Understanding the Internet

After completing this module, you will be able to:

• Define the Internet, describe how large it is, and find out how fast it is growing.
• List and define the seven basic Internet services of e-mail, listserv, newsgroups, chat, videoconferencing, FTP, and the World Wide Web.
• Explain what is meant by client-server computing.
• Understand the Internet naming system of domains and subdomains.
• Provide a brief history of the Internet, explaining how it grew from its humble origins into the worldwide network that we enjoy today.
• Describe how the Internet is changing the world by means of a process called convergence.
• Tell what percentage of the population is telecommuting.
• Gauge the extent to which commercial advertising is paying for services available "for free" on the Internet.
• Share the vision of how the Web is capable of hosting an interconnected world of research and scholarship.

Readings

Read chapters 1 and 2 of the Internet Literacy textbook to study the concepts covered by this module. Chapter 1 defines essential terms and presents the seven basic Internet services, and chapter 2 reflects on how the Internet is changing the world.

Online Activities

The following online activities reinforce important concepts and bring the readings to life:

• Follow the link to the Hobbes Internet Time Line and review the latest statistics on the growth of the Internet.
• By following this link to Tim Berners-Lee, you can read papers about the past, present, and future of the Web written by the person credited with inventing the Web.
• To experience the latest innovations in online retailing, visit the online shopping locations linked to the Interlit Web site.
• To guage the extent to which traditional print media have come online, explore the online newspapers linked to the Interlit Web site.

As explained in the Education section of Chapter 2, the Internet helps achieve the goals of the constructivist movement in education through Web-based applications that involve students actively in discovering and constructing knowledge. Follow one or two of the following links for examples in subjects that interest you:

• At the Biology Labs Online, you can learn the laws of genetic inheritance by breeding fruit flies in a laboratory environment that lets you save data, formulate theories, and test hypotheses. Compare this way of learning to the alternative of memorizing genetic laws in a textbook.
• Go to the Dismal Scientist and peruse the databases that let you download the latest economic indicators and forecasts. Once you get into a database, you can click and drag to copy data onto your clipboard, from which you can paste it into a spreadsheet or statistical software to perform your own computations instead of having to take someone else's word for it.
• One of the most difficult aspects of teaching chemistry is to help students visualize the structure of chemical models. Go to the Chemical Molecule Viewer and observe the chemical benzene. After noticing how it appears three-dimensionally symmetrical, use your mouse to click and drag and rotate the chemical. Notice how the atoms that form benzene are coplanar. You wouldn't learn this from a textbook that only showed a static view of the benzene model.
• At the Princeton Particle Physics Lab, follow the links to the Tokamak nuclear reactor. If you've never operated a reactor before, there's a tutorial you can take to learn how. Then you can follow the links to operate the reactor, which gets delivered to your screen as a Java applet. By manipulating the sliders that control the variables in the Tokamak reactor, you can experience how physicists learn to run nuclear reactors most efficiently and safely.

Assignment

After you complete this module, you will be ready to complete the assignment that asks you to state your goals for taking this course, and give two examples of how you hope the Internet services and applications discussed in Chapters 1 and 2 will help you meet these goals.