[Air-L] student guide to IP, internet architecture, proxy servers, etc.?

[Charles Ess]

Hi all,

I'm teaching an MA-level course on freedom of expression online, including
somewhat technical analyses of early claims that the internet "interprets
censorship as damage and routes around it" through contemporary censorship
and surveillance efforts, tools for circumventing such efforts (Tor, Walid
Al-Saqaf's al-kazir tool, and so on), tools for circumventing the
circumvention (thank you, NSA ... as well as some approaches to Big Data,
etc.)
What I'm encountering is, I think, a common issue for which there must be a
good set of available responses.  That is, many of my students, however
gifted, skilled, and well-informed they may be on other matters, seem to
lack a basic understanding of how information gets passed along on the
internet; what a proxy server is and why / how it works, and so on.  While
I'm not expecting great depths of technical knowledge, it does seem to me
that some rudimentary level of knowing how these technologies work is
necessary, both for a kind of basic information literacy and certainly for
more considered analyses of censorship, freedom of expression, etc.
So: suggestions for accessible, student-friendly resources that I can
recommend and perhaps partly explore with my students that could help begin
to fill in some of these more technical gaps in their / my knowledge?

Many thanks in advance,
- charles ess
==
Professor in Media Studies
Department of Media and Communication
University of Oslo
<http://www.hf.uio.no/imk/english/people/aca/charlees/index.html>

Editor, The Journal of Media Innovations
<https://www.journals.uio.no/index.php/TJMI/>

Postboks 1093
Blindern 0317
Oslo, Norway
c.m.ess at media.uio.no