Week 15

Last week, we finished going over Chapter 11, which I still have to take the test over this weekend. Chapter 11 seems like its all about the layers of administration, which the labs covered quite well. This was one of the first times where I felt like I actually learned from the lab. Usually, the labs in this class would just be a visual aid to what we learned through the PowerPoint, but since this time, we went through all the labs before even going over the chapter, I was already very familiar with the concept before "learning" it. The more significant class we had last week was on Friday where we began reviewing over the final. I started off very weary as to how I would do without my notes. However, as our group began taking the quiz I was surprised as to the test questions covered more of the basic components of each chapter. Since there would be fewer questions per each chapter it would make sense that Cisco would make it in-depth, however, you still need to know your material. The practice exam was a good refresher and has taught me that I am still unsure about many topics so I'll need to review all of that before final day. The best part about our final is that it's on a Friday. This means we'll get the whole week and the additional half-day on Thursday which is going to help me out a lot.

Week 14

This week in Internetworking what we accomplished was completing most of the Chapter 11 labs. Chapter 11 is  our final chapter so right after we take the test it's going to be time to study for the final exam. Out of all my final exams, I feel this one will be the most memorize-intensive one. There's a lot of material that I can confidently do when I have all my notes, but without that aid, it's going to be a lot more difficult. Something that may help alleviate the stress will be the fact that I'm not necessarily trying to achieve Cisco certification but I'll see how I do on the final and could decide off of that. The final for this class will be on Friday, which would be optimal for me so that I don't have to worry about finals during the weekend. Truth is, the only final test I'm going to have after the weekend is going to be Physics, so Dec 15 and 16 are going to be very packed. I'm also really glad that there'll be a halfday the Thursday before our final, so at least we are given much time at home to review. On a side note, I wasn't able to do much school related this weekend (including Internetworking) because of my SAT on Saturday so I wasn't able to look at the practice tests.

Week 13

This week went by pretty fast, mostly because I was absent Friday. We finished Chapter 9, and might have began going over Chapter 10 on Friday when I wasn't there. But the most interesting thing this past week was the making of an Ethernet cable. I found this especially interesting because I've never done this sort of thing before. And as Mr. Stephens said in class, whatever we're learning here, might not directly benefit the career we might be going into, but everything is connected, so inevitably, things we do here will somehow help us. Lets say, making an Ethernet cable. Whatever job I might have in the future, I will most probably not be making cables, but possibly, in college we may be asked to do this sort of task in which I will be a step further. Once again, reiterating my opinion, learning all this new, interesting material is what I'm trying to absorb out of the class. As far as I know, these kinds of hand-on activities, might be what we should be expecting next semester.

Week 12

The highlight of this previous week (end of the 2nd six weeks) was reviewing chapter 9 and taking the chapter 7 test. I'm trying to recall what all was in chapter 9, but I can't seem to remember. I did take notes via word doc during the presentation which I felt was a good idea, because I could quickly record any data that was marked as "important" in class. It's pretty helpful making a list I've found of the important subjects, so that before test day, it isn't just going over the entire presentation, but actually going into detail on those important topics. Also, chapter 9, a whole 2 chapters away from chapter 7, had a bit of material of its chapter on the chapter 7 test. When I used the presentation search bar, it took me to chapter 9, where I found the answer to the entire question. It makes me wonder on how people who are supposed to take the test without any notes could have gotten those particular questions.

Week 11

With the end of the six weeks right around the corner, there's a lot of cramming of projects, tests, and other major grades. One of them includes our internetworking test! Since it's on Monday, it helps out in terms of stress for the last two days of this six weeks. The thing about this chapter is that I seem like I would understand all of this material because I was able to do the lab for the most part, but I'm not completely sure on how prepared I am at the moment. That is why I've dedicated all my time from this point on to prepare for the test since I don't have anything urgent to do for now. Just on a side note, today was my birthday, and I feel it's important enough to mention on my blogpost. Wasn't the most exciting birthday it could have been as it was on a Sunday, but I can save the real celebration for the three-day weekend awaiting me after this rough end of the six weeks.

10th Week

The Chapter 6 was the highlight of last week. The test and completing all the labs and activities made Internetworking one of my more important classes last week. What I was surprised about on the test was that there was not as much math as I thought there would be. I was expecting more towards what the worksheets were asking from us like finding the broadcast, next subnet, last subnet, etc, but the test focused a lot more on the logical parts. Also, for the summer camp, recruiting potential people involves researching the schools. We have picked a couple of middle schools but we haven't confirmed their interest in the camp. So that is something that we will need to do eventually.

Week 9

The past week has been heavily focusing on the subnetting aspect of Internetworking. Subnetting is where a network is divided so that a company or organization can use it for their own personal use. The first way we learned on how to do it was a technique that had a lot of excess IP's in each subnet. So to save space, another, more efficient way of subnetting is there which compresses the space and puts all them right next to each other. Subnetting is one of those topics that takes people some time to get used to, and it seems like 2 weeks does seem appropriate for this specific topic. The multiple worksheets we're getting is actually better in helping me how the process works. It was a bit confusing at first, but after doing those worksheets I think I've got the main idea and the main process in doing them. I still need to go back to the reference sheet to get some of the numbers which would be pretty tedious to do. This topic, is not solely about memorization like the other topics have been, but is a bit harder since it involves having to do arithmetic and knowing the content at the same time.

