Digital History Experience & Goals

Although always optimistic about the growing field of technology and the web, I have never really felt a significant interest towards it. When I lack the knowledge of how something works I become increasingly disinterested and frustrated with whatever it may be. Aside from reading e-mail and being the self-acclaimed master of web surfing for research and medical diagnostics I am completely clueless as to the fundamentals of how these search engines are powered, how their creation underwent, what a server is, and the deciphering of binary code. These examples are just to name a few. The very language used in regards to the web is frighteningly unfamiliar. I became heavily engrossed and perplexed by what may seem to others as normal everyday language contained in the introduction to our text, to me it was a completely different dialect.
The experience I have had with digital practices are also few. I have always been fortunate enough to find jobs out of the office and away from excel and computer functionality, but in the end I realize I am only aiding to my digital handicap. Regardless of my digital level of expertise or preferences I have always encountered several of its elements at school and in the workplace. There is no escaping it as more and more jobs find the resources and benefits of being digitalized far outweigh the costs of maintaining it. In my field of work we are required to carry hand-held portable PC's. It works through cell-phone signals and runs off the AT&T network. It acts as a GPS, and constantly updates our location, movement and amount of work being completed. Needless to say this digital data transmitter is as close as I've allowed myself to get in regards of a digital workplace. As for school, I completely embrace and welcome its digital movement. It seems unimaginable to obtain research for 10 texts within a week without the aid of the web, and I strongly believe that programs like Blackboard and Student/Teacher Emails are the best innovations ever introduced to the classroom.
As a naturally curious being with a strong desire to learn and take the reins of my future (which will be digitalized by the time I finish college, no doubt) I intend to give it my best shot. I even went ahead and Googled "the language of the web" and was baffled by what it procured. ( http://www.levenez.com/lang/) I have never felt so simple minded. Who knew the capabilities of the web were all linked to history? Reading the first few chapters of our text helped me realize how I had been viewing things from a one-dimensional perspective.
By focusing and setting goals achieving anything is possible. I feel that being so unknowledgeable about the subject will not only force me to open my mind beyond my comfort zone but to also help me create something I would never have deemed possible before taking this class. My goal is by the end of this class to understand at least some of what is on that webpage and somehow apply it to my digital experience. I want to successfully create and publish a working historical website that serves as a research tool to other students or history enthusiasts, and encourages me to continue pursuing the complexity of the web as well.