Trends, Networks, and Critical Thinking in the 21st Century

Communication Technologies and Education

Among all areas of computer technology, telecommunication media such as the

networks and the Internet have the fastest growth today. It has gained popularity due to its
usefulness across all computer technologies. The networks and the Internet provide the
connection needed for communication. Since teaching and learning are about communication
and connection, telecommunication media provide a big opportunity for accessibility to
resources, tools for teaching and learning activities, and interaction within and beyond
classrooms.

The Networks and the Internet

Telecommunication is defined simply as communication at a distance (Merriam-
Webster). One of the oldest telecommunication media was the analog telephone. With an
analog telephone, sounds can be transmitted through electrical waves from one place to
another. In modern settings, telecommunication is described as a process of connecting two or
more computing devices for data transfers. To be specific this is referring to connections within
communication networks that use digital signals. As the networks grow larger it is then creating
a massive connection, we called the Internet. The Internet is connecting computer devices in
different networks around the globe. Let’s discuss the networks and the Internet more and how
they can be used in an educational setting.

The Networks
The network is a pool of computer devices (hardware) that are programmed (software)
to connect and communicate to each other to share information. The network needs a
communication system to work. The basic understanding of the network is that there is a
sender, receiver, and a channel that connects them. A computer device can be the sending
device, receiving device or both sending and receiving device, or a channel device (or it is
called transmission device). For example, you can use the network to send data to a network
printer. The computer you are using is a sending device, a network printer is a receiving device.
Or you can use the network to have chatting interactions, your computer and the computer you
are interacting with are then both sending and receiving devices. The connection that enables
these two examples is called the channel device.

Network Channel
Channel devices work to transmit data between the sender and receiver. Channel
devices are called transmission media. The most common one will be the twisted-pair cable it
is used commonly for standard telephone lines. Other transmission media are the coaxial cable,
fiber-optic cable, microwave transmission, communication satellites, and wireless transmissions.
Also within the network channel is the device called modem. Telecommunication transmission
today is using both analog and digital signals. Analog signal uses electric wave to transmit
voices and digital signal uses electric pulse that represents data. Since telephone lines are
using analog technology and computers using digital technology there is a need for a modem to
convert the signals from analog to digital or vice versa. Modem stands for modulate/
demodulate, converting a digital signal to a sound signal (analog) and then back to a digital
signal.

The Network Types

There are different types of networks. First, you have the local area networks (It is
known as LAN) that cover a limited geographical area. This could be within a building (group of
buildings) or a campus. A local area network consists of various computing devices that
connect. A school can use a local area network to support its communication system.
Trends, Networks, and Critical Thinking in the 21st Century

There is also a wide area network (Known as WAN) that covers an even wider
geographical area.
This could be district-wide or even city-wide. A wide area network is composed of
various smaller local area networks organized to communicate with each other. In an
educational setting, this can be used to connect individual schools (that have their own LAN)
within its district.
All of these networks will require different transmission media to support their
connections. The trend today is using wireless transmissions for local area networks. It is called
Wireless LAN (WLAN). For wider areas, the use of telephone cable (twisted-pair), coaxial
and fiber-optic cables are commonly used. We will discuss the Internet as a global network in
another section.

Benefits of Network
In an educational setting, the networks can be used for various functions to support both
academic and administrative tasks. A school network usually has the following benefits: a)
Sharing, b) communications, c) Access. Some of the benefits are focus on a standalone network
and others are the opportunity to connect with a wider network which is the Internet.

A. Sharing Benefit. The school network can be used for sharing various resources.
Schools can set up centralized storage for a resource data center that will allow file
sharing between teachers and staff. Schools also can use the network to share software
and hardware. For example, a network printer in a school can be shared with many
teachers. School may not be able to provide a specific software for each teacher, but
instead, it can purchase a limited number of software licenses and then share it through
the network for teachers to take turns using them.

B. Communications Benefit. The school network can be used as a tool for communication
and collaboration. School can set an internal communication system using tools such as
email, chatroom, forum, an electronic board within its local area network. With an
Internet connection on the school network, this communication system can go beyond
school premises. Connecting teacher and student and also providing communication to
other organizations.

