State what you learnt from the module, making reference to two objectives of the module, and cite content and exercises from the module to illustrate your answer. (250 words)
In module 2 I learnt about the Internet and the history of its creation. I leant about its early beginnings with ARPANET thirty years ago up to the present day and the World Wide Web (WWW). One objective of the module was to gain 'a general understanding of how the technology behind the Internet works' [1]. The module described this very well with links, diagrams, flash animation and practical exercises. One of these exercises was Exercise 4.5 Addresses, packets and routes which gave me an insight as to how my computer is recognised by its IP (Internet Protocol) address. This address is used to convey packets of information from my PC to another on the Internet.
From this module I also gained 'familiarity with some of the personalities whose thinking and work led, directly or indirectly, to the creation of the Internet and the WWW' [1]. For this objective I learnt about such personalities as Paul Baran who invented the distributed network and message switching enabling computers to communicate with each other. An online tutorial conference took place during this module where we discussed what factors make a persons contributions important and this discussion helped me choose Paul Baran as the personality I considered made the most significant contribution to the development of the Internet.
References
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