Internet – the information superhighway. It has revolutionized the way we live and work. It helps us communicate, find information, work, and stay current with what is happening in the world. It is our way of sharing information with the world. If you think about it, the internet is amazing. With that said, I find it curious how many online teachers and students fail to take a look at the way they use the internet and take advantage the tools that are there. I spend nearly most of my day online. I would feel crippled without it. I am always looking for ways to navigate more quickly and efficiently. This is my life and my business. I would be foolish not to make sure that I optimize how I navigate the web. Throughout this blog, you will hear me mention that saving time is paramount, as time is money. The faster and more efficiently you can get your work done, the more time you have to take on more work or just have more time. I will be showing you ways to become more efficient and effective in all aspects of technology and the internet as we progress. The purpose of this chapter is to provide you a base upon which to build a good foundation.

Let’s take a look at.

Browsers
Add-ons
Bookmarks
Search engines

We discussed the importance of having the appropriate web browser in other chapters. Now let’s look at the connection that you will be using to get to that browser. Because much of the business transacted in today’s world is over the internet, it is important that you have a good internet service provider. A good internet service provider is essential in managing your online teaching. For many of us, our internet provider is selected for us based on our address. Here in San Diego, I use Time Warner and I am happy with what they provide. I pay $10 more a month to get the speed boost. I do not have a business T1 line and do not consider that necessary for you. You should check with your provider and make sure that you have the best package that you can get for your money.
Depending on where you live, a normal connection can range from 2-20 megabytes. I average around 10, which is fairly fast for a residence. I would recommend making sure that you have a cable or dish based connection than offer at least 3 megabytes. You can test your speed connection at http://www.speakeasy.org.

Your speeds may vary based on the time of the day and who else is on your network. In this day and age, I would strongly recommend staying away from dial-up and DSL as the speeds will not allow you to do your job efficiently. If you do need to have dial-up or DSL, I would suggest upgrading to high speed internet as soon as you can. Consider it as an investment and remember, it is a tax-write off. A good internet service provider is up 99% of the time or better; it is important that you choose a provider with little downtime. Again, it is important to have a good provider, especially when it comes to reliability and help when a technical issue arises. Ideally, they should be able to offer a variety of options for performance in terms of storage, speed and bandwidth, as well as hosting options for managed hosting, web and email hosting or co-location for secure and continued protection.
You also need to have a backup plan in case your internet goes out and you have work to do. I had an air card for a few years, but I did not use it enough to warrant paying for it. Your backup plan could simply be a matter of knowing where the nearest libraries, internet cafes or Starbucks are, and whether you can connect there. Talk to your friends and family, who may be on a different service, and see if you can work there if yours goes down. I have a friend that lives in the same city as me but has a different provider than I do, and we have the understanding that if one of us is having issues with our internet, we can use each other as a fallback. In my time teaching, I have experienced an instance where I needed to implement my back up plans, and to not have done so would have been foolish as my job relies on it.