Living in The I.T Era [PDF]

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G.E. 111 (Living in the IT Era)

COURSE GUIDE Course: GE 111 LIVING IN THE IT ERA Semester: FIRST School Year 2020-2021 Class Schedule: Instructor: Course Description: Science, culture and ethics of Information Technology, its various usage and applications, as well as its influence on modern living and human relationships, and uses for personal, professional, and social advancement. Course Outline SCHEDULE TOPIC Week 1 Chapter 3 The Internet and the World Wide Web Oct. 19-23 Lesson 1 More of Your Internet Service Provider Week 2 Lesson 2 Oct. 26-30 Web Search Techniques and Evaluating Information Found on the Web Week 3 Nov. 2-6 Lesson 3 E-Commerce Week 4 Nov. 9-13 Lesson 4 Web 2.0 and the Intrusive Internet Week 5 Chapter 4 Challenges of Living in the IT Era Nov. 16-20 Lesson 1 Truth and Security Issues Week 6 Lesson 2 Nov. 23-26 Quality-of-life Issues Week 7-8 Chapter 5 Nov.30-Dec. Policing the Internet 11 Course Requirements: Accomplished module exercises Course Learning Outcomes: Required Output LO1. Explain the relationship between Completed exercises on the module information technology and the modern society, Final Examination (Written) and identify how the Internet affects individuals; LO2. Describe and relate the transition of information technology from the old media to the new; LO3. Identify the dark and light sides of an internet-driven society; LO4. Examine issues involving convergent media and the impact to human health of its intensive use; LO5. Discuss the different policies over responsible social media use and apply these to personal experiences. Course Policies: Grading System Students should notify the teacher right away if 50% Major Examination there are concepts that need clarification. This 50% Activity Assessments/ Requirements is applicable to other instructions. Students should be able to submit or perform 1|Page

G.E. 111 (Living in the IT Era) the requirements indicated in the module. Students should follow the announced schedule of submission of the completed module. The date of submission will be set by the teacher.

CHAPTER 3: THE INTERNET AND THE WORLD WIDE WEB 2|Page

G.E. 111 (Living in the IT Era)

Lesson 1. Knowing More of Your Internet Service Provider (Week 1-2. 6 hrs.) What is your way of connecting to the Internet today? Do you know of other ways for you to be able to get connected to the Internet? Do you know what mbps means and how that affects your upload and download of files? In this lesson, we will try to look at concepts related to our Internet connections. Learning Goals: a. describe the ways in how we can connect to the Internet today; b. make conclusions on the performance of their Internet Service Provider; c. cite the importance of this lesson. Activating Prior Knowledge Complete the table below. Please do not answer the last column yet. You should answer only the first two columns from the left to the center BEFORE you start reading the text. Answer the third column after you have read the text. What do I KNOW of Internet What do I WANT to know What did I LEARN about connectivity? about it? Internet connectivity?

Today the world of the internet permits activities hardly imaginable a dozen years ago. Indeed, everything is connected to everything—from cellphones to cameras to car navigation systems. Because of its standard interfaces and low rates, the internet has been the great leveler for communications—just as the personal computer was for computing. The table below is just a glimpse of how Internet works in our lives. The basis for the internet began in 1969 as ARPANET (for ARPA, the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the U.S. Department of Defense), linked together four computers at different universities and defense contractors. From there the network expanded to 62 computers in 1974, 500 computers in 1983, and 28,000 in 1987. However, it still remained the domain of researchers and academics, and it was still all text —no graphics, video, or sound. Not until the development of the World Wide Web in the early 1990s, which made multimedia available on the internet, and the first browser (for locating web pages), which opened the web to commercial uses, did the global network really take off. Not everyone was interested in the

