Topic#2 Introduction to Information Technology

Guide Questions
1 Data vs Information
- Data is an individual unit that contains raw material which does not
carry any specific meaning while the information is a group of data
that collectively carries a logical meaning. Information is obtained by
assembling items of data into a meaningful form.

2 Define a computer.
- Is a device for processing, storing, and displaying information.
- A computer is a machine or device that performs processes,
calculations and operations based on instructions provided by a
software or hardware program. It has the ability to accept data
(input), process it, and then produce outputs

3 Define an analog computer.

- use continuous physical magnitudes to represent quantitative
information
- Continued in use through the 1960s in tasks such as aircraft and
spaceflight simulation
- Relatively simple to design and build to solve a single problem
- Can frequently represent and solve a problem in “real time”
- Limited in precision—typically a few decimal places but fewer in
complex mechanisms—and general-purpose devices are
expensive and not easily programmed
 4 Define data. Give examples.
- Data provide the fuel of the computer system. Examples are Bit: 0 or
1, Character: same as a byte; encoded with ASCII, Unicode, File: an
entity with a name, images, world, numbers, sound and Database.

5 Define digital computer.

- represent information in discrete form, generally as sequences of 0s
and 1s (binary digits, or bits)
- Its modern era began in the late 1930s and early 1940s in the United
States, Britain, and Germany
- The first devices used switches operated by electromagnets (relays)
- Programs were stored on punched paper tape or cards, and had
limited internal data storage

6 Define Information Technology?

- is the integration of computing technology and information
processing.
. the study, design, development, implementation, support or
management of computer-based information systems—particularly
software applications and computer hardware. IT workers help ensure
that computers work well for people.

7 Define Information. Give an example.

- Information is a structured data organized meaningful and processed
data. To process the data and convert into information, a computer is
used. The examples of Information are time table, merit list, report card,
headed tables, printed documents, pay slips, receipts, reports etc.

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 8 Enumerate the Elements of Computing.
- Hardware
- Software
- People
- Procedures
- Connectivity
- Data

9 Give at least five(5) examples of the Technology Revolution.

• Mobile computing
• Internet
• E-mail
• Chat
• Online Gaming
• Online Shopping

10 Give at least three (3) Elements of Computing.

- Hardware
- Software
- People
- Procedures
- Connectivity
- Data

11 Give at least three (3) examples of communication devices.

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 - Bluetooth devices
- Infrared devices
- Modem (over phone line)
- Network card (using Ethernet)
- Smartphone
- Wi-Fi devices (using a Wi-Fi router)

12 Give at least three (3) types of software.

• System Software
• Application Software
• Operating System
• Utility software
• Language processors
• Connectivity software

13 Give difference between software and hardware. Give examples.

- Hardware is the physical components of a computer. And software is a
set of programs that form an interface between the hardware and the
user of a computer system.

14 Give five (5) examples of Computer Hardware.

External Hardware
• Flat-panel, monitor, and LCD
• Gamepad
• Joystick
• Keyboard

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 • Microphone
• Mouse
• Printer
• Projector
• Scanner
• Speakers
• USB thumb drive
Internal hardware
• CPU (central processing unit).
• Drive (e.g., Blu-ray, CD-ROM, DVD, floppy drive, hard drive, and
SSD).
• Fan (heat sink)
• Modem
• Motherboard
• Network card
• Power supply
• RAM
• Sound card
• Video card

15 Give five (5) examples of computer peripherals.

• Computer Mouse
• Keyboard
• Expansion cards
• graphics cards

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 • image scanners
• tape drives
• microphones
• loudspeakers
• webcams
• digital cameras

16 Give five (5) examples of Input devices.

• Keyboard
• Mouse
• Joy Stick
• Light pen
• Track Ball
• Scanner
• Graphic Tablet
• Microphone
• Magnetic Ink Card Reader(MICR)
• Optical Character Reader(OCR)
• Bar Code Reader
• Optical Mark Reader(OMR)
17 Give five (5) examples of Output devices.
• Monitor
• Printer
• Headphones
• Computer Speakers

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 • Projector
• GPS
• Sound Card
• Video Card
• Braille Reader
• Speech-Generating Device

18 Give the four (4) functions of computers.

- Input
- Process
- Output
- Storage
19 Give the function of a Memory (RAM).
- RAM (Random Access Memory) gives applications a place to store and
access data on a short-term basis. It stores the information your
computer is actively using so that it can be accessed quickly.

