INTRODUCTION TO

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Dr Samuel Attuquayfio
Maud Ashong Elliot
Augustina Agor
Objectives
• Explain how computing and the Internet affect life
• Discuss smartphones, the Internet, the World Wide Web, and other
aspects of the electronic world (e-world).
• Describe how being smart about information technology can benefit you
• Describe how computers process data into useful information for problem
solving and decision making
• Explain the three key concepts behind how a computer works and what
goes into a personal computer, both hardware and software
• Describe the three directions of computer development and three
directions of communications development
INTRODUCTION to INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

• Outline
• Information Technology & Your Life
• Information Technology Is Pervasive
• The Practical Use of the “All-purpose Machine”
• Understanding Your Computer
• Where Is Information Technology Headed?
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & YOUR LIFE

• Information technology affects almost all aspects of our lives,

including
• Education
• Health
• Finance
• Recreation and entertainment
• Government
• Jobs and careers
• Your personal life
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & YOUR LIFE

• 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 any distance.
• The principal examples are telephone, radio, satellite, broadcast television, and
cable TV
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & YOUR LIFE

• Online is using a computer or some other information device,

connected through a network, to access information and services from
another computer or information device.
• A network is a communications system connecting two or more
computers; the Internet is the largest such network.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & YOUR LIFE

• Education :The Promise of More Interactive & Individualized Learning

• Health: High Tech for Wellness
• Computers are now often used in the fields of health and medicine.
• Telemedicine
• medical care delivered via telecommunications—has been around for some time
• Robot Medicine
• Automatic devices that perform functions ordinarily performed by human beings
• Robots with names such as TUG, and HelpMate—help free medical workers for more
critical tasks
• Health Self-Help
• Want to calculate how long you will live- use www.livingto100.com
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & YOUR
LIFE: The Future Now
• Money & Business: Toward the Cashless Society
• Information technology is reducing the use of traditional money
• The future of money is increasingly digital, likely virtual, and possibly
universal,”
• Virtual means that something is created, simulated, or carried on by means of a computer
or a computer network but also that it seems almost real.
• Smartphones & Shopping
• Phone may also be used as a payment system
• showrooming— the practice of customers examining merchandise in traditional brick-
and-mortar retail store without buying it and then shopping online to find a lower price
• Using Digital Tools To Earn Money
• Selling art, crafts, or collectibles online—those you’ve created, such as jewelry or pottery,
or those you found at garage sales. (Artbreak, Etsy.com , or Redbubble.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & YOUR LIFE

• Government & Electronic Democracy

• Information technology is helping governments to deliver services and
affecting political activism.
• Improving government services
• Changing politics (online voting)
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & YOUR LIFE

• Jobs & Careers

• Starting Up Your Own Venture
• A decent computer and an Internet connection gives a business startup the kind of information and
access that only large corporations used to be able to afford.
• Businesses that a recent college grad can launch with little more equipment than that old college
computer.
• Eg photography, home design, travel, food preparation and delivery, fashion, financial planning, tutoring,
educational counseling services, fitness training, child care, or any number of other activities.
• Ways For You To Find Employers
• To have a chance of succeeding in today’s job market, you need to combine a traditional education with
training in computer skills.
• You also need to be smart about job searching, résumé writing, interviewing, and postings of
employment opportunities.
• Advice about careers and job hunting is available at CareerBuilder.com
• Ways For Employers To Find You
• Posting your résumé online for prospective employers to see has to be done with some care
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & YOUR LIFE

• Your Personal Life

• Computers are playing important roles in our personal lives.
• Online Relationship Sites
• Online relationship sites , or online dating sites, provide electronic forums that people
may join in the hope of meeting compatible companions or mates
• Other Areas of Personal Life
• Armed Safety Button is a smartphone feature that, once activated, will track your location,
set off an alarm, take a series of photos of an assailant, project a blinding light, and place
a call to 911.
• HAPIfork - that monitors eating speed and, through use of vibrations, encourages the
user to slow down
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IS PERVASIVE

