IES Gabriel Alonso de Herrera

Department of Technology

Unit 1. The Internet. Blogs and Wikis

NDEX
1. Information and Communications Technology or Technologies (ICT)
2. The Internet. Internet services
3. Internet fundamentals
4. Internet evolution. Key dates
5. Social web tools
6. Synchronous and asynchronous communication tools
7. New Technologies. Internet of things (IoT) and augmented reality (AR)
EXERCISES

1. Information and Communications Technology or Technologies (ICT)

It refers to all equipment, applications and services that involve communication.
Computers, cellphones, televisions, radios and satellite systems are all part of ICT.
2. The Internet. Internet services
A computer network is a set of computers connected together for the purpose of
sharing resources. The most important one is the Internet, a computer network all
around the world. Internet offers many different services: the World Wide Web, email, file transfer,instant messaging, shopping, etc.

The World Wide Web

(WWW) or just the web
consist of pages that can be
accessed using a web
browser. The current web is
the one called web 2.0,
which is an evolution of the
first one, the web 1.0:
Web 1.0: is simply an
information portal where
users passively receive
information without
being given the
opportunity to post
reviews, comments, and
feedback.
Web 2.0 or social web:
facilitates interaction
between web users and
sites, so it allows users to
interact more freely with
each other. Web 2.0
encourages participation,
Page 1

IES Gabriel Alonso de Herrera

Department of Technology

collaboration, and information sharing. Examples of Web 2.0 applications are

Youtube, Wiki, Flickr, Facebook, and so on.
Web 3.0 or semantic web (connected with the meaning of language) is the
coming generation: computers can interpret information like humans and
intelligently generate and distribute useful content tailored to the needs of
users. Examples of web 3.0 are virtual assistants such as Siri (Apple),
Cortana (Microsoft) or Now (Google). By analyzing what is really being said
on the page, this technology could improve the ads you receive.

Web forum: you create an account, post a question or article and people
respond to it. Some people use them for advertising something on the posts,
and the page itself usually have some more advertising to share. Many of the
posts come from inexperienced participants. Examples of web forums are (write
some of them):

News group: similar to web forums but it is a text-based tool that and it is
accessed with a type of program called newsreader. It works through Usenet, a
worldwide network that uses the Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP). There
is no space for advertising on the posts and many of them are about academic
topics. You will find many experts participating on newsgroups. Currently Google
groups offers an easy way to use newsgroups.

Write down what the following Internet services consist of and give some examples:

FTP:

P2P

VoIP

Page 2

IES Gabriel Alonso de Herrera

Department of Technology

3. Internet Fundamentals
Watch the following videos and try to understand how the Internet works.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_LPdttKXPc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ndoxFjYqPs

Now write the meaning of the following concepts, taking into account the information
in the videos you watched, and the information on the Internet:
Server
Webpage
Client
ISP
DSL
Packet
Router
url
HTML

Page 3

IES Gabriel Alonso de Herrera

Department of Technology

Web browser
DNS
DNS server
Hypertext
TCP/IP
TCP/IP is the short for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. TCP/IP is a group
of rules or protocols governing communications among all computers on the Internet.
Three of the most common TCP/IP protocols are:

HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol). Used between a web client and a web
server, for non-secure data transmissions. A web client (i.e. Internet browser on
a computer) sends a request to a web server to view a web page. The web
server receives that request and sends the web page information back to the
web client.

HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure). Used between a web client and a
web server, for secure data transmissions. Often used for sending credit card
transaction data or other private data from a web client (i.e. Internet browser on
a computer) to a web server.

FTP. Used between two or more computers. One computer sends data to or
receives data from another computer directly.

IP address
IP address is short for Internet Protocol (IP) address. An IP address is an identifier for
a computer or device on a TCP/IP network.
Currently there are two IP versions:

IPv4 (Internet Protocol Version 4): an address consists of 32 bits which limits
the address space to 4294967296 (232) possible unique addresses. The format
of an IPv4 address is a numeric address written as four numbers separated by
periods. Each number can be zero to 255. For example, 1.160.10.240 could be
an IPv4 address.

IPv6 (Internet Protocol Version 6) also call IP next generation: it includes

improvements over IPv4 such as a wider range of Internet addresses. An
address consists of 128 bits which limits the address space to 2 128 possible
unique addresses. You can see the format of an IPv6 address in the image
below.

