Meaningful Concepts I Learned in COMP 14

When I decided to take Mt. San Antonio College’s Comp 14 class, my decision was based primarily on the fact that it was part of my transfer requirements. Now that I have taken the course, however, it has become so much more to me than a transfer requirement. I thought that I had a pretty broad base of knowledge where the internet was concerned and rather than disabusing me of this notion, this class served to reinforce the things I already knew as well as teaching me why and how things are done a certain way. Over the course of the semester, my classmates and I have been given assignments designed to broaden our knowledge of the internet and its component parts, e mail, chatting, search engines and web page design. Of all the assignments I have completed, I have learned the most from the ones regarding searching for information on the internet, internet etiquette (or netiquette), HTML (hypertext markup language), and web page design. These are concepts that will stay with me for the rest of my life.

I use the internet to search for information almost every day. I do all of my Christmas shopping online, as well as textbook purchasing and purchasing books for my personal enjoyment. At work I am asked to find addresses and directions to places almost every day, so search engines have become invaluable to me. Before I was given the assignment to complete a search using Professor Zamora’s name by trying different search engines and reporting the results, I knew very little about why I received different results from different search engines. After completing the assignment, I learned that the best way to find exactly what you’re looking for is to include the information in quotes. I also learned that bigger is not necessarily better. Keyword searches through search engines like AltaVista return more relevant results, whereas concept searches through Google return a greater number of results. I knew that Google returned a larger number of results, I just never knew why, and now I do. It’s because Google bases searches on the number of times a website is linked to other sites, assuming that a greater number of links makes it an authority.

Internet etiquette is not something I gave very much thought to before taking this class, but one of the assigned readings was devoted to this topic. I learned that one doesn’t necessarily have to be victimized by spam, you can report it, or block it. Since spam constitutes a very large amount of the e mails I receive everyday, I was very relieved to learn this. I also learned that it is not impolite to lurk in chatrooms, it is actually preferred as opposed to jumping into a conversation unaware of what has been going on before you got there, finally, and my personal favorites, emoticons, smileys and TLA’s (three-letter acronyms). There are many things one can just pick up from chatting on the internet and talking to people, but to learn it all in one place and at one time is a lot easier! Now I don’t have to feel like newbie, lol.

HTML and web page design have been the most helpful elements that I have learned in Comp 14. I had no previous knowledge of how web pages are put together or what HTML is, I just knew that I didn’t know it! I have to admit that I was very apprehensive about starting the assignments. After completing the tutorials and staying up late into the night to complete some of the assignments I admit that this is probably the most useful thing I am taking out of this class. I now know how it is done and, to me, that is the bulk of the battle. I love knowing how and why things work. When I become a teacher, I can design a web page that my students can access and it will actually work!

After taking this course, I would suggest it to anyone who will ever use the internet for any reason. You may think you know what you are doing already, but after this class, you’ll know why and you will be a lot more efficient. Take Comp 14!

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