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How a Video Gets to Your Tablet

Run the How a Video Gets to Your Tablet MicroSim Fullscreen

About This MicroSim

When you watch a video on your tablet, the video does not really live inside the tablet. It travels a long way to get there. This MicroSim shows the five main stops along the way:

  1. Faraway Computer — where the video is stored
  2. The Internet — the giant network that carries the video most of the way
  3. Router — the small box at your home or school that takes the video off the internet
  4. Wifi — the invisible signal that carries the video the last few feet
  5. Your Tablet — where you finally see and hear the video

The arrows are labeled "video data" because the same data is moving through every step.

How to Use

  1. Look at the five blue boxes from left to right.
  2. Click any box to read what it does in the info panel below the diagram.
  3. Try clicking each box in order to follow the path of the video.
  4. Notice that the video has to pass through every step before it can reach your tablet.

Iframe Embed Code

You can add this MicroSim to any web page by adding this to your HTML:

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<iframe src="https://dmccreary.github.io/digital-citizenship/sims/internet-flow/main.html"
        height="382px"
        width="100%"
        scrolling="no"></iframe>

Lesson Plan

Grade Level

Grade 5 (ages 10–12)

Duration

5–10 minutes

Prerequisites

Students should know what a digital device is. No prior knowledge of networks, the internet, or wifi is required — this MicroSim introduces those words.

Activities

  1. Exploration (3 min): Students click each box from left to right and read the description. Ask them to retell the path in their own words to a partner.
  2. Guided Practice (3 min): The teacher asks: "What happens if we take the router away? What stops working?" Students should reason that the wifi and tablet still exist, but the video can no longer reach the tablet.
  3. Assessment (2 min): Students point to the box that means each of these phrases: "the invisible signal," "a giant network," "a small box at home," "where the video lives," and "where you watch the video."

Assessment

Students can name all five steps in order and explain what each one does in their own words.

References

  1. Chapter 1: Welcome to the Digital World
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