Nowadays, many institutions of higher education in North America, Europe, Australia, and Japan are connected to the Internet, and some are connected in almost every country. About two thirds of the host computers connected to the Internet are located in the United States, over four percent in the United Kingdom, about four percent each in Germany and Japan, less than four percent each in Canada and Australia in 1995. Thus, about eighty percent of the host computers are located in four English-speaking countries. It is said that more than eighty-five percent of the information on the Internet is in English.
The Internet is becoming important in education. In addition to universities, some secondary schools and elementary schools in advanced countries are also connected to the Internet as well. In the future, more and more schools will be connected. Thus many teachers, researchers, and students use the Internet for research, teaching, administration, and learning, and more and more will do so in the future. Before many more years have passed, almost everyone will use the Internet for these purposes in schools in advanced countries and quite large numbers of people in developing countries will also do so within the next several years.
Thus, if you have an access to use a computer terminal (either PC or UNIX) which is connected to the Internet, you can communicate with people on the 15,000,000 terminals, that is, 100,000,000 people, 200,000,000 people, or even more. Most universities in advanced countries have computer terminals connected to the Internet.*1 You can contact most people connected with universities in the United States, Britain, and Australia by e-mail. If you want to use the Internet at school, you need to get an ID and a password to use e-mail*2, or you may need to use the computers there. Most commercial networks are connected with the Internet, and if you get an ID on those networks, you can use the Internet, though you have to pay for using it and pay for use of the telephone to connect to it.
In summary, the Internet is a network of computer networks. All computers on the Internet are connected and share information. (of course, whatever open to the users) We can share our information and use other people's information. We can work together using the same information on the Internet. It is very fast to transmit information on it. There is vast amount of information. Information is stored by individual people, organizations, schools, etc., and not at the central place. New information is added and deleted all the time. We can use e-mail, the World Wide Web (WWW), FTP to obtain files from other computers, TELNET to use others computers as if our computers, the Internet phone like a telephone with a TV screen, a video conference, etc. The Internet is on the process of development, and it is changing now. It is designed to make information to the public, and it is not good for keep privacy. Thus, anything on the Internet could be misused by other people. We strongly discourage you to scatter information, which you do not other people know, such as your credit card information and information with some privacy.
In some cases, users are charged according to how much time they spend on line. In this case, you need to learn how to use the Internet efficiently. You can, for example, write messages on a word processing program and then upload them to the e-mail program instead of writing on line. However, surfing the World Wide Web (WWW), can take a long time.
If you are using the Internet over a telephone line, you need to pay for the local or long-distance calls. Local calls are charged by time in Japan, and if you are using the Internet for a long time, the telephone charges will add up.
Therefore, if you can use the Internet free at school, that is the place you should do time-consuming work. Checking e-mail or uploading e-mail messages you have already written does not take much time, and it would probably not be very expensive even if you have to pay the charges. However, looking for web sites may consume a lot of time. As you become more skillful, you will spend less time on the Internet and avoid wasting time. You will learn how to do more work less expensively.
Using the Internet, you can send e-mail (electronic mail) to anyone who is connected to it. You can send/receive letters, drawings or photos, sound and even video, if your computer has such capabilities.*3
E-mail is as fast as a telephone call, and it is free if you have access to a university computer. You can reach people all over the world. Even if the receiver is not there, the message will stay there until the receiver checks the e-mail, so in that sense, it is like a fax. Even if there are many pieces of e-mail, subject lines and the senders' names appear on the screen, so that the receiver can pick out the important ones. In this sense, e-mail is more convenient than a fax.
E-mail messages are usually text-only files, like the text-only files of your word processor. You can read it, save it in the computer, download it to the hard disk of the PC or a floppy disk, or erase it. You can forward e-mail very easily and quickly to a third person using the forwarding function. You can reply easily by using the return function. You do not need to address an envelope, put on a postage stamp, and take it to the post office. You can use the original e-mail message you received and edit it, respond to parts of it, delete the unnecessary parts and then send it. For example, if someone asks five questions, you can insert your answer right after each question and send the message back.
