Overview: Networking and the Internet

Overview: Networking and the Internet

Context:

Humans are inherently social and connected creatures, and this drives much of the technology we create. In 1800 BC Chinese soldiers used smoke signals along the Great Wall of China to communicate dangers over hundreds of miles, while in the middle east carrier pigeons regular delivered mail as early as the 1100s. In India, in the 21st century, some police departments still used homing pigeons to communicate during natural disasters until in 2002 this service was replaced by the Internet. Letters sent in Eur

At the core of this need to communicate over distances are two key elements, the need to communicate with accuracy and often the need to keep communications private. Just like Native American Code Talkers created a coding system based on their languages to encode messages during World War II, today cybersecurity experts work to develop new techniques to ensure communication of sensitive information is private and safe.

Definitions:

Networking is the connection of computing devices so that information can be transferred between them. 

Resources:

  1. Code Talkers 
  2. Fun Fact: The word Hello was invented by Thomas Edision, while Alexander Graham Bell wanted to use Ahoy as a phone greeting. 

    • Related Articles

    • Domains of Facilitation

      OVERVIEW
    • Overview: Data and Analysis

      At the core of computing lies data and analysis. The earliest computers were designed to handle repeated calculations. According to Virginia Computer Science SOL Introduction, “Data and Analysis involves the data that exist and the Data Analysis that ...
    • Overview: Computing Systems

      Context: This strand focuses on the hardware in computers. In computer science, hardware is not just about memorizing components, but rather asking the fundamental question - what makes something a computer? As computers get smaller and invade more ...
    • Variables

      Definition Computers store information in binary.  A series of 1's and 0's represent numbers, letters, pictures, and everything else the computer stores. The computer tracks all of these locations so that the data can be retrieved when it is needed. ...
    • ASCII

      Computer science has lots invisible systems at work behind the scenes. These are the rules for how computer programs work, data is stored, and how devices will communicate over networks. One rule about computers and programming is the need to create ...