Unit 1 - Activity 2: I.C.T.

Terminology
(dsbn.elearningontario.ca)
Sean Climenhage
Technology to Go: The Evolution of Mobile Communication

Mobile computing A device is portable and capable of wireless communication. In other

words no cables are needed! These wireless transmissions can be through satellite uplink, radio
frequency, or even laser, but the most effective and modern method is through a Wireless
Fidelity (WiFi) network.

WiFi Allows mobile computing devices to connect through a Wireless Access Point (WAP),
which passes data along to the internet or local network..

WAP A device (router) that emits WiFi for a surrounding area. If in this area you can connect
to the Wireless internet source and use the internet or a local network.

PDA In recent years, there has been a great influx of new and smaller mobile computing
devices such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDSs). PDAs are handheld devices originally
developed for the managing of phone numbers and appointments, but are gradually becoming a
mini version of the notebook computer. In 1999, a Canadian company created its own PDA
called the Blackberry. This product was an instant hit because it was able to connect to the
internet from anywhere. Many business people consider the Blackberry a handheld office.

Why are mobile computing devices so popular?

The success of mobile commuting devices is mostly due to their convenience. They are small
and lightweight, can send and receive email and documents, and can look up anything from
maps and addresses to movie show times on the internet. Modern phones and even the newest
portable gaming systems are reaping the benefits of this technology to connect people to the
internet and to each other.

Sending Electronic Mail

What are some of the differences/advantages/disadvantages between web-based
email and an e-mail software that can be installed on your computer?
There are several software tools that sacrifice web-based convenience in order to
eliminate the disadvantages of webmail. Although email software will only work on a
computer that it has been installed on, there are many benefits:

Much faster to use than webmail;

Storage is limited only by the size of your hard drive;

Email and attachments are easier to manipulate; and

Fewer privacy and security issues than webmail.

There are dozens of available email programs, but there are a few that are widely used.
Outlook Express is the most popular email software because it is automatically installed
on any computer running Microsoft Windows. Other popular email applications include
Eudora and Thunderbird.
Networks
LAN There are different sizes and configurations of network. A Local Area Network (LAN) is
potentially the smallest. LANs are usually confined to one area like an office building, but can be
much smaller. If a friend brought her computer over and connected it to yours, then you'd have
your very own LAN.

Intranet An intranet is potentially larger than a LAN. An intranet is a private network, i.e., not
just anyone can use it. For example, a retail store might have a website on the internet that
shows the cost price of their inventory. The store wouldn't want non-employees to see these
details, so they only let employees into the network if they know the password. Think of an
intranet as a private, walled-off section of a computer network.

WAN Wide Area Networks, or WANs, are the largest type of network. They can have many
computers located in different buildings, cities, or even countries. Your school board probably
has a WAN that gives internet access to all its schools. The largest and most famous WAN is
the internet itself.

Internet The internet is an enormous network of somewhere between 350 and 500 million
computers.

WWW The World Wide Web (WWW) is the part of the internet that contains viewable
content such as webpages.

Webpage A webpage is a single web document containing text, links, pictures, and other
multimedia.

Website A website is a collection of webpages, usually maintained by the same person or

organization. The example below shows the webpage for students on the Ontario Ministry of
Education website.

Web Browser To view webpages, you use a web browser; think of your browser as your
gateway to the World Wide Web. Web browsers are software applications that transform
information from the internet into webpages that you can view on your own computer.
Here are some items (numbered from the picture above) that are common to web
browsers:
Button Name

Purpose

Keyboard
Shortcut

Back

This will take you to the previous page you've

visited.

ALT-left

Forward

If you've gone back to a previous page, i.e., with

the Back button, this will bring you forward again
to the page you were using.

ALT-right

Stop

This will stop any data from downloading from a

webpage, i.e., if it is taking too long to load, or if
you visited the page by mistake.

Esc

Refresh

If data on a page is changing over time, hit refresh

to load a fresh version of that page.

F5 or CTRL-R

Home

Return to your homepage. This is the default page

that your browser shows whenever you load it.

CTRL-Home

Favourites
(Often called
bookmarks)

This opens up your list of bookmarks. (Website

addresses that you've saved so that you can visit
them later).

Varies
according to
browser

URL

This is the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of the

webpage that is currently being visited. URL

basically means: web page address. Any page on
the World Wide Web needs a unique URL so that a
browser can find it on the internet.
Almost all URLs will start with HTTP://www. HTTP
stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol, which is a
set of rules that allows your own computer to ask
for webpages from other computers on the
internet. WWW, as we've already learned, stands
for World Wide Web. In other words, virtually every
time you look at a web page, your browser is using
HTTP to view the WWW. The rest of the URL tells
you what specific page you're looking at.

The address bar

Type the URL that you want to visit here, and then
press enter.

Links

Links are typically underlined and/or a different

colour than regular text. If you click on a link, your
browser will take you to a new webpage indicated
by that link.