Mobile World, Information Technology, & Your Life

• The chapter will cover how computing and the Internet affect your life.
• Smartphones, the Internet, and the World Wide Web are key aspects of the electronic world to be discussed.
• The text will describe how being smart about information technology can benefit you.
• The chapter also explains three key concepts behind how a computer works and what goes into a personal computer (hardware and software).
• The chapter concludes by describing three directions of computer development and three directions of communications development.

The Mobile World, Information Technology, & Your Life

• Mobile computing is described as a catalyst for dramatic societal changes in the Information Revolution.
• The shift from clay tablets to smartphones and tablets marks a "tipping point" in the information revolution.
• Smartphones and tablets are changing nearly everything we do.
• These devices serve as address books, calendars, maps, music players, and photo albums.
• They also store identification cards, movie tickets, coupons, and airline boarding passes.
• It's simplistic to predict that all computing will be done on smartphones and tablets soon.
• Standard laptops and desktops are still better for heavier productivity tasks like typing.
• The supporting infrastructure of computing and communications technologies is important to understand.
• People ages 16 to 39 generally spend eight hours a day or more looking at various screens.
• Millennials are digital natives who are constantly busy with text messaging, email, and the Internet.
• Among college students, 98% are Internet users and 92% are wireless users.
• Millennials are more likely than older shoppers to check out brands on social networks.
• Social networks allow users to interact and develop communities around similar interests.
• Millennials are 2½ times more likely than older generations to be early adopters of technology.
• Discontinuous times, is a "brawl with no rules," where dealing with change is an ongoing challenge.
• Computers and their software have a disruptive effect that is going to affect every industry".
• Information technology (IT) is a general term that describes any technology that helps produce, manipulate, store, communicate, and/or disseminate information.
• The top innovations from 1969 to 2009 were mostly related to information technology.
• The Internet, PC and laptop computers, mobile phones, and email are some of the first items.
• The Internet, along with semiconductors (processors), ranks among the 15 greatest innovations in history.
• People live in a world of pervasive computing or ubiquitous computing, where computing is everywhere.
• The basis for this is the Internet, which enables data transmission at high speeds.
• Devices connecting to the Internet outnumber people in the United States.

Information Technology & Your Life

• Information technology affects almost all aspects of our lives.
• This text is about computers and how they communicate with each other.
• IT merges computing with high-speed communications links.
• Examples of IT include personal computers, handheld devices, televisions, appliances, and other machines.
• Computer technology and communications technology are the two parts of IT.
• A computer is a programmable, multiuse machine that processes data into information.
• Its main purpose is to speed up problem solving and increase productivity.
• Communications technology consists of electromagnetic devices and systems for communicating over any distance such as telephone, radio, satellite, broadcast television.
• Online means 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, and the Internet is the largest.
• Education now has more interactive and individualized learning through technology.
• Education benefits from information technology, whether it's online systems, smartphones, or colleges offering free online education.
• Sciolla's classroom has whiteboards, huge display screens, and wireless "personal response clickers" and can get student feedback and adjust presentations accordingly.
• Online video lectures at home before class have flipped education upside down
• Properly integrated, information technology can (1) allow students to personalize their education, (2) automate many tedious tasks, and (3) reduce the teacher's workload.
• Email is used by students to set up appointments, discuss grades, or get clarification of an assignment.
• Presentation graphics software such as PowerPoint are typical.
• Blackboard, It's Learning, Inc., and other course-management software are also typical..
• Online learning, distance learning, or e-learning is the name given to online education programs.
• Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are free online courses offered by companies such as Coursera, edX, Udacity, and Udemy.
• E-learning has also propelled the rise of for-profit institutions.
• 'Intelligent tutoring systems' software gives students individualized instruction when personal attention is scarce.
• Cognitive Tutor helps high school students improve their performance in math.
• Interactive simulation games are often used by colleges, to apply their knowledge to real-world kinds of problems.
• Employees may find themselves engaged in mock conversations with avatars during company training programs.
• Avatars are also part of your online representation of yourself, gives other users a "face" to go with your username.
• Computers are now often used in the fields of health and medicine.
• Digital technology is transforming medicine, including the relationship between doctors and patients.
• Telemedicine has been around for some time.
• Image transfer technology allows radiologic images such as CT scans and MRIs to be immediately transmitted to electronic charts and physicians' offices.
• Patients in intensive care can also be watched over by doctors in remote "control towers".
• Recent telemedicine innovations include use of smartphones to enable doctors to take an electrocardiogram almost anywhere and to help patients track for signs of skin cancer.
• Electronic medical records enable heart attack patients to get follow-up drug treatment and measure blood sugar for diabetics.
• Software can compute a woman's breast cancer risk.
• Various robots help free medical workers for more critical tasks and improve limbs effectiveness.
• An international team is working on a biomimetic computer chip for brain stimulation.
• This device could be used to replace diseased or damaged brain tissue, restore brain functions, and treat epilepsy and chronic pain.
• Health self-help resources are available such as livingto100.com and from health professionals.
• Some cancer patients have created fund-raising sites on the web to raise money to pay for their out-of-pocket costs.
• This activity is known as crowdfunding.

