The Internet, the Information Highway or the network of all networks, is the fastest growing communication technology in the world. Probably no other technological innovation has changed the way people communicate and access information. Beginning as a communications network for defense research in 1969, the Internet has taken on a life of its own since 1990, when restrictions on its use were relaxed and more users began to use it as a communication tool (Thomasson, 1996). Today, the Internet is a collection of more than 20 million interconnected computer networks around the world that make it possible to share information almost instantly. The Internet is shared by countless commercial, research, governmental, and educational organizations and individuals (Grush, 1998). The Internet allows more than 100 million computer users to collaborate easily and quickly through e-mail, discussion groups, and conferencing. Users are able to discover and access people and information, distribute information, and experiment with new technologies and services. It is estimated that the Internet is growing at a rate of 10% per month and that a new network is connected to the Internet every nine minutes (Salamon, 1997).

With a few short years, the Internet has become a major global infrastructure for education, research, professional learning, public service, and business. Much of the evolution of the Internet has occurred in the university and research environments, but more recently it has entered a larger public arena. It is now making major inroads into school environments and creating a new model for classrooms across the globe.

The Internet is fast emerging as one of a teacher's most important instructional tools, with the Web emerging as the easiest and most popular way to access the information and resources on the Internet. Through e-mail, students can communicate with their peers in other countries and work with researchers through such systems as the National Geographic Kids Network, Global Schoolhouse, and NASA SpaceLink. Through the WWW sites like AskERIC, students and teachers can find thousands of journal articles on learning theories, science projects, applied academics, reading, bilingual education, math education, adult education programs and curricula. Government agencies and professional organizations including the U.S. Department of Education and NASA offer lesson plans and professional support for teachers on their web sites. The Global Schoolhouse web site allows students around the world to work on collaborative projects that address issues like global warming and human rights (Doty, 1995). Learning becomes exciting and real as the world becomes the classroom. Therefore, it is time for teachers and educators to get on the Internet, discover its wealth, and begin to take advantage of the extensive instructional and human resources available in the world.

This article provides an overview of the Internet as well as a discussion on how the Internet can be used in education. In addition, it covers several Internet tools and discusses how they can be used for teaching and learning.

As an educational medium, the Internet has the potential to redefine the role of both teacher and student. Instructional topics can be investigated on a global scale. Teachers can expand their ability to acquire instructional resources from thousands of other educators (Gauger, 1994). Today, teachers are excited about the potential of the Internet as resources for teaching and learning. Already, many state departments of education are establishing their own telecommunications networks to link their schools. Teachers are using the Internet to access libraries throughout the world; to communicate with parents and students; to acquire instructional materials; to share lesson plans, curriculum ideas and courseware; to connect students from different cultures to let them share their views and concerns about the world; and to download current information useful in the classroom from many Web sites (Wilson, 1995).

The Internet expands classroom resources dramatically by making many resources from all over the world available to students, teachers, and media specialists, including original source materials. It brings information, data, images, and even computer software into the classroom from places otherwise impossible to reach, and it does this almost instantly. Access to these resources can yield individual and group projects, collaboration, curriculum materials, and idea sharing not found in schools without Internet access (Parker, 1994).

The Internet offers schools access to a world of up-to-date information on any subject, as well as the ability to communicate worldwide. The Internet makes contact with people all over the world possible, bringing into the classroom experts in every content area, new and old friends, and colleagues in education. With access to the Internet, your site can become a valuable source of information as well. Consider the expertise in your school that could be shared with others around the world. The isolation inherent in the teaching profession is well known among teachers. By having access to colleagues in other parts of the world, as well as to those who work outside of classrooms, teachers able to reach the Internet are not as isolated.

The Internet is home to tens of thousands of original lesson plans and activities. Written by K-12 teachers and college professors spread out across the globe, these teaching and learning materials help teachers seamlessly integrate online resources and navigation tools into their classroom curriculum. Also, many teachers are using the Internet to coordinate projects with classrooms in other countries. In addition to collaborating with colleagues and developing joint projects, teachers can also engage in dialogues with field experts. For instance, using the Internet, teachers can connect to NASA's SpaceLink and send questions to space experts, including space shuttle astronauts. Teachers can also download useful information, guides and images for use in the classroom. Many teachers are taking advantages of online Associate Press (AP) and Reuters newsfeeds, the daily CNN Newsroom curriculum guide, NASA space images, and regularly updated weather reports; all of these are easily accessible and available on the Internet (Parker, 1994).

