The complexity of the Internet has increased the requirement of learner's self-cognition, self-control and self-responsibility when using Internet to learn. Thus, responsibility of e-learner to decide on the validity, reliability and meaningfulness of the information steadily increased. This situation has caused internet related issues such as problematic Internet use, Internet addiction, cognitive overload, disorientation, continuous partial attention and information pollution on the Internet. The purpose of this study is to provide practical strategies for e-learners' Internet related current issues. This study presented in three steps. At the first step, problematic Internet use and addiction, cognitive overload, disorientation, continuous partial attention and Internet information pollution was discussed as Internet related current issues of e-learners. At the second step, increase of Internet literacy, Internet search strategies, using computational knowledge engines, and benefit from Semantic Web presented as practical strategies for e-learners. At the end of study related conclusions provided.
TopIntroduction
Before the Internet, there was the ARPAnet, the first distributed computer network, launched in 1969 at US. In 1983 Transmission Control Protokol/ Internet Protocol started to be used in such networks. TCP/IP protocols form the main ring of the existing internet network today. ARPANET organized by the intervention of the US government as NSFNET. By the end of 1994, 110 countries, 10,000 computer network, with more than 3,000,000 computers and more than 25 million users connected to this network. This number, showed a huge explosion and had reached 60 million in the years 1993-1995 the first web page of the emergence.
By the third period of 2014, globally Internet user numbers have passed three billion. The internet, the fastest way of retrieve information, has become the most popular for communication in today’s society. With the use of the internet, which is defined as a network system of non-central links that surround the whole world, it is possible to retrieve any information from anywhere in seconds. Distribution of information and educational interaction though Internet is the major advantage of distance education and its’ stakeholders today. This advance enabled users to benefit from a wide range of e-learning tools and environments on the Internet.
Rise of World Wide Web
World Wide Web (WWW) emerged at CERN acting as a physics laboratory. Tim Berners Lee, in 1989, developed the HTML markup language and created the first web server at CERN. Thus, the World Wide Web, WWW technology was born. WWW technology opened to anyone who wants to use the royalty free on April 30, 1993. Three quarters of the people is an active Internet users around the world today (IWS, 2014).
Use of Internet access expanded to televisions, cars, refrigerators and other electronic tools for everyday use beyond mobile phones and tablet computers. Web access devices and softwares provide new habitat for the Web. The chronological development of computer and internet technology can be summarized as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Chronological development of computer and Internet technologies
After the launch of Mosaic, the first web browser in April 1993, global Internet users have grown to three billion by 30 June 2014 (IWS, 2015). In the North America 87.7% of population, in the Australia/Oceania 72.9% of population and in the Europe 70.5% of population has access to the Internet. Beside these grooving numbers, to Pew Internet Project surveys fully 92% of 18-24 year olds who do not attend college are internet users, while nearly 100% of Collage students use Internet (Smith, Rainie and Zickuhr, 2011).