Page 4

IES Gabriel Alonso de Herrera

Department of Technology

You can use Google search to find your IP address. Type "what is my IP address" and
Google will show the IP address of your computer.

Page 5

IES Gabriel Alonso de Herrera

Department of Technology

4. Internet evolution. Key dates

Watch the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDlr3USUwPU
Then take a look at the image on http://malonemediagroup.com/wpcontent/uploads/2014/02/historyoftheinternet-timeline.png
and answer the questions:

a) What is ARPANET
b) When was Google launched?
c) When was Gmail launched?
Further information on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hIQjrMHTv4
5. Social web tools
Social web tools (or social web technologies) are those that make it possible, even
easy, to collaborate, share, participate and communicate. Some of them are (at the
end of the unit, there is an exercise about these tools):

File storage and sharing

General purpose: Drive, Dropbox
Image: Pinterest, Google Photos
Video: Youtube, Vimeo
Music: Podomatic, Spotify
Presentation: Prezi
Document: Scribd
Page 6

IES Gabriel Alonso de Herrera

Department of Technology

On line office suite: Google Drive

Text document
Spreadsheet
Presentation

Instant Messaging: Whatsapp

Online bookmarking: Delicious

Social network
General purpose: Facebook, Twitter
Specialized: Linkedin

Blog: Wordpress

Wiki: Wikispaces

To know more about them and some examples, visit:

http://bcopened.org/resources/social-web-tools/
6. Synchronous and asynchronous communication tools
Synchronous communication occurs in real time and it demands all parties
involved in a conversation be present at the same time: videoconferencing, instant
messaging.
Asynchronous communication is not immediately received or responded to by
those involved. Both parties involved in the communication can interact with each
other at different times that are appropriate for them: : email, forum.

Page 7

IES Gabriel Alonso de Herrera

Department of Technology

7. New Technologies. Internet of things (IoT) and augmented reality (AR)

Internet of things:
The Internet of things (IoT) is the internetworking of physical devices, vehicles,
buildings and other items, embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators,
and network connectivity that enable these objects to collect and exchange data.
https://www.commoncraft.com/video/internet-things
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSIPNhOiMoE
Augmented reality
Augmented reality (AR) is a live view of a physical, real-world environment whose
elements are augmented (or supplemented) by computer-generated sensory input
such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data.
https://www.commoncraft.com/video/augmented-reality
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDNzTasuYEw

Page 8

IES Gabriel Alonso de Herrera

Department of Technology

Exercises
1. Find out your IP address
a) By asking your web browser
b) By using a terminal

Linux: ipconfig

Windows: ipconfig

2. Find out the IP address of a web page. Go to the terminal and write ping
google.com or ping [other url] to know its IP address (Control + C stops the ping
command in Linux). Write down three IP addresses:
a) google.com:
b) iesgaherrera.com:
c) .

3. Geolocation. Find out where a server or client is located by visiting

www.iplocation.net and introducing its IP address or url. Write down where these
three domains are placed:
a) google.com:
b) iesgaherrera.com:
c) .

4. Traceroute. Traceroute is a command you can use in a terminal to know the path
Internet packets follow to reach a specified destination. There are visual tools such
as http://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/visual-tracert/ Take a look at that tool by
trying some urls of your choice.
5. Search on the Internet about World Map of the Undersea Internet Cables. On an
online document, save some images and give some explanations.
6. Try to find information about big Internet cables this in our country
7. Below you have a list with some Social Web tools. Work in pairs and,
a) Open a text document in Google Docs to work on it from two different
computers.
b) In that text document describe each of them and give some examples. Add
three more tools.

Tool 1: Wiki

Tool 2: Weblog

Tool 3: Online Presentation

Tool 4: Instant Messaging

Tool 5: Online bookmarking

Page 9

IES Gabriel Alonso de Herrera

Department of Technology

Tool 6: Collaborative Writing

Tool 7: Media Sharing

Tool 8:

Tool 9:

Tool 10:

8. Try the following tools.

a) Online presentation: create a presentation with Prezi
b) Online bookmarking: create an account and add some bookmarks
c) File storage: music. Create and share a podcast with Podomatic or other similar
tool.
d) Scribd
9. Create a wiki.
10. Create a blog.

Page 10