Internet: Beyond the Browser

Right about the time Aaron Pitre, the personable young host of Internet: Beyond the Browser, gushed "just turn on the Internet faucet and out comes whatever you are looking for," I knew it was time to don my waders. Handsomely produced, and filled with more hyperbole than a snake oil salesman's pitch (actual quote: "for the first time in history, the whole human race can talk to one another"), this introduction to the Internet opens with a brief history of the Internet's grandpappy Arpanet, the emergence of email, and the falling prices of personal computers (though not quite to the point of the program's assertion that "almost everybody could have one"), all of which combined to set the stage for today's information superhighway. Touching on servers and ISPs, browsers and URLs, search engines and pitfalls (such as viruses), the program (when it's not undone by grand pronouncements) offers a reasonable introduction to Internet basics. Still, you have to wonder how much longer your average 6th grader will be able to tolerate being told "once you're connected to the net, you need a piece of software called a browser" without going stark raving mad. And, what on earth was SVE & Churchill Media thinking of when they used a "product page" from the svemedia.com website as an example (I'm sure adolescents will bookmark the site right under RollingStone.com as the place to hang out). Optional. Better and less expensive choices would be the Standard Deviants' Internet Basics (VL-1/00) or even 1998's still-applicable Internet Searching Skills (VL-11/98). Aud: E, I, J. (R. Pitman)