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March 1, 2000
Technology Tidbits #3
by Helen DeWitt
Some of you might be interested in some tidbits about Internet history. Here is a timeline that highlights some of the events that led up to the development of what we know today as the Internet.
Internet Timeline
1957 Russia launches Sputnik. The United States establishes the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) to help it lead in science and technology applications for the military.
1968 The physical network for ARPANET links four nodes: The University of California at Los Angeles, SRI in Stanford, the University of California at Santa Barbara, and the University of Utah.
1969 ARPANET begins research in computer networking. The technical communications standard, Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) is created and is still used by the Internet today.
1972 Twenty-three computers are connected to the early Internet.
1973 The first electronic mail (e-mail) program is created to send messages across the network. E-mail is the first official Internet communications tool.
1981 The National Science Foundation creates a network backbone for institutions of higher learning that do not have access to ARPANET.
1983 Desktop computers become widely available to the public. (There are about 500 Internet computers.)
1986 The National Science Foundation creates a new part of the ARPANET. This allows for the nongovernmental use of the Internet. The first private citizens begin to hook up to the ARPANET. (There are between 5,000 and 10,000 Internet users. The first K-12 schools in the United States connect to the system, mostly to use e-mail.)
1990 The ARPANET research project ends. Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is invented. The network is now officially referred to as the Internet.
1991 The World Wide Web (WWW) is created. The first audio and video transmissions occur. (The number of computers connected to the Internet reaches a little more than 500,000.)
1993 Mosaic, the first graphical Web browser, is released by the University of Illinois. (The number of computers connected to the Internet reaches 2 million.)
1994 Shopping malls, advertising, and mass marketing begin to use the Internet. (The number of Internet users reaches 4 million.)
1996 Most Internet traffic is carried by independent Internet Service Providers (ISPs) such as MCI, AT&T, and Sprint.
1998 The growth and changes continue at an amazing speed.
E-mail in the Schools
During the mid-eighties, the first K-12 schools in the United States connected to the Internet system mostly to use e-mail. Today, e-mail is still a very common communication tool for those schools. Here are a few tidbits about e-mail in the school setting.
The different parts of an e-mail address:
helen-dewitt@k111.k12.il.us
- The account name or user identification (helen-dewitt).
- The "at" symbol (@), which separates the first part of the e-mail address from the second part.
- The name of the Internet computer that handles the person's e-mail. My account is on Kankakee School District's server (k111.k12.il.us).
The anatomy of any e-mail message:
TO: Type in the recipient's e-mail address here.
FROM: Your e-mail address will be here.
SUBJECT: Type a short subject title here.
CC: "Carbon Copy." Put the e-mail address(es) here of any other recipient(s) (this is seen by others).
BCC: "Blind Carbon Copy." Put the e-mail address(es) here of any other recipient(s) (this is not seen by others).
ATTACHMENTS: This allows you to attach files, pictures, and so on.
BODY: This is where you write the message.
SEND: Click on this to send the message.
The following is an e-mail message trick to use if your e-mail program does not have a spelling checker or if your message is something you already have written in you word processor.
- Write the message with your word processor.
- Check the spelling.
- Click on Edit, Select All.
- Click on Edit, Copy.
- Go to your e-mail program. Fill in all the necessary parts (i.e., TO, SUBJECT, etc.).
- Click once in the body of the message.
- Click on Edit, Paste (your message will appear just as you typed it).
- Click on SEND.
Once students and teachers understand the basic parts of e-mail, they are ready to use it as a writing or communication tool. Here are few positive reasons to use e-mail in the classroom.
- It seems to enhance the writing process for students involved in global projects.
- It seems to get the students thinking about their audiences and cultural diversity when sending writings to another country or even across the state.
- It is a way to learn firsthand about other schools and cultures.
- It is a way to get up-to-date information from experts in any field of study.
- It is a way to level the playing field for all students. On the Internet, your students' ideas and how they express themselves are what matter, not their color, race, or physical ability.
- It enables teachers to share strategies worldwide.
- It enables teachers to share success stories.
Useful Links
If you are interested in having your students communicate with an expert in a variety of areas, try Ask an Expert. If you are interested in having your students communicate with another classroom as keypals, try EPals Classroom Exchange or Internet Keypal Exchanges. If you are interested in finding e-mail-based online projects, try Global Schoolhouse.
Many schools do not allow students to have their own e-mail accounts, so keypal exchanges are often done through teacher accounts. The teacher should always screen all classroom e-mail exchanges before sending them. Some teachers find that it is easier to manage a one-classroom message exchange instead of individual messages by each student. Once communication is established between global classrooms, shared-classroom activities in math, language arts, and so on are sure to follow.
Email: Helen DeWitt
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