When you send an e-mail message, you enter the receiver's address, type in the message, and send it. You can keep a copy of the message for yourself, if you wish. You can write a letter on your word processor and upload that file and send it. For a longer letter, this is easier.
E-mail is very convenient when you are collaborating on a paper with someone who lives in another city or even another country. One person writes part of the paper and sends it the collaborator. The collaborator reads it, and puts comments or even changes parts of it and sends it back. The collaborators can easily do this many times, no matter how far apart they live.
Another advantage of e-mail is that you can use "alias" to send your e-mail messages to a number of people at the same time. You have to list the e-mail addresses of the people you want to send messages to, and then you can send them all the same mail at the same time. This is convenient when you want to send out announcements and newsletters. For example, Kenji used to send a newsletter out once or twice a month by just typing the word "friends" instead of addressing many envelopes.
You can use short forms of the addresses that you use often, so you do not need to type in a long e-mail address each time. This function and the return function make it easy to send e-mail.
If you often send the same letter or a part of the letter, you can save these as files and store them in the computer, and when you need them, you can just insert it and form the letter quickly. If people often ask you for the same information, you can use a file which you have already prepared, and you can send it using the return function.
You can send fairly large documents with photos, sound or even video. You can send them to any e-mail address connected with the Internet or Bitnet (another international computer network). That is free, in principle.
As we have explained, you can send e-mail without addressing envelopes and carrying them to the post office. You can send a fairly large file easily. You can edit other people's e-mail and use it to forward or answer. You can keep a copy, and you do not have to pay for postage or telephone bills if you are using your school computer terminal. Since e-mail is an electronic file, it does not take much space like ordinary letters or fax.
There are, however, some dangers, disadvantages, and limitations of e-mail.
If the person you are writing to does not check their mailbox regularly, your message might wait in their box for a long time. Even some people who have e-mail addresses may not read their e-mail regularly.
It is easy to erase e-mail by mistake. Even if you save it or download it, it is easy to misplace it, and you may not be able to find it when you need it.
It is very possible to send or forward e-mail to a wrong address, and you do not know it until the problem occurs. Once you send it, you cannot get it back. If you are using alias, you need to check the list each time you use it. Otherwise you may send e-mail to the wrong people.
It is possible to make mistakes in writing e-mail, so you need to be careful. If you use the insert functions, you may insert the wrong file. Since you proofread on the screen, you may miss some mistakes. For a long e-mail message, especially if it is an important one, it is better to write it with a word processor, print it out and proofread it, and then upload the file and send it.
If someone finds out what your password is, they can use your e-mail address from all over the world. You need to be very careful with your password. You need to change it frequently to secure your address.
In addition to your own use, e-mail can be a very powerful tool for your students. Some teachers have used it for pen-pal projects with great success. If you are interested in this type of projects, see Keypal Opportunities for Students (http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/www/keypal.htm)
E-mail addresses may look like this:
B. Discussion Lists
There are many discussion lists (sometimes called mailing lists or just lists). Each list connects a group of people who have the similar interests. Thus each list has its own purpose, scope, and potential subscribers. They are usually free to join (subscribe to). From a central computer, anything members send to the list is distributed to all other members. People send questions, opinions, announcements, responses, and other information of interest to members to the list.
Thus, if you subscribe to a list, you do not need to send e-mail to all members individually, and you do not have to set alias to do so. You can exchange information, ask for information or suggestions, give your ideas, and help other members. There are many lists. Some are small and have only 100-200 members, and they may be very informal. Others may be very large and have more than 1,000 or even 10,000 members, and they are more formal. Each list has its own rules, and you need to learn and follow them.
