What is the Internet? The Internet is a vast network of computers that spans every continent and connects every city on planet Earth. It's a rich global storehouse of information--your personal "window to the world."  

You can find out about almost anything on the Internet. You're a stamp collector? Numerous places exist on the Internet to trade stamps or just chat with other stamp enthusiasts. Do you like sports? Dogs? Cooking? Are you interested in different religions? No problem. You can find whatever you need to know on the Internet. 

Sadly, the Internet has gotten a bad name in some circles. The pornographic sites have generated a lot of adverse publicity, causing people to be afraid of getting on the Net. Other people don't understand what the Internet is all about, and what we don't understand, we sometimes fear. 

I'd like to show you that the Internet is a wonderfully exciting source of information. We'll search the Net for all kinds of subjects and see what we can find. Sometimes we'll dig for knowledge, and other times we'll find some sites just for fun--like playing hangman or bingo over the Net, or going to Hillary's Hair site. If you have a topic you'd like to explore, let me know. My email address is listed below, or send a letter to the newspaper.  

Let's make it fun and educational at the same time, because that's what the Internet is. If you're hooked up to the Internet, sit at your computer and play with it. "Surf" the Web. See what you can find. I'll warn you though: the Internet is highly addictive. Believe me, I know! 

Since school is just starting, I thought it'd be appropriate to check out some of the educational sites on the Web. This is just a minute sampling of the thousands of educational sites, but it'll give you an idea of what's out there. We'll be going to sites on the World Wide Web, so the addresses I give you are Web addresses. 

The Jason Project for Education is a fabulous program where children and teachers can take part in global explorations. This is quite a site. One of their topics is spiders, so I checked to see what was available. They gave instructions on collecting spiders at night, where to look for spiders, and even a section on spiders of the world. http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/JASON/HTML/MISSION_home.html

The Educational Hotlist has many categories with loads of information. Some of the topics include: Africa, American History & Government, Animals, Art, Black History, Composition & Writing, Education/Professional Development, etc. http://sln.fi.edu/tfi/hotlists/hotlists.html 

Jon's Homeschool Resource Page is an excellent site for those of you who homeschool your children. http://www.midnightbeach.com/hs/ 

A Gallery of Interactive On-Line Geometry is the perfect math spot on the Web. Some exercises you can do there include: WebPisces, Build a Rainbow, Projective Conics, and QuasiTiler. http://www.geom.umn.edu/apps/gallery.html  

On-Line Reference Works contains a dictionary, foreign language dictionaries, a quotation book, a thesaurus, an acronym guide, etc. http://www.cs.cmu.edu/Web/references.html  

The Children's Writing Resource Center is a wonderful site for children who love to write. http://www.mindspring.com/~cbi/ 

The Internet Public Library is your library on the Web. http://www.ipl.org/ 

The Education World (tm) Search Engine is your one-stop site to find just about anything in education on the Web. Under the Social Sciences General Resources, I found such topics as Anthropology, Archaeology, Economics, Law, Native American Culture, and Psychology. http://www.education-world.com/  

Paradigm Works is a new resource for teachers, parents, and students. It contains over 450 links to Web resources on the Net. http://wco.com/~linnins/paradigm.htm  

Try out these sites. If you're hooked up through Prodigy or AOL, go to their Web Browser and type in the "http" address listed. If you're hooked up through a service like Netcom or Internet Doorway, run Netscape and type in the address there. But have fun. Enjoy the Net!  

If you have any questions, let me know. 

Robin Nobles is a freelance writer who can be reached at robinnobles@robinsnest.com.

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