C. Access Benefit. A very important benefit of school network is accessibility to the

Internet that provide vast unlimited educational resources for teaching and learning. This
access provides learning beyond the wall of the classroom.

The Internet
The Internet is a network of networks. It is the world’s largest network. If a network is
a pool of computer devices, then the Internet is the worldwide collection of those networks.
Thus, this confirms that there is no one owner of the Internet. Internet is constituted by various
networks that agree to connect to make a massive network. However, the connections of
networks within countries are made possible by telecom companies. Today there are billions of
computers connected to the Internet and this rate is increasing fast as access to the Internet
has become widely available at an affordable price.

Benefits of the Internet

The Internet provides unlimited possibilities in society today. The Internet has similar
benefits with the network however, it is more enhanced. For most,
1. The Internet provides access to tremendous unlimited information, and for educational
settings this unlimited resources for teaching and learning.
Trends, Networks, and Critical Thinking in the 21st Century

2. This also means access to business dealing and transactions for administrative tasks,
access to online education, and many more.
3. The Internet connects and converges people from around the world for one-to-one and
one-to-many, and many-to-many ways of communication.
4. The Internet provides a much larger, wider, and complex way of sharing data and
information.

The History of the Internet

The history of the Internet may have a humble beginning but it has remarkable growth.
The internet started as a military project led Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA) for
the department of defense of the United States of America. The purpose of the project is to
experiment with ways to connect a computer to share information and for military defense. This
is to address the situation in case there will be nuclear war during the cold war in the 1960s.
The idea is to be able to still have a network to control nuclear weapons just in case part of the
systems in various cities in the U.S. are destroyed because of nuclear war or natural disaster.
The project was successful and launched in 1969 when there was a connection established by
four computers in four different areas in the U.S. This was the first network and it was called
ARPANET.
ARPNET continues to be the network for military used. After this, there were several
research on networks done by various institutions, one of them was notably by the National
Science Foundation who created NSFNET. It was one of the biggest networks during its time
similar to ARPANET. To support NSFNET in promoting advanced research and education
networking, the National Science Foundation created several backbone networks nationwide. In
1986, National Science Foundation connected its NSFNET to ARPANET. According to many
kinds of literature, the connection of these two giant networks was considered the first Internet.
Since then the Internet grew, and today there are millions of networks connected to the Internet.
The growth of the Internet has also been enhanced by the growth of computer technologies and
other Internet features such as email, chatrooms, the Web, etc.

How the Internet Works

Internet works similarly to network. There is the sender, receiver, and channel for the
transmission. When data is transmitted for example email messages, or documents or graphics,
etc. the data is turned into small pieces called data packets. Each packet will have the address
of the destination (receiver) and also the address of the sender. These packets that contain the
data will then travel through different ways (faster and best available route) and then
reassemble when they reach the destination. The difference with a local network is that since
data will be going out of the local area network it needs to have an extra layer of the address of
the destination. The address is called the Internet Protocol address (IP address).
The channel or communication protocol that helps the transmission of those data
packets from sender to receiver is called Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol
(TCP/IP). When data packets travel to the destination, they may go over various networks. Each
of these networks is usually owned by a telecommunication company called Internet Service
Provider (ISP).
For a school to connect to the local area network to the Internet, may need to ask the
service of this service provider. Schools need to pay for Internet service for this. These ISP
companies are the ones who will make the connection to other ISP companies. The connection
is country to country connection by underground cables or through the ocean (seabed).
The internet provider usually has a different kind of Internet connection. You have the
dial-up connection, considered as the old method. There are also the broadband
connections: digital subscriber line (DSL) connection and a cable connection that provide
faster connections using various wire options (twisted-par, coaxial, or fiber-optic), cellular
Trends, Networks, and Critical Thinking in the 21st Century

connection is using cellular transmission example will be 3G, 4G and now 5G connections. And
also satellites connections for those living in a remote areas. These connection service offerings
come also with different kinds of Internet speed and price range. A school may have to consider
what kind of connections suitable to support its local area network.

The Internet Services

To fully use the Internet service, we need to understand the available services that
Internet can bring. The Internet provides various features for service. Each of these features
provides different functionality. Let’s talk about several types of services the Internet offers.