If you actively participate in discussions, you will get a quite lot out of those lists. People will answer your questions and respond to your opinions or information you give. You can gather fairly large amount of useful information. The largest list related to English language teaching is TESL-L (http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/list/lis-tesl.htm), which has about 12,000 subscribers and eight branches.*4 Some lists allow you to conduct your surveys or projects. Some lists help you find pen-pals for yourself or your students.*5
There are also lists for students of English. Students can subscribe to those lists, and they can communicate with other students. They can discuss their interests, do their own cross cultural studies, etc.*6
If you would like to use mailing lists for studying, research or teaching in the fields of TESL/TEFL, linguistics, or communication, we suggest that you read "Using 'Useful Mailing Lists for TEFL/TESL, Linguistics, and Communication'" (http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/list/kitao/int-mail.htm), and if you are not familiar with mailing lists, we strongly advise you to read "Lists (Mailing Lists)" (http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/internet/art-list.htm) before you try to use mailing lists we provide in this web resource. You will save much time and energy.
C. the World Wide Web
The World Wide Web (WWW or web) is the vast database on the Internet. All files are made with HTML files, which have some tags to be read with a browser. They are multimedia and have texts, sounds, pictures, maps, videos, etc. You can use (see and/or hear) them with a browser, such as Netscape and Internet Explorer. They are hyper linked, you click the highlighted texts or images, and you can jump to the related files all over the Internet. They are interactive, and you can send e-mail to the person who made the web page, fill in the forms, write in the web pages, etc. You may take a test on the web and get the results immediately after you finish it on the same web page. They are easy to make for even non-professional people, and we can make newsletters, journals, announcement boards, resource centers on the Internet for all people on the Internet. If you are skillful, you can make even very artistic web pages. It is not exerating to say that you can do anything on the web. Therefore, web resources are stored by individual people, schools, organizations, etc. all around the world. You can search information using the search engines, or surfing on the net, that is clicking linked pages.
. Since web pages are getting more and more useful, and more and more resources are available through the World Wide Web. Many newsletters on the mailing lists are on the web now. Many mailing lists use the web to read the postings, or sending commands, or reading archived messages. Many resources we had to obtain with FTP or TELNET are available on the web. We assume that more and more people will use the web instead of mailing lists, or other complex functions of the Internet in the future.
We explain the web in more detail in "World Wide Web" (http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/internet/art-www.htm).
D. Using Distant Computers as Your Own Computer (TELNET and FTP)
a. TELNET
The Internet makes possible to use computers far away
from the user. Through my e-mail account at Lancaster University, I could read
e-mail at his Doshisha address. I could send e-mail from my Doshisha address,
too. If I could use someone's Internet account, I can connect to my account at
Doshisha University, and I can read and send e-mail as if I were there. As long
as you get authorization, you can use computers which are connected to the
Internet.
One of the most useful ways to use this capability is to use the computer in a distant library to search their computer catalogue. You can connect to computers of many major libraries in the world. Using the gateway "niss.ac.uk", you can search computer catalogues of almost all British university libraries. You can search for books in the Library of Congress or University of California Libraries in the United States. As long as libraries make their computers available to the public, you can connect to them and search their catalogues. You can find information about how to get access to these resources at "Search Services" (http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/other/search.htm) and "Internet Gateway: Using niss.ac.uk" (http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/other/niss.htm).
b. FTP
Using the ftp function, you can send or receive large files
to or from distant computers. This makes it easy to transfer letters or
documents from one place to the other. If, for example, we put our papers in the
computer at Doshisha University, wherever we go anywhere in the world, we can
get them through the Internet. Some libraries have literary and non-literary
texts available on the Internet. You can download those texts. In this way, you
can obtain many literary texts by famous writers. Even if you use a commercial
provider of the Internet, it usually costs less than international telephone
bills.
In theory, the Internet connects computers, and you can use any computer in the world through the Internet, if you have permission to do so.
The web is getting more and more common these days, and you can do a great many things on web pages that previously had to be done using telnet or ftp. For example, many libraries have web pages where you can search for books. You do not need to use telnet any more. Many texts are also on the web, and you can easily read them and download them without ftp. You can download many types of software from the web pages, too.
