The Internet: Student Handout

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Instructional Strategies

The following handouts can be used with this unit to enhance learning. Each handout is briefly described below. To see the actual handout, click the link "handout."

Email

This handout shows students the path an e-mail message goes to get from one person to another.

Did You Get the Message?

This handout provides a great group activity for teaching students the importance of turning various kinds of media—such as sound or video—into an agreed-upon protocol for transmission on a network.

Put It in Your Packet

This handout provides a group activity for helping students understand how information is transmitted in packets. Students play the role of packets to learn how information can be divided into packets and reassembled by a computer in the proper order no matter how they are received. The activity also provides students with a firsthand chance to learn about bandwidth using the doorway to your classroom.

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Introduction to Computers

This unit provides a short history of the computer, introduces the four major components of a computer, and compares computer "brains" with the human brain.

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Circuits and Switches

This unit teaches students about electricity, electric circuits, and the difference between mechanical and nonmechanical (transistors) switches.

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Digital Information

This unit explores the differences between the decimal and binary number systems and how the information is represented and processed using binary code.

Microprocessor

Microprocessors

This unit investigates how microprocessors process information, demonstrates the size and the complexity of their circuitry, and explains how they are manufactured.

Globe

The Internet

This unit defines the Internet, then explains the World Wide Web, hypertext, URLs, packets, bandwidth, connection choices, search engines, and the need to critically evaluate the quality of the information found on the Web.

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Technology and Society

This unit discusses the impact technological advances have on people's lives, with examples from the past and current day. Several readings provide insights on ways the digital age is already affecting our lives, the accelerating rate of change, and what we might expect to see in the near future.