Introduction To Computers, Information, Systems

What you will be doing -
  • Learn about the course
  • Understand the concepts of computers, information and systems

About the Course

CIS 120 Computer Concepts I is intended as an introductory course in the current use of computers in todays information society. This course will cover the fundamental background knowledge and terminology that will enable you to understand more than the average computer user about how things work, and enable you to continue study in this field if you desire to.
During this course, you should always understand why you are doing something and what the purpose is. You should never just do an activity without understanding and you should never allow someone else to do it for you. I encourage you to ask others for assistance, but be sure they help you, not do it for you.

Lab

Student computer labs are available at the Cascade, Sylvania and Rock Creek Campuses if you do not have a computer available. Each of these labs has the MS Office Suite of programs (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access) installed. The IE 7 and Firefox 2 browsers are installed as well as IE FTP, WS_FTP, and WinZip.

There is also a for CIS/CS students only lab at Sylvania in TCB 308. Lab monitors can offer some tutoring assistance and all MS Office programs are installed. For lab schedule see: http://spot.pcc.edu/~lmontoya/tutors.htm

Website

You will be provided with a personal account on a web server where you will develop web pages for some of the projects.

Your Background

You are expected to already have some experience using a computer, including
  • Starting up
  • Using Windows, Keyboard, Mouse
  • Using productivity software (Office)
    • Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access
  • Managing files and folders
  • Using the Internet and Internet Browser
If you do not have this background then you should consider doing a course such as CAS 133 or BA131 before or concurrently with this. Even if you already have extensive experience using a computer, this course will likely provide a deeper understanding of concepts, technologies and terms that are needed to be successful.

Class Time

These online notes will give a preliminary overview of what to expect each week, and afterwards will summarize what was actually done in class.

The first week will cover the basic mechanics of the course, the use of the computers in the lab/classroom, the resources that are available, the website, etc. The concepts of computers, information and systems will be discussed.

Week One Notes

The first class session is an overview of the course structure and a time for you to begin to get used to my teaching style.

I like to understand about things, and my goal for you will be for you not to just be able to accomplish a task but to understand the details of what is really happening. By the end of the course, you may be the person that others ask for help, since deep knowledge is one of the main troubleshooting prerequisites. Unlike some instructors you may have had, I will attempt to share all of my knowledge with you - I want you to know more than me.

Your grade will be based on your skills and competency at the end of the term. If at anytime you feel uncomfortable about how you are progressing, I will be happy to discuss that with you.

Assignment 1

Assignment 1 is mostly just a warm-up exercise, but also points out a couple of interesting things.

Document as Container

You probably have done some "word processing". A document now is a container for various kinds of information - including words, but also images, sounds, video, interaction. Calling that "word processing" is a misnomer at best.

Please note that I am not concerned about style or layout (but I am a fanatic about spelling and grammar - so please use tools and proofread or have others proofread for you).

Copyright and Plagiarism

When you download an image from a web page to use in some fashion, you need to be concerned with copyright. The complex issues regarding intellectual property (IP) or digital rights (DRM) are still being worked on. At the very least, you should check a site for "Terms of Use" to see their requirements. Unfortunately, if you get a picture from a site that got the picture from another site, there is no clear trail of legality. My recommendation here is when you use a picture, indicate the URL where you found it, and do not use pictures from sites that have a terms-of-use that disallows your use. In the future, digital images will likely have a "watermark" that will indicate the copyright.

I have no problem at all with the Copy-and-Paste method for information found on the web. However, you should always provide the URL link to where you found that, both to indicate that these are not your words, and to provide the reader with an indication of the authority of the site (a quote from a 10-year old on a free web hosting site is perhaps less authoritive than a professional site).

You should check with other instructors about their policies. Certainly activities such as buying a term paper from a site on the web (http://www.papershighway.com/) and presenting it as your work is never acceptable (and I feel is just plain stupid - learning must be experienced - it would be like paying for someone else to go on your vacation and take photos that you show as yours. Who wins and loses here?)

Using the Web for Information

As usual in this course, there are multiple purposes here. You need to be able to use these tools effectively in this course and others you take at PCC. But, since this course is about Computer Information Systems, you also need to think about how these tools work, what they are trying to accomplish, how successful they are in that, and whether there are changes or innovations that could do a better job.

The Internet

Personal Computers and the Internet are at the heart of the technological revolution. It is hard to believe that the personal computer has been around for a mere 20+ years and the Web as we know it has only been available for a few years less than this. What started with 3 connections in 1968 now has over 200,000 host connections world-wide. One can only imagine what it might look like 20 years from now.

