We estimate that the work that you will do for this module will take about 20 hours to complete. You can do the work at school or at home, and you can fit it into your schedule however you see fit. We recommend that you set aside some time, at least two or three hours each week, to work on the module. This should enable you to finish the module within 6 to 8 weeks from the time that you start.  Proceed as follows:

In this module you are going to learn how to use a web browser and subsequent to that you are going to create some basic web pages.  In doing so, an emphasis will be placed on how the Internet works and we will also tie the activities directly to your math classroom.  The two main web browsers used on the Internet are currently Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Netscape's Netscape Navigator.  Both can be downloaded for free from the Internet.  Netscape's Netscape Navigator also has a component called Netscape Composer that allows you to write your own web pages.  Because we will also be asking you to create web pages, it will work best if we use Netscape Navigator for this module.  While Microsoft makes products that can create web pages, the products are not integrated into their browser Internet Explorer, nor are the products free.

Your computer will most likely have had an Internet browser installed on it when it was new, and most likely that browser was Internet Explorer.  We can use that browser to download other browsers, or to download newer version of the Internet Explorer browser.  For our purposes, since we know we want to work in Netscape Navigator and Netscape Composer, we will have you download Netscape Navigator version 7.1.  At the time this is being written, Version 7.1 is the most recent version of Netscape and it includes both the Navigator and the Composer component.

Follow the directions on that page to download a copy of Version 7.1.  If you are very new to computers, and are uncomfortable downloading and installing Netscape 7.1 at this time, you might consider doing the first part of this module on a computer that already has Netscape 7.1 set up on it, or you might ask a person familiar with computers in your district to help you with this first download and the subsequent installation.  Later in the module we will talk in detail about downloading software from the Internet and installing it on your computer.

The http://nctm.org is called the URL of this location on the Internet; URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator but everybody just calls it the URL.  It's the address needed to get to the site you are wanting to visit.  

How do you know what to type into the location field?  In the beginning, most often you will have been told in an article you read or at a meeting you attended the URL of the site you want to visit.  Often it's possible to guess the URL of the main page for the site you might want to visit.  Sites for organizations always end in ".org", sites for schools always end in ".edu", sites for business always end in ".com", and government sites always end in ".gov".  To visit the site Louvre musum in Paris, a good guess for the URL would be http://louvre.org.  To visit the main page at the University of Illinois, some good guesses would be http://ui.edu or http://uiuc.edu.  You might be suspect of the first one since the University of Iowa, the University of Indiana, and the University of Idaho would be indistinguishable with that address; and therefore give prefernce to trying the http://uiuc.edu address.  To visit the Chicago Tribune newspaper site, make your first try http://chicagotribune.com. 

Just Do It:
Try locating the main pages for the news provider ABC, MSNBC, PBS, and USA Today.
Try locating the main page for the Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

In practice, we seldom have to try to guess the address of a site because there are several other good ways to locate sites, search engines being the main one.  Once a site is located with a search engine, then we add it to our bookmarks so that we can easily make return visits if we like; we will cover search engines and bookmarks shortly.  Web pages usually contain hyperlinks to other web pages, as you view one page you will often discover links to other related and possibly better pages.  The process of moving around the web from site to site following these hyperlinks is called "browsing the web".  If you bookmark the best sites you come across, you will soon have your own personal collection of useful sites on the Internet.

Yahoo
Go.com
Excite

Be sure to bookmark these sites so that you can access them readily.

These three sites vary in style. Yahoo is one of the most popular and earliest search sites. However with Yahoo, a site must register with them, and unregistered sites will be not be found in searches. Yahoo also classifies their sites in groups. This allows you to find many different sites that pertain to the same subject. This differs from Infoseek and Excite in the fact that they search through the Internet and register all pages on their own. These contain any pages that they can find that have the words that you are looking for. Often these types of searches will give you a percentage that shows how close this site is to the phrase that you entered. So search results from the three different sites will vary.

Your task is to do searches at each of the three search sites to see how the results vary. We would like you to choose a math related topic to search on. You can choose from the following list, or search on a related topic that is of interest to you. Suggested topics include:

Once you have selected a topic, search for your topic on each of the three search engines listed above. For each of the search engines, take note of the differences in the sites that it returns. After you have done this, find two interesting sites that you found through your search and put this information following the questions in the Assignment 1.

If you want to find out more about search engines, you can use the Netscape directory buttons to locate each of the three search engines we have listed, along with many others. To make sure that your directory buttons are showing, go to the Options menu at the top of your Netscape screen.

