Fluency with information technology : skills, concepts, & capabilities

Fluency with Information Technology: Skills, Concepts, and Capabilities equips readers who are already familiar with computers, the Internet, and the World Wide Web with a deeper understanding of the broad capabilities of technology. Through a project-oriented learning approach that uses examples and realistic problem-solving scenarios, Larry Snyder teaches readers to navigate information technology independently and become effective users of today's resources, forming a foundation of skills they can adapt to their personal and career goals as future technologies emerge.

• Part 1 Becoming Skilled at Computing
• Chapter 1 Defining Information Technology
• Terms of Endearment
• Hardware, Software, and the Experience
• Computers Are Everywhere
• Software
• Experience
• The Data
• Summary
• Terms of Endearment
• Algorithms
• The Words for Ideas
• Summary
• Try It Solutions
• Review Questions
• Chapter 2 Exploring the Human-Computer Interface
• Face It, It's a Computer
• A Few Useful Concepts
• Perfect Reproduction
• How We Learn Technology
• Summary
• Try It Solutions
• Review Questions
• Chapter 3 The Basics of Networking
• Making the Connection
• Comparing Communication Types
• The Medium of the Message
• The World Wide Web
• The Internet and the Web
• Summary
• Try It Solutions
• Review Questions
• Chapter 4 A Hypertext Markup Language Primer
• Marking Up with HTML
• Marking Up with HTML
• Lab Practice I
• Structuring Documents
• Lab Practice II
• Marking Links with Anchor Tags
• Including Pictures with Image Tags
• Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
• Lists and Tables
• HTML Wrap-Up
• Summary
• Try It Solutions
• Review Questions
• Chapter 5 Locating Information on the WWW
• The Search for Truth
• Web Search Fundamentals
• Advanced Searches
• Web Searching
• Authoritative Information
• Truth or Fiction?
• Summary
• Try It Solutions
• Review Questions
• Chapter 6 An Introduction to Debugging
• To Err Is Human
• Precision: The High Standards of Computing
• Debugging: What's the Problem?
• A Dialog About Debugging
• Debugging Recap
• Fixing HTML Bugs: A Case Study
• No Printer Output: A Classic Scenario
• Ensuring the Reliability of Software
• Community Debugging
• Summary
• Try It Solutions
• Review Questions
• Interview Vinton G. Cerf
• Part 2 Algorithms and Digitizing Information
• Chapter 7 Representing Information Digitally
• Bits and the "Why" of Bytes
• Digitizing Discrete Information
• Fundamental Information Representation
• Hex Explained
• Digitizing Numbers in Binary
• Digitizing Text
• The Metadata and the OED
• Summary
• Try It Solutions
• Review Questions
• Chapter 8 Representing Multimedia Digitally
• Light, Sound, Magic
• Digitizing Color
• