Student book pages 181-187
To perform message transmission operations through email, the SMTP protocol (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is used and the POP3 protocol (Post Office Protocol version 3) is used for receiving and recovering emails in most cases, although the IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) is also used.
In any case, to send and receive messages you need an intermediary to provide the service. On the user side, you need a mail manager, also known as an email client, which will establish a dialogue with the email server. This is where emails are stored in the client’s account, among other services.
2.- Computer networks
The moment two computers are physically connected, a network is created. They may be connected by cable or by a wireless network like Wi-Fi.
When setting up a network, the first thing to do is to make sure that every computer’s resources are available to all network users. By resources we mean physical elements, such as printers, hard drives, and so on, in addition to the shared software. Software resources are not only available to programs and applications, but also to data and services in general.To set up a network, the first thing to do is know what devices will be integrated into it.
Look at the picture below that shows the typical components of a network:
Every network element with the possibility of sending or receiving information is called a node. Nodes are interconnected by data transmission cables or by a wireless signal.
A node can be:
- A workstation (a desktop computer, mobile telephone, tablet or laptop computer).
- A server, also called hosts, which act as core service nodes, offering these services to the rest of the network nodes.
- A connection element, normally switches or routers, that are in charge of distributing information between nodes.
2.- Internet services
Nowadays Internet access
is essential. Information is provided by different services, defined as all of
the programs, applications and protocols offered to the user. The main Internet
services are:
It is important to
remember that the Internet is not the same as the Web.
Internet is a means for
spreading information, and it is composed of multiple protocols that allow any
computer or device to access the information it provides. As a means for spreading
information, it is essentially a network of interconnected resources that use
the same communication protocols: the transmission control protocol (TCP) and
the Internet protocol (IP).
Within the Internet
there are multiple networks operating and, because of the services it offers,
the most extensive of them is the Web, known as the World Wide Web.
2.1.- Web browsing. Access to webpages and search engines
Searching for
information on the Web is one of the operations most frequently used by
individuals connected to the Internet.
In order to connect to
the Web, all you need to do is access the Internet, using a computer with a
browser and a router.
A browser is a
communications program that establishes a dialogue with the machine that
provides the information: the Web server. The protocol used in the
dialogue between the browser and the Web server is HTTP, or when using a secure
web HTTPS.
When you write a web
address (URL) in the browser, it makes a request to the server for it to send a
copy of the requested webpage, which is stored in the server.
The server will answer
with a message accepting the request and then send the information so that it
may be seen in the user’s browser. However, the server may reject the request,
in which case it sends a message explaining the type of error that has occurred.
Another common operation
is searching for content. To do so, the user has to access the webpage of a
search engine. Once the user has accessed the webpage, it will provide the
necessary search tools, normally a text box or form where you may type in what
you are looking for.
When the search engine’s
server receives the data, a specific piece of software or the ‘engine’ of the
search engine, will find all of the Web’s resources based on the data you have
entered, and it will try to index them in a relevant order or how closely they
match the search criteria.
2.2.- Email
One of the first services developed on the Internet was email. In
fact, sending messages between computers was actually done before Internet was
developed in 1969. Unlike the current email system, primitive email resembled
instant messaging more than emails.
Nowadays, email allows
us to send and receive all types of digital objects, such as text, documents,
photos and multimedia, and so on.
To perform message transmission operations through email, the SMTP protocol (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is used and the POP3 protocol (Post Office Protocol version 3) is used for receiving and recovering emails in most cases, although the IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) is also used.
In any case, to send and receive messages you need an intermediary to provide the service. On the user side, you need a mail manager, also known as an email client, which will establish a dialogue with the email server. This is where emails are stored in the client’s account, among other services.
2.3.- Instant messaging services
Instant messaging is possibly the second most widely used Internet
resource, after email. With the market explosion of smartphones and tablets,
these applications have multiplied in number. Just a decade ago, instant
message services were mostly limited to applications such as Hotmail Messenger,
Yahoo Messenger or AIM (America Online Instant Messenger). Nowadays, computers
have given way to instant messaging applications designed for smartphones and
iPhones such as Whatsapp, Hangouts, Line, Facebook Messenger, QQ Mobile,
WeChat, etc.
Like any means of data transmission, instant messaging
applications use a protocol to establish communication between connected users.
There are as many protocols developed by companies (propriety software) as
there are open source protocols, which are available to anyone who wants to
create a messaging system. The most popular open source protocol is ‘eXtensible
Messaging and Presence Protocol’, also known as XMPP, which Google or Facebook
chat messaging services use. These protocols can form part of a more extensive
service that includes voice, audio, video and location services.
