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Week 3 Announcements

Monday: This Week in CSIS 1 — Presentations, Databases & Networks

Hey everyone -

We're at the halfway point. This week covers three different topics, so it moves fast — but none of them go super deep.

This week you'll be able to:

Design a presentation that works as a visual aid (not a wall of text)
Explain what a database is and how it differs from a spreadsheet
Describe the basics of computer networking: LAN, WAN, IP addresses, DNS
Identify common network hardware (router, modem, switch)

What's due this week (all due Sunday 11:59 PM):

Practice Quiz (unlimited attempts)
Discussion: "Look at your quiz scores so far. What do you feel confident about? What needs more work?"
Real-World Task: Create a short presentation on a topic of your choice
Weekly Check-In Quiz (2 attempts)

Readings: OpenStax Ch. 6 (Presentations), Ch. 13 (Databases — skim for concepts), and re-read Ch. 1 Sec. 1.2 (Networks). All linked in Module 3.

Monday Demo tonight — I'll show good vs. bad presentations side by side (the bad ones are fun), and we'll do a live network demo. I'll run a traceroute so you can see your data hopping across the country. Zoom link in Module 3.

Note: Friday is July 4th. Happy Independence Day. I'll still post the Friday wrap-up, but take some time off if you can. Just make sure everything's submitted by Sunday night.

-peter h

Wednesday: Mid-Week Check-In

Hey everyone -

Presentation tip: The biggest mistake people make is putting too much text on a slide. Your slides aren't a script — they're a visual aid. If your audience is reading your slides, they're not listening to you. Aim for 5 items or fewer per slide. Use images. Leave white space.

Also: go easy on the animations. A slide transition is fine. Having every bullet point fly in from a different direction is... not fine.

On databases: Don't overthink this one. You don't need to build a database. You just need to understand what they are (organized collections of data in tables), where they're used (Amazon, Netflix, your bank, your phone's contacts), and how they're different from spreadsheets (databases handle relationships between tables; spreadsheets are flat). That's it.

Enjoy the holiday weekend. Get your work done before the fireworks start.

-peter

Friday: Week Wrap-Up

Happy 4th of July 🇺🇸

Quick wrap-up:

Due Sunday 11:59 PM: Presentation assignment, discussion, and quiz. Don't let the holiday sneak up on you.

Common mistakes so far:

Presentations with paragraphs of text on every slide. Less is more. Seriously.
On the quiz: confusing a modem and a router. Your modem connects you to your ISP (the internet). Your router shares that connection with your devices. Most people have a combo box from their ISP that does both — but they're different jobs.
Mixing up LAN and WAN. LAN = your home or office network. WAN = the big network connecting everything (the internet is the biggest WAN).

Next week: The Internet, email, and the web. How does a website actually get to your screen? What happens when you type a URL? What's the deal with cookies? And we'll talk about email — specifically, how to spot the shady stuff in your inbox. This is where things start to get really practical.

Have a great weekend. Eat something off a grill for me.