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G.E. 111 (Living in the IT Era) internet—indeed a third of adults says they simply don’t want it, 13% can’t get access, and 9% find it too difficult. Today, the world cannot seem to survive without it. Maybe you know how to connect to a Wi-Fi or your mobile data connection but what are our options for Internet access? How do we measure the strength of our connection? We already know that to connect to the internet, we need three things: an access device, such as a personal computer with a modem or your Android phones; a means of connection, such as a telephone line, cable hookup, or wireless capability; and an internet access provider, such as an internet service provider (ISP), a commercial online service provider, or a wireless internet service provider. In general terms, bandwidth, or channel capacity, is an expression of how much data—text, voice, video, and so on—can be sent through a communications channel in a given amount of time. When someone says that you have a low bandwidth. That means that your capacity to load data is slow. The bandwidth type of data transmission that allows only one signal at a time is called baseband transmission. When several signals can be transmitted at once, it’s called broadband transmission. Broadband —very high speed—connections include various kinds of highspeed wired connections (such as coaxial and fiber-optic) as well as DSL, cable, and satellite and other wireless connections, discussed shortly. THE PHYSICAL CONNECTION: DO YOU PREFER WIRED OR WIRELESS? What are your choices of a physical connection to the Internet? A lot depends on where you live. Principal means of connection are (1) telephone (dial-up) modem; (2) several highspeed phone lines—ISDN, DSL, and T1; (3) cable modem; and (4) wireless—satellite and other through-the-air links. LET’S TALK ABOUT YOUR DATA TRANSMISSION SPEEDS Data is transmitted in characters or collections of bits. A bit, is the smallest unit of information used by computers. Today’s data transmission speeds are measured in bits, kilobits, megabits, and gigabits per second: • bps: A computer with an older modem might have a speed of 28,800 bps, which is considered the minimum speed for visiting websites with graphics. The bps stands for bits per second. (Eight bits equals one character, such as A, 3, or #.) • Kbps: This is the most frequently used measure; kilobits per second, or Kbps, are 1 thousand bits per second. The speed of a modem that is 28,800 bps might be expressed as 28.8 Kbps. • Mbps: Faster means of connection are measured in megabits per second, or Mbps —1 million bits per second. • Gbps: At the extreme are gigabits per second, Gbps —1 billion bits per second. Remember that, “bits” and “bytes” are different. While bits refer to the basic unit of information, a byte is a collection of “bits” that work as one unit. One byte is equivalent to eight bits. UPLOADING & DOWNLOADING It is important to know these terms because the number of bits affects how fast you can upload and download information from a remote computer. Download is the transmission of data from a remote computer to a local computer, as from a website to your own PC. Upload is the transmission of data from a local computer to a remote computer, as from your PC to a website you are constructing. 4|Page

G.E. 111 (Living in the IT Era) Wired Connection is the avenue for you to be able to connect to the Internet through cables and wires. Its types are: 1. Narrowband (Dial-Up Modem): Low Speed but Inexpensive & Widely Available Modem is short for MOdulator-DEModulator. It provides the interface between the digital computer system and the telephone. It acts as the bridge where the signal from your computer is modulated to the telephone line and demodulated from the telephone line to a computer. The telephone line that you use for voice calls is still the cheapest means of online connection and is available everywhere. These days, the modem is generally installed inside your computer, but there are also external modems. The modem is attached to the telephone wall outlet. Most standard modems today have a maximum speed of 56 Kbps but that does not mean that you will be sending and receiving data at that rate. The modem in your computer must negotiate with the modems used by your internet access provider, the regional, national, or wireless organization or business that connects you to the internet. Your provider may have modems operating at slower speeds, such as 28.8 Kbps. In addition, lower-quality phone lines or heavy traffic during peak hours—such as 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. in residential areas—can slow down your rate of transmission. One disadvantage of a telephone modem is that while you’re online you can’t use that phone line to make voice calls unless you’ve installed special equipment. In addition, people who try to call you while you’re using the modem will get a busy signal. 2. High-Speed Phone Lines: More Expensive but Available in Most Cities The first phone line might have a slow loading and so to get some relief, you could enhance your POTS —“plain old telephone system”— connection with a high-speed adaptation. Among the choices are ISDN, DSL, and T1, available in most major cities, though not in rural and many suburban areas. A. ISDN LINE. ISDN stands for Integrated Services Digital Network consists of hardware and software that allow voice, video, and data to be communicated over traditional copper-wire telephone lines. ISDN is not as fast as DSL, cable, or T1 and is expensive. B. DSL LINE. Perhaps you are familiar with PLDT, My DSL. DSL stands for digital subscriber line and uses regular phone lines, a DSL modem, and special technology to transmit data in megabits per second. Incoming data is significantly faster than outgoing data. That is, your computer can receive data at the rate of 1.5–10 Mbps, but it can send data at only 128 Kbps–1.5 Mbps. A big advantage of DSL is that it is always on (so you don’t have to make a dial-up connection) and, unlike cable, its transmission rate is relatively consistent. There is one big drawback to DSL: You have to live within 3.3 miles of a phone company central switching office, because the access speed and reliability degrade with distance. C. T1 LINE. A T1 line, essentially is a traditional trunk line that carries 24 normal telephone circuits and has a transmission rate of 1.5 to 6 Mbps. Generally, T1 lines are leased by corporate, government, and academic sites. Another high-speed line, the T3 line, transmits at 6–45 Mbps (the equivalent of about 672 simultaneous voice calls) and costs about $4,000 or more a month. T1 and T3 lines are commonly used by businesses connecting to the internet, by internet access providers, and in the internet high-speed transmission lines. 3. Cable Modem: Close Competitor to DSL What are the advantages and disadvantages of a cable modem connection? 5|Page

