Contact LR/RI

Current Bulletin

Bulletin Archive

Inquiry Projects

LR/RI homepage

Swearer Center homepage
Internet 101 laptop computer on a desk


This page is designed to help new internet users become more familiar with both internet and email resources.

What's on the web?

The World Wide Web enables computer users to share information easily by using hypertext, which creates hypertext links. By clicking your mouse on these hypertext links, you access a document related to the topic being discussed, whether it be what's on in Providence, information on the White House, or access to the Media Literacy Online Project. To travel back to where you started from, you can click on the Back button at the top left corner of your screen. 

How can I find it?

A search engine helps you locate information when you don't know the web address (URL) for a web site.  Google.com is a really useful search engine.  AltaVista and Yahoo are other popular search engines and will often link you to yet other search engines if you can't find what you're looking for.  The Beaufort Library at the University of South Carolina has a search engine 101/tutorial on its site, if you'd like to learn more about using search engines.  You type in the word or words you're looking for and the search engine scans information on the web to give you websites that contain the information you've requested.

Many search engines also provide directories - pages where they've begun to organize information into different categories.

Google's adult ed directory is one example of a subset of a larger directory; Yahoo's adult ed literacy directory page looks like this;TeAch-nology.com's, like this.

for example:

Links to other websites appear on many of LR/RI's content pages, and LR/RI's links page includes a series of links to websites containing information categorized around literacy, community and other concerns - divided up into several categories, both directly and indirectly related to literacy. Look around, find links that look interesting, and start exploring.

LR/RI also has a technology and learning page which includes questions and issues about using technology as well as online technology and education resources.

Literacy Links 

These links connect you to other literacy-related sites. Many of these pages also link to other language and literacy sites. If you get lost, just use the Back button until you're in familiar territory.  FUNDRAISING LINKS

Links to Interesting sites

These links will bring you to sites that may have no explicit connection to literacy, but can give you a sense of the wide range of information available on the internet. You can also find a yellow pages-style directory of Internet resources at Yahoo!  or Google.com, which can be browsed by category or searched by specific words or phrases. Netscape's search engine page also gives you access to the ever growing number of search engines available on line. Susan Gaer provides information on searching the internet from her Email Projects Page, and the Internet Public Library also presents links to a number of useful search engines. Snap.com, and Ask Jeeves,  and Ask Jeeves in Spanish (additional search engines), are also useful resources.

LEGISLATION

  • Rhode Island Secretary of State's Public Information Kiosk: Track legislation, identify your legislators, learn what's happening at the State House. For more on advocacy and connections to national activity go to LR/RI's advocacy page.

    •  
  • Fed Stats: Over 70 agencies in the US Federal Government produce statistics of interest to the public. The Federal Interagency Council on Statistical Policy maintains this site to provide easy access to the full range of statistics and information produced by these agencies for public use.
COMMUNITY, PEOPLE, WORK



MUSING

Cyber-swimming to the Philippines: Stories About Computers - From a keynote address given by David Rosen at the Tenth Annual Computers in Adult Literacy Conference Sponsored by the Mayor's Commission on Literacy Philadelphia, PA, May 12,1998. The ALRI site also contains numerous links to internet resources.

INTERNET RESOURCES

These sites guide you through using the internet or finding materials online:

LIST SERVS
    A list serv is a form of email which allows you to communicate to a large number of people at one time. (Listservs have also been referred to as discussion groups). People send (or post) messages to an email address where everyone else who has subscribed to the list can read the messages and respond, either to the entire list to the indiviual who posted the message. 

    http://www.coollist.com - list hosting sofrware

    The National Institute for Literacy maintains a number of lists, which are also archived on line so that you can read them (and/or subscribe that interest you). Even if you don't have access to the world wide web, if you can access email, list servs are one way to keep up with current discussions around topics of interest. 

    National Institute for Literacy - Discussion lists  - instructions for subscribing, as well as archived cllections of messages. (another entry to this site is at http://www.nifl.gov/lincs/discussions/discussions.html).  You can read the postings from this website, or subcsribe to the list[s] you like and receive the messages as email to your inbox. 

    The National Adult Literacy Database also lists a range of literacy discussion groups relevant to adult learning and teaching. 

    Build-Com is a listserv established in Philadelphia by the Institute for the Study of Civic Values on Philadelphia's LibertyNet to build a national network of people active in community organizations, human service agencies, the private sector, and government sharing ideas and information on how we can strengthen neighborhoods and encourage  civic engagement throughout the country. It is the email list associated with Neighborhoods Online: National. 

    netiquette

    List servs focus on different topics (using technology, ESOL learning and teaching, women's issues, for example).  They all share some basic groundrules, or netiquette --  expectations of users' online behavior. David Rosen, moderator of the National Literacy Advocacy list [note recent change of host] has posted one such example of that list's guidelines. Mary Ann Florez, moderator of the NIFL ESL list recently posted this message, that provides useful guidelines to anyone sending a message to a public list: 

    Dear NIFL-ESL Members:

    I am happy to report that NIFL-ESL currently has a healthy membership of 866, making it the largest of NIFL's discussion lists.  That's a strong testament to the interest and collaborative spirit of people involved in adult ESL language and literacy instruction.