20 Give three (3) examples of applications of computers.

• Home
• Medical Field
• Entertainment
• Industry
• Education
• Government
• Banking
• Business

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 • Training
• Arts
• Science and Engineering

21 How personal computers affect us?

• Internet
• E-mail
• Chat
• Online Gaming
• Online Shopping
• Mobile Computing

22 In computing, what is a procedure and give the three (3) types of

procedures.
- Procedure is a set of coded instructions that tell a computer how to run
a program or calculation.
- Hardware oriented procedure
- Software oriented procedure
- Internal procedure

23 It was the first commercially successful personal computer

released in 1975.
Altair 8800
- First successful commercially personal computer
- Debuted in the cover of Popular Electronics in 1975 as $439

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 - Bill Gates and Paul Allen – contacted MITS to suggest to run the
programs written in BASIC for Altair 8800.

24 On computer revolution – how it changed our world over 60

years?
- Computers have changed the way people relate to one another and
their living environment, as well as how humans organize their work,
their communities, and their time.

25 What are Computer Peripherals?

- device is generally defined as any auxiliary device such as a computer
mouse or keyboard, that connects to and works with the computer in
some way.
26 What can computers do?
- Input/Output Operations
• Reads Input
• Writes Output
- Processing Operations
• Math (computation)
• Decision-making (logic)

27 What did Joseph-Marie Jacquard, a French weaver, invented in

1804 – 05?
- The Jacquard system was developed in France in 1804-05 by Joseph-
Marie Jacquard, improving on the original punched-card design of
Jacques de Vaucanson’s loom of 1745. The punched cards controlled the
actions of the loom, allowing automatic production of intricate woven
patterns.

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 28 What is a mainframe computer?
- now called servers
- Were used by major corporations and government research
laboratories, typically as the sole computer in the organization
- Were characterized by having (for their time) large storage
capabilities, fast components, and powerful computational
abilities
- Provide high-capacity data storage for Internet servers, or,
through time-sharing techniques

29 What is a Memory (RAM)?

- its earliest forms were mercury delay lines, which were tubes of
mercury that stored data as ultrasonic waves, and cathode-ray tubes,
which stored data as charges on the tubes’ screens.

30 What is a Microcomputer?
- is a small computer built around a microprocessor integrated circuit, or
chip
- Used microprocessors that integrated thousands or millions of transistors
on a single chip

31 What is a Minicomputer?
- was introduced in the mid-1960s
- Relatively small and inexpensive
- Typically used in a single department of an organization and often
dedicated to one task or shared by a small group
- Generally had limited computational power

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 32 What is a Supercomputer?
- most powerful computers of the day
- Have historically been very expensive and they were limited to
high-priority computations for government-sponsored research,
such as nuclear simulations and weather modeling

33 What is Central Processing Unit? Give its functions.

- provides the circuits that implement the computer’s instruction set—
its machine language
- Composed of an arithmetic-logic unit (ALU) and control circuits
- CPU chips now also contain some high-speed cache memory
where data and instructions are temporarily stored for fast access
- Has a program counter that holds the memory address (location)
of the next instruction to be executed

34 What is Computer hardware?

- divided into the central processing unit (CPU), main memory (or
random-access memory, RAM), and peripherals
- The CPU and RAM are integrated circuits (ICs)—small silicon
wafers, or chips, that contain thousands or millions of transistors
that function as electrical switches

35 What is IT competency?
• Feel comfortable with computers and ICT
• Make computer systems work for you
• Generate input/ interpret output

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 • Comfortable in cyberspace and networks
• Understand impact on society Intelligent consumer of hardware
and software
• Be conversant in computers
- The pursuit of IT competency is a never-ending pursuit because IT is
always changing. Emerging from a nice-to-have skill to a job-critical skill.

36 What is secondary memory?

- refers to storage devices, such as hard drives and solid state drives. It
may also refer to removable storage media, such as USB flash drives,
CDs, and DVDs.

37 What is the earliest known calculating device?

- The earliest known calculating device is probably the abacus. Abacus
was invented by Tim Cranmer. The abacus (plural abaci or abacuses),
also called a counting frame, is a calculating tool that was in use in
Europe, China and Russia, centuries before the adoption of the written
Hindu–Arabic numeral system.

38 What is the function of a motherboard?

- The motherboard serves as a single platform to connect all of the parts
of a computer together. It connects the CPU, memory, hard drives,
optical drives, video card, sound card, and other ports and expansion
cards directly or via cables. It can be considered as the backbone of a
computer.

39 What is your understanding about “Information Superhighway”?

- Information Superhighway describe a national communications
network that would span the United States and allow Americans to

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 quickly access and exchange information via voice, data, video and other
services.

40 What is your understanding of the Technology Revolution?

- it includes the effects on society and all aspects of life banking,
shopping, cashless society education social media, connections music,
photos, games, entertainment health care, telemedicine and disabilities
social change and crowd activities, etc.

41 What are the inventions of Charles Babbage?

• Difference Engine
• Analytical Engine

42 What is ENIAC ?
- Consists of vacuum tubes.
- This first general-purpose computer took the space of a huge room and
its task was to calculate artillery firing tables.

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