Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2: The Web: Using authentic materials |
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Ana Cristina Salinas Ríos |
12/09/2011 |
Tecnología Educativa |

Chapter 2 THE WEB: USING AUTHENTIC MATERIALS

The World Wide Webconsists of a vast network of electronic `pages´ which hold information in the form of text, pictures, audio and video. The term `Internet´ actually refers to the interconnected hardware that stores andcarries the Web and other information.
Pages on the Web contain hyperlinks which point towards other web pages. If the page identified by a link no longer exists, or has been renamed or moved, theconnection fails. This is called `dead link´.
How to find materials
Finding websites
Searching efficiently, or `smart searching´, consists of knowing how to sift through the millions of accessible webpages in the fastest and most effective way to find what you and your learners need. The best way to find something on the Web is to use a search engine.
Their basic operation is very simple: youenter your search criteria in the form of words which describe the information you are searching for. The search engine produces a list of web pages whose content in some ways fits those criteria.
Eachsearch engine searches a different number of web pages and interprets the search criteria differently.
Finding multimedia
Multimedia on the Web consists of images, audio and video. Texts are the mostcommon things on the Web, with pictures coming second and audio and video following. This means that while it is often possible to find a text that exactly matches your needs, finding audio or videoclips that fit closely is not guaranteed.
Images.
When you search, instead of a list of web pages, you get a set of pictures that meet your criteria. If the results do not include what you werelooking for, try modifying your search criteria.
Audio and video
There are some audio files which you can download, save and keep.
The two most common programs used to access streaming audio and...