Interesting question dude. Wiki is your friend - theres a pretty good description of what "Equalisation" is all about-search it. Look at the Audio and music header under that page. It mentions shelving, parametric, graphic and has links to terms like filters (high and low, band pass etc). Its probably a very good idea to do some homework on EQ when your starting out otherwise your just shooting blind pretty much

So your definitely going about it the right way..trying to find out about the different types EQ out there.
As the guys mentioned work on getting your source correct and sounding great. A really great recording might not even require equalisation, or just a tiny amount
when you've done some homework then just have a play with your daw or mixer so you can hear what EQ does to your signal. If your using a visual EQ style plugin, you can actually see your audio track jumping about across the bands - generally 20hz - 20khz. Do some research on audio frequency!!! You will generally use EQ to help tracks find their own space in a mix, and or to make certain sounds pop out, or as a special effect. If your really lucky and record fantastic tracks, or use quality samples you may not have to use EQ too much, it could all be done with some fader moves, a touch of reverb/delay a dash of compression here and there - voila hit single!!!
If you've done your homework and still not having much luck - just use the presets ( I'M JOKING

)
Well actually those presets come from tried and tested methods that a lot of studio engineers have found to work - so actually take some time to study those as well.
good luck