• Email, network, Internet, web, smartphone, text, tweet, and

cyberspace are now common terms in many languages.
• The Phone Grows Up
• The telephone is not what it used to be.
• “You’ve Got Mail!” Email’s Mass Impact
• Email revolutionized communication, and has many benefits, but in many
areas it is being supplanted by texting.
• Text messaging — sending and receiving short written messages between
mobile phones or other portable or fixed devices.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IS PERVASIVE

• The Internet, the World Wide Web, & the “Plumbing of Cyberspace”
• The net, the web, and cyberspace are not the same things.
• 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
nonphysical terrain created by computer and communications systems.
• Cyberspace is where you go when you go online with your computer
• Internet (the “Net” or “net”) is a worldwide computer network that connects
hundreds of thousands of smaller networks
• World Wide Web , often called simply the “Web” or the “web”—an interconnected
system of Internet computers (called servers) that support specially formatted
documents in multimedia form.
• Multimedia refers to technology that presents information in more than one medium,
such as text, still images, moving images, and sound.
THE PRACTICAL USER
• How Becoming Tech Smart Benefits You
• Make Better Buying Decisions
• Downloading is defined as transferring data from a remote computer to one’s own
computer or mobile device.
• Uploading is the reverse—transferring data from your own device to a remote
computer
• Fix Ordinary Computer Problems
• Upgrade Your Equipment & Integrate New Technology
• Use The Internet Effectively
• Protect Yourself Against Online Dangers
• Know What Kinds Of Technological Uses Can Advance Your Career
 THE “ALL-PURPOSE MACHINE”: The Varieties of
Computers
• Computers come in different sizes; they also function as clients and/or servers.
• All Computers, Great & Small: The Categories of Machines
• There are five basic computer sizes.
• Supercomputers are high-capacity machines with thousands of processors that
can perform more than several quadrillion calculations per second.
• These are the most expensive and fastest computers available.
 THE “ALL-PURPOSE MACHINE”: The Varieties of
Computers
• Mainframe Computers
• Mainframe computers are used in many
large businesses. The only type of
computer available until the late 1960s
• Small mainframes are often called midsize
computers.
• Mainframes are used by large
organizations—such as banks, airlines,
insurance companies, and colleges—for
processing millions of transactions.
• Users access a mainframe by means of a IBM zEnterprise mainframe computer
terminal , which has a display screen and
a keyboard and can input and output data
but cannot by itself process data.
Mainframes process billions of
instructions per second.
 THE “ALL-PURPOSE MACHINE”: The Varieties of
Computers
• Workstations
• Workstations are used for
graphics, special effects, and
certain professional applications.
• Introduced in the early 1980s,
workstations are expensive,
powerful personal computers
• They are used for complex
scientific, mathematical, and
engineering calculations and for
computer-aided design and
computer-aided manufacturing; Workstation
 THE “ALL-PURPOSE MACHINE”: The Varieties of
Computers
• Microcomputers
• Microcomputers are used by individuals as
well as businesses, and they can be connected
to networks of larger computers.
• There are many types of microcomputers.
• Microcomputers , also called personal
computers (PCs), can fit next to a desk or on a
desktop or can be carried around.
• They either are stand-alone machines or are
connected to a computer network, such as a
local area network.
• A local area network (LAN) connects,
usually by special cable and also wirelessly, a
group of desktop PCs and other devices, such
as printers, in an office or a building.
THE “ALL-PURPOSE MACHINE”: The Varieties of
Computers
• Types of Microcomputers
• desktop PCs, tower PCs, notebooks (laptops) and
netbooks, tablets, mobile devices, and personal
digital assistants—handheld computers or palmtops.
• Also, some microcomputers are powerful enough
be used as workstations.
• Desktop PCs are the original style of
microcomputers whose case or main housing sits on
a desk, with keyboard in front and monitor (screen)
often on top. Desktop PC
• Tower PCs are microcomputers whose case sits as
a “tower,” often on the floor beside a desk, thus
freeing up desk space.
• Apple’s iMac, no longer have a boxy housing; most
of the computer components are built into the back
of the flat-panel display screen.

