolumbia dot E D U slash common slash learning
dash commons slash” .
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I have an internet address. How do I get there?
In the top, there is a blank bar, next to the
. We call it the “address bar”.
Click in the bar.
Type the address you have.
Press Enter (on your keyboard).
The computer will take you to the address you typed.
Practice this!
In your address bar, type
www.lowercolumbia.edu.
Press Enter .
Wait.
This is LCC’s web site.
Move your mouse around the page.
If it turns into a hand, it means you can click on that place and go to another web
page. Try it – click on a “link”.
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How to Use a Computer: Basic Internet
Click
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from the top left corner to take you back to the previous page.
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Drop Down Menu:
Some web pages will give you a list of places to click.
We call these “drop down menus”. (sometimes they go up, not down). This is an
example:
Now: Go back to www.lowercolumbia.edu.
Move your mouse to the place that says “quick find”.
Click on the triangle that points down.
The Library is one of the places on the drop down menu.
Choose the library.
To go back and forth from the library to LCC’s Home Page, use the “back arrow”.
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Scroll up or scroll down.
This is a web site for Lower Columbia College Library Services. The web page is
too long to see all at once. Many web pages are too long to see all at once.
When a page is too long, you can “scroll down” to see the information
not displayed on your computer screen.
This is a scroll bar.
The scroll bar is on the right side of your screen.
To scroll down, click the “down” arrow.
(put your mouse over the down arrow and hold the right button down).
To scroll up, click the “up” arrow.
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that is
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How to Use a Computer: Basic Internet
Now you are ready to work on the internet.
Try this:
Look for a newspaper from another country.
 Go to www.onlinenewspapers.com.
 Choose an area of the world where you have lived.
 Select the drop down menu for this area.
 Choose a country.
 You will see the names of newspapers for this country.
 Click the name of a newspaper.
 Read the newspaper.
Try this:
Use an English Language Learning site.
 Go to www.eslcafe.com
 Read the list under “stuff for students”
 Choose a place there to find information you can learn.
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LCC Library Services
In the Learning Commons
Define Task
Identify Options
Select Sources
Analyze Content
Evaluate
Present Findings
Using computers at Lower Columbia College.
You will need to log on to use a computer at LCC.
You do this by putting in your email username and password in the boxes
that come up as soon as you click on the computer screen.
After the computer accepts your username and password, you get a
“desktop” screen. It looks like this:
To start typing a paper or document, you choose a
“Microsoft office” icon. To get to the internet, you
choose an “internet explorer” icon.
Click on the icon you need.
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How to Use a Computer: Basic Internet
The page you will get for making a document or writing a paper looks like
this:
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Saving a Document
When you have started writing something in Microsoft
Office, you may want to look at it later, or write more on it
later. To do this, you will “save” the paper you were
working on. We call this “saving your document”.
Click on the circle in the upper left corner of your
computer screen.
You will get a “drop down” list of items that looks like
this:
You will be saving your document, but you need to decide
how and where you want to save it. So, click on “save as”. Then you will
get a menu that looks like this:
First, you decide how to save
it. Usually, you will save it
as a word document (that is
the top choice).
Click on “save as”. Then
click on “Word Document”.
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Saving on the Student Server
You could choose to save your work in your “My documents” folder. Or,
you could choose to save it on a USB drive, which you carry around with
you, and can plug into a computer on campus or off campus.
If you want to save it on the LCC student server, you can save it in “my
documents”. That way you will be able to find it again in “my documents”
another time when you log onto an LCC computer.
When the “save in” box comes up, click on the drop down menu until you
find “my documents”. Give your document a name. Then click “save”.
Saving on a USB drive
If you want to save it on your
have to give your document a
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USB drive, you will still
name. But this time, when
How to Use a Computer: Basic Internet
you click “save in”, select “removable disk (E:)”. That stands for the “E”
drive, which is the place you plug your USB drive into the computer.
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Finding your documents again.
The next trick is to find the item you have saved on the computer. To do
this, you can go to “My documents” on the desktop. If you saved it on the
LCC server, it will be right there.
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If you saved it on your USB drive, you can look for it in “my computer” ,
instead of “my documents”. Then, you double click the drive you saved it to
– the “E” drive .
Now, you find the name of the document you were writing, on that “E”
drive. Select the document, double click on it, and you will open it. Then
you can continue working on your document, from right where you started.
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Important: save your work! Click “save” frequently, and always save your
work before you leave the computer. That way, the work you have done
will always be in its best form.
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How to use your LCC email:
Go to the LCC home page.
Use the “quick find” to get to “email”.
When you are at the “email” page, enter your username and
password.
To “open” (or read) an email, click on the title of the email.
To “open” an attachment, find the attachment and double click on
it.
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To delete an email, select an item and click the big “x”.
To make a new email to someone, click on “new”.
When the email box
opens up, type the
address of the person
you want to send to.
Say what the message
is about.
Write your message in
the big box.
Sign your message.
Click “send” to send
the email.
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If you want to attach something to an email:
Start your new email.
Address it, say what it is about, and write a short message.
Click the paperclip that says “attach”.
When you click the
“browse” button, you will
have to find the document
you have saved. It will
probably be in “my documents”.
Once you find it, click on it to “open” it, and then “attach” it to
your email.
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Now, when you click “send” the email letter will go to the person
you want it to go to, and the other document you wrote will be
attached.
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Acknowledgments
This Computer Guide was prepared by Lower Columbia College,
Longview, Washington for use with ESL classes in basic computer
instruction.
Some of this material was adapted from the ESL Computer Book
copyright Immigrant Settlement and Integration Services [2007].
Developed by Kathy Burnett - Halifax Immigrant Learning Centre
Edited by Gerry Mills, Executive Director - Halifax Immigrant Learning
Centre
Halifax Immigrant Learning Centre
7105 Chebucto Road Suite 201
Halifax, Nova Scotia
B3L 4W8
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