Tangled within the Web: Why don’t pages look the same everywhere?

Goal: This lesson helps learners understand extends what learners might already know about the web to explore why web pages appear differently in different web browsers, on mobile devices, and so on. It is the second of two lessons in a unit exploring how content on the web is constructed, and about how it appears.

Time: 45 minutes

Context: What’s the web? Internet communication is all about being able to reach through a series of servers to reach, retrieve and view a document (or other web content). Hyperlinks and other forms for interacting with digital content emerged from the need for interconnectivity, search and relatedness. So the internet includes more than the web; and the web is a part of the Internet.

The first of two lessons in this unit teaches about what the web is, and about what web pages are. The second of two lessons teaches about standards, and why web pages appear differently based upon web browser and device.

Materials:

Special thanks to Jim Butts, Microsoft, for volunteering his time to craft these lessons.