How the Internet works
What happens in the second it takes to open a web page? The course draws the Internet as the world's post office: messages as postcards, post offices that show the way, light in cables under the sea, a phone book, a sealed envelope. No computer knowledge needed.
- Beginner
- About 2 to 3 hours
- 11 sections
- 22 lessons
The course opens in batches, each with a limited number of free seats. You take your seat in the Academy, signing in with Google or GitHub.
Course outline
Section 1
One tap
About this course
Lesson · 4 min
Tapping a news story
Lesson · 8 min
Section 2
Where is the Internet?
A photo for Grandma
Lesson · 8 min
So what is the Internet?
Lesson · 8 min
Section 3
Postcards
Cutting the photo into postcards
Lesson · 7 min
Sharing the road
Lesson · 7 min
Section 4
Addresses and post offices
House numbers and the building gate
Lesson · 7 min
Each post office knows only the next one
Lesson · 8 min
Section 5
A network of networks
Two providers, one game
Lesson · 8 min
Nobody owns the Internet
Lesson · 7 min
Section 6
Light under the sea
A video from Singapore, a video from America
Lesson · 8 min
The cables on the seabed
Lesson · 8 min
Section 7
The phone book (DNS)
Names to remember, numbers to send to
Lesson · 8 min
When the phone book doesn't answer
Lesson · 7 min
Section 8
Nothing goes missing
Postcards do get lost
Lesson · 7 min
Saying “got it”
Lesson · 8 min
Section 9
The sealed envelope
A postcard anyone can read
Lesson · 7 min
What the padlock says, and doesn't
Lesson · 7 min
Section 10
The page arrives
One page, dozens of deliveries
Lesson · 8 min
The whole tap, start to finish
Lesson · 7 min
Section 11
Final exam
Final exam
Quiz · 30 min
After the exam
Lesson · 5 min