Reflecting on Learning - course presentation materials for our Networking Unit.

This week in my Applied Technology course we had a variety of learning materials to work with including the standard lecture document, a chapter out of the Linux Administration Handbook, some videos and other links to technical materials.

First we had the course lecture. I had to read this one at least twice to grasp all the details and make sure I understood where Professor Fulton was coming from. That paid off, because as I went throughout the related/suggest links and readings everything came together and was reinforced.

Taking a look at the Linux Administration Handbook's chapter 12 (2nd Edition) on Networking much of the professors lectures were repeated but from a slightly different narrative and as usual full of details. Although the book says its not necessarily designed for beginners, I disagree, its a must have. The historical references and figures were a great compliment to the lecture materials. The footnotes also turned out to be just as important as the paragraph materials, particularly in the section dealing with the "Request For Comments" documentations.

The Wikipedia links were invaluable for their brief synopsis and their structure allows you to skim through if you choose and hit the highlights. Also, being able to drill down through subsequent term links helps build a better understanding of the subjects we're investigating.

We were also asked to watch a few videos about networking. TCP/IP - An Animated Discussion was a basic analogy of how the protocol works. Even though it looked like it was created in Microsoft Paint I found it effective and even entertaining for a subject that had me dose a bit in the Nemeth book. Heavy in humor and analogy the video can be watched several times and goes into the alphabet soup of Internet protocols and systems. The video reminded me of some old Annenburg educational videos I use to like watching in high school, so I found it very easy to watch and retain.

A far more surreal and even effective video was Warriors of the Net. Somehow the creators of the videos were actually able to personify things like "The Ping of Death" and "The Router Switch." This is a highly produced, animated video that takes a look at what happens when you click on a link and request a service (in this case the very video) from a web page. Perhaps seeing Tron as a kid helped me connect with the presentation. Either way, it really drove home the efficiency of information transmission and how "errors" can happen.

I consider myself a visual on hands (Active) learner so the activities we were given are always the most effective. The videos reinforce the readings and the readings reinforce the lectures and provide the details and history we need to move forward. But the complexity of what we are working with in many ways brings out my more "reflective" half as well. At times this is frustrating because I do feel like I'm getting behind (when 3 days after I've started a section and I'm still reading) but I also realize that if I don't do the preliminary work the rest is meaningless. Perhaps it's just getting me back to the way I learned years ago with flash cards and memorization over simple application and experimentation.

This multi-teared way of learning is interactive, interesting and well rounded. I also find the quizzes very helpful as they provide a sort of "self-diagnostics" on what we are learning and how we are interpreting the information. There were a couple of questions that I had to go back over and rethink to realize I was oversimplifying some of the concepts. I hope the rest of the course is structured like this.