E. Other Uses
You can do other things using the Internet. You can make a phone call, if you have the right equipment. It is like a TV phone, and you can see the person you are talking with. It is free to make a call, since it uses Internet lines. You can do video conferencing. You can read news from news groups, which is very similar to mailing lists. In this case, you do not receive e-mail, but you have to read news at a certain place. Since the Internet is still being developed, you will be able to do more in the future. However, the Internet is not almighty and has some disadvantages that you should be aware of. The worst is security. Everything on the Internet could be seen or read by other people, and you should not send any information which other people should not read.
a. many resources
The Internet is like a huge library, and no one knows how large it is. If you visit a library and walk around, you know roughly how many books are there for certain fields. If you investigate, you will know what kinds of resources and services are available there. However, it is difficult to count the resources available through the Internet. It is a much, much larger library than any library in the world. More information are added every day. Most resources and information on the Internet are free to the users. It can be a great help to you in your research and learning.
b. multimedia
The Internet allows the use of multiple media and can provide not only texts, but also photos, sound, and videos. More and more advanced technology is used to create better resources. However, you do need the necessary software to use them. c. discentralized
Internet resources are created and maintained by individuals or groups of people, and they are independent. That means that only those people are checking information and finding errors. There may be similar resources, or even contradictory resources, or outdated and inaccurate resources. No one is organizing the Internet resources, and they are not coordinated. Thus, you may not find resources, or you may find they have incorrect information or are outdated. It is your responsibility to evaluate each resource on the Internet.
d. world wide
All resources are scattered around the world. People around the world can use them wherever resources are or those people are as if they are at the same place.
e. very fast access
Anyone can use the same resources within a few seconds no matter where they are. There is not much time difference for accessing resources.
Some world wide web sites are used to search for information, such as mailing lists or web pages related to a particular topic or a particular list or web page. In addition, you can search ERIC documents and other academic resources through the Internet. If you use world wide web sites and lists, you can find a great deal of useful information.
There are many commercial search services. If you are eligible to use them (for example, if your university is subscribed to them), you can usually use them through the Internet. At Lancaster University, you can use the library catalogue from any computer terminal on campus or from any computer with telnet in the world. If you get authorization, you can use "Bids", "WorldCat", and "ERIC". Through those services, you can find books, journal articles, and microfiches for your research and study. They are free for Lancaster University students.
b. obtaining information
There is a wide variety of types of information available on the Internet. Many of them are useful for research and teaching. Some sites have teaching materials. You can read them or download them to either use directly in your classes or as the basis for class activities you make. There is also a great deal of information on the Internet that can be used as background information for you to use in reading passages, etc. In many cases, if you have a question, you can send an e-mail message and often get an answer fairly quickly.
Many World Wide Web sites post useful information, announcements, papers, publications, etc. You can subscribe to electronic journals and newsletters, such as TESLEJ-L. Once you register, you will automatically receive a copy when they issue a new number. You can read The Internet TESL Journal (http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/) on the World Wide Web. Of course you can submit your manuscript to them through the Internet.
There are some useful lists or web sites to give the most recent information on new lists, web sites, or any other Internet information.*7
Some lists have archives, and they keep some or all of their previous discussions there. You can download them and read previous discussions and find old announcements and information distributed to subscribers. In addition, some lists have useful materials in their archives, such as papers, information about publications, teaching materials, and information about professional organizations. You can download such information any time for your use.*8
You can read or download many articles of newspapers, magazines, and transcripts of TV news reports. Through "Lexis/Nexis," you can search many, many newspapers from throughout the world as well as some transcripts of TV news programs. You can learn more about it if you read " Lexis-Nexis (Worldwide Database of Newspapers, Wire Services, and Broadcasting Transcripts)" (http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/other/nexis.htm) Now you can read most newspapers free on the Internet, as you see "News Sources" (http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/www/referenc.htm#mass). However, there are not many TV news scripts and back issues of newspapers on the Internet.
There are also a vast number of resources on the gopher and the World Wide Web (WWW). You can search those resources using key words, titles, or authors. There are many search engines, and we suggest that you use AltaVista (http://altavista.digital.com/) for searching, since it is the most powerful searching engine we know of.