The Internet provides community access to school resources. Some school districts are encouraging parents to become involved and have offered access via dialup accounts to school systems. Homework assignment archives, schedules, newsletters, calendars, lunch menus, etc. are just some of the things can be made publicly available on the Internet. Additionally, teachers are more accessible via e-mail for parent/teacher conferences (Parker, 1994).

The Internet offers a variety of tools. Some of these popular tools used in education include e-mail, mailing lists, newsgroups, telnet, ftp, IRC, search engines, and the World Wide Web.

E-mail

Through e-mail, teachers and students can explore the world from their classrooms, exchanging messages and ideas with other schools around the globe. Today, students can use e-mail to communicate with their peers in other countries and work with researchers through such systems as the National Geographic Kids Network. Projects such as MathMagic, the Geometry Forum, and electronic scavenger hunts provide opportunities for collaborative problem solving. Scientists at the Argonne National Laboratory and NASA SpaceLink are available to answer e-mail questions from students. Students, fascinated by the instantaneous nature of e-mail, eagerly check messages before school and during breaks. Learning becomes exciting and real as the world becomes the classroom (Thomasson, 1996).

E-mail is one of the most widely used tools on the Internet. You can send a message to someone at your local site, to any of the Internet users, anywhere in the world. To send e-mail, you need mail reader software such as Eudora, Outlook, or Netscape Mail and the electronic address of someone. An e-mail address is generally made up of two parts: the first part is the user ID and the second part is the node on the network where the mail is to be sent. The form of the address is "userID@node." For example, to send a message to the author at the University of Southern Mississippi. A message would be addressed to: "yuen@dragon.ep.usm.edu." Yuen is the author's userID, Dragon is the machine name, ep is the machine location, USM stands for University of Southern Mississippi and is the regional node, and the edu indicates that this address is at an educational institution.

Mailing Lists

Mailing lists, like Usenet, are used for carrying on discussions. However, mailing list messages come directly to your mailbox. The discussion comes to you, rather than the other way around. You can subscribe to a mailing list by sending an e-mail message to the maintainer of the list. Once you have subscribed, all messages mailed to the list are sent to you.

There are thousands of mailing lists available in areas of academic and research, computing, libraries, education, instructional technology and distance learning. To find mailing lists, you can access Publicly Accessible Mailing Lists site at "http://www.NeoSoft.com/internet/paml/" or Liszt, the mailing list directory, at "http://www.liszt.com/."

For every mailing list to which you subscribe, there are two distinct addresses you will need to know when to use them. The first address is the List address or Posting address. This is the address you’ll use to communicate with the list. When you send an e-mail to this address, the mail is delivered to all members of the list. For example, "caerda@dragon.ep.usm.edu" is the List address for CAERDA list. The second address is the Administrative address or Subscription address. This is where you should send all management requests such as subscribing or unsubscribing to the list, retrieving indexes, or stopping your mail temporarily. For example, "majordomo@dragon.ep.usm.edu" is the Administrative address for CAERDA list.

Once you find the mailing list that you want to subscribe, all you need to do is to send an e-mail to the maintainer of the list. Commands sent to the administrative address need to be in a precise form since the commands are being interpreted by computer programs, not humans.

Usenet

Usenet newsgroups are the means to carry on discussions with other people who share your interests. You can follow discussions on many topics, and add your own opinions if you choose. Newsgroups are similar to groups on other systems called forums, BBSs (bulletin board systems), or SIGs (special interest groups).

Usenet is made up of over 20,000 discussion groups called newsgroups and is increasing everyday. Each newsgroup focuses on a single topic, such as computing, the history of the Civil War, sports, politics, food, educational technology, music, agriculture, social culture, and education. Millions of Internet users rely on these interactive, free spirited forums to stay up-to-date on the latest news, converse with peers world wide, and ask for help with their computers. Many teachers report great success when posting calls for project participation to the most popular educational newsgroups. However, teachers should monitor their students' access to Usenet carefully because some newsgroups are not suitable for minors.