Money & Business: Toward the Cashless Society

• Information technology is reducing the use of traditional money.
• Virtual money is created, simulated, or carried on by means of a computer or a computer network but also seems almost real.
• Besides currency, paper checks, and credit/debit cards, "money" includes cash-value cards, automatic transfers, and digital money accounts like PayPal.
• Consumers can do online buying and selling and popularity of smartphones is altering shopping experience even more.
• Your phone may buzz with alerts for coupons, traffic patterns, or advice on gifts as you enter a shopping mall.
• Prices at retail stores change several times even within the space of a day.
• Showrooming, is the practice of customers examining merchandise in traditional retail store without buying it and then shopping online to find a lower price.
• Your phone may be used as a payment system at places like Starbucks.
• Companies such as Square and PayPal offer mobile credit-card swiping devices.
• Workers are increasingly able to perform work at home.
• The share of telecommuters jumped from 7.8% to 9.5% of all workers during the years 2005-2010.
• Among those doing ""micro jobs": Selling art, Licensing your photos to microstock, taking on quick tasks, putting your experience to work as a tutor.

Government & Electronic Democracy: Participating in the Civic Realm

• Information technology is helping governments to deliver services and affecting political activism.
• The Internet has helped government deliver better services and has paved the way for making governmental operations more transparent.
• You can use your phone to report issues to local government such Street Bump in Boston.
• Use police officer contact via voice, text, or video - police departments use social networks to provide crime reports.
• Police are building databases of known social connections of criminals.
• Some city officials use social media such as Twitter to make major announcements and to communicate more quickly with constituents.
• Online voting is increasing the ability of voters to participate in elections.
• The Internet is changing the nature of politics, enabling candidates and political interest groups to connect with voters and to raise money.
• Online tools have made it easier for political parties to circumvent campaign finance regulations with gerrymandering.
• Users of the web have become important watchdogs on government with sites for citizens to dig up government conflicts of interest.

Jobs & Careers

• People use computers to post résumés and find jobs.
• Whether ordinary or specialized jobs, almost every occupation today requires computer skills of some sort.
• Among top occupations requiring a bachelor's degree, programmer, software developer, systems analyst, network and computer systems administrator, and information security analyst/web developer/computer network architect are mentioned.
• "Employers seek and reward employees with the skills and knowledge to send messages across the country via email.
• It is a great time to find new routes into the wilderness of the 21st-century economy.
• "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.
• Look to solving the problem of bottling the hose of the Internet and build a small business around satisfying those needs.
• Job hunting is available at Career-Builder.com, Career Advice Blogs. Working World, National Careers Service, and other sites on the web.
• Intelligent tutoring systems software is now available that gives students individualized instruction when personal attention is scarce.
• Employers also use social media to broadcast job openings.
• Posting your résumé online for prospective employers to see has to be done with some care.
• Include links or web addresses to social-media profiles, applicable keywords from the employer's job description, and online portfolios.
• You need to set up a Facebook page, participate in Twitter, and write comments (posts) on other people's online journals.

Your Personal Life

• Computers are playing important roles in our personal lives such as online relationship sites and social-networking websites.
• There is a lot of digital going on such as monitoring weight, electronic fork to assist new babies, memorial websites, etc.
• Email, network, Internet, web, smartphone, text, tweet, and cyberspace are now common terms in many languages.
• One of the first computers was named ENIAC in 1946 due to the military-related research the US Army was a part of.
• Cellphone mania swept the world and most people have phones.
• The future of mail is email and it is becoming reactionary since it essentially involves writing.