2.4.-Forums
A forum is a topicbased
space where messages are written and read only by the participants in the
forum. In a forum, conversations are discussions on topics, with opinions and
information shared using short messages.
Forums may be public, in
which there are no restrictions in participation; protected, in which only
users who have registered can participate in conversations, or private, in
which participants may only access conversations of the forum when the
administrator of the forum has allowed them to become members. Administrators,
or even members with the role of moderator, have to make sure conversations
follow the participation and behaviour rules established.
3.-
The World Wide Web and Web 2.0
In 1989, the researcher Tim Berrners-Lee and his team at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) developed a specific network to operate on the Internet: the World Wide Web. This consisted of a communications system that improved information exchange.
His original idea was to apply the system to communications in his area of research, but he soon realised that, since the network was equipped with different protocols to establish simple dialogue between the user computer (client) and information source (server), it could be used in any area.
3.1.- How the Web works
What makes the WWW network so useful is the possibility of using it on any type of operating system as long as the computer has the right programs on both ends of the communication channel. The transmission protocol used is HTTP (HyperText Transmission Protocol), which acts as any other program managed by the operating system of the computer on the network.
Unlike the networks that operated on the Internet at the time, the WWW network allows any user with a basic knowledge of programming to access content stored on web servers.
Users find that through an application, the browser, they can open a window with content stored in pages and portals from which they can download files without having to establish any special communication with the server. The effectiveness of the HTTP protocol allows any user to ‘browse’ the Web.
See how in the diagram below the dialogue established between the user and the web server form part of a loop of requests and responses. In one of the responses, the server sends the content of the webpage requested. However, notice how the HTTP acts on a first level, and then the TCP/IP protocols make the information flow through the Internet when it is sent, and that the network packets received are integrated into one message.
Any computer programmer could upload a page to the Web and users would visit it. Communication was unidirectional and Web users were merely readers or consumers of information that interested them in one way or another.
At the beginning of the 21st century, it was thought that more could be done with the Web if users could interact with the information. Until then, they could only use instant messaging, email and forums to share information, but this was limited to mainly textual information.
Web 2.0 is considered an evolution of the original Web in that it gave the user the ability to interact with the Web and, above all, create and upload content. As a result, we now have blogs, wikis and social networks. On the diagram below, look at all the possibilities offered by the Web 2.0 to create digital resources.
When speaking of collaborative work, we are referring to software tools that allow people to work in collaboration with each other regardless of their geographic location and asynchronously; in other words, they do not have to be in the same place at the same time to work together.
3.2.- The leap to Web 2.0
The first use of the Web in its original version was a revolution in communications. However, establishing communications basically consisted of the user accessing information in webpage format from a web server and seeing it on their browser. Therefore, the Web was an information service.Any computer programmer could upload a page to the Web and users would visit it. Communication was unidirectional and Web users were merely readers or consumers of information that interested them in one way or another.
At the beginning of the 21st century, it was thought that more could be done with the Web if users could interact with the information. Until then, they could only use instant messaging, email and forums to share information, but this was limited to mainly textual information.
Web 2.0 is considered an evolution of the original Web in that it gave the user the ability to interact with the Web and, above all, create and upload content. As a result, we now have blogs, wikis and social networks. On the diagram below, look at all the possibilities offered by the Web 2.0 to create digital resources.
3.3.- Collaborative work
Web 2.0 offers an infinite amount of possibilities to create and share your own work. This is the essence of collaborative work, or groupware.When speaking of collaborative work, we are referring to software tools that allow people to work in collaboration with each other regardless of their geographic location and asynchronously; in other words, they do not have to be in the same place at the same time to work together.
Cooperative work
We are going to use 1-2-4 Cooperative learning
1. The teacher makes a question.
2. Each student individually answers the question.
3. They share their answers with their partner (twin) in
order to have a complete answer.
4. Then, each pair shares their information with the other
pair of the group to make the answer better.
5. The teacher ask a person of each group of four to give
their answers in order to have a complete answer in the big group.
Activity 1: What system do you think the Web uses to direct and locate the destination of information packages?
Activity 2: Do you think the protocols used to access webpages are the same as those used to send and receive emails?
Activity 3: Based on the diagram and the information you have just read, can the Web and the Internet be considered the same network?
Activity 2: Do you think the protocols used to access webpages are the same as those used to send and receive emails?
Activity 3: Based on the diagram and the information you have just read, can the Web and the Internet be considered the same network?
Activity 4: Blogs and wikis are used as platforms to show information to the user, but what do you think the differences are between them? How could you use each of them in your classwork?
Activity 5: Could you use any of these tools without an Internet connection? Justify your answer.