Week 8

Since this week was incredibly short due to the PSAT on Wednesday, but there's a lot that we're learning. Subnetting and Masking are things that I've never even heard before and they require a lot more calculations than  what I expected Internetworking to go into. Now that I think about it, subnetting seems like a topic that even technology savvy people don't know how to get. Most people who have a good understanding of computer technology will know what an IP address and a network is, but most people won't understand the concept behind subnetting. As I do the worksheets, I began to familiarize myself with the technique used to get the correct answer but I'm still a bit sketchy on some areas. I find that these worksheets is better than if we had just learned everything via audio. This topic seems a bit confusing at first but things start tying together, because everything in this has a relevance. An obvious but true recognition should be that after all a human did construct the network, therefore, all aspects of the network have some function and eventually fit together as puzzle pieces. So when learning this, for me, its near the end where everything starts to conjoin and be fully understandable. The worksheets on the given topic, even though I haven't yet completed them, should let me know how well I actually understand the material by myself.

Week 7

We've got through chapter 5; we've been through all the material and we've completed the test. I'm glad to have the test over with because I don't have to worry much over this weekend for anything Internetworking related since PSAT is coming up. Since its such an important test for juniors like me, I need to pay more attention to it over this weekend. In addition, I'm glad not to have the internetworking test in the 40-minute period we have after the psat. This network layer that was addressed in chapter 5 was an understandable topic and after taking the test I believe I'm pretty good at this section. Next week will not be normal at all, since our timing in the class is going to be minimum. We'll only have a full period class on Thursday, which means we might not be able to go through all of chapter 6 material by next week. For success in chapter 6, I'm going to look over the quiz worksheet that's at the end of the online course (or the printed out sheet we've been getting for the last two chapters). Doing them forces me to go through the material and notice the elements and topics that I wouldn't have noticed before. Also, it helps me know if I understand the material, in turn, preparing me for the test.

Week 6

I haven't had Internetworking from Wednesday so it's a bit challenging trying to remember what we did! We were able to finish the test of Chapter 4 on Tuesday lunch which did save us a whole bunch of time in class but did have to sacrifice half a lunch which wasn't a very big problem for me on Tuesday. Chapter 4 test was a bit challenging, but I did notice that having the multiple-choice quiz worksheet from the beginning did help me a bit in understanding the concepts rather than using the Cisco website/powerpoint for help. That's one of the suggestions I would like to make. Chapter 5, which we might have covered just a bit, I think, will be the focus of next week. And by next week, we might also get the Eagle Server up and running which should assist us in doing the labs in real-life instead of in the Packet Tracer labs. My first six weeks of Junior year has now been complete and I'm satisfied in what I'm doing in Internetworking.

Chapter 4

This previous week has been going over Chapter 4. This chapter is just a bit long since last week, we weren't able to complete all of the curriculum. I'm starting to understand the Transport Layer way more and it's all beginning to make an image in my mind. We're starting to learn about things that I've never even had known about before which is what I wanted from this class. All this hardware and internetworking of a computer that I didn't know before is what I originally wanted to gain from this class. I'm starting to wonder if I would want to associate myself with this kind of career but it doesn't look that promising right now. All of the things that we're learning about in class such as port numbers, TCP, UDP, addressing, sockets, segments, just to name a few, are widening my computer knowledge extensively. In no other class in LASA would I have been able to go so much in depth into these kinds of topics. So as of now, learning about these things seems to be more of a goal than to get any kind of certification which I've figured out doesn't last past college. Below is an image of the process in which the sender checks whether or not the receiver has received the data which I think would be the PDU's (protocol data units). I find this process really neat because it's simple enough to where even I would even be able to come up with it and its so useful.

Chapter 3

This week was the start of Chapter 3 in our lesson. Chapter 3 is about the Application layer in the internetworking models, but it gets quite in depth. Unlike Chapter 2, where the topics were quite broad and none were too specific, the Chapter 3 information goes way more in depth. In fact, we're going to have a test on the Chapter 3 material this Monday. We weren't given that much time in class since we only had two days due to the new scheduling, and I have not had Internetworking since last Wednesday. It makes everything so awkward because we're going to have a test after not having seen the teacher for nearly a week, but Mr. Stephens is allowing for studying in the morning. For Chapter 3, I'm going to have a bit better experience in how the questions since I've taken Chapter 2 Test. I however, haven't been able to complete all the Chapter 3 labs, but hopefully with my review tonight and the in-class notes, I should do well on the test.

Week 3

This past week was spent finalizing Chapter 2. We weren't able to move onto chapter 3 material just yet, however, due to trying to set up one of the computers to have an essential program. This will allow us to create a network environment so we can do some of the labs hands-on which would create a completely different learning environment in the classroom. In addition, we will probably be able to learn more of how the "real-world" works when not strictly bound to the computers to set up the fiction lab, but it is extremely time-saving. Another important thing we had this week, was that on Tuesday, we had our first test/quiz. Since it was over Chapter 2, there wasn't much material that needed to be covered, but as the chapters goes on, the topics will go more in depth and it'll gradually get harder. I wasn't extremely happy with the grade I got on it, especially since we were allowed other resources like the powerpoints. The reason I'm not too upset is because of the nice little ability we have to retake the test to make up to an 85%. This is pretty fair and it doesn't give a reasonable second chance to a student who for whatever reasons messed up the first time.

Chapter 2

I'm starting to like that Cisco has provided us with many resources that we are able to learn without the help of AISD. The powerpoint from the websites and their quizzes are pretty sufficient enough to run the class on its own. The test which we'll take, which has been rescheduled to Tuesday once again, it should be something new and hopefully with the help of notes, I should do well on it. Even though the course hasn't gotten into that much of the specifics yet, we have covered a lot of broad material which'll take some time, for me atleast, to settle into my brain. But what I'm already enjoying about it is that we're learning about the hardware aspects. Right now, its not the "coding" part that we've all been used to, but its more about how the objects themselves communicated with each other. The diagrams and the labs really do help a person visualize the scenario and mess around with it, which would take days to do in a real lab.