Quick teaching topic: communication speed

This three slide presentation uses two communication timing examples – round trip time for an Internet packet from Los Angeles to southern Chile and the time it takes to see and pick up a pen. I use it to introduce Ping, define a millisecond and emphasize the dramatic speed of Internet communication and our knowledge of the brain and nervous system. I intend it to generate interest in subsequent modules on data communication rate.

PowerPoint presentation

Quick teaching topic: Who owns the ISP?

I use this presentation to illustrate alternative ownership models and to point out the lobbying power of the incumbent ISPs. It covers alternative approaches to Internet service provider ownership -– private company as retail ISP, local government as a retail ISP, local government as wholesale ISP and partial ownership by home and business owners.

There are four slides with notes and links to one short video.

PowerPoint presentation

Quick teaching topic: self-driving cars

This presentation centers around videos of self-driving cars. I use it to illustrate the role of research and prototypes in product development, as an example of embedded computers -- the Internet of things -- and as an (unconventional) example of an expert system.

There are slides with notes and links to short videos.

PowerPoint presentation

Quick teaching topic: The tactics and cost of the US telecommunication cartel

For a quick summary of the Cartel's tactics and their cost to the nation, listen to Brooke Gladstone's six minute interview of David Johnston.

Johnston is the author of the book "The Fine Print: How big companies use plain English to rob you blind" and Gladstone is co-host of OnTheMedia, an award winning NPR podcast covering the Internet and other media.

I use this podcast for classroom discussion of telecommunication policy (within the US and in other nations) and alternative ways to finance telecommunication infrastructure. For more on the excesses of the telecommunication cartel, see these posts.

Quick teaching topic: Syria taken off the Internet

I present current events that are relevant to my class each week. This week I created a short PowerPoint presentation on Syria being cut off from the Internet. The presentation can be used for a discussion of topics like citizen journalism, the "dictator's dilemma" and IP packet routing.