It is also possible to use WWW pages to search for the e-mail addresses of individuals. Two such web pages are WhoWhere? (http://www.whowhere.com/) and Mythos White Pages (http://www.mythos.com/users/james/whiteadv.html). At these web sites, you can search for a person's e-mail address using their name and can narrow down the search using other information about where they live, the institution they work for, etc.
If you are not familiar with WWW, we suggest that you read "World Wide Web (WWW)" (http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/internet/art-www.htm), and see "Useful World Wide Web (WWW) Sites" to look for whatever you need. We have compiled huge number of gopher and WWW resources for you. In order to use them effectively, please read " Using the World Wide Web" (http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/www/kitao/int-www.htm) first, which will help save you time and energy.
c. consulting with professionals
Using mailing lists, you can consult with professional people and experts. If you ask clear questions, you may obtain information within 24 hours. Particularly, if you ask for resources, you have a fairly good chance of having someone tell you where to find them. Mailing lists are very good information sources, and they are the best places to ask experts.
There are many language related mailing lists. Useful Mailing Lists for TEFL/TESL, Linguistics, and Communication list many mailing lists. Please read "Using "Useful Mailing Lists for TEFL/TESL, Linguistics, and Communication" before you use them. Probably Useful Lists for TEFL/TESL (http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/list/lis-tefl.htm) is the most useful web page for ELT.
As you can see from this brief summary, there are a great many resources on the Internet. This vast number of resources is both the great advantage and the great disadvantage of the Internet. It is an advantage, because it makes it more likely that there is useful information for you, but it also can make it difficult to find that information. In addition, there is little organization on the Internet. Individuals and institutions put up their own web pages, but there is no centralized index, so it is often difficult to find the material that you want. You may waste a great deal of time just looking for resources and still miss many important ones. In an effort to help scholars and teachers in linguistics, TESL/TEFL, and communication, we have compiled " On-Line Resources and Journals: ELT, Linguistics, and Communication" (http://www.ling.lancs.ac.uk/staff/visitors/kenji/onlin.htm). It has information about how to use the Internet as well as lists of a huge number of resources of various types.
Kitao, K., & Kitao, S. K. (1995). On-line resources and journals related to ELT. Unpublished paper. Lancaster: Department of Linguistics at Lancaster University.
White, P. (1994). Using the Internet. TESLEJ-L, 1(1), pp. 1-11.
Riedmiller, T., & Teaman, B. (1994). Outline for a beginning email workshop. Email workshop in Tesl-l.
Robb, T., & Tillyer, A. (1994). Electronically yours: Cross-cultural communication through e-mail penpals. Penpal advice in Tesl-l.
Tillyer, D. (1993). World peace and natural writing through email. Penpals article in Tesl-l.
Warschauer, M., Roberts, B., and Van Doren, F. L. (1994). Email projects in Tesl-l.
*2 Each user of the Internet has his/her own address, which other people can identify. If someone uses your address and does something wrong, you are responsible for it. You should not let other people use your ID (e-mail address and password), and you should keep your password safe.
If you are using the ID and password for school computers and/or the Internet, you are responsible for them. If someone else uses them, you are assumed to have done so.
*3 Sending sound and video is technically difficult, and sending photos may take much time and may cause trouble if you have little disk space. Sending one byte letters such as English letters is the easiest, and you need to check what capabilities your computer has before you send/receive anything else. At Lancaster University, it is not easy to send anything except English letters (1 byte letters and numbers) and small photos.
*4 TESL-L ( listserv@cunyvm.cuny.edu )
The following are eight branches of TESL-L.
*6 The Student Lists were established in February 1994 to provide a forum for cross-cultural discussion and writing practice for college and university students in English language programs around the world. There are nine student lists:
The Internet TESL Journal ( http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/ ) The best World Wide Web site for searching for general mailing lists is " Liszt Directory of E-Mail Discussion Groups " (http://www.liszt.com) and lists related to languages or linguistics is "Lists of Language Lists" (http://info.ox.ac.uk/departments/langcentre/langlists.html ).
*8 TESL-L ( listserv@cunyvm.cuny.edu ) and LINGUIST (listserv@linguist.ldc.upenn.edu) have huge archives.
If you find any problems, let me know.