    Let's keep that spirit going.  To do that, we all have to do two things:be vigilant in posting messages that relate to adult ESL (issues, populations, etc.) and that are of likely interest to a wide cross-section of practitioners in the field; and be thoughtful and constructive in responding (online or off) to messages that our colleagues post. 

    Remember that there is generally a difference in the content and tone of messages that you would send to a personal distribution list of 20 or so good friends and those you would send to a list of 866 professionals around the world, most of whom you have never met and probably never will meet.  Also, realize that people do hit buttons they don't mean to hit and write sentences that need gestures, facial expressions, or tones of voice to support or even clarify their intended meaning.  Finally, when responding to a post where the intended meaning is clear but isn't positive, consider your response and if it warrants sharing with the entire list or only with the individual sender.

    This list is a vibrant and rich resource to everyone in the field.
    Let's help it continue that way!

    Thanks.
    MaryAnn Florez, NIFL-ESL Moderator

    Darlene Garcia, a member of VALUE, sent a useful message about list discussions, too, to the VALUE list on July 9, 2001:

    I feel it is ok also for a heated discussion and if people need clarification on what others are asking or saying they need not judge them just ask another questions if your not sure what the person is talking about. VALUE Listserve is a place where people should feel safe to  discuss anything that they would like to get more knowledge on,which can mean to some arguing.It is so important to me that voices of others not be judged on how or what they are asking or saying in e-mails,but instead VALUE Listserv needs to allow others to engage in the conversation and feel safe. VOICE to me is a big part of leadership. 

    Darlene Garcia
    <DGarcia@aclibrary.org>
    Alameda County  Write to Read  510 745-1493
    "VALUE"  COMMUNICATION COMMITTEE 


FREE INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS - links to ompilations of free ISP's, through a google search

FREE EMAIL

Some of us are gaining access to the World Wide Web through public sites - libraries, universities, even internet cafes - but still don't have individual access to personal email accounts. George J. Jerry has made this following information available through a listserv for people working with children's museums. The information is useful to everyone, and is posted here with his permission. 

Most free e-mail accounts require one ISP web account (internet service provider eg. America Online). I call this primary account the on-ramp account. The on-ramp account is the taxi by which all the multiple e-mail account users travel to their free e-mail. Who provides free e-mail and what's in it for them? There are a number of free e-mail providers listed below. Free e-mail providers get revenue mostly from banner advertisers that display advertising to free e-mail users during the mail reading/writing process.

Here's my list of free e-mail providers: 
http://www.hotmail.com/
http://www.mailcity.com/
http://www.netaddress.usa.net/
http://www.softhome.net/ 
http://www.supernews.com/
http://www.myownemail.com/
http://www.yahoo.com/

The following free e-mail service provider does not require an ISP on-ramp account. If you live in the USA and are a toll free call from 40 major metro points the call and the account is free, otherwise it will cost phone toll charges. This service provider is "Juno" an ISP owned by the United Methodist Church. The address is http://www.juno.com/(Sorry, you'll need a web account to get the initial information and instructions on how to get their software but after that it's all free).

Another rich source of free e-mail are freenets. A freenet is a community based and community supported ISP. Freenets are much like local public radio and tv organizations, replace radio/tv with computer communications and you've pretty much got the idea. There are literally hundreds of freenets around the world. One nice fact about freenet e-mail, you don't have to walk your eyeballs through a gauntlet of banner advertising. 

SPAM - Spam is junkmail that can clutter your email inbox.  It can also carry computer viruses.  Be sure to have a good anti virus program (McAfee, Symantec, for example)/  Never open an email message if you don't know the sender and NEVER ever open an attachment if you don't know and trust the sender. (to learn more about SPAM, check these resources from a google search for Spam 101).

EMAIL and INTERNET PROVIDERS - FEE FOR SERVICE

More and more people are looking into setting up their own email accounts. America Online, Compuserve (which is now owned by AOL),  Earthlink and Prodigy are popular providers. If you have a recommendation to add - an email/internet provider that you like, please let us know. 

    Creating a list, finding lists: Free E-Mail List Hosting and Archiving - To learn about setting up your own email list, or about list archiving and Web-based reading, The FindMail archive provides an easy-to-use interface for reading lists on the Web. Users can view individual messages, post replies, view discussion threads, view author profiles, and more. 

    For more information, please contact LR/RI


    LR/RI home

    last updated April 15, 2005