Tower PC (with speakers, keyboard and mouse)

THE “ALL-PURPOSE MACHINE”: The Varieties of
Computers
• Notebooks and Netbooks
• Notebook computers , also called
laptop computers, are lightweight
portable computers with built-in
monitor, keyboard, hard-disk drive,
CD/DVD drive, battery, and AC
adapter that can be plugged into an
electric outlet
• Netbooks are mini-notebooks—low-
cost, light weight, small computers
with functions designed for basic
tasks, such as web searching, email,
and word processing.
THE “ALL-PURPOSE MACHINE”: The Varieties of
Computers
• TABLET COMPUTERS
• Apple’s iPad line, Google’s Nexus,
the Kindle Fire, and Samsung’s
Galaxy Tab are examples of a
tablet computer
• It is a wireless portable computer
that uses a touch screen to access
information.

Tablet
THE “ALL-PURPOSE MACHINE”: The Varieties of
Computers
• Mobile Devices & Personal Digital
Assistants
• Mobile devices are small, handheld
multimedia devices for consumers and
business professionals.
• Personal digital assistants (PDAs)
are handheld computers that combine
personal organization tools—
schedule planners, address books, to- Mobile Devices
do lists—with the ability in some
cases to send email and faxes
• E-READERS are electronic devices
that can download e-books— digital
versions of regular books, articles,
and magazines from various suppliers.

Kindle Paperwhite 2 and Nook Simple Touch

THE “ALL-PURPOSE MACHINE”: The Varieties of
Computers
• Microcontrollers
• Many personal and household
gadgets contain microcontrollers.
• Microcontrollers , also called
embedded computers, are the tiny,
specialized microprocessors
installed in “smart” appliances and
automobiles
THE “ALL-PURPOSE MACHINE”: The Varieties of
Computers
• A server , or network server, is a
central computer that holds
collections of data (databases)
and programs for connecting or
supplying services to PCs,
workstations, and other devices,
which are called clients .
• Clients are linked by a wired or
wireless network. The entire
network is called a client-server
network Server Farm or Server Cluster – a group of networked servers
that are housed in one location
UNDERSTANDING YOUR COMPUTER

• All computers use four basic operations and can be connected to

various types of devices.
• How Computers Work: Three Key Concepts
• All computer users must understand three basic principles:
• Data is turned into information
• Hardware and software have their own specific functions
• All computers involve input, processing, storage, and output, plus
communications
UNDERSTANDING YOUR COMPUTER
• Understand three key concepts.
• Purpose of a Computer: Turning Data Into
Information.
• Difference Between Hardware & Software.
• The Basic Operations Of A Computer
UNDERSTANDING YOUR COMPUTER
• Purpose of a Computer: Turning Data Into Information.
• Very simply, the purpose of a computer is to process data into
information.
• Data consists of the raw facts and figures that are processed into
information —for example, the votes for different candidates being
elected to student government office.
• Information is data that has been summarized or otherwise transformed
for use in decision making —for example, the total votes for each
candidate, which are used to decide who won.
UNDERSTANDING YOUR COMPUTER
• Difference Between Hardware & Software.
• Hardware: Hardware consists of all the machinery and equipment in a
computer system.
• Hardware includes, the keyboard, the screen, the printer, and the “box”—
the computer or processing device itself.
• Hardware is useless without software.
• Software consists of all the electronic instructions that tell the computer
how to perform a task.
• Examples are Microsoft Windows 7 and Windows 8, Microsoft Office 2013, and
Apple Mac OS X Mountain Lion and Mavericks.
UNDERSTANDING YOUR COMPUTER
• The Basic Operations of a Computer.
• input
• processing
• storage
• output
• communications.
UNDERSTANDING YOUR COMPUTER

• Input is whatever is put in (“input”) to a computer system.

