Introduction to the World Wide Web for Music Education Majors

Kimberly C. Walls

Nov. 4, 1997

Distance learning technologies have revolutionized our society since the invention of the telegraph and the radio, and they promise to continue changing us through the Internet and interactive TV. The technologies can be beneficial educationally, and they can waste immense amounts of time. The Internet provides lots of music education information for free if you know how to find it. The net also makes it possible to stay in touch with others and even make music together although the musicians are in different locations. Although the net is becoming easier and cheaper to use, we must be careful to insure that everybody in our society can have access to the information.

A Few Things You Can Do with the World Wide Web

How the World Wide Web works

Servers

Servers are computers which constantly run an HTTPD (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Daemon) program that sends HTML files and the files linked to HTML files across the Internet. The servers send files upon request from another computer's browser program.

Browsers

Browsers are programs that request HTML files (and their linked files) from Internet HTTPD servers. Popular browsers include Netscape, Internet Explorer, and Mosaic. When a person wishes to view a file from the Internet, the browser looks for the correct server and requests the file. If all goes well, the server sends the information to the computer that is running the browser. The browser then translates the tags in the HTML files according to guidelines preset in the browser program (parsing) and displays the results. Since each browser may be set up differently, (for example, to use a certain font for a certain type of link) an HTML file will not always be displayed identically.

How to use a browser

Colors and underlining Words which are underlined are "hot." Click once on underlined words to follow the link.
Images Many graphics are "hot." If the cursor changes shape from an arrow to a hand when it over an image, you may click the image to follow a link.
Status indicator
and the status message field Watch these to see if the file has finished loading. To avoid crashes, do not click on anything else until the stars stop moving in the status indicator and the status message field says "Done." You may click the stop button to stop loading.
The location field

This is where you type a URL followed by the return key to see that page. The field also displays the URL of the currently loaded page.
Menu Items

The View Document Source menu item (under View) will display the html code that is being used to create the current display.
The Save As... menu item (under File) will allow you to save the text or the source code of the currently displayed page.
The Add Bookmark menu item (under Bookmarks) is used to save the URL of the currently displayed page. Saved bookmarks are listed beneath the item. Highlight a saved bookmark to "go" to that location.

Toolbar buttons

Use these to navigate.

How to do an Internet search

Go to a search engine
Try this one: http://search.auburn.edu
Click in the search field and type terms
Click in any applicable boxes
Click the search button

URLs

URLs (Uniform Resource Locator) are addresses of information available on the Internet. Requests for Internet information are initiated by looking for a URL.

The first part of the URL indicates the type of server. A request for information from a HTTPD server begins with http://. A request for information from a Gopher server begins with gopher://. A request for information from an FTP server begins with ftp://. A request for information from a WAIS server begins with wais://. A Telnet session is requested with telnet:// and a TN3270 session is requested with tn3270://

The next part of the URL denotes which computer runs the server. For example, the URL http://www.auburn.edu requests information from the HTTPD server program on the computer (host) named www.auburn.edu.

The third portion of an URL denotes the name of the file requested. The URL http://www.auburn.edu /~wallski/index.html requests a file named index.html in the ~wallski directory on the computer www.auburn.edu from its HTTPD server.

Plugins and Helper Applications

Most browsers are capable of displaying the marked-up text and still images described in html files. Plugins and helper applications may be necessary to play sound files, MIDI files, movies, or animations. They may also be used for interactive communication. Plugins are small programs that add to a browser the ability to play other media. Helper applications are separate programs that the browser automatically starts so that the media may be played.

HTML

HTML is an acronym for Hypertext Markup Language. HTML files are plain text (ASCII) files that have been "marked up" with"tags" which indicate text formatting and sections of documents (title, paragraph, listing, etc.) HTML tags also denote "links" to other media files such as text, graphics, sound, MIDI, digital video, or programs.