The ICT group is setup up to expose you to tools and appanages of Information and Communications Technology (ICT). The GSM phone, the personal computer, computer software, internet access and other modern tools have opened up new vistas for doing business. There are ample opportunities for Nigerians to foray into lucrative businesses in the new knowledge-based economy. Even governments can generate enough revenues beyond bounds. This group is setup to demystify these tools and bring knowledg to you to empower you to take part actively in new literacy and new emergent businesses. You do not need to be an ICT guru to setup a competitive business as a going concern. But you must understand how modern technology increases your stakes in a highly competitive world. You must be literate on the tools, terms and principles. You must appreciate much gains you can achieve if you moved from tedious, monotonous and error-prone manual operations to auomated systems that can help to attain wider, borderless patronage. I's not difficult material. We'll break It down for you to the minutest detail for you to comprehend. You may also ask questions and table specific problems and you'll get instant answers and free solutions instantly. Welcome to the knowledge age! By the way, how many of you know that the world has moved passed the information age? You pobably didn't paricipate in it. Some of us have beautiful laptops and deskto PCs and yet we can't utilize 10% of the potentials. Some of us are sitting on gold mines and we wait for government handouts and become professional politicians. if you are creative (and damn it you are) ICT opens up an endless world of possibilities. Finally, my friends, you may only post Information for discussion or questions related to ICT on this forum. Happy New Purposeful Year! Watch out for everyday posts. Don't be mentally lazy. I love you all.
Let's start by introducing this aspect of the Web Development course. This course assumes you are new to web development tools and presents you with easy to understand material. Even the most complex information will be broken down to the minutest detail so you can comprehend it easily. This course aims at exposing you to the rudiments of web design and then we can move on to the basic graphics part. You need to become familiar with the terminology of the business. Feel free to ask questions and to reach me on Skype if you need verbal clarifications especially with your practical sessions. At the end of this course, you should be able to understand clearly the design considerations. You should also understand design methodology. Some of the stuff you will be introduced here may not be available to you in web design textbooks. But they are necessary foundational material to start you out on a rock-solid footing. You will also be exposed to basic graphics in CorelDraw as well as to the visual elements which form the component parts of all web sites. I strongly advice that you take your practical sessions seriously. I'll be introducing the materials in ordered trickles so you don't have to take in too much at once. You should be up to speed in two weeks if you follow the sessions religiously and you practice regularly on your own. My greatest joy would be to know that you become great web designers and developers at the end of this course. I, sincerely, wish you all the best. Welcome! Your first session commences today. Watch out for your regular daily posts at 4pm. Digest the material presented, ask questions, practice. That's the key.
Let's roll. What is a web site? Why does anyone need a web site? But first, you must understand the concept of the world wide web. Did I say web? Gosh, that sounds creepy! Most ladies would cringe at the site of a spider! The good news is, we ain't talking about spiders. By web, we mean an interconnection of billions of computers in different parts of the world with all sorts of information you need. Can you imagine for a moment you were sitting above the earth and you could see the hazy mazy cable paths and other media linking up this huge maze of computers all over the globe. It would look so much like a cob web. That's the world wide web. It is the world wide web that has made the new knowledge economy possible and also opens up vistas for you to tap into it's gains. That's what this course is all about.
You may want to ask, how can you access the relevant computer(s) with the very information that you need? This brings us to the concept of web address. Every computer on the world wide web has a unique address attached to a domain. Domain? "What the heck is he talking about?", you ask. Hmmm! Yes, domain! A domain is a space on the world wide web reserved for you. That is where you place all the information you want everyone on the world wide web to access. Every domain name has a domain name. that's the internet address for the computer or group of computers you set up to provide others on the world wide web all the information you want them to access. A typical domain name starts with www followed by a dot (.), your chosen unique name followed by another dot (.) and then a generic name identifying the type of domain or the country hosting the domain such as com, net, org, co.uk and so on and so forth. A typical web address is
www.nigeria.com.ng. Each time you type such information into your browser. you are actually addressing a computer or a group of computers on the world wide wide to which your request should be sent. don't get confused now! Do you remember how you got to the page you are viewing now? You had to type
www.facebook.com into your browser's address bar. Then you clicked on the group name "ICT Made Easy" to get here. If you looked at the address bar of the web browser you're using right now, you'll see the address of the page you're viewing right now. It looks like this
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_181349451888699&ap=1. Next time you are on Facebook, you could just paste or type this address into the address bar and it brings you straight here without having to do all the clicking in between. The address in internet business parlance is called Universal Resource Locator (URL). It helps you locate the resource (such as information about any topic under the sun) on the world wide web, hence the word 'universal'. We'll examine the concept of web or internet addressing in greater depth later, But the information you have now will suffice for now.
Did I also say browser? Hmmm! What's a browser? A browser is a piece of specialized computer program that enables you to access information on the world wide web. Computer program? What's that? Not to worry, a computer program is a set of instructions a trained hand writes in a language the computer understands that enables the computer carry out certain operations. The computer can do nothing unless someone tells it just how to do it. For example, you can type your letters on the computer only because someone sat down to write the sequence of instructions for the computer to simulate what what you do with a pen and paper or on a typewriter. So, a browser is a program to enable you locate the information you need on the world wide web and to pore through like you would do if you were reading a book using a special tool such as a hyperlink. Hyperlink? Yes, hyperlink. A hyperlink is that device on a web page that enables you to navigate to designated pages. All web pages have hyperlinks and other devices to enable you navigate easily and to jump from page to page. Do you know that when you logged into Facebook, you had to click on the hyperlink "ICT Made Easy" to enable you view what you are reading right now? Now you understand. Should you be through with this page and you had to leave, you would probably click on the Home hyperlink to take you to Facebook's Home page so you can see what you and your friends have posted on Facebook.
When you send a request to any computer on the world wide web through your browser to provide information that you need, such information is presented to you on an intelligible predefined web page that appears on your browser. The information you are viewing right now is presented to you on one of Facebook's pages. You can give your web page the look and feel you think would best send your message across to those who request information from you. A web page is located in your web site. A web site consists of one or more pages designed by you or anyone you contract to present the information you want the world to have in the best format possible. Your web site is placed in your domain. Remember 'domain'? We talked about it earlier. That's where your web site is hosted on the world wide web.
Post Merge: January 12, 2011, 02:05:32 PM
In the next session, we'll take a look at why anyone needs a web site. We'll also take a look at how the billions of computers understand each other as they communicate. Then subsequently, we would look at design considerations for a web site - that is, where do you start from if you had to design a web site.
Now, the floor is open. You're free to ask questions. Please, feel free to ask any question related to what has been presented. You really have to understand all of that before we move on to the next topic tomorrow. Stay blessed!