Make sure that Show Directory Buttons has a check beside it. If it is, you will see the directory buttons right under the Location area and just above the browser window. It will look like:

If you click on the "Net Search" button, it will take you to a page with links to many different web browsers. You might try WebCrawler, or Alta Vista, for example. Choose any one you wish and try your search there as well.

This is also a good place to do web searches, and take an extra good look at some math-related web sites. Look at Assignment 2 form to evaluate two sites that you found to be especially interesting. Please tell why you thought the sites were interesting. Please list things that you think are effective, and list things that you feel aren't effective.

While you are going through this step, you should be thinking about Step 5 of this module in which you will be using the Internet to develop a lesson that you will use in one of your classes. Assignment 2 will ask you to give a title and outline of your proposed project.

Use the Assignment 2 to evaluate two pieces of software that you found to be of good quality and usefulness.

Again, while going through this step, you should be thinking about Step 5 of this module in which you will be using the Internet to develop a lesson that you will use in one of your classes.

The choice of topics is entirely up to you. We would like you to develop a classroom unit that you would be able to use in one of your current classes so that you can evaluate it. It is not entirely necessary that you be able to teach this immediately. We understand that many times you will not be able to incorporate this into your current classes. In this case, come up with a presentation that you feel would be successful, and use it an another time! We would be happy to discuss some ideas with you if that would help. Just call us or send us e-mail.

This is a good place for collaborative effort. In fact, we encourage you to work together and share ideas with each other. After all, collaboration across long distances is one of the big benefits of the Internet! You can get some idea of what others are interested in from reviewing the Module Newsgroup. If you have a good idea going, you may also want to advertise in the MTL Message Board for an interested partner. Or, contact other participants through e-mail.

When you finish your lesson plan and teach it, we would like you to give the following information:

1. A detailed description of the unit.
2. The World-Wide Web addresses (URL's) of the resources that you used.
3. Your evaluation of how the unit worked in your class, or how you feel it would have worked.

This information should be listed in Assignment 3.

Go through the provided HTML tutorial (primer, and tutorials I - IV):

MTL's User-Active HTML Tutorial For Teachers

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is a system that allows you to create documents for the World Wide Web, including homepages and classroom materials with attractive graphics and links to other WWW resources. With this user-active WWW - based tutorial, you will be able to build, view and store your own WWW pages within minutes of the time you begin.

Your ASSIGNMENT is to write 4 homepages as follows:

1. Create your own personal homepage.
   A personal homepage can include information that you might find useful, such as:
   • Contact Information
   • Professional Experience
   • Personal Interest
   • Links to Resources

   When you finish your personal homepage, hand it in online to Lesson 4 Objective 1.

   We will send feedback on this first page, while you are working on each of the following two pages. Be sure to link from your personal homepage back to the other pages. You might also consider looking at the personal homepages of others as samples and for ideas.

2. Write an informational homepage for a class that you teach.
   Make sure that this page links back to your personal homepage, and that your personal homepage links to this page. This page will contain course information for students to access in a class that you are teaching.

   Hand the page into Lesson 4 Objective 2.

3. Write a homepage consisting of links to math pages that you might find useful. This must contain at least 5 links and should contain a link to the MathLink homepage. It must also include a link back to your personal homepage, and your personal homepage must contain a link to this page.

   Hand the page into Lesson 4 Objective 3.

4. Write a webpage that incorporates the unit that you planned and taught in Step 5. Include links to the pages that you used in that unit along with any other information that is pertinant. Also include your evaluation of the unit.

   Specifications:

   • Each of the first three pages must have links to each other.
   • You must include at least one graphic image among these links. You can either create your own graphic image, or find one on the Internet that you want to download and use in your own page.
   • Be sure to try horizontal lines, lists, and background colors.
   • At least one item should be centered in one of these pages.
   • Be sure to enjoy yourself and get creative.

   Remember: If you see something on an Internet homepage that you like, you can view the source to see what code they used to generate the page. This might be a good source for ideas.

   Hand the page into Lesson 4 Objective 4.

You can save the web pages as html files as you have learned in the UserActive tutorial. Please turn in each page as you finish it, so we may view your progress and offer suggestions for improvement or give praises of your fine work.

How to save your work on UserActive and get the URL of your web page
Once you've written the HTML for your page in the UserActive tutorial, click on the *Save* button at the bottom right hand corner of the screen. Clicking this button, will bring up a window that looks like:

Be sure to type the title of your page as indicated by the arrow in the image above. It is also important to end the title with .html, since if you don't the page won't be visible when you try to find it with a web browser if you don't.

After you click on *Save Page/Update Link*, another window will come up like this:

The arrow in the image above shows where you will find the URL that UserActive has given you for your new web-page. Please make note of the addess it gives you. This is that address that you need to send to us.