webhound leader's guide:
Activity Sequence
Scouting the Range

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Materials

• Webhound guide (print version)
• Multimedia Computer connected to Internet
• Web browser software
• Whiteboard, flipchart, or other means to write text for the participants to see

Approximate Time

Procedures

1. Tell the participants that before we begin learning how to find things on the web, that we should keep some facts about it and the Internet in mind. Refer them to the sites mentioned in the webhound guide for more comprehensive information about the World Wide Web.

   The Internet is nothing more than a physical connection of computers with some agreed-upon conventions for how information is transmitted from one part to another, in a manner that any computer on the system can understand. The World Wide Web, a subset of the Internet, represents a means to connect information, data, media, via a simple hypertext linkage.
   
   Can anyone can explain what "hypertext" is?

   The exact definition of "hypertext" may vary as long as it contains the notion of linking information from the context of one domain to related information in another domain.
   
   
2. At the simplest level, the only skill one needs to know for using a web browser is clicking on the hypertext. It's useful here to highlight the simplicity by clicking the link in the last sentence of the first section: "The main skill needed here is the ability to click on (repeat after me)... the blue text. ". Or you could remind them that they performed this numerously in either the "Good, Bad, and Ugly" or the "Scavenger Hunt" exercises.
   
   
3. Growth in Internet information and activity has been greater that 100% per year since the early 1990s. What one needs to know about information on the Internet/World Wide Web, is that it is completely de-centralized and literally changes by leaps and bounds every second. Since the information is distributed and maintained by individuals, there is no way it could ever be completely indexed because of the rate of change.

To index everything on the Internet you would likely have to make a copy of everything on the Internet! How could this ever be accomplished?

4. Web-based information is maintained and "published" by individuals. When you visit a web site, a key skill is to find the person to contact if you have a question or comment about that site. Demonstrate this by scrolling to the bottom of the "Scouting the Range" page and pointing out that the person who maintains this web page is "Alan Levine" and you could contact him by sending an email message to "levine@maricopa.edu". It might even be worthwhile to actually send a message by clicking on that e-mail address.
   
   
5. Remind the participants that researching and finding information is a skill learned by practice, which is why the web hound was created:

When you use learned how to use library, you did not just walk into the building, wander to the first bookshelf, and start pulling books off! There are different techniques one uses in the library (catalogs, periodical indices, librarians, etc) that take time to learn how to use. The same goes for the Internet.

6. Ask the participants to answer the questions listed under the heading Look at where you are... You may have them answer aloud, write down their answers, or share with a neighbor.
   
   

Where would be a good place to go to learn more about how the web was developed?
Try the World Wide Web FAQ at: http://www.boutell.com/faq/ or the W3 Consortium at http://www.w3.org/

Why is there no one complete index of the Internet?
It changes much too fast and is so de-centralized that it would defy any means to catalog it (by the time you were partially done, you'd have to go back and start over).

Who would you contact if you had a question about this web page? Where would you find such information?
Alan Levine is responsible for the webhound, and you could contact him by sending an e-mail message to levine@maricopa.edu. This information is found at the bottom, or "footer", of every page in the webhound.

NEXT:

Scoping the Search