T171 ECA - Module 3 Reflection
Learning Skills
I had already mastered the effective use of search engines prior to this course and know how to sift out the chaff using boolean modifiers added to the search criterion. I was already proficient with skills to be developed in this module.
Ideas and Concepts
I was almost fully conversant with the Ideas and Concepts of this module.
The concepts of packet switching and TCP/IP were nothing new to me as I first encountered packet switching on an X25 course in the late eighties, I learnt about TCP/IP around about the same time.
I learnt that it was from Licklider's 'Galactic Network' dream that the Internet grew how we know it today i.e. a world-wide network of networks.
I knew of Requests For Comments (RFC's), Exercise 4, however I hadn't known it was Steve Crocker's development plus as a maintenance person I have no need to refer to them - maybe handy knowledge for the future. This system continues today though the Open Source Movement (Exercise 9).
I knew of most of the names of the creators of the Internet but little about the person. Using the course materials and the WWW I was able to broaden my knowledge of the person.
I also knew the names MIT, ARPA, RAND, the National Physical Laboratory and CERN. Here again by using the course material I visited these sites and broadened my knowledge, I probably wouldn't have bothered had it not been for this course.
I already knew of the culture the Internet having been on it for almost five years and I knew that it is open all and owned by no-one.
Appendix
Module Objectives: (Cut and pasted from T171 Web site and numbered for reference)
What you will learn from this Module
Ideas and concepts 1) A history of how the network was conceived, specified,
designed and constructed.
2) A general understanding of how the technology behind the Internet works.
3) An appreciation of the network's significance, power and potential.
4) Familiarity with some of the personalities whose thinking and work
led, directly or indirectly, to the creation of the Internet and the World
Wide Web.
5) An understanding of the role played by the key institutions in the
story - for example, MIT, ARPA, RAND, the National Physical Laboratory
and CERN.
6) An appreciation of the distinctive subculture which has grown around
the Internet.
Back to Ideas and ConceptsThis
module sets out to build on and further develop skills introduced earlier
in the course: a) How to search the Web intelligently and efficiently,
and how to assess the quality and reliability of the information you find.
b) How to keep an online diary.
c) How to cope with information overload.
d) How to write attractive web pages.
e) How to create a small web site. Source: Cut and pasted from
T171 Web site.