✿ The Internet and Education ✿

Lesson 16

The internet also simply called Net, is the largest and far-flung network of all systems. Surprisingly, the internet is not really a network but a loosely organized collection of about 25,000 networks accessed by computers on the planet. It has no central headquarter, no centrally offered services, and no comprehensive on line index to tell users what information is available in the system.

                  This is done through a standardized protocol (or set of rules for exchanging data) called Transmission Control Protocol/InternetProtocol(TCP/IP). To gain access to the internet, the computer must be equipped with what is called server which has special software (program) that uses the Internet protocol. Originally developed and still subsidized by United States government, the Internet connect not only commercial, industrial, scientific establishment but all other sectors including education and its libraries, campuses, and computer centers.

                       

Getting around the Net

  

          The vast sea of information now in the Internet, including news, trivia, is an overwhelming challenge to those who wish to navigate it. Everyday, the Net-user population and the available information continue to grow, and new ways are continuously being developed to tour the Internet.

           The most attractive way to move around the Internet is called browsing. Using a program called a browser, the user can use a mouse to point and click on the screen icons to surf the Internet, particularly the World Wide Web (the Web), an Internet’s subset of text, images, and sounds are linked together  to allow users to access data or information needed.

            The future of the Internet seems limitless. Already its complexity has spawned and continue to spawn Net sites including new demand for services to business, industries, science, government, and even homes. Many experts predict that the Internet is destined to become the centerpiece of all online communications on the planet and in some future time in solar system using interplanetary satellite communication stations.

                  

          

A view of educational uses of the Internet

              

              Today, even elementary school graders in progressive countries like United States are corresponding via e-mail with pen pals in all 50 states. They probing questions like, “What are your state’s most serious problems,” or how much does a pizza cost in your state? This educational activity prodded by their schools are paying dividends from increasing the pupil’s interest in Geography to a greater understanding of how people live in large cities and other places in the United States or the world.

               Educational software materials have also developed both in sophistication and appeal. There is now a wider choice from rote arithmetic or grammar lessons to discovery and innovation projects. But the real possibility today is connecting with the world outside homes, classrooms, and Internet cafes. And today schools are gearing up to take advantage of Internet access, where they can plug into the Library of Congress, make virtual visits to famous museums in the world, write to celebrities, and even questions to heads of states.