Welcome to Year 9 ICT 2012
introduction - what is ICT?
You see the letters ICT everywhere - particularly in education. But what
does it mean?
ICT is an acronym that stands for Information Communications Tecnology
However, apart from explaining an acronym, there is not a universally accepted
defininition of ICT? Why? Because the concepts, methods and applications
involved in ICT are constantly evolving on
an almost
daily
basis. Its difficult to keep up with the changes - they happen so fast.
Lets focus on the three words behind ICT:
- Information
- Communications
- Technology
A good way to think about ICT is to consider all the uses of digital technology
that already exist to help individuals, businesses and organisations use
information.
ICT covers any product that will store, retrieve, manipulate, transmit, or receive information electronically or in a digital form.
For example, personal computers, digital
television, email,
robots.
So ICT is concerned with the storage, retrieval, manipulation, transmission or receipt
of digital data. Importantly, it is also concerned with the way these different
uses can work with each other.
Traditional Computer Based Technologies
Traditional Computer Based Technologies
These types of ICT include:
| Application | Use |
| Standard Office Applications - Main Examples | |
Word processing
|
E.g.
Microsoft Word: Write letters,
reports etc
|
Spreadsheets
|
E.g. Microsoft Excel; Analyse financial
information; calculations; create forecasting models etc
|
Database software
|
E.g. Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server,
Access; Managing data in many forms, from basic lists (e.g. customer
contacts through to complex material
(e.g. catalogue)
|
Presentation software
|
E.g. Microsoft PowerPoint; make presentations,
either directly using a computer screen or data projector. Publish in digital
format via email or over the Internet
|
Desktop publishing
|
E.g. Adobe Indesign, Quark Express,
Microsoft Publisher; produce newsletters, magazines and other
complex documents.
|
Graphics software
|
E.g Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator;
Macromedia Freehand and Fireworks; create and edit images such
as logos, drawings or pictures for use in DTP, web sites or other publications
|
