INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY
FORM TWO NOTES
INTERNET – this is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses
the internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to link devices worldwide. It is a network of
networks that consists of private, public, academic, business and government
networks of local to global scope, linked by a huge number of electronic, wireless
and optical networking technologies.
INTERNET TERMINOLOGIES
1. Chat – this refers to the use of web-based applications to communicate or
exchange messages with other users. Examples of chat apps include Wechat, Facebook
Messenger, Hangout etc.
2. WWW (World Wide Web) – it’s mostly referred to as the web, it’s a subset of the
internet which contains web pages. In simplicity, the www is a collection of
information which is accessible via the internet.
3. HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) – this is an extension of http. It is
used for secure communication over a computer network but it’s widely used on the
internet. It is a primary protocol used to send data between a web browser and a
website. This is particularly important when users transmit sensitive data such as
logging into a bank account, email services etc.
4. HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) – this is a markup language use to create web
pages that is displayed on the browser window.
5. FTP (File Transfer Protocol) – this is a network protocol used to transfer files
between a client and a server on a computer network.
6. URL (Uniform Resource Locator) – this refers to the address of a resource on the
internet. A url indicates the location of a resource as well as the protocol used
to access it. Examples of a url; https://www.facebook.com.
7. Search engine – this is a program that is designed to search for information on
the web. Examples include; google.com, yahoo.com, bing.com, ask.com, duckduckgo
etc.
8. Download – this refers to the process of retrieving files from a web server to a
local computer.
9. Upload – this refers to the process of transferring files from a local computer
to a web server.
BASIC REQUIREMENTS FOR CONNECTING TO THE INTERNET
1. Computer, mobile phone
2. Telephone line or modem
3. Internet Service Provider (ISP)
4. Web browser
BROWSER
A browser is a program that allows users to locate, access and display web pages.
Examples include; internet explorer, google chrome, mozilla firefox, opera mini,
safari etc.
FEATURES OF THE BROWSER WINDOW
1. Address bar
2. History
3. Bookmarks / favourites
4. Navigation buttons
5. Reload button
6. Recent tab
7. New tab
8. Downloads
9. New incognito tab
NETIQUETTES
Netiquette is short for “internet etiquette”. Just like etiquette, it’s a code of
good behavior on the internet. In other words, netiquette refers to the rules and
regulations in the use of the internet. The following are some netiquettes;
1. Never spam others ie sending large amount of unsolicited emails.
2. Respect other peoples’ privacy. For example, do not share personal information,
photos, videos etc that another person does not want published online.
3. Do no publish or watch pornographic content on the internet.
4. Acknowledge intellectual property rights when retrieving information from the
internet.
5. Practice safe browsing ie do not click or open links or popups by heart.
6. Don not type all in capital letters as this amounts to shouting.
E-MAIL
Electronic mail is a system for exchanging messages (text, voice and video) through
a computer network.
CREATING AN EMAIL ACCOUNT
EMAIL SERVICE PROVIDERS
1. Gmail
2. Outlook.com
3. Inbox
4. Yahoo mail
5. Mail.com etc
STEPS IN CREATING A GMAIL ACCOUNT
1. Type gmail signup on the browser
2. Click on create account
3. Fill in the form and click next
4. Verify your phone number and click next
5. Enter recovery email address, date of birth and gender then click next
6. Agree to the gmail privacy and terms
7. Hurray!!! Your gmail account is created.
PROTOCOLS USED IN EMAIL SYSTEM
In general, the email communication is done via three protocols. These include;
1. IMAP
2. POP
3. SMTP
IMAP
The IMAP stand for Internet Mail Access Protocol. This protocol is used to receive
emails. When one uses the IMAP, the emails would be present in the server and does
not get downloaded to the user’s mail box and deleted from the server. This helps
to have less memory used in the local machine and server memory is increased.
POP
The POP stands for Post Office Protocol. This protocol is also used for receiving
emails. The main difference between POP and IMAP is that POP downloads the entire
email into the local machine and deletes the data on the server once it is
downloaded whiles IMAP keeps the email on the servers and does not download it to
the local computer. The latest version of POP is POP3.
SMTP
The SMTP stands for Simple Mail transfer protocol. It is a protocol responsible for
sending emails. The SMTP is part of the application layer of the TCP/IP protocol.
Using a process called ‘store and forward’ SMTP moves your email across networks.
It works closely with something called the Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) to send your
email to the right computer and email inbox.
SPREADSHEET APPLICATION
This is a program that allows users to manipulate numeric data stored in rows and
columns.
