Changes

==== What is the internet ====

==== What is the internet ====

If you want information about your bank balance, you can connect to your bank's computer from home and get the information that you want. There are many such computers in different organisations giving us different types of information. These computers are connected to one another, their network is called the internet. The internet is thus a physical network of millions of computers across the world, each of which has a unique identifier. Some of these computers act as 'servers', they store data which can be accessed by other computers. The millions of computers which are part of the Internet, is like a huge library with information on almost any issue. Apart from information, many of these computers also have applications or web tools, such as search engine, maps, translation, which have different purposes. The 'web-sites' we visit are nothing but folders of computers connected to the internet. 

If you want information about your bank balance, you can connect to your bank's computer from home and get the information that you want. There are many such computers in different organisations giving us different types of information. These computers are connected to one another, their network is called the internet. The internet is thus a physical network of millions of computers across the world, each of which has a unique identifier. Some of these computers act as 'servers', they store data which can be accessed by other computers. The millions of computers which are part of the Internet, constitute a huge library with information on almost any issue. Apart from information, many of these computers also have applications or web tools, such as search engine, maps, translation, which have different purposes.  

These computers communicate or share data with one another using the protocol called the [[wikipedia:Internet_protocol_suite|TCP-IP]], (transmission control protocol / internet protocol). As the name suggests, TCP/IP is the combination of TCP and IP protocols working together. Under TCP/IP each file being transported across the Internet is broken into smaller parts called "packets" by the server. Each packet is assigned an IP (Internet protocol) address of the computer it has to travel to. As the packet moves through the global network it is "switched" by a number of servers toward its destination, the requesting computer or "client" computer. These packets do not usually travel together on the internet. Packets from the same file may travel via different paths through different servers, but toward the same destination. This “splitting into packets” technology allows us to use the internet most efficiently. It means parts of a file can be shared across a number of phone lines instead of having to find one phone line to put a large file into. It is also hard to break the network, as the data will be routed around the trouble spot. In this respect TCP/IP can be likened to a group of cars which need to go to the same destination, but instead of all of them going on one road (which may be busy), each car can select a different road out of thousands of roads available. By picking the roads with least traffic, all cars can reach the destination in overall least time. The power of the internet to rapidly move information from any computer to any computer is because of the TCP/IP protocol.

These computers communicate or share data with one another using the protocol called the [[wikipedia:Internet_protocol_suite|TCP-IP]], (transmission control protocol / internet protocol). As the name suggests, TCP/IP is the combination of TCP and IP protocols working together. Under TCP/IP each file being transported across the Internet is broken into smaller parts called "packets" by the server. Each packet is assigned an IP (Internet protocol) address of the computer it has to travel to. As the packet moves through the global network it is "switched" by a number of servers toward its destination, the requesting computer or "client" computer. These packets do not usually travel together on the internet. Packets from the same file may travel via different paths through different servers, but toward the same destination. This “splitting into packets” technology allows us to use the internet most efficiently. It means parts of a file can be shared across a number of phone lines instead of having to find one phone line to put a large file into. It is also hard to break the network, as the data will be routed around the trouble spot. In this respect TCP/IP can be likened to a group of cars which need to go to the same destination, but instead of all of them going on one road (which may be busy), each car can select a different road out of thousands of roads available. By picking the roads with least traffic, all cars can reach the destination in overall least time. The power of the internet to rapidly move information from any computer to any computer is because of the TCP/IP protocol.  The TCP/IP protocol was invented by [[wikipedia:Vint_Cerf|Vincent Van Cerf]], [[wikipedia:Bob_Kahn|Robert Kahn]] and [[wikipedia:Louis_Pouzin|Louis Pouzin]].

The TCP/IP protocol was invented by [[wikipedia:Vint_Cerf|Vincent Van Cerf]], [[wikipedia:Bob_Kahn|Robert Kahn]] and [[wikipedia:Louis_Pouzin|Louis Pouzin]].

World wide web (www) is an application on the internet, which allows computers to access the Internet in the form of a web page, using an application called the web browser. There are millions of pages of shared information on the computers in the network, created by many people and organizations, in the form of websites. The 'web-sites' we visit are nothing but folders of computers connected to the internet.  A web site is a collection of related web pages. Web pages are identified by means of a URL (uniform resource locater), which is treated as the website address, usually beginning with “[http://%E2%80%9D http://”] .HTTP stands for hypertext transfer protocol, which is the method used for transferring web page information from the server to your computer. 

==== World wide web ====

===== Using a browser to access the world wide web =====

World wide web (www) is an application on the internet, which allows computers to access the Internet in the form of a web page, using an application called the web browser. There are millions of pages of shared information on the computers in the network, created by many people and organizations, in the form of 'web pages' accessed using a software application called a 'web browser'.

