Introduction to Information Technology

Your Digital World

McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

IT & Your Life: The Future Now Information Technology (IT) describes any technology that helps to produce, manipulate, store, communicate, and/or disseminate information

When Computer and Communication Technologies are combined, the result is Information Technology

Computer Technology: A computer is a programmable,multiuse machine that accepts data—raw facts and figures—and processes, or manipulates, it into information we can use, such as summaries, totals, or reports

Communications technology, also called telecommunications technology , consists of electromagnetic devices and systems for communicating over long distances.

Education: The Promise of More Interactive& Individualized LearningToday information technology is universal on college campuses, and at lower levels the internet has penetrated

99% of schools

Most college students have been exposed to computers since the lower grades.

When properly integrated into the curriculum and classroom, information technology can (1) allow students to personalize their education; (2) automate many tedious and rote tasks of teaching and managing classes; and (3) reduce the teacher’s workload per student, so that he or she can spend more time

on reaching individual students.

Besides using the internet to help in teaching, today’s college instructors also use presentation graphics software such as PowerPoint to show their lecture outlines and other materials on classroom screens

One of the developments in education at all levels is the rise of distance learning, or e-learning, the name given to online education programs

Health: High Tech for WellnessTelemedicine: Medical care delivered via

telecommunications

Computer technology is radically changing the tools of medicine. All medical information, including that generated by X ray, lab test, and pulse monitor can now be transmitted to a doctor in digital format.

3D Computer models allow accurate tumor location inside a skull

Use of various robots —automatic devices that perform functions ordinarily performed by human beings

Money: Towards the Cashless SocietyVirtual means something that is created, simulated, or

carried on by means of a computer or a computer network

Making online payments through credit card, micropayment or Pay Pal etc

Leisure: Infotech in Entertainment & the Arts

VideogamesDownloading

MoviesMusic

IT in Government & DemocracyThe internet and information technology have helped

government deliver better services and have paved the way for making governmental operations more transparent to the public

The internet is also changing the nature of politics, enabling political candidates and political interest groups to connect with voters in new ways

Govts put their budgets & expenses online for the public

Websites are available for public to pay taxes, vehicle registration, drivers license

Jobs & CareersToday almost every job and profession requires

computer skills of some sort. Some are ordinary jobs in which computers are used as ordinary tools.

Others are specialized jobs in which advanced computer training combined with professional training gives people dramatically new kinds of careers.

INFOTECH IS ALL-PERVASIVE: Cellphones,Email, the Internet, & the E-World

1) The Phone Grows upCellphone mania has swept the world

Smartphones in their various forms enable you not only to make voice calls but also to send and receive text messages, browse the World Wide Web, and obtain news, research, music, photos, movies, and TV programs

Discussion Question: Why are cellphones banned in high-security military bases?

2) Email’s Mass ImpactNo technology has ever become so universal so fast as this

Email technology

One of the first things new computer and internet users generally learn is how to send and receive email

3) The Internet, the World Wide Web, & the “Plumbing of Cyberspace”

As the success of the cellphone shows, communications has extended into every hook and corner of civilization (with poorer nations actually the leaders in cellphone growth)

.”

a development called the “plumbing of cyberspace”

Cyberspace encompasses not only the online world and the internet in particular but also the whole wired and wireless world of communications in general

The two most important aspects of cyberspace are the internet and the World Wide Web. The internet—“the mother of all networks” is a worldwide computer network that connects hundreds of thousands of smaller networks. These networks link educational, commercial, nonprofit, and military entities, as well as individuals

While World Wide Web is an interconnected system of servers that support specially formatted documents in multimedia form and includes text, still images, moving images, sound

Understanding Your Own Computer3 key concepts

1) Purpose of a computerTurn data into informationData: the raw facts and figuresInformation: data that has been summarized and

manipulated for use in decision making2) Hardware vs. Software

Hardware is the machinery and equipment in the computer while software is the electronic instructions that tell the computer how to perform a task

3) The basic operations Input: What goes in to the computer system. Input

devices include mouse, keyboard Processing: The manipulation a computer does to

transform data into information. Mother board is a processing device

Storage: Temporary storage: Memory is primary storage.

Examples are RAM and ROM Permanent storage: Disks and media such as DVDs and

CDs are secondary storage Output: What comes out

Numbers or pictures on the screen, printouts, sounds. Output devices are printer, monitor and speakers

Communications: Sending and receiving data. Modem (both internal and external) is a communication device

Software1) System Software (Operating System)

Must be installed before application software. Linux, Windows and Unix are some of the examples

2) Application SoftwareEach software designed for a specific task. For

example MS.Excel is an application software because its designed to create a table/tables and use a large variety of formulas on this table/tables

Future of Information Technology3 directions of Computer Development1) Miniaturization: The miniaturized processor, or

microprocessor, in a personal desktop computer today can perform calculations that once required a computer filling an entire room

2) Speed: Computers are now providing faster processing speeds and more data storage capacity.

3) Affordability: Processor costs today are only a fraction of what they were 15 years ago.

3 directions of Communications Development1) Connectivity: Refers to the connection of computers to

one another by a communications line in order to provide online information access and/or the sharing of peripheral devices

2) Interactivity: Refers to two-way communication; the user can respond to information he or she receives and modify what a computer is doing.

3)Multimedia: Refers to technology that presentsinformation in more than one medium—such as text,

pictures, video, sound, and animation—in a single integrated communication

When Computers & Communications Combine:Convergence, Portability, Personalization,Collaboration, & Cloud Computing1) Convergence: the combination of

ComputersConsumer electronicsEntertainmentMass media

2) Portability

3) Personalization

4) Collaboration: software that allows people to share anything instantly and enhance the information along the way

5) Cloud Computing: Means that, instead of storing your software or data on your own PC or your own company’s computers, you store it on servers on the internet.

You don’t care where the servers are located; they’re out there somewhere—“in the cloud.”