Infocomm Learning

I learnt the history of Internet. It became functional about 42 years ago in September 1969 to allow scientists at different locations to share information, and to function if part of network were disabled. It started with 4 host nodes in 1969 to currently more than 200 million host nodes. No one control internet. It is a public, cooperative, and independent network. Organizations such as World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) overseas research, sets standards and guidelines. Internet2 (I2) performs internet-related research development project and develops and tests advanced internet technologies.

I learnt that we can connect to Internet via slow-speed and high-speed technology. For slow-speed technology, we must establish connection each time we log in. It is slow but cheap. For high-speed technology, the connection is always on whenever the computer is running therefore more convenient. We should choose the broadband connection that will best meet our own internet connection needs.

A web server delivers the Web page to our computer.

I also learnt the meaning of the following terms, which helps me to have a better understanding :

World Wide Web (WWW) - a worldwide collection of electronic documents, also called the Web.

Web page - Each electronic document is called a Web page, which can contain text, graphics, sound, video and built-in connections.

Web site is a collection of related web pages.

Web browser is a program that allows you to view Web pages.

Home page is the first page that a Web site presents. It often provides connections to other Web pages.

Downloading is the process of a computer receiving information. It can take from a few secs to several minutes depending upon connection speed.

URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. It is an unique address for a Web page.

A link is a built-in connection to another related Web page location (same Web page different location, different Web page but same Web site, Web page at different Web site). It can be recognized when pointer changes to a small hand when we point to it. A link can be text or an image. Text links are usually underlined and in a different colour.

A Search Engine is a program used to find Web sites and Web pages by entering words or phrases called search text.

A hit refers to any Web site name that is listed as the result of a search.

Handheld computers and cellular telephones that are Web-enabled can access the web using a micro browser that displays Web pages that contain mostly text.

I had a better understanding of the 9 basic types of Web sites are: Portal, News, Informational, Business/Marketing, Educational, Entertainment, Advocacy, Blog and Personal.

 A portal is a Web site that offers a variety of services from one, convenient location, usually free, for e.g. Yahoo.

A news Web site contains newsworthy material.

A informational Web site contains factual information created by organizations and government  agencies.

A business/marketing  Web site contain content that promote products or services and allows us to purchase them online.

An educational Web site offers avenues for formal and informal teaching and learning.

An entertainment Web site offers interactive and engaging environment  featuring music, video, sports, game and more.

Advocacy Web site contains content that describes a cause, opinion or idea.

A blog uses a regularly updated journal format to reflect the interests, opinions, and personalities of the author and sometimes site visitors.

A personal Web site is a web page maintained by private individual for sharing life experience with the world or job hunting.

I learnt that multimedia can make a web page more attractive and interesting, as it integrate text with graphics, animation, audio, video and virtual reality (VR).

VR is the use of computers to stimulate real or imagined environment, which appears as a 3-D space. It is used for games and many practical applications.

I know how to perform Web publishing by 5 simple steps that is, 1.Plan, 2.Analyze and design, 3.Create, 4.Deploy and 5.Maintain the Web site.

I also learnt Electronic commerce (E-commerce) refers to business transaction that occurs over the Internet.

Internet has many useful services. It enables us to send e-mail messages and files via a computer network. It  allows  one to upload and download files with  other companies on the Internet. We can also discuss, leave message, real-time chat, instant messaging and internet telephony. This improves communications tremendously.

I also learnt that we should follows the code of acceptable behavior while on the Internet known as Netiquette.