Introduction

Summary

Students are increasingly using the internet as a source of information. The internet is growing and will eventually be our major repository of scientific and other information. As well as giving high powered search facilities and rapid access to information both from home and work, the internet allows us to do things easily when they were once much more difficult. For example, on the positive side, it is possible to virtually take part in scientific expeditions to remote areas. On the negative side, because computers allow us to copy and save information by the click of a button, cheating and stealing of ideas and materials is temptingly easy. The ability to send and receive messages by email has positive and negative elements; it means that we can increase our circle of friends and acquaintances but it means we can also be exposed to unsavoury ideas and behaviours. The specific challenges are to get sufficient information without being engulfed, to search efficiently, to recognise material that is reliable and to avoid breaking the law.

The internet began as a figment of the imagination of Vannevar Bush in 1945 and the first concrete developments came in 1961 when four university computers were linked together at MIT in the USA. However, technical advances such as packet switching and an easy language code were necessary before a true internet could come to life. Packet switching, developed by Donald Davies in the UK, means that information can be broken down into small units which can be passed quickly from computer to computer via telephone lines. The language code allows ordinary people to deal with the information without needing particularly special training. This language code called hypertext mark-up language (html) was developed by Tim Berners Lee at CERN. One advantage is that words or images in one computer file can be linked to other computer files. A click on a link takes the reader to a file on a computer which could be anywhere in the world. Nicola Pellow, also at CERN, developed the first browser, which allowed readers to search the internet.