To access the web sites or web pages on the worldwide web, we need to connect to the internet (through a connectivity device) and use an application called the browser.  Web browsers allow a user to quickly and easily get information provided on many web pages at many websites.  We already saw that each website is a page on the Internet and has an address. We can either copy and paste the link directly in the address bar of a web browser. The browser opens one web page, which has links to other web sites / web pages which we can visit by clicking on the links. Each of the subsequent pages will also have many links which we can click on. Thus we can visualise the world wide web as a huge mansion with many rooms, each room having many doors. When we enter a room (open a web page), we can access the resources in that room. We can also go from that room to other rooms through the several doors that this room has (go from one web page to another web page by clicking on any of the links on the page we are in). The new room also would have many doors. Thus we can go through the mansion from room to room (web page to web page) through the door (web link) in each room. Though the entire web is very huge, we only access it one page at a time.  

Information can be accessed in multiple ways from the www and we need to know how to search for it. Sources of information, even if freely available on the Internet, needs to be acknowledged. Resources are available in different formats on the Internet- images, videos, audio files etc. We must be aware of Internet safety while accessing images, videos and other information on the Internet. We already saw that each website is a page on the Internet and has an address. We can either copy and paste the link directly in the address bar of a web browser.  

Initially the access to the world wide web was only for downloading, this was called Web 1.0. Subsequently the second generation of world wide web was evolved, called Web 2.0., where ordinary users can create their own materials and publish on the internet, using software tools like blog or wiki. A blog is like a e-journal and teachers can create their own e-journals for reflective practice using software tools such such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordPress WordPress].

This information network, called the World Wide Web, consists of web sites. A web site is a collection of related web pages. Web pages are identified by means of a URL (uniform resource locater), which is treated as the website address, usually beginning with “[http://%E2%80%9D http://”] (HTTP stands for hypertext transfer protocol, which is the method used for transferring web page information from the server to your computer. We connect to the Internet using a web browser and the browser opens one web page. This web page has links to other web sites / web pages which we can visit by clicking on the links. Each of the subsequent pages will also have many links which we can click on. Thus we can visualise the world wide web as a huge mansion with many rooms, each room having many doors. When we enter a room (open a web page), we can access the resources in that room. We can also go from that room to other rooms through the several doors that this room has (go from one web page to another web page by clicking on any of the links on the page we are in). The new room also would have many doors. Thus we can go through the mansion from room to room (web page to web page) through the door (web link) in each room. Thus though the entire web is very huge, we only access it one page at a time.  We can connect to the web and go from web page to web page using a software called the  web browser. Web browsers allow a user to quickly and easily get information provided on many web pages at many websites.  

We have moved further along now to collaborative creation of web pages, through online collaboration platforms. Now more and more processing can be done on the internet, where the data, results and analysis is stored the Internet and we can operate/ add/ access through various web based applications. This is called [[wikipedia:Cloud_computing|Cloud Computing]].

Initially the access to the www was only for downloading, this was called Web 1.0. Subsequently the second generation of www was evolved, called Web 2.0. , where ordinary users can create their own materials and publish on the Internet, using software tools like blog or wiki. A blog is like a e-journal and teachers can create their own e-journals for reflective practice using software tools such such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordPress WordPress].

The emergence of the internet and the web has changed the way we are accessing information. Getting data about something is not so difficult any more. The world wide web with its millions of web pages is thus the "'''Global Digital Library'''", which has resources on many topics. However, to harness this library, we need to know how to search for information on the web.  After accessing the resources, making meaning depends on our skills to evaluate and organize these resources. The resources available in the Global Digital Library can be organized into a meaningful personal digital library on our own computer, enabling self learning. This has an impact on the way we learn.

We have moved further along now to collaborative creation of web pages, through online collaboration platforms. Now more and more processing can be done on the Internet, where the data, results and analysis is stored the Internet and we can operate/ add/ access through various web based applications.  This is called [[wikipedia:Cloud_computing|Cloud Computing]].

Resources are available on almost all topics that may be of interest to a teacher in English. The same amount of information is not available in other languages,  Teachers need and can contribute to on-line resources in Kannada, to increase the local language resources on the web.

Sources of information, even if freely available on the Internet, needs to be acknowledged. Resources are available in different formats on the Internet- images, videos, audio files etc. We must be aware of Internet safety while accessing images, videos and other information on the Internet.  

The emergence of the internet and the web has changed the way we are accessing information. The internet is a network of thousands of computers, many of which 'serve' the network by providing data and services.  Getting data about something is not so difficult any more. All of these have a great impact on the way we learn. The world wide web with its millions of web pages is thus the "'''Global Digital Library'''", which has resources on many topics.  However, making meaning depends on our skills to evaluate and organize these resources. The resources available in the Global Digital Library can be organized into a meaningful personal digital library on our own computer, enabling self learning. Resources are available on almost all topics that may be of interest to a teacher in English. However, teachers need and can contribute to on-line resources in Kannada, to increase the local language resources on the web.

==== Connecting with one another ====     

==== Connecting with one another ====