G.E. 111 (Living in the IT Era) If DSL’s 11 minutes to move a 6-minute video sounds good, 2 minutes sounds even better. That’s the rate of transmission for cable modems, which can transmit outgoing data at about 1.4 Mbps and incoming data at up to 30 Mbps. (The common residential rate is 3mbps). A cable modem connects a personal computer to a cable-TV system that offers an internet connection. The advantage of a cable modem is that, like a DSL connection, it is always on. However, unlike DSL, you don’t need to live near a telephone switching station. A disadvantage, however, is that you and your cable-TV-viewing neighbors are sharing the system and consequently, during peak-load times, your service may be slowed to the speed of a regular dial-up modem. Also, using an internet connection that is always on—and that, in the case of cable, you share with other people—invites outside interference with your computer. WIRELESS CONNECTIONS 1. Satellite Wireless Connection If you live in a rural area and are tired of the molasses-like speed of your cranky local phone system, you might consider taking to the air, if you have no obstructions like trees. With a pizza-size satellite dish on your roof or on the side of your house, you can send data at the rate of about 512 Kbps and receive data at about 1.5 Mbps from a communications satellite, a space station that transmits radio waves called microwaves from earth-based stations. Satellite internet connections are always on. To surf the internet using this kind of connection, you need an internet access provider that supports two-way satellite transmission. You will also have to lease or purchase satellite-access hardware, such as a dish. 2. Wi-Fi More and more people are using laptop computers, smart cellphones, and personal digital assistants to access the internet through wireless networks, which use radio waves to transmit data. Wi-Fi is short for Wireless Fidelity, and the name given to any of several standards— so-called 802.11 standards—set by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) for wireless transmission. One standard type, 802.11b, permits wireless transmission of data at up to 54 Mbps for 300–500 feet from an access point, or hot spot, a station that sends and receives data to and from a Wi-Fi network; 802.11n can transmit up to 140 Mpbs. Many airports, hotels, libraries, convention centers, and fast-food facilities offer so-called hotspots —public access to Wi-Fi networks. The hotspot can get its internet access from DSL, cable modem, T1 local area network, dial-up phone service, or any other method. Once the hotspot has the internet connection, it can broadcast it wirelessly. Laptops are commonly used for Wi-Fi internet connections; they must be equipped with the necessary Wi-Fi hardware, however. 3. Mobile data connections The most popular way of connecting to the Internet is through mobile data connection provided by telecommunication company. The table below shows the comparison of download speeds on various networks. The icon column refers to what you’ll most likely see in the notification bar of your smartphone when using one of these networks. Look at your SmartPhone, which of the icons below is seen in your signal notication? Generation Icon Technology Maximum Typical Download Download Speed Speed 2G (second G GPRS 0.1 Mbit/s