Sofia University

“St. Kliment Ohridski

est. 1888

ICT-TEX course on
Digital skills

Topic 1: ICT Fundamentals

The course is developed under Erasmus+ Program Key Action 2:
Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices Knowledge Alliance

ICT IN TEXTILE AND CLOTHING HIGHER EDUCATION AND BUSINESS

Project Nr. 612248-EPP-1-2019-1-BG-EPPKA2-KA

The information and views set out in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the European Union. Neither the European
Union institutions and bodies nor any person acting on their behalf may be held responsible for the use which may be made of the information contained therein.
 Sofia University
“St. Kliment Ohridski
est. 1888

Contents
• Introduction
• Structure of computers systems
• Computer software
• Operating systems
 Sofia University
“St. Kliment Ohridski
est. 1888

Introduction
• ICT means Information and communication technology
• ICT is a term that has been used in many aspects of technology perception in
modern society
– Text processing and electronic tables
– Tools for digitalization of business, (like Social media, online collaboration tools, etc.)
– Programming and web development
– Software engineering
– Artificial intelligence
– Business analytics and enterprise management
– Etc.

1. ICT Fundamentals Back to Contents ICT-TEX course on Digital skills 3

 Sofia University
“St. Kliment Ohridski
est. 1888

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

• All topics mentioned in the previous slide are covered in the
course
• In this module you will get acquainted with some ICT basics
and get prepared about the main concepts in the area

1. ICT Fundamentals Back to Contents ICT-TEX course on Digital skills 4

 Sofia University
“St. Kliment Ohridski
est. 1888

What exists into a computer (the hardware)

Processor

Input Output
Memory
device(s) device(s)

1. ICT Fundamentals Back to Contents ICT-TEX course on Digital skills 5

 Sofia University
“St. Kliment Ohridski
est. 1888

The computer
• A computer is a machine that executes sequences of instructions that
process data.
• It is common for the popular computers that both instructions and data
reside into the memory.
– This is called von Neumann architecture.
• Modern computers use specialized system level software to perform
many common tasks needed for their everyday operation.
• Such systems are usually called operating systems

1. ICT Fundamentals Back to Contents ICT-TEX course on Digital skills 6

 Sofia University
“St. Kliment Ohridski
est. 1888

How does the computer operate (the software)

• The of instructions used by the computer to process data are combined into
computer programs
• Combination of programs, libraries and other data (like documentation or digital
media) is called software
• There exist two main types of software:
– Applications – this category includes software used by end users to accomplish specific task (like
video playing, online shopping or information processing)
– System software – this category includes software used to control the hardware, like provision of
basic functionalities required by users, or to enable execution of other software.

1. ICT Fundamentals Back to Contents ICT-TEX course on Digital skills 7

 Sofia University
“St. Kliment Ohridski
est. 1888

Software development
• All kinds of computer software is usually developed by use of
programming languages
• There are many languages, each suited for specific purposes. Some of
the popular general-purpose programming languages are:
– C/C++
– Java
– Python
• You can find more about programming in topic 6 of this course.

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 Sofia University
“St. Kliment Ohridski
est. 1888

Software development
• Not everything about successful development of a software is about
programming
• Software engineering is the discipline that deals with all activities that
should be carried out in software development:
– Requirements gathering
– Design
– Implementation
– Testing
– Maintenance

1. ICT Fundamentals Back to Contents ICT-TEX course on Digital skills 9

 Sofia University
“St. Kliment Ohridski
est. 1888

Artificial intelligence and machine learning

• Artificial Intelligence (AI) is behaviour of the machine (e.g. the
software) in which it takes decisions without human
intervention
• Machine Learning (ML) is the process of machine (e.g.
software), gaining experience about certain phenomena by
gathering and analyzing data about that phenomena.

1. ICT Fundamentals Back to Contents ICT-TEX course on Digital skills 10

 Sofia University
“St. Kliment Ohridski
est. 1888

Operating system (OS)

• Software that serves as an interface between the computer hardware
and both the applications that execute onto it and end users.
• This means that computer should have OS in order to be able to install
and run other software onto it.
• Popular operating systems include:
– Windows
– Linux
– MacOS
– And also, Android, IOS – for mobile devices
1. ICT Fundamentals Back to Contents ICT-TEX course on Digital skills 11
 Sofia University
“St. Kliment Ohridski
est. 1888

Functions of an Operating System

• Process management
– Starts and stops systems or user processes and provides mechanisms for
synchronization and communication among them.
– Keeps track of time & resource used by various job and users.
• Memory management – is about allocation and de-allocation of
memory space to programs in need of these resources.
• File management – provides functionalities for organization storage,
retrieval, naming, sharing, and protection of files.

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 Sofia University
“St. Kliment Ohridski
est. 1888

Functions of an operating system

• Input/Output Management – provides users with functionality for input
and output
• Security – modern operating systems have modules to provide common
security protection
• Networking – provides functionality to connect over the network with
other computers and devices

1. ICT Fundamentals Back to Contents ICT-TEX course on Digital skills 13

 Sofia University
“St. Kliment Ohridski
est. 1888

Functions of an operating system

• Device Management - keeps track and manages all devices
attached to the computer
• Communication management – coordination and assignment
of compilers, interpreters, and another software resource of
the various users of the computer systems.

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 Sofia University
“St. Kliment Ohridski
est. 1888

File systems
• A file system is part of the operating system that controls how
data is stored and retrieved.
• It organizes the data into manageable pieces, where each piece
has unique name or identifier
– Most common examples of such pieces are files and folders
• There exist different kinds of file systems. Each one has
different structure and logic, properties of speed, flexibility,
security, size and more.
1. ICT Fundamentals Back to Contents ICT-TEX course on Digital skills 15
 Sofia University
“St. Kliment Ohridski
est. 1888

File Management System

• A file management system is used for file maintenance (or
management) operations.
• A file management system has limited capabilities and is
designed to manage individual or group files, such as special
office documents and records.
• It manages and displays file meta-information, like owner,
creation date, state of completion and similar user-friendly
features.

1. ICT Fundamentals Back to Contents ICT-TEX course on Digital skills 16

 Sofia University
“St. Kliment Ohridski
est. 1888

File Management System

• Usually, files into an operating system are stored in a complex hierarchical
organization constituted of directories and subdirectories with files stashed
inside these them.
• In fact, file management systems take care of how the files are organized
rather than just how they are stored.
• Typical operations include
– Create
– Delete
– Open
– Close
– Read
– Write

1. ICT Fundamentals Back to Contents ICT-TEX course on Digital skills 17

 Sofia University
“St. Kliment Ohridski
est. 1888

References:
• What is Operating System,
https://www.guru99.com/operating-system-tutorial.html
• Types of Operating Systems,
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/operating_system/os_types.htm
• How Operating Systems Work,
https://computer.howstuffworks.com/operating-system3.htm

All sources were last visited in April 2021

1. ICT Fundamentals Back to Contents ICT-TEX course on Digital skills 18

CONTACTS

Coordinator: Author:
Technical University of Sofia Assoc. professor Aleksandar Dimov
Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”
Project coordinator: [email protected]
assoc. prof. Angel Terziev, PhD
[email protected] Contributors:
Reni Radkova, Radostina Mihaleva
Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”
Web-site: ICT-TEX.eu {renird, rimihaleva}@fmi.uni-sofia.bg

These slides and the materials included in these slides (including references) are for educational purposes only. The use of slides should be done with correct citation and only
for educational purposes.
The information and views set out in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the European Union. Neither the European
Union institutions and bodies nor any person acting on their behalf may be held responsible for the use which may be made of the information contained therein.