Newsgroups are organized into hierarchies and named to show their location. There are seven mainstream news categories are defined in Usenet. The categories are: computers and related topics (comp), news network and software (news), recreation, hobbies, and games (rec), science-related topics (sci), social issues (soc), discussions and arguments, often about politics (talk), and miscellaneous topics (misc). Each group is divided into subgroups to further refine a user's search for information (Hill & Misic, 1996).

In Usenet terminology, messages sent to newsgroups are called articles, and the act of sending an article is called posting. Like many Internet tools, Usenet operates on the client/server model. In order to use Usenet you need a client software application called a newsreader that lets you post and read newsgroup articles.

Teachers can join newsgroups to discuss teaching practices with their peers worldwide. There are many newsgroups that provide excellent resources and information for teachers. The following is a list of the outstanding newsgroups for teaching and learning:

alt.education.distance
alt.teachers.lesson-planning
comp.internet.net-happenings
k12.chat.junior
k12.chat.senior
k12.chat.teacher
k12.ed.comp.literacy
k12.ed.lang.art
k12.ed.math
k12.ed.science
k12.ed.soc-studies
k12.ed.special
k12.ed.tech
k12.library
k12.misc.education
schl.sig.edtech
school.teachers

• Never forget that the person on the other side is human.
• Don't blame system administrators for their users' behavior.
• Be careful what you say about others. Be ethical.
• Don't use any forms of obscene, harassing or abusive language online.
• Type in lowercase with proper capitalization. When you use all uppercase, people think you're shouting.
• Don't overdo the exclamations!!!! or other <<<<$%#@&*>>>> symbols.
• Be brief.
• Respect other people's time and cyberspace.
• Lurk before you leap, follow a discussion group for several days to get its "flavor" before posting to it.
• Never post inflammatory messages.
• Never engage in flaming. Don't respond to flame if you recognize it for what it is.
• Be careful with humor and sarcasm.
• Be forgiving of other people's mistakes and share your knowledge. Remember, you were a "newbie" once.
• Respect other peoples' privacy. Never read other peoples' e-mail or files.
• Be careful about copyrights and licenses.
• If you wish to add signature, keep it short.
• When accessing another computer system by telnet or ftp, your are a guest. Be considerate. Plan to use other systems during their slow time.

Would you like to converse with other people over the Internet, without waiting for e-mail or newsgroup messages to be read? You can use IRC (Internet Relay Chat) to carry on conversations in "real time". IRC is similar to CB radio channels, where many people can be conversing on one channel. Students can use IRC to converse with others in real time over the Internet. They make friends and learn about other cultures, lifestyles, and philosophies. Also, teachers can use IRC to conduct online teaching with their students from across the campus and around the world. A word of caution, just as the problems existed in the Usenet, teachers should monitor their students' access to IRC carefully because some chat rooms are not suitable for minors. To start IRC, you enter "irc" or "ircll" at a Unix prompt to connect to a chat server. If you're using a graphical client, you'll have to choose a server.

Telnet

Telnet allows users to log on to remote computers and to access information found on those computer. You can telnet to any computer on the Internet for which you have an account with proper login ID and password. Once you are logged into the remote computer via telnet, you can perform any of the tasks you would perform if you were directly connected to that computer. In addition, many sites allow you to login as a "guest" or "anonymous" to use some of its programs and browse through directories and look for interesting information.

Teachers and students can use telnet to login to supercomputers and government computers, their schools' computers when traveling, or other computers that allow external logins. For instance, if you are at a conference in Chicago and you need to check your e-mail at your school, you can telnet from a computer in Chicago to your school's computer and read your e-mail. Also, teachers and students can log on to the Library of Congress, as well as many other libraries, all around the world via telnet. They can find databases for agriculture, aviation, geography, history, medicine, outer space, book reviews, magazine articles, and many more.

FTP

FTP is an acronym for "file transfer protocol." FTP is an essential Internet tool used to retrieve information and put it into your account. Universities and government agencies supporting FTP file exchange serve as vast archives to documents, computer programs, digitized sound files, images, photographs, and even movie clips. For example, through FTP, a teacher can send a curriculum guide and other multimedia instructional materials on rain forest to teachers with similar interest. Also, students can share weather, demographic, and other information about their communities with others to create special projects in science or social studies.

