Infocomm Studies is a new subject to me, as I have never done Infocomm studies before in primary school. Thus, I am rather computer-illiterate, with my computer skills largely limited to writing reports and Facebooking. This can lead to many problems and thus inability to do my research.
I am thus really looking forward to Infocomm studies. So far, I am like this penguin when it comes to anything IT related - utterly confused and amazed by the wide world of infocomm technology out there. I hope this class will improve my hopelessly poor knowledge about infocomm technology.
In infocomm studies I will be covering the Internet and the World Wide Web. So far, we have learnt about the history of the internet, how the internet works, the world wide web and its various programs like multimedia, downloading, links, graphic formats, animation, audio, video, email, FTP, and the various types of websites. We have also learnt about netiquette.
The internet began as a networking project by the Pentagon's advanced research projects agency to allow scientists at different locations to share information. Its goal was also to function even if part of the network was disabled. The internet has really grown, from 4 host nodes when it was first used in 1969 to more than 200 million host nodes today. No one controls the internet as it is a public, cooperative and independent network. However, several organizations do set standards, such as the World Wide Web Consortium and the Internet2.
There are many ways to connect to the Internet, like slow-speed technology and high-speed connections.The ISP, OSP and the Wireless Internet Service Provider are several well-known ways to access the internet. Various broadband connections are also available.
The World Wide Web is essentially a program that allows one to view web pages. Downloading (the process of a computer receiving information), URLs (Uniform Resource Locator, an unique address for a web page), search engines, "hits" (websites listed as the result of a search) and the 9 basic types of websites like portals, news, information, business, education, entertainment, advocacy, blogs and personal websites are all parts of the World Wide Web.
Other aspects of the World Wide Web are multimedia, graphics formats, animation and thumbnails. Streaming audio, audio files, videos and plug-ins are other parts of the World Wide Web.
The internet allows us to do many many things. For example, it allows for email, chat, instant messaging etc. - thus the sheer popularity of the internet.
The above video, about web 1.0 and web 2.0, shows the vast difference between the two web versions. This was shown in class for us to understand the difference between these two web versions. This has greatly helped me understand Web 2.0, and I hope it will help you if you do not understand it.
More recently, we had a lesson about html, a common form of internet language. Html is used by many to create simple webpages and is definitely a great leap forward as far as technology is concerned - the ability to create one's own website with completely independent formatting and design is a whole different ball game from blogging or creating simple sites on Google Sites, etc. While I have not mastered html, I will definitely do my best to learn more about it as it can clearly open my eyes to a whole big world of IT out there.
For those who want to learn html quickly, below is a link which our excellent infocomm studies teacher, Mr. Cheong, used to teach us html.
I look forward to more fun and joy during my interesting and relaxing (the presence of aircon missing from our classroom) Infocomm Studies lessons!
