Information Technology

Learning Objectives

Become familiar with the history and development of the World Wide Web.
Learn to navigate the Web by browsing and by using keyword searches.
Acquire the skills needed to evaluate the credibility of information found on the Web.
Complete and submit assignment 2.

Why do they call it the Web?
The World Wide Web is one of the most successful products of the "information age." It has found a role in all types of education, in marketing, and in entertainment. The Web is rapidly redefining the way the world conducts business, from both a sales as well as an investment perspective. This module will guide you through an explanation of what the Web actually "is", and show you ways that horticulturists are using the technology for business.

Read the first 5 or 6 sections of the document History and Overview of the World Wide Web. Scan the rest of the document. This information will help you answer several of the questions in Assignment 2.

Additional information on the development and organization of the Web can be found in the documents from CERN, the home of the World Wide Web. It is interesting to note that some of the early advancements in Web browsers were made by undergraduate students, notably Mark Andreeson (later to become one of the founders of Netscape Corporation) who was actually a student at the University of Illinois when he worked on the early versions of the Mosaic browser.

Graphical Look at the Web
As additional reference, view the presentation Digging for Information on the World Wide Web that I made to the Master Certified Nursery Professional course. This presentation contains some graphical illustrations of the hardware and software components of the Web.

Navigating the Web
Finding information you want on the Web can be a daunting task the first few times you use a browser. For most students who have been exposed to the Web previously, navigation appears to be "intuitive." You just click where you want to go! What if you were new to computer technology? What if you didn't know whether to click or double-click? How did you first discover that the cursor changes appearance over a hypertext link?

"Intuitive" Methods
Something is intuitive if it is an obvious action that requires no prior instruction. Fortunately, there are computers that function to convert the numerical address of all Web connected computers into names (these computers are called "nameservers." Nameservers combined with the Internet name registration authorities allow us to use some intuitive or common sense approaches to connecting to Web sites. A Web site name is usually named by the following conventsions. Use intuitive name of site (usually with WWW in front and domain name behind)
ex, www.microsoft.com, real address is microsoft.com
www is a left over from when sites used to be a gopher or ftp site or a WWW site
Most of web business now is presumed to be in the "www" mode.
Web browsers can also exchange information using protocols other that hypertext. For example, modern browsers can communicate by gopher protocol as well as ftp protocol. In those cases, the Web address would be gopher://site.location.dom or ftp://site.location.com.
Recording a Web address
Web-connected computers require the precise address for the document you are attempting to view. The entire web address must be recorded EXACTLY (including upper/lowercase), or you will receive a connection erorr. The easiest way to do record a Web address is by highlighting the location window and copying and pasting the address into a text editor. Some addresses may change rapidly, particularly if the information comes from a database. If the address is from cgi program or database search, you usually cannot record the address. Addresses from databases have many numbers and characters in them, such as: http://horticulture.tamu.edu:7998/ornamentals/FMPro?-db=ornamentals&-format=nativesdetail.html&-lay=layout%20%231&-sortfield=species& infosource=Texas%20natives%20database&-recid=33445&-find=

Style for citing Web materials in bibliography
The styles for citing an article on the Web still vary considerably. Some articles cannot be ascribed to an individual, it is difficult to determine the date of publication and/or revision, and some works may be "chunked" so that you have to visit a sequence of pages to read the entire article. The printer dialog for printing from the newer versions of Web browsers simplifies this to some extent, having options for printing the location, date, title, and page in either the header or the footer of the printed page. As a guide for this course, the following citation style will suffice:

Lineberger, R. D. and M. Druckenbrod. Micropropagation of Chimeral African Violets. 2004.
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/tisscult/chimeras/Valprop/Val.html

The date is the date you read the material. If the article itself is dated, place that in parentheses at the end.

It is absolutely imperative that the URL be a completely functional link that includes the address all the way to the document name. Since some servers are case-sensitive, attention to the UPPER or lower case status of letters is also important.

Using search engines
A search engine is a Web-based computer application that examines documents on the Web that contain a specific text string, either a word or a series of words. There's a million of 'em! Some search the whole Web, and others search specific sites.

Click on the icons below and use the PLANTanswer machine and the Aggie Horticulture Metacrawler interface to answer a trial query.

The Aggie Horticulture PLANTanswer machine searches a limited base of information designed to meet the needs of horticulture professionals and gardeners in Texas. The search includes only documents on Aggie Horticulture, the Entomology Web servers on campus and at Dallas, and the Texas Plant Disease Handbook.
The Aggie Horticulture Metacrawler search interface inputs a query directly into the Metacrawler search page. Metacrawler is a search robot that searches other search robots, so that it quickly finds information located anywhere on the Web. The down side is that you usually get a huge number of hits, many of them not really related to your exact interest.

Evaluating the Credibility of Information on Web Sites
Read the section Evaluating the Credibility of Information on Web Sites and the links attached therein. You will find information there to help you complete Assignment 2.

Ethical use of information found on the Web
The Web is so easy to use. The information is easily available, and it is usually so colorful and attractive. These factors combine to make copyright issues quite a problem for Web-based material. Be sure you read and understand the material on the basics of copyrights from the U.S. Copyright Office. Assume material on web is copyrighted unless can prove otherwise. Remember you must have written permission from copyright owner to use or download files. However, you can write links freely to copyrighted material.

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