Mr. Miller's Lesson Plans

Week Four Rotation Schedule

Monday -  
No School   
 

Tuesday -    
Ms. Counts
Ms. Young
Ms. Masopust

Wednesday -
Ms. Deleon
Ms. L. White
Ms. Gilmer

Thursday -  
Ms. Luten
 

Friday -      
Ms. Lee
Ms. Sexton
Mr. Achor

TechnoNet      

Lesson One – Webmaster

 Overview of the lesson:          In this lesson, students study web sites currently hosted on the World Wide Web to get a clear idea about the type of content a web page should contain.  They begin by discussing web terminology and examining how the Internet transmits information.  Students then analyze web sites created by graphic designers to determine features of a web site that make it appealing to an Internet surfer.  Students complete the session with the examination of kid related web sites to determine which pages should be bookmarked and which ones are wasting bandwidth.

Learning Objectives:  Students will be able to –

·       Analyze a web page and rate the excellence of the navigation, appearance, and quality

·       Change the home page in a web browser

·       Create a visual example of the World Wide Web

·       Define the term World Wide Web

·       Distinguish the difference between a home page, welcome page, web page, or web site

·       Explain how a web page is downloaded from a server to a remote computer

·       Understand the function of a web browser

Materials Used: Microsoft Internet Explorer
                           Microsoft Internet Explorer flashcards

Handouts:  Viewing a Web Page
                   Web Critic
                   Extension Activity / Discussion Page
                   Flashcard Thumbnails Page

 Define the World Wide Web – The World Wide Web consist of millions of documents, stored all over the world on computers that make up the internet.  Because these documents are linked together through a series of hyperlinks, or jump-points, information is easily accessed. 

 Explain also that the World Wide Web is made up of cables, computers, web pages, and hyperlinks.  The thing that makes the Web such an exciting medium is that the next document seen could be housed on a computer next door or halfway around the world.

 Define a Web Browser – To surf or explore the World Wide Web, a web browser software is used.  A web browser is a program used to view, download, upload, surf, or otherwise access documents (pages) on the World Wide Web.  Browsers read ‘marked up’ or coded pages (usually HTML, but now always) that reside on servers and interpret the coding into what we see ‘rendered’ as a Web page.  Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer are example of Web browsers.

 View the “source” of a web page to show students what the HTML language looks like that the computer reads and translates into what they see on the page.  View a web page in a different language (www.technokids.com is one in Spanish) to explain how web sites are from all over the world.  Compare the Spanish text to the HTML text we might read and translate much as the computer translates HTML into a format we can read.

 Web Terminology – Use the TechnoKids site to discuss the terminology: home page, welcome page, web page, and web site.

• Home page – the first page displayed, after launching a Web browser.  This page can be changed to any web page that is posted on the World Wide Web.

Ø     Students will learn to change the home page in for their web browser

1. Select Internet Options  from the Tools menu
2. Click the General Tab, if necessary
3. In the Address field of the Home Page area, key in a different URL, such as technokids.com
4. Click Apply and then click OK
5. Click the Home button on the toolbar to view the newly selected home page.

• Welcome Page – A welcome page is the first page or front page on a web site that servers as the starting point for navigation.  It is where the information for the site actually begins.  A welcome page is often called the Home Page.  This page often contains links to the other pages in their web site.

Ø     Consider what qualities the welcome page contains that make it interesting

• Web Page – A web page is a document on the Web.  For example, each individual page of the TechnoKids web site is a web page.  A web page is usually written in HTML (the programming language of the Internet).

Ø     Click on the hyperlinks at the TechnoKids web site to view various web pages.

Ø     Consider why all the information is not written on one page.  Why is there more than one page at the TechnoKids web site?

• Web Site – A web site is a home and/or location on the World Wide Web.  It is a place made up of web pages.  These pages can contain graphics, text, audio, video, and other dynamic and/or static materials.  It can contain such information as contact information, curriculum information, and associate information.

Ø     How many pages make up the TechnoKids web site?

 View a Web Page – How is it possible to view a web page?  How does the web page get from the server to a computer halfway around the world?  The handout, “Viewing a Web Page” discusses information can be downloaded from one computer to another.

1)     The server hosts a web page:  An Internet Service Provider (ISP) hosts a web page.  This means they store the files that create the web page on a computer called a server.

2)     TCP breaks down the web page into packets.  The web page information must now travel from the server to a computer halfway around the world.  The secret of the internet is a network protocol called TCP/IP – that is, a kind of coding system that allows computers to electronically describe data, like the contents of a story, to each other over the network. 

ü     TCP – Transmission Control Protocol

ü     IP – Internet Protocol

3)     IP directs the packets to their destination.  The IP protocol then figures out how the data is supposed to get from the point A to point B by passing through a series of routers.

4)     TCP reassembles the packets into the original web page.  As the packets arrive at the computer of the recipient, TCP takes over again, identifying each packet and checking to see if it is intact.

5)     The web browser interprets the HTML coding to display the web page.  A web browser reads the html coding of the document and interprets the coding into what we see rendered as a Web page.

Analyze the Contents of a Web Page – Now that students understand how a web browser works and have been introduced to some web terminology they are to critique popular kid-related web sites, rating each site based on a) each of navigation, b) appearance, and c) quality of content.

Extension Activities for the Lesson –

ü     This is an EXCELLENT discussion page for the importance of a firewall (explain the use of a “real” firewall and compare to the Internet firewall for safety). 

ü     List the benefits to the Internet

ü     Discuss the many different means for connecting to the Internet: phone line, cable lines, or a satellite dish and consider the reasons why a person may use one option as opposed to another.

ü     Discuss URL (Universal Resource Locator) – used to address the location of a web page on the Internet

• http:// - This indicates the type of file access that is permitted from the Internet.  (Think of it as sending a letter in the mail and deciding if you wish to send it by US Mail, UPS, or Fed Ex.)

• www.hssd.net - The second part of the URL address is called the domain name.  (This would be much like addressing the letter to go to Hot Springs, Arkansas.)

• /gardner/index.htm - The rest of the URL address gives the location of the file in question on the machine.  (This would be like giving the actual street address - 525 Hammond Drive.)

Microsoft Internet Explorer Flashcard Thumbnails Handout – Students can use the handout as a study guide to learn the various icons for the tools on the Microsoft Internet Explorer Toolbar.

Review the lesson before the students are dismissed.

Our next lesson will be a Planning Session for their Individual Web Page Design.

(This lesson is one of many EXCELLENT lessons that come from a company called TECHNOKids - Technology Curriculum for Schools.  To learn more about them, be sure to visit their web site at www.technokids.com.  Each of their lessons comes with an excellent CD-ROM which includes all the teacher guides with lesson plans, handouts, flashcards, extension activities, resource files, and more.  They offer great programs for use in educating our students in the use and understanding of technology.)