PENNY INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE,

COKER COMPOUND, ORILE-IGANMU, LAGOS.

NOTE OF LESSON
ON

COMPUTER STUDIES

FOR

SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL (J.S.S 3)

BY

MR. ONYEKWE

SCHEME OF WORK

 Revision of Last Term’s Topics

 Internet, Identifying the Internet Search Engines

 Specific Use of Internet Search Engines, Examples of Search Engine

 Digital Divide (I): Concept of Digital Divide and Features of Old/New

Economy

 Digital Divide (II): Digital, Time, Space, Distance and Limitation

 Worksheet: Starting a Worksheet, Data Entry, Editing, Saving and

Retrieval

 Formatting Cells and Calculations: Formatting and Printing a Job in a

Worksheet.

 Database: Definition and Database Terminologies, Fields, Records,

Files e.t.c.

 Database Forms

 Spreadsheet Packages, Examples of Spreadsheet Packages; Excel,

Lotus 123 e.t.c, Uses of Spreadsheet Package.

 Revision

 Examination

INTERNET, IDENTIFYING THE INTERNET SEARCH ENGINE

The internet, simply called “the Net”, is a worldwide system of computer networks. It is a network of networks in
which users at any one computer can, if they have permission, get information from any other computer (and
sometimes talk directly to users of other computers). The Internet is the global system of interconnected
computer networks that use the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to link billions of devices worldwide. It is a
network of networks that consists of millions of private, public, academic, business, and government networks of
local to global scope, linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies. It
connects millions of computers together globally, forming a network in which any computer can communicate
with any other computer as long as they are both connected to the Internet. It was conceived by the Advanced
Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the U.S. government in 1969 and was first known as the ARPANet.
Physically, the Internet uses a portion of the total resources of the currently existing public telecommunication
networks. Technically, what distinguishes the Internet is its use of a set of protocols called TCP/IP (for
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). Two recent adaptations of Internet technology, the intranet and
the extranet, also make use of the TCP/IP protocol. For most Internet users, electronic mail (email) practically
replaced the postal service for short written transactions. People communicate over the Internet in a number of
other ways including  Internet Relay Chat (IRC), Internet telephony, instant messaging, video chat or social
media. The most widely used part of the Internet is the World Wide Web (often abbreviated "WWW" or called
"the Web"). Its outstanding feature is hypertext, a method of instant cross-referencing. In most Web sites, certain
words or phrases appear in text of a different colour than the rest; often this text is also underlined. When you
select one of these words or phrases, you will be transferred to the site or page that is relevant to this word or
phrase. Sometimes there are buttons, images, or portions of images that are "clickable." If you move the pointer
over a spot on a Web site and the pointer changes into a hand, this indicates that you can click and be
transferred to another site. Using the Web, you have access to billions of pages of information. Web browsing is
done with a Web browser, the most popular of which are Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer. The appearance
of a particular Web site may vary slightly depending on the browser you use. The Search Engines and Source
Website are basically the two sources for downloading materials from the internet.

THE WORLD WIDE WEB (www)

The World Wide Web was developed in 1990 by Tim Berners-Lee in Switzerland. It is a global set of documents,
images and other resources, logically interrelated by hyperlinks and referenced with Uniform Resource Locator
(URL). URLs allow providers to symbolically identify services and clients to locate and address web servers, file
servers and other databases that store documents and provide resources and access them using the Hypertext
Transfer Protocol (HTTP), the primary carrier protocol of the web. An example of a URL is
http://www.pennyinternationalcollege.com. Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the main access protocol of
the World Wide Web. World Wide Web browser software, such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox,
Opera, Apple's Safari, and Google Chrome, lets users navigate from one web page to another via hyperlinks
embedded in the documents. These documents may also contain any combination of computer data, including
graphics, sounds, text, video, multimedia and interactive content that runs while the user is interacting with the
page.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN INTERNET AND WORLD WIDE WEB

The terms internet and World Wide Web are often used in every day speech interchangeably but the two terms
are not the same. The internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks. In contrast, the Web is
one of the services that run on the internet. It is a collection of interconnected documents and other resources,
linked by hyperlinks and URLs. The web is an application running on the internet.

DOMAIN NAME SYSTEM (DNS)

The DNS is a worldwide system of servers that stores location pointers to Web sites. The numeric address,
called the IP (INTERNET PROTOCOL) address, is actually the “real” URL. The DNS is used to establish
hierarchy of domain names with one group of the computers on the internet.

