Digital Basics Guide

Applications and the internet are the primary items that you will go to when you use a computer or device. 

An Application is a program that is designed to perform an task, like accessing your emails, assist you in creating a poster or access the internet. 

The Internet enables you to access a network to access information, computers, smartphones and other devices, allowing people to share information and communicate instantly. We use the internet for all sorts of things: browsing websites, sending emails, using social media, streaming music and video, shopping online, attending virtual classes and much more. It’s part of everyday life, especially at university, where it’s key for research, collaboration and staying connected.

To use the internet you will need to use an application which primarily are apps called “browsers”. These are secure networks to connect to the internet and can be different apps depending on the device that you are using. Some common browsers that you might use are: 
•    Google Chrome
•    Microsoft Edge (Default for a Microsoft Device)
•    Safari (Default for an Apple Device)
•    Mozilla FireFox

While there are a several browsers that you could use, they all operate relatively the same. When opening a browser you will generally see two empty boxes that you can input a search. The first box along the top is used for a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) which is an identifier for a website. For example if you use Google which is a search engine for finding other webpages, its URL is “Google.com”, or for emails through Outlook would be “Outlook.com”. However, it can be used as a search engine where you type in a term, and it will search in the engine for terms related to your search.

The second box on the home page is for search terms excluding a URL. You can type what you are searching for into either box and hit enter and it will search for the item on the internet. 

Locating suitable information is vital for forming opinions and reflecting on what is presented. However, with how vast the internet can be, it can be quite difficult to navigate through.  

For academic studying, Google Scholar is a great place to start as it not only enables you to filter down categories you are searching for but also will enable you to search for specific journals or articles.  
While at the University of Staffordshire, you’ll also have access to academic databases as well as digital libraries to access information and resources.  

However, not everything will be in the database so what do you do then? Well a refined google search can help but then you will be left lots of information to look through. Similar to google scholar, google search (and many browsers similar to it) have an advanced search engine that will enable you to fine tune the search results to have a more impactful search.  

Using Google as the example, if you search in the search bar for a term it will present all the results that it can locate. Selecting the tools box on the right-hand side of the search bar will show the number of results. For the example there is 6,590,000 results! 

However, know that we are using the tools box, there is also the advanced search. Selecting this brings up more features that we can use and implement to refine the filter down.

These can be factors like, when was the page last updated, which region was it updated from and if it’s from a certain domain but also helping your work out what you require from the search. This can include:  

• Searching for a certain phrase in a document or page 
• Excluding words or phrases 
• Including number values 

By performing an advanced search, will decrease and refine the number of results and will help you get closer to a result you are looking for. By using the results below, we have gone from 6,590,000 results down to 100 results! A much more digestible outcome! 

Evaluating Credibility of online sources  

The accessibility of the internet is both a boon and a curse as anyone can upload and update information on various websites. Pages like news websites will only enable certain people to update a page but will often be biased with an agenda, whereas pages like social media or Wikipedia will enable anyone to upload anything. In the case of Wikipedia, users who build enough “reputation” will also be able to make changes to locked pages which could lead pages to have mis/disinformation on them.  

Book marking pages  

When accessing a website or article, you might come across information that you would like to save for later viewing. A handy way to do this is to bookmark a page in your browser for quick and easy access later. There are various ways to bookmark a page as well as organise your bookmarks, this guide will give you some tips for ensuring that you can make the most out of saving your pages.

Sign into a browser 

Most browsers will have an option to sign in to retain your history, bookmarks and frequently used pages so you can manage them across different devices. To do this, locate the sign in icon towards the top right of your browser of choices. You will then be asked to either create and account or sign in if you have one created previously.  

Bookmarking items 

To bookmark a page, look for a start towards the URL box, this typically looks like a star. Selecting the star will open a small window asking for where to save the bookmark. By default, this will save the bookmark to a “all bookmarks” section however you can select a different folder is one is selected.  

Depending on your browser settings, your bookmarks will start appearing underneath the URL of a webpage. Selecting the bookmark will open the page, be aware that depending on the settings, these might also replace the current browser tab rather then opening a new one.  
Certain browsers will also show these bookmarks on the homepage of the browser itself for easier access. 

Bookmark Manager  

It’s important to know where your bookmarks are saved and how you can categorise them. Depending on your browser these might be labelled differently and located differently however, typically they are in the top right corner of your browser by pressing the three dots and selecting the option for bookmarks (for Google Chrome) or favourites (for Microsoft Edge) and then opening the bookmark manager. 

The manager enables you to see all your bookmarks that you have saved as well as create folders to categorise them into sections. To do this, right click on the page to create a folder. If you have items already bookmarked, you can drag and drop these into the folders.  
Return here at any time to see your whole catalogue of bookmarked webpages.  

Deleting a bookmark 

To delete a bookmark, open the bookmark manager and locate the item you wish to remove from the list. Select the three dots on the right of the bookmark and select delete.  

Alternatively, you can open the bookmark and select the start again to unbookmark a page.  

Browser settings  

There are a few additional settings to be aware of when using bookmarks, these are in the three dots towards the top right corner of the browser. 
Google Chrome users need to hover over the bookmark dropdown and there will be the options for displaying the bookmark tab, bookmarking multiple tabs and importing bookmarks from other browsers.  

Microsoft Edge users can similarly hover over the “favourites tab” then selecting the three dots on the right of the pop up for the options of displaying the bookmarks or importing from another browser.