Spreadsheet packages;
1. Microsoft Excel
2. Lotus 1-2-3
3. VisiCalc
4. Google spreadsheet
5. SuperCalc
6. StarCalc
IMPORTANCE OF SPREADSHEET APPLICATION
1. Visualizing data graphically – with just a few clicks, information on a
spreadsheet can be displayed graphically like pie charts, scatter charts and bar
charts.
2. Storing and tracking information - spreadsheet can store any information for
example, list of students or teachers and their contact details.
3. Spreadsheet helps perform calculations and once any changes are made, the
records are updated automatically.
TERMINOLOGIES IN SPREADSHEET
1. Cell – a cell is the intersection of a row and column on a worksheet.
2. Row – a row is a horizontally arranged series of cells. A row is identified by a
number.
3. Column – this refers to vertically arranged series of cells. A column is
identified by a letter.
4. Cell address – it’s a combination of the column letter and row number that
identifies a particular cell. For example M15, A10, B2 etc.
5. Active cell – it’s a cell that is currently selected with a thick border.
6. Worksheet – it’s a collection of cells organized in rows and columns where you
keep and manipulate data.
7. Workbook – this is a file that contains one or more worksheets. The file
extension for excel workbook is .xlsx.
TYPES OF DATA
1. Text
2. Number
3. Date
4. Currency
STEPS IN LAUNCHING MICROSOFT EXCEL
1. Click on start button
2. Click on all apps
3. Click on Microsoft office folder
4. Click on excel 2013
FEATURES OF THE SPREADSHEET WINDOW
1. Title bar
2. Quick access bar
3. Menu bar
4. Scroll bars
5. Worksheet tabs
6. Status bar
7. Name box
8. Zoom slider
9. Page views
10. Rows/columns
11. Cells
Features of the spreadsheet (MS excel) window.
SAVING A WORKBOOK
1. Click on the file tab
2. Click on Save As
3. Select location
4. Type the file name
5. Click on Save
FORMULAS AND FUNCTIONS
A formula is an expression that calculates values in cells.
A function is a predefined formula with a descriptive name that calculates values
in cells.
Consider the picture below;
To calculate the total for the students, you may use autosum, a formula or a
function as seen below;
Formula;
=B2+C2+D2
Function
=SUM(B2+C2+D2) OR
=SUM(B2:D2)
Calculating average
=B2+C2+D2/3 OR
=AVERAGE(B2+C2+D2) OR
=AVERAGE(B2:D2)
Calculating the percentage (30%)
=B2+C2+D2/E2*30% OR
=E2*30%
INTRODUCTION TO PRESENTATION APPLICATION
A presentation is a process of presenting a topic to an audience. Typically, it’s a
demonstration, lecture or speech meant to inform, persuade, inspire, motivate or
build a goodwill or to present a new idea or product.
It is a process of presenting a new idea or product to an audience. Examples of
presentation application include Powerpoint, Impress, Adobe spark, Keynote etc.
IMPORTANCE OF PRESENTATION APPLICATION.
1. Presentation app helps to produce a high quality presentation.
2. It provides professional designed templates to enhance the appearance of your
slide.
3. It shows you the text layout and where to insert graphs of data, tables, charts
and other special effects in the slides.
4. It allows one to produce printouts of the materials created.
PRINCIPLES FOR DESIGNING PRESENTATION
1. Keep your words large enough, at least size 24.
2. Limit the number of words you put on a page.
a. Avoid paragraphs
b. Use bullet points
c. Remember the 7x7 rule
3. Use simple fonts
4. Choose color combination that makes your text easy to read
5. Limit your graphics to 1-3 per page.
6. Make sure special effects have purpose.
7. Slides are designed to supplement your presentation but not to be your
presentation.
TERMINOLOGIES IN PRESENTATION APPLICATION.
1. Slide transition – this is an animation or motion effect which is applied to the
entire slide.
2. Slide animation – this is an effect which is applied to only objects such as
text, shapes, pictures etc on a slide.
3. Theme – this is a predefined combination of colors, fonts and effects that can
be applied to a presentation.
4. Template – it is a pattern or blueprint of a slide or group of slides that you
save as a .pptx file.
5. Slide show – this simply refers to the displaying or presentation of slides on
the screen.
6. Slide master – this is the top slide that controls all information about the
theme, layout, background, color, fonts and positioning of all slides. Using the
slide master can be an easy way to adjust the look of an existing theme or make
changes to all slides in your presentation.
Features of presentation application (powerpoint)
1. Title bar
2. Ribbon
3. Slide area
4. Slides pane
5. Notes pane
6. Quick access toolbar
7. File menu
8. Status bar