• Examples are letters, numbers, symbols, shapes, colors, temperatures, sounds,
pressure, light beams, or whatever raw material needs processing.
• Processing operation: Processing is the manipulation a computer does to
transform data into information.
• Storage operation:—temporary (primary) storage and permanent
(secondary) storage.
• Primary storage , or memory, is the internal computer circuitry (chips) that
temporarily holds data waiting to be processed.
• Secondary storage , simply called storage, refers to the devices and media that store
data or information permanently.
• Examples - A hard disk or CD/DVD is an example of this kind of storage.
UNDERSTANDING YOUR COMPUTER
• Output operation: Output is whatever is output from (“put out of”)
the computer system
• The results of processing, usually information.
• Communications operation: These days, most (though not all)
computers have communications ability, which offers an extension
capability—in other words, it extends the power of the computer.
• With wired or wireless communications connections, data may be input from
afar, processed in a remote area, stored in several different locations, and
output in yet other places.
UNDERSTANDING YOUR COMPUTER
• Basic Knowledge of How a Computer
Works
• Input Hardware: The two principal input
devices are the keyboard and the mouse.
• Input hardware consists of devices that
allow people to put data into the computer
in a form that the computer can use.
• A keyboard is an input device that converts
letters, numbers, and other characters into
electrical signals readable by the processor.
• A mouse is a non-keyboard input device
(“pointing device”) that is used to
manipulate objects viewed on the computer
display screen.
UNDERSTANDING YOUR COMPUTER
• Processing & Memory Hardware: Inside the System Cabinet A
computer’s processing and memory devices are inside the computer
case on the main circuit board, called the motherboard.
• The brains of the computer are the processing and memory devices,
which are installed in the case, also called the system cabinet or
system unit.
• The system unit houses the processor chip (CPU), the memory chips,
the motherboard (main circuit board), the power supply, and some
secondary-storage devices —hard-disk drive and CD or DVD drive.
• The case generally comes in desktop or tower models. It includes a
power supply unit and a fan to keep the circuitry from overheating.
UNDERSTANDING YOUR COMPUTER
• A processor chip (CPU, for central
processing unit) is a tiny piece of
silicon that contains millions of
miniature electronic circuits.
• The speed at which a chip processes
information is expressed in megahertz
(MHz), gigahertz (GHz)
processor chip
• Memory chips or RAM chips
represent primary storage Case
• They hold data before processing and
information after processing, before it
is sent along to an output or storage
device

Memory chip
UNDERSTANDING YOUR COMPUTER
• The motherboard or system board
is the main circuit board in the
computer.
• This is a circuit board to w hich
everything else—such as the keyboard,
mouse, and printer—attaches through
connections (called ports ) in the back
of the computer.
• The processor chip and memory chips
are also installed on the motherboard.
• The motherboard has expansion slots
for expanding the PC’s capabilities
• Expansion slots give you places to
plug in additional or upgraded circuit
boards, such as those for video, sound,
and communications (modem).
UNDERSTANDING YOUR COMPUTER

