Welcome to the Fall Semester!

And welcome to Not Your Father's Internet! This class will provide you with an opportunity to explore the applications and functions of the internet in a guided -- and hopefully fun -- environment. For the first class, we'll just get to know each other, find out what you came for and begin our exploration.
The first place we'll explore is this blog - I will post links and updates periodically here. You can access it from your home computer, too. And you'll probably want to after you see this video - so you can show your friends. If you haven't seen it already!



I'm looking forward to a great semester!

Flowers in Black and White - straight from Picasa!

Pics to Play With!

Here are a few of my pictures that you can download and play with.
Click on the picture - it will open in a new window. Right click on the picture and choose "Save Image As" and it will take you to a location to save it. Choose a name for the file or leave it as is. Click Save.
Click on the Back button to return to the Blog site - and repeat for any other pictures you want to download!

 

Right Click

Using the right click button on the mouse gives you further options in whichever context you are working in. The example above shows the menu for when you click on a hyperlink. The top option, "Open Link in New Window" lets you open a link for another web page while staying on the current page. This is handy when you are exploring links in a list, like the one above, or links that are embedded in an article, like the example below.

The right click menu is available in most applications and functions. On a Mac, you can access the right click menu by holding down the CTRL button and clicking the mouse.

Ready for Facebook?

Today we'll explore the social networking site Facebook. There are lots of reasons to sign up just as there are lots of reasons not to. We'll try to get to them all! (But you'll probably think of more!)

Here is a link to one tutorial I found online from a Social Networking Series - A Basic Introduction for Nonprofit Use Facebook Tutorial  It's a PDF file, but should open in a browser window. (You know how we techie teachers throw around the word should!)

There are links to tutorials built right into Facebook too, but sometimes they can be, well, too technical!
So, here we go...the chocolate bag is open and the computers are running...what more could we need?

Research

Or, if research sounds too hard, then - Play time.
This is how the kids learn...by being on the computer hour after hour and learning by default. (There are lots of discussions to have about this and we can have one or two of them, but for now we're just going to go with it.)

One site that we can explore is this one - TIME magazine's 50 Best Websites page.

How are we doing?

We're two weeks in and I want to know how you're all feeling about things. In all classes there is a spectrum of skill and comfort levels when learning about the internet - and all it has to offer. Think of this class as a "lab", where you can come in and experiment with some facilitation. Even though it's an eight-week class, that's really not enough time to cover everything, so we'll cover a smorgasbord of things...things you've indicated that you'd like to learn more about.

Another thing I read in the surveys is that most of you would just like to become more comfortable using the internet- and your computers. Again, hopefully that's what this class will do for you. If you don't have a Facebook page and a Blogger account by the end of class, don't worry! Not everyone will. But if you stick it out and gain a little more confidence about what you want to do and have a little more information about how to do it, then you'll be successful!

As always, if you're having some difficulties or any questions that you don't feel comfortable asking in front of the class, you can always see me before or after class. And there's always email!

You're all doing a great job! See you on Friday!