What is the Internet?

Welcome to the wonderful world of the internet. Most of use the internet in some way every day – whether we are learning new information, talking to people across the world or playing games and watching movies, but do you know what the internet actually is? Well now it’s going to become your mission to find out!

# Learning objectives

1: Understand Global Networks {.info}

2: Understand Internet Service Providers {.info}

3: Understand the difference between servers, clouds and computers {.info}

# Global Networks {.objective .objective1}

Students are asked to enter the scene to look for different ways that computers or devices are connected. How is the data travelling between each device? What can you see here that you recognise from your own life? (TOP TIP: Don’t forget to look inside the houses!)

# Internet Service Providers {.objective .objective2}

An Internet Service Provider, or ISP, is a company that provides businesses, schools and homes with access to the Internet. Whenever you connect to the Internet, no matter where you are in the world, your connection is routed through an ISP.

Students are asked to explore the scene again and look for which buildings they think could be the Internet service providers. How do they think the data travels between their home and their ISP? To access the Avanti’s world website, you will be using and ISP, do you know which one?

# Servers, Clouds and Computers {.objective .objective3}

When you use the Internet your computer is communicating with other computers all across the world. However, not every computer is the same; many larger companies or websites that you may visit will use servers to store their data. A server is a powerful computer provides services to a network of users.

Cloud storage works in much the same way as a server - the majority of cloud storage is simply large server that act as storage for peoples data, photos, videos and files. When you save your information to the cloud all you are doing is saving it on another computer( a computer within enormous amount of storage space!)

Students are asked to explore the scene for one last time and track the way data moves from servers back to homes. Can you track the journey of a music file from its server to its client? Find which home is viewing which type of media. Enter one of the houses to see if you can find how the computer is connected to the server it is accessing.

# Teacher Resources

### Download Teacher Notes

[](https://data.avncloud.com/activities/794569/files/What%20is+the+internet+Teacher+Notes+1.pdf?date=1677760179&size=1195115&md5=0a0a4695237a9b9a673d5dec674a181e)

### Student Quiz Answers Document

[](https://data.avncloud.com/activities/794571/files/What%20is+the+internet+Teacher+Notes+2.pdf?date=1677760294&size=692870&md5=85b9835e61a323804b10c56b129a7d0e)

### Download Student Quiz Document

[](https://data.avncloud.com/activities/794572/files/What%20is+the+internet+Teacher+Notes+3.pdf?date=1677760379&size=94658&md5=3569db512dda18d1c117676b82e5117c)