What does it mean and why would I want to do it?
The World Wide Web is the "multimedia" portion of the Internet. It
contains lots of educational information, essays, and multimedia presentations
that are of interest to teachers and students. But to access the World Wide
Web in full graphical mode, you need a "direct" Internet connection or a SLIP
or PPP connection and a fast modem. Suppose you want your students to view a
Web site in your classroom, but you do not have a networked computer there, or
you have only one computer with a modem? By downloading Web sites using one
networked computer, you can transfer the files to other computers that do not
have Internet connections.
What are the advantages?
a. You and your students can view downloaded Web pages with any PC or
Macintosh that can run Netscape or another Web browser. It does not
have to have a connection to the Internet. Downloaded Web pages can be stored
on the computer's hard disk, floppy disk, ZIP cartridge, or (writable)
CD-ROM.
b. If you have several computers in your school connected together with a local area network (LAN) and a file server, you can put copies of downloaded sites on the file server so that all of the computers on the LAN can access the same downloaded sites, without requiring that you laboriously copy the files for each separate machine. Multiple computers can access the same sites at the same time. Pages stored on a local file server can also be "write-protected" so they can not be deleted or modified by students.
c. The speed of access to Web pages is much greater from local storage than over most network connections. Graphics, sounds, and other multimedia content, normally very slow to access over a modem connection, shows up more quickly when accessing them from local storage. The speed of access over a local area network, while not so fast a local access from a hard disk, is still faster than the fastest modem connection.
d. Netscape is available for both PCs and Mac and operates in exactly the same way. You can even download a site using one platform and view it on the other platform*.
e. Students viewing downloaded sites on a machine without a real-time network connection will not be able to "get lost" on the Internet and blunder into time-wasting (or inappropriate) materials. They can view only what you have downloaded for them.
What are the disadvantages compared to real-time network access?
a. You will be viewing only the version of the Web site on the date
that you downloaded it. Any changes, corrections, updates, or additions made
to the site after that time will not be incorporated into your downloaded site.
b. You can't do clickable maps, interactive forms, or WWW searches that depend on real-time interaction with the remote server.
How do I do it?
By far the easiest way to download Web sites is to use software
specially designed to make the downloading process easier, such as the
shareware program Netscape History or one of the commercial programs
that are sold for that purpose:WebWhacker
(http://www.ffg.com/whacker.html) or Grab-a-Site
(http://www.bluesquirrel.com/). Directions will be given here for Netscape
History, a $8 shareware program for the Macintosh that works with the
Netscape browser (assumed here to be Netscape 2.0). You
can download Netscape History by clicking
here.
1. Run Netscape. Just before getting into the site you wish to capture, clear Netscape's cache ( Select Options/Network Preferences/Clear disk cache now).
2. Go through the entire site, clicking on every link that you want the students to be able to click on.
3. When finished, leave Netscape running and launch Netscape History. (The very first time you run it, Netscape History will ask you two things: where to put the downloaded files (accept the default "History f") and where is Netscape (navigate to Netscape and double-click on it)).
4. Netscape History fills the "History f" folder with the captured pages auto matically, displays an index to the captured pages called "Recently Visited Pages", and then quits. You can use the "Recently Visited Pages" page to locate the "home" or "top" page of the site that you captured (and make a note of the name of that page for future reference).
5. (Optional) If the site contains audio links (sounds) or video links (e.g. Quicktime movie clips) that you wish to include, they must be captured manually; hold the mouse button down on each sound or video link and select Save this link as... from the pop-up menu. In the resulting dialog box, select Source from the Format menu, then navigate to the "History f" folder and click Save. Edit the audio and video links in the HTML file to delete everything but the file names.
6. Once the desired pages are captured, transfer the contents of the "History f" folder into another folder or disk (so it won't get mixed up with the next site you download). Make sure the "History f" folder is empty before beginning another site download.
7. You can move the downloaded site to another computer or to a Local area Network (LAN) file sever by transferring the files via floppy diskette or over the LAN. To access the downloaded site, use Netscape's Open File... command in the File menu to open the "Rece ntly Visited Pages" file, then click on the desired page in the list of downloaded pages. You can then set a Bookmark to that page to facilitate access on that computer.
Note: If the site has a copyright notice, be sure to obtain the permission of the authors before using it with students.
* If you download a site on a Macintosh to view on Windows 3.1, you must edit all the links and file names to adhere to the DOS file name restrictions.