• HARD-DISK DRIVE A hard-

disk drive is a device that stores
billions of characters of data on a
CD/DVD Disk
non-removable disk platter.
• CD/DVD DRIVE A CD
(compact disk) drive , or a DVD
(digital video disk) drive , is a
storage device that uses laser HARD-DISK DRIVE
technology to read data from
optical disk
CD/DVD drive inside system unit
UNDERSTANDING YOUR COMPUTER
• 1 byte = 1 character of data
• 1 kilobyte = 1,024 characters (about ½ page of text)
• 1 megabyte = 1,048,576 characters (about 500 pages of text)
• 1 gigabyte = more than 1 billion characters (about 500,000 pages of text)
• 1 terabyte = more than 1 trillion characters (about 1 million thick books)
• 1 petabye = about 1 quadrillion characters (about 180 Libraries of Congress)
• 1 exabyte = about 1 quintillion characters (about 180,000 Libraries of Congress)
• 1 zettabyte = about 1 sextillion characters (180 million Libraries of Congress
UNDERSTANDING YOUR COMPUTER
• Output hardware consists of devices that translate
information processed by the computer into a form that
humans can understand
• EG. Printer, Monitor, speakers
• A peripheral device is any component or piece of
equipment that expands a computer’s input, storage, or
output capabilities.
• A video card converts the processor’s output information
into a video signal that can be sent through a cable to the Monitor
monitor
• A sound card , which enhances the computer’s sound-
generating capabilities by allowing sound to be output
through speakers speakers
• The monitor is the display device that takes the electrical
signals from the video card and forms an image using
points of colored light on the screen
• Speakers are the devices that play sounds transmitted as
electrical signals from the sound card
• printer , an output device that produces text and graphics Printer
on paper
UNDERSTANDING YOUR COMPUTER
• Communications Hardware:
Modem
• A standard modem is a device
that sends and receives data over
telephone lines, or wirelessly via
a network, to and from
computers
• Computers often need some kind
of modem in order to
communicate and become part of
a network.
UNDERSTANDING YOUR COMPUTER
• Software
• Computers use two basic types of
software: system software and
application software.
• System software enables the
computer to perform essential
operating tasks and makes it
possible for application software to
run System software: A version of Apples’s
• Application software enables you OS X System Software
to perform specific tasks—solve
problems, perform work, or
entertain yourself
WHERE IS INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY HEADED?
• Computers are headed in three basic directions—miniaturization, faster
speeds, and greater affordability—and communications are improving
connectivity, interactivity, and support of multimedia.
• Miniaturization Everything has become smaller. ENIAC’s old-fashioned
radio-style vacuum tubes gave way after 1947 to the smaller, faster, more
reliable transistor.
• Speed computer makers can cram more hardware components into their
machines, providing faster processing speeds and more data storage
capacity.
• Affordability Processor costs today are only a fraction of what they were
15 years ago
WHERE IS INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY HEADED?
• Communications: Connectivity, Interactivity, & Multimedia
• Information technology systems are becoming more connected and
interactive, and they support more and more kinds of multimedia.
• 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
• Interactivity refers to two-way communication; the user can respond to
information he or she receives and modify what a computer is doing
• multimedia refers to technology that presents information in more than one
medium—such as text, pictures, video, sound, and animation—in a single
integrated communication
WHERE IS INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY HEADED?
• When Computers & Communications Converge
• Portability, Personalization, Collaboration, Cloud Computing, & Artificial
Intelligence
• Information technology systems have moved away from stand-alone personal
hardware to more extensive networks and smaller devices, as well as use of massive
online storage.
• Personalization is the creation of information tailored to your preferences
• Programs that will automatically cull recent news and information from the Internet on just
those topics you have designated
• Cloud computing basically means that instead of storing your software and/or data
on your own PC or your own company’s computers, you store it on servers on the
Internet
• Big Data is data that is so large and complex that it cannot be processed using
conventional methods
WHERE IS INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY HEADED?
• The combination of cloud-computing storage of Big Data, along with
the tremendous processing power of supercomputers, takes us into a
world of machine learning, in which computers can derive meaning
and make predictions from things like language, intentions, and
behaviour
• Machine learning is a branch of artificial intelligence (AI) , a group
of related technologies used for developing machines to emulate
human qualities, such as learning, reasoning, communicating, seeing,
and hearing.
WHERE IS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY HEADED?

• ETHICS
• Ethics is defined as a set of moral values or principles that govern the conduct of an
individual or a group
• Ethical Concerns
• SPEED & SCALE Great amounts of information can be stored, retrieved, and transmitted at a
speed and on a scale not possible before, especially now in the era of cloud computing and Big
Data.
• Despite the benefits, this has serious implications “for data security and personal privacy,” as
well as employment
• UNPREDICTABILITY Computers and communications are pervasive, touching nearly every
aspect of our lives. However, at this point, compared to other pervasive technologies— such
as electricity, television, and automobiles—information technology seems a lot less
predictable and reliable.
• COMPLEXITY Computer systems are often incredibly complex—some so complex that they
are not always understood even by their creators.
• “This,” say Forester and Morrison, “often makes them completely unmanageable,” producing
massive foul-ups or spectacularly out-of-control costs
Activity 1 – Forum Discussion
• Visit the following websites to become aware of some topics of interest in
the computing world. Full comprehension of these topics isn’t necessary at
this time; this is only to familiarize you with subject matter you may come
in contact with. Mention any one interesting topic from each of these
websites
• www.sciencedaily.com/news/computers_math/computer_ science/
• www.computeruser.com/
• www.infoworld.com/
• http://slashdot.org/
• www.slideshare.net/dheerajmehrotra/basic-concepts-ofinformation-
technology-it-presentation/
Summary
• Information Technology & Your Life
• Information Technology Is Pervasive
• The Practical User the “All-purpose Machine”
• Understanding Your Computer
• Where Is Information Technology Headed?
Thank You