As someone who is not particularly tech-savvy, I throughly enjoyed reading an interactive picture book that effectively and enthusiastically actually taught me valuable information about the web. In today’s society, it’s imperative to be educated about the world around us; not just the physical world but the great big world of the web too.
I thought that “20 Things I Learned About the Web” was a very clever and entertaining way to teach an audience about a challenging and often times complicated subject matter. The picture book format immediately put me at ease as I was transported back to my childhood days. I felt comfortable and ready to learn right along with the little illustrated man dressed in red. Topics were simplified yet not dumbed-down and the quick bursts of relevant information kept me thirsting for more as I turned each page. If only every textbook could be as fun and as easy to get through as this one. Great job Google!
I learned quite a lot from this reading experience and that alone surprised me because I have been using the Internet for 15 years. I didn’t think I knew everything but apparently I thought I knew a lot more than I actually did.
Here is a list of some of the knowledge nuggets that I retained
1. When I send an email across the Internet, my full email message is broken down into packets, sent to my recipient, and reassembled. It’s the same deal with YouTube videos and more!
2. Because of a separation between an app code and my computer’s code, web apps can’t interfere with other tasks on my computer or the overall performance of my machine. This means that I’m better protected from threats like viruses, malware and spyware.
3. JavaScript support in major web browsers means that web pages can incorporate more meaningful real-time interactions.
4. CSS stands for: Cascading Style Sheets, and it gives programmers an easy, efficient way to define a web page’s layout and beautify the page with design elements like colors, rounded corners, gradients, and animation.
5. Back in the day, video wasn’t a major part of the web; instead, internet users installed additional software called plug-ins, in order to watch videos inside their web browsers.
6. An HTML5 feature that I never knew existed before, includes offline capabilities that lets users interact with web apps even when they don’t have an internet connection.
7. Upgrade to a modern browser. Period. It’s for the good of the Internet and your own sanity.
8. Plug-ins are prime targets for browser security attacks and your computer is even more vulnerable to security attacks if you’re running plug-ins that aren’t up to date.
9. Browser extensions allow you to customize your browser with the features that are most important to you.
10. Malware is malicious software installed on your machine, usually without your knowledge. But good news, an up-to-date, modern web browser is the first line of defense against malware attacks.
After a fabulous introduction to Web Publishing, I’m looking forward to learning more about the technology world and becoming more savvy in this area.