To see a presentation on the Internet's development, click on this link: Internet History

MS Access and MS Visio

As part of the PCC and Microsoft Academic Alliance, MS Access 2003, MS Access 2007, MS Visio 2003, MS Visio 2007 and several other Microsoft programs can be downloaded from the Microsoft Development Network Accademic Alliance/Electronic Licence Management System (MSDNAA/ELMS) server at http://msdn04.e-academy.com/pccmurray_cis/ for free. All students enrolled in a CIS or CS class are eligible to download this software. CDs/DVDs can be ordered for some software for a minimal price. Access of the site requires a valid MSDNAA/ELMS logon name and password. If you are a new CIS/CS student, you should receive this information in a pcc.edu email message. If you are a returning CIS/CS student, your old MSDNAA/ELMS logon name and password should still apply.

 

Search Engines / Directories

A search engine is a combination of a program that figures out the semantics or meaning, of what the user enters, and a large database of web pages that have been scanned for keywords. This is a vast and potentially profitable industry, and there is intense competition, both to get you to use a particular engine, and among those who want their site listed first by an engine.

It is important for you to understand that a search engine may incorrectly interpret your request, likely provides many, many thousands of potential sites (and some of these sites may have paid to be near the top), and does not by itself answer your question. It is up to you to evaluate the authority, accuracy, appropriateness, completeness of the site.

A directory is a hierarchical categorization of information.

Google

I personally use Google for nearly all my web searching. I have used it since the early days of the web, so I am comfortable with it.

Google also uses the Open Directory

Some others

Try a particular search at each one of these sites and compare your results. Which one do you like best?

Definitions

To define a particular term, you can enter it as "define:term" into Google, or use one of the many online dictionaries or encyclopedias. Unfortunately, there are many sites that use this primarily as a way of gaining "hits" for advertising instead of providing useful information, so you need to be especially observant about the authority of a site, especially when bombarded with ads.

Wikipedia

    This is an online encyclopedia that is formed from the contributions of users. Some of the articles may have hotly contested biases, but the computer-related material tends to be less so.

Jargon File

    For computer jargon, you should look at the Jargon File. It is interesting, but please don't try to use this jargon to appear knowledgeable (it won't work!)

Webopedia

This is an online encyclopedia for computer and Internet terminology only.

 

Guides and Tutorials

For almost anything you need to do, there are likely to be many guides and tutorials available on the Web. The quality of these varies, since anyone can post these without any editorial overview.

The below provide textbook-like explanations of topics instead of just definitions.

How Stuff Works - Computer Channel

(See the Text link in Course Materials for info about this site)

The PC Guide

Books

There are books available for free download, and there are also eBooks that you can "checkout" or purchase.

Online Books are mostly books that are old enough that the copyright has expired, or in some cases material that has been released.

Project Gutenberg

This has more than 15,000 online texts.

Online Books

University of Pennsylvania has a listing of more than 20,000 online texts

PCC Library

The PCC Library subscribes to the Safari Tech Books Online with about 100 books available to "checkout". Unfortunately, the books tend to be outdated. You need a library barcode to use the service.

Creative Commons

This provides guidelines for those who wish to release their intellectual property to the public, while still retaining some rights.

Information Portals

A web portal (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_portal) is a web page that provides a point of entry to the web. It may have a required or optional login, that is used to customize the portal for you and provide additional services (such as email)

One value of a portal is that is does not require the installation of any special software - it is a web page that is generated on a server and no data or programs need be stored locally. All you need is a web browser, so you can use it on general access computers at libraries or cafés.

Individual components (called by various names such as services or portlets or channels) can be added and customized. Some of these provide interactive forms for the user to enter data.

MyPCC

This year, PCC is experimenting with a "portal" in which you identify yourself by a username and password, and then the web information is customized for you. This also provides you with a pcc.edu email address that you can use while you are a student.

Blackboard

Blackboard provides course tools for instructors and students, and has been the platform for distance learning and classroom support for a number of years. This will be used primarily for practice and for the Discussion Board.

MyYahoo

This is a commercial portal. If you have a Yahoo! email account, you can then customize pages to include information of interest to you.

Other CMS

There are many Content Management Systems and Portals. You can search for these. Some you might want to look at include

Blogs

Blogs, one of the most popular ways to provide information (even Microsoft http://spaces.msn.com/ has now jumped on this!), are mainly personal websites that can be updated from anywhere. There are thousands of Blogs out there. Here are some to look at

There are places that will host your blog

Or you can run your own Blog software if you have a server

Revised: 2007-8-11 © Susan Norris