To use FTP, you run a client program on your host computer, which connects and logs you on to a remote site. Once the connection is made to the remote computer, you must provide a login ID and password. The anonymous ID and e-mail address as password are acceptable on most ftp servers. After the connection is made, you communicate with the remote site using FTP commands. You can view and change directories, locate the files you want, and copy the files to and from your host. For example, "An Educator's Guide to E-mail List," is a publication online with a very good collection of Listservs for educators. You can ftp "ftp.umass.edu" and login in as anonymous. The path to get this file is "pub/ednet/educatrs.lst."

World Wide Web (WWW)

The World Wide Web is the fastest growing and perhaps the most exciting part of the Internet. The Web developed in Switzerland in 1989 and was in widespread use by 1994. The WWW is an Internet service that uses HyperText Markup Language (HTML) to make it easy for users to search and browse the Internet through a graphical interface. HTML integrates text with graphics, sound, and video, and allows Web pages to contain links to other resources or Web pages on other computers around the world. When you browse the Web, you can follow the links you see on the screen, from one document to the next; or, if you know the address of a resource, you can jump directly there. Every resource has an address, called its URL (Uniform Resource Locator). An URL may point to a page of text (possibly with links to other documents, menus, graphics, sounds, and videos); or it may lead you directly to a file or a database search.

The Web provides wonderful opportunity for the education community. It offers unparalleled access to local, national, and global educational resources through hypertext links and multimedia resources. The Web has attracted teachers with promises of access, interactivity, ease of use, dissemination, and a potential universal presence in the lives of students and teachers. There are thousands, if not millions of relevant web pages/sites containing a variety of resources that can be of use to teachers. WWW sites include universities, libraries, many governmental and scientific establishments, large and small businesses, organizations, schools, and individuals. Some top education Web sites include the following:

The Internet has a wealth of information, but it's not organized. Finding what you want on the Internet can be very frustrating and time-consuming. Just a few years ago, if you want to search the Internet you had only a few choices: The Gopher-seeking Veronica, the FTP archiver Archie, and the database-finding Wide-Area Information Server (WAIS). Although they are useful at what they designed to do, they are not user-friendly and the information they deliver is somewhat limited.

With the explosion of the World Wide Web in the past five years, the Web grew so large so quickly that it became practically impossible to find anything at all. Fortunately, many Web users realized that something had to be done, and began to develop search engines. Today, there are many search tools on the Web to choose from and allow teachers and students quickly locate almost anything you want. Best of all, most of the search tools cost nothing to access. Some of the popular search engines are Alta Visa (http://www.altavista.digital.com/), Excite (http://www.excite.com/), Hotbot (http://www.hotbot.com), Infoseek (http://infoseek.go.com/), Lycos (http://www.lycos.com/), and Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com/).

The author has developed a Ultimate Search Page (http://dragon.ep.usm.edu/~yuen/search.htm) which contains hundreds of various popular search tools on the Web. The Ultimate Search Page allows users to find almost any page on the Web, Internet Usenet Newsgroups and Listservs, email addresses, software, online references and services, publications, technical reports, media and other educational resources.

Despite obstacles and challenges, the education community is moving ahead. The education community is considered one of the fastest growing groups involved in the Internet (Parker, 1994). The Internet offers an unprecedented tool for teaching and learning. It is the ultimate "virtual classroom" that can be used anytime, anywhere, with minimal equipment (Seguin & Seguin, 1995). Through the Internet, teachers and students are gaining access to information and people resources that can easily be integrated into all areas of the curriculum. Students use the Internet to access libraries throughout the world, to aid in research projects and cross-cultural studies, to enhance foreign language skills, and to simply exchange ideas and studies with their peers.

The Internet can profoundly change the way teachers teach and students learn in schools. Access to the Internet motivates students and encourages their level of learning independence and autonomy. Today, teachers cannot be merely tour guides showing students all there is to see along the Information Highway. They must help students learn to narrow their search for information and evaluate the information they find; while still providing students with the opportunity to explore and discover new areas of learning along the way.

It is an exciting time in education. The Internet frees education from the limits of time and space. It offers new opportunities for teachers and students a link to learn in interesting ways. So, plug in and access the Internet. Teaching and learning will never be the same.

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