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.
• Some basic computer skills needed for office jobs include keyboarding, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, internet browser and email, file sharing.

Managing Email

• Email provides efficient communications if used correctly.
• Ways to get rid of some emails and send better ones are very important.
• Avoid using "Reply All" and sending long attachments and only open attachments when you know who sent it.

The net & web defined

• World of communications is a a nonphysical terrain created by computer and communications systems
• Two important aspects of cyberspace are the Internet and that part of the Internet known as the World Wide Web.
• The Internet is a worldwide computer network that connects hundreds of thousands of smaller networks.
• Called "the mother of all networks"
• The World Wide Web is an interconnected system of Internet computers that support documents in multimedia form.
• Influence of net is like a "Second Skin"
• Television turned out to be a powerful force that changed a lot about society.
• Printing press changed everything religion, government, science, global distribution of wealth, and much more.

The Practical User

• Being tech smart means knowing what information technology can do and what it can't, knowing how it can benefit you and how it can harm you.
• Buying decisions need to have a focus that includes applications for your mobile devices.
• Downloading is defined as transferring data from a remote computer to one's own computer.
• Tech Tales is about what apps do you really need.
• These are just a few items the text goes into in more detail.
• With regards to setting up computers you will also have to Upgrade Your Equipment and Integrate New Technology.

The "All-Purpose Machine": The Varieties of Computers

• Computers come in different sizes; they also function as clients and/or servers.
• Categories of Machines are five basic computer sizes as: Supercomputers, Mainframe Computers, Workstations, Microcomputers, Microcontrollers.
• Supercomputers are used in very sepcial situations/ Mainframe computers have a wide amount of storage that can run many types of software, or servers to provide service.
• Today Workstations are high end desktop computers with high end specs. As desktops the need for laptops decreases, many forms of wireless devices, tablets, and palmtops emerge with powerful ability.
• Desktops are still valuable in work areas but as technology spreads. Devices become more simple, reliable, and small.

Understanding Your Computer

• All computers use four basic operations and can be connected to various types of devices.
• To do so, you first need to know how computers work.
• All computer users must understand three basic principles: (1) Data is turned into information; (2) hardware and software have their own specific functions; and (3) all computers involve input, processing, storage, and output, plus communications.
• Very simply, the purpose of a computer is to process data into information.
• The hardware includes, among other devices, the keyboard, the screen, the printer, and the "box"-the computer or processing device itself.
• Software, or programs, consists of all the electronic instructions that tell the computer how to perform a task.
• These instructions come from a software developer in a form (such as a CD, or compact disk, or an Internet download) that will be accepted by the computer.
• Regardless of type and size, all computers use the same four basic operations: (1) input, (2) processing, (3) storage, and (4) output.

Customizing a Desktop Computer

Very simply, the purpose of a computer is to process data into information.

• It is very important to know all the components need to be compatible and that you have the proper hardware and connection availability when putting components together.
• Input Hardware: Keyboard & Mouse. Hardware components also have data connection availability.
• KeyBoard: The keyboard is an input device that converts characters into electrical signals readable by the processor.
• Mouse: used by a nonkeyboard input device that is used to manipulate objects viewed on the computer display screen. The steps in putting systems together are: 1; The hardwar, 2, Prcoessing, 3, System and Memory, 4, Storager, 5Output Hardware. And finally getting going after the set process for computer configuration.

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 such as AI, Virtual Realtiy.
• Convergence has led to five additional developments: Portability, Personalization , Collaboration Cloud Computing: and in general the Global Computer is all software driven.
• Big Data is what will be more prevalent and is a combination of large databases, the ability for data processing and is the world of Machine Learning such as programs that can interpret language and intentions.

"E" Also Stands for Ethics

• Many important ethical issues are involved in the use of information technology include artificial intelligence and ethical algorithm data.
• Ethics is defined as a set of moral values or principles that govern the conduct of an individual or a group.
• Every computer user will have to wrestle with aspects of Ethics based on the Computer Ethics Institute say:
• The 10 Commandments of Computer Ethics touch on many aspects including stealing, appropriating work, bearing false witness, not use resources correctly, social consequences, consideration and respect of others.
• There also must be a Speed & Scale, Unpredictability, and Complexity as all aspects affect and make security a focal spot as well.
• Data manipulation, data security, and access to information have serious ethical implications.