MAJOR LEVELS OF DNS

There are two major levels of DNS, they include

1. The generic Top-Level Domains (gTLD)

2. The country code Top-Level Domains (ccTLD)

Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLD)

They are the highest level of domain names of the internet. They form the DNS root zone of the hierarchical
Domain Name System (DNS). Every domain name ends in a top-level or first-level domain label. This is
sometimes referred to as generic top level domain. The table below shows the categories of generic top-level
domains (gTLD) and their meanings:

S/N gTLD Meaning Examples of website with the gTLD

1 .com Commercial enterprise Search engine: www.google.com
2 .edu Educational institution P.I.C: www.pennyinternationalcollege.edu
3 .gov Government Nigerian Government: www.nigeria.gov
4 .mil Nigerian military Nigerian Navy: www.nigeriannavy.mil
5. .net Network access provider Geometry Learning Center: www.geometry.net
6 .org Non-profit organization United Nations: www.un.org
7 .int International organization International Telecommunication Union (ITU): www.itu.int

Country Code Top-Level Domains (ccTLD)

They are the first level domain names in each country. They are primarily based on the two-character used to
represent each individual country or territory. Examples are:

S/ ccTLD Meaning Examples of website with the ccTLD

N
1 .ng Nigeria University of Lagos: www.unilag.edu.ng
2 .de Germany Yahoo Germany: www.yahoo.de
3 .it Italy Google Italy: www.google.it
4 .uk United Kingdom BBC News: www.bbc.co.uk
5 .in India Google India: www.google.in
6 .nz New Zealand NZ Hearld: www.nzhearld.co.nz
7 .gh Ghana Government of India: www.ghana.gov.gh
8 .za South Africa Super Sport: www.supersport.com.za

SEARCH ENGINES

It is a set of programs which are used to search for information from the World Wide Web. The information
gathered is stored in a database for quick reference. Most often, the search results are displayed on the screen
which may consist of web pages, images, information and other types of files.

Common examples of internet search engines are:

S/N Names of Search Engine Website

1. Google www.google.com
2. Askkids www.askkids.com
3. Excite www.excite.com
4. Mamma www.mamma.com
5. Hotbot www.hotbot.com
6. Yahoo Search www.yahoo.com

GOOGLE

Google search engine is owned by Google Inc., an American company. The company was founded by Larry
Page and Sergey Brin, while the two were attending Stanford University as PhD candidates.

MAMMA (PRONOUNCED MAMA)

A globally popular meta-search engine, Mamma.com brings forth redefined search results from the web’s top
search engines; assisting users to efficiently find the information they seek online. It was originally introduced as
the first meta-search engine in 1996.

FUNCTIONS OF INTERNET SEARCH ENGINES

1. Locating Information on the Web: It is used to locate information even when you do not know the website that
it is contained. The result of the search engine is displayed on the screen.
2. Sorting: The result of the search can be sorted in any specified order.
3. Storing: The result can be stored as a file in the computer system.
4. Ranking: the result of the search can be ranked in any order.

DIGITAL DIVIDE

It is the gap between people with effective access to information Technology (IT) and those with very limited or
no access at all. It includes the imbalances in physical access to technology as well as the imbalances in
resources and skills needed to effectively participate as a digital citizen. It is unequal access by some members
of the society access by some members of the society to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and
the unequal acquisition of related skills. The digital divide may be classified based on gender, income, race
groups and by locations. The term global digital divide refers to differences in technological access between
countries that have and those that do not have.

THE OLD ECONOMY

An old economy is a term for the old blue chip industries that enjoyed fabulous growth during the early parts of
the century as industrialization around the globe and particularly in the United States expanded. It is an economy
that is based on agriculture and manufacturing. Industries that are commonly considered to be involved in the
old economy are energy, steel and automobile manufacturers. Although the old economy has gradually been
replaced by the new economy, most decisions taken in the new economy are driven by data from the Old
Economy.

THE NEW ECONOMY

The New Economy is also known as the digital Economy. It is a term used to describe the result of the transition
from an industrial/manufacturing-based economy (i.e the old economy), to high-growth industries that are on the
cutting edge of technology and are the driving forces of economic growth. The new economy is commonly
believed to have started in the late 1990s.

FEATURES OF OLD AND NEW ECONOMIES

Old Economy New Economy

It is constrained by time, space and distance Time, space and distance is irrelevant
It is labour based It is knowledge based
It is mechanical It is technology driven
It is time consuming It economizes time
It is not digital It is digital

Differences between the Old and New Economies

The new economy has meant a change in how nations try to attract businesses and industries. In the old
economy, the factors which drew industries to any location included low taxes, cheap land, abundant low priced
labour, adequate natural resources, good transportation and other physical infrastructures. Key differences
between the old and new economy in terms of how nations or communities try to attract businesses and
industries are:

1. Infrastructure now emphasizes information flow. Highways are still necessary but ready access to the
“information highway’ is essential.
2. Abundant low priced labour is not enough.
 Low priced labour in advanced countries does not compete cost-wise with low priced overseas labour.
 Education is more important than cost to the technology oriented companies of the new economy.

Old Economy New Economy

Scarcity drive value Wide use drives value
Requires control Requires collaboration
Proximity is important Location less significant
Value is measurable Value is emergent
Assembly line focused Community focused
The masses The personal
Predictive Experimental
Statistics Memory and pattern recognition
Clear boundaries and definitions Shifting borders and consensus meaning
LIMITATIONS OF THE OLD ECONOMY

1. Difficulties in market formation mainly due to lack of timely information and high cost of goods and services.
2. Inadequate and timely information on goods, services, equipment, etc
3. Difficulties in product developments due to lack of timely information.
4. Industries were labour intensive with little or no machines to assist in general operations.
5. Limited storage facilities for goods.
6. High transaction cost for goods and services.