The Web. The Web is the most popular service of the Internet. It is called the face of the
Internet because through the Web, a user can surf various information (text, graphics, video,
sounds, etc.). The search engine on the Web makes it easier to navigate and search for
relevant information. The next chapters will be dedicated to discussing the Web in detail and its
implication for an educational setting.

E-Mail. Another popular Internet service is Electronic Mail (E-Mail). E-Mail was created
by Raymond “Ray” Tomlinson in 1971. The E-Mail system was first running on ARPANET at the
time of its creation. Now, E-Mail service has been used widely in the world. Tomlinson’s E-Mail
project has redefined communication today. E-Mail is an important communication tool for
schools for both academic and administrative tasks. A good feature of E-Mail is the ability to do
a mailing list allowing the message to be sent to a group of people.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP). This is an Internet standard used for file exchange over
the Internet. It was used for uploading and downloading files from one computer to another. This
is an old Internet service that has been very useful. Even though it is no longer popular, but the
idea still lives until today. Now, there is Internet storage that allows you to upload, download and
exchange files on the Web. You can also create a synchronous backup from the computer to the
cloud using iCloud, or google drive, or others.

Instant Messaging and Chat Rooms. Instant messaging was popularized by AOL and
yahoo messenger before. It was an Internet service that allows real-time Internet
communication service between two people. Similarly, this shares the same service as the
chatroom. The difference is that the chat room allows more than one user. This is a very popular
service today. Loved by the young and old. In the educational setting, instant messaging and
chat rooms are used for class communications.

Internet Telephony and Video Conference. Internet Telephone is also called the voice
of IP. Internet Telephony is an Internet service that enables users to speak to each other over
the Internet, instead of using the traditional analog telephone systems. Video conference
service is enhanced from Internet Telephony. With video conference, it allows face-to-face video
conference between two or more people. Now, these services of Internet Telephony and Video
Conference has been merged with the capability of Instant Messaging and Chat Rooms.
Services such as Google hangout, Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp, and many more have
those service capabilities. For online class settings, examples are Zoom Meetings, Google
Meet, Microsoft Teams, and many more. These are very useful tools for teaching and learning.

Etiquette and Security

The network and the Internet have been popular technology for educational use.
However, some things need to be careful within using this technology. The sharing and access
nature of the network and the Internet can pose etiquette and security problems. Schools need
Trends, Networks, and Critical Thinking in the 21st Century

to develop policies and guide for Internet use to assure the security of private data. The teacher
should be responsible for the safekeeping of students’ private information. At the same teacher
need to teach the student to be responsible net citizen (known as netizens).

Netiquette
The etiquette that we have in society needs to be applied in the Internet world. That’s
why the term netiquette was introduced. Netiquette is a code for acceptable behavior for
Internet users. These include rules and expected conducts that will protect every Internet user.
School can be a place to promote this by provided a netiquette guide for students to be
responsible netizens. Teachers can also be mentors to students in this endeavor. The same
behavior expected in Bible 10 commandments should be considered here.
Sometimes, even there is a netiquette guide, there is still a possibility of inappropriate
content. Schools can employ filtering to block those contents that are unsuitable and a
monitoring mechanism to detect inappropriate behavior. A school needs to make an effort that
enforcing netiquette should be backed with actions to limit the possibility of inappropriate
behavior.

Internet Security
A school that sets up a local area network that connects to the Internet needs to think of
security seriously. Confidential information of the school should be protected at all costs.
Whether it is school financial and administrative information, teachers’, staffs’, and students’
private information, they are ought to be protected. The common security problems for school
networks will be unauthorized access (stealing) to confidential information and the altering of
information. A school needs to set up security systems in place.
The system can include a strong firewall that prevents unauthorized access. A firewall is
a hardware and software that can detect unauthorized access and automatically prevents it. A
firewall can be installed in the servers that serve as the gateway for the information coming and
going to the Internet. Schools also need to have a strong updated policy for personnel. For
example, the school needs to identify the access level of users and where they can have
access. A school needs to be updated with who is still working in the school and who is no
longer working in the school. School can allow access to accounting and financial systems not
from an outside school local network.