On this page are the assignments for Thursday of Week One. 

DEADLINES: Remember, each week I will post reading and writing assignments by Monday, 7 p.m. and Thursday, 7 p.m.

Each week, you should have the assignments that are posted Monday completed by Thursday, 7 p.m. You should have the assignments posted Thursday completed by Monday, 7 p.m.

Now that we are experienced online learners, we have numerous assignments for this day. Remember, you should have them all completed by Monday.

I wanted first to give you some very basic background about the Internet. I've digested many books and articles into some simple, brief PowerPoint-based presentations.

You won't need PowerPoint on your computer. But because PowerPoint is a Microsoft product, you won't be surprised to learn that these presentations function best with Microsoft's Explorer browser (you might be using it now anyway; or you might be using Netscape Navigator or Communicator).

If you are now in Netscape, you can give give the links below a try. If they don't work well:

* copy the URL address of this page

* open Internet Explorer (the big blue E on your desktop)

* use Explorer to open this page and take the links below.

1-History gives you a little background on the history of the Internet.

1-Structure gives you some information on how the Internet is structured.

a) Once you have read these presentations, I would like you to send me an email message that discusses the main points of the presentations. Take a screen or so and tell me what you have learned or if much of this is familiar to you. We always have a wide variety of experience -- in traditional and online classes.

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From the Grading link and our Schedule, you may recall that your first in-depth project, a "subject guide," is due next Thursday. Here are the details from the Grading link:

20% A specialized subject guide, such as those produced by www.about.com, compiled on a particular topic from our class.

Visit www.about.com and click on a subject until you get to some of the "personal guide pages." On those pages, the guide organizes about 7-8 important sites on a subject, with a link and some brief descriptions of each. It is like a web annotated bibliography.

I'd like you to use that format to compile a subject guide on a topic from our class. By that I mean, you can look down our syllabus, or the list below, and find something that interests you.

You can describe 7-8 sites on Government Research or Search Engines or Privacy or Public Records or Online Databases. You can suggest other topics too.

For a passing grade, you want to find 7-8 web sites on your topic and write a paragraph of description on each. Your description should be longer than the About samples. Strive for 5-8 sentences on each. For a superior grade, describe more sites on your topic. You will be an Internet research expert in this area!

You can write it as a Word document or an HTML document with links, if you are skilled in that kind of thing. Again, you should have at least 7-8 sites, more for a better grade. Due date is next Thursday, posted on our schedule. Possible subjects include:

• search strategies
• search engines
• subject directories
• government documents online
• public records online
• online health information
• online business information
• online music
• online sports
• newsgroups and listservs

Here's an example of a site description provided by a student:

Topic: ONLINE BUSINESS INFORMATION

Site #1: PRIMEDIA BUSINESS MAGAZINES

http://www.primediabusiness.com/

This Web site is very sophisticated in providing online business information and contains much updated information related to the business and markets in the United States. It is created by the Primedia media company of New York with the objective of connecting sellers to buyers. The web site has categorized information according to industry. Many links to different industries can be found. Those links provide information of any type related to the industry selected as well as possible business analyses describing the market situation. Other links provide more current events and related topics of interest appear, such as bond trading or short selling. One of the main objectives of the site is to assist visitors in reaching target markets and providing information on that subject.

You can see that 7-8 web sites like that will make you an expert. If you have any questions, just email me at jack.lule@lehigh.edu.

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