Activity 1: The Internet and You

1. If you had to characterize your general reactions when you hear the word "internet," what would you say?

2. How would you characterize your level of internet use in the past?

3. Do you anticipate that your level of internet use will change? Why or why not?

4. How satisfied do you feel with your level of expertise in using the internet?

Activity 2: Currency Exchange (Internet Exercise)

Directions: Use the internet to find out how many Swiss francs you could get today for $10 U.S. List your steps. Did you make any mis-steps? What would you do in the future, if anything, to make such a search more efficient? Do you trust the accuracy of the answer you came up with? Why or why not?

Activity 3: Evaluating Internet Sources

1. Go on the Internet to www.google.com and perform a search for the phrase "US travel."

Part A: How many items did your search yield? List one example each of a .com, .gov, .org, and .edu site.

Part B: Go to one of the .com sites from your google search and find out the site's author or authoring institution and how recently the site was updated. Based on this information, how would you describe the site, in terms of its purpose and reliability?