HOW TO USE INTERNET TO SOURCE READING MATERIALS

HOW TO USE INTERNET TO SOURCE READING MATERIALS
BY
M.M. YUSIF
OCTOBER, 2007
Today, the school system, especially the University sector is being faced with the fundamental challenges arising from changes in the modern world system. Accordingly, many of the University culture of learning and research must change to expose our youth to the new terrain of life in the globalized world. Even though we know that the globalization is not good for our development, but you have to know its processes before you can struggle against it or turn it for your benefit.

There are three key words for the changes which we are confronted with and which we must endeavour to understand in order to be able to come to grip with these processes of the modern world system. These words are “New Economy” founded on neo-liberal theory, globalization and Information Technology.

The availability of Information Technology today makes it easier for students to source reading materials in form of texts, documents, news and all other sorts of information for research and studies. Indeed information technology is the systematic study of techniques for making and using electronic equipment, especially computers and associated peripherals for acquiring, storage, processing and distributing information of all kinds including texts, data and images (Katende, No date).

The internet is one major development in information technology. The internet is not a new development. Although it came into widespread use in the 1990s it began in the 1960s as a network of military communications designed to reroute messages in the event of war. But, now it is commonly used more especially among students, teachers, businessmen, etc.

Internet is defined as a global network connecting billions of computers, that all work together to share information (Bashir A.M.F. 2002:9). Sometimes internet is referred as the World Wide Web (Lain Mc Lean and Alistair Mc Millan, 2003:272). However, the two are not necessary the same. While web could not exist without the internet, the internet could exist without the web. The web is simply a system of internet servers where resources known as web pages are documented using Hypertext Mark-up Language (CITAD, 2004; Bashir A.M.K. 2002)

There are five basic requirements to fix internet facilities anywhere you want it. These are:
1. A computer
2. Fax modem
3. Telephone line
4. An account with an internet service provider (ISP)
5. The right software such as internet explorer or netscape. Email software such as Outlook Express or Eudora

Since the computer is most important in this system it is worth talking a little about it. A computer is an electronic devise capable of accepting information, processing and interpreting the information as well as storing and distributing the information for use any time. Personal computers are in two forms, namely, desktops and laptops. The desktops are the one normally on table. The laptops are like a handbag. It can be used on even ones laps. Computer itself has certain basic components: Input mechanisms, storage capacities, the central processing unit and output mechanisms. All these can be further divided into the two major categories, namely, hardware and software.

To start internet is to click on the internet explorer button on the desktop computer. This will open the internet browser on the computer. Then you can search for whatever you want from the internet. There are many resources available on the internet. Some of them are E-mail, The World Wide Web; News Groups: file sharing and topic searching; chatting and conferencing etc. (For details on this see (CITAD 2004; Bashir A.M.F 2002).

References
Bashir, A.M.F. (2002) Know the Internet, Smak Business Ventures Shomolu, Lagos
CITAD. (2004) Internet Training Programme
Lain Mc Lean and Alistair Mc Millan (2003) Oxford Concise Dictionary of Politics. Oxford University Press. New York
James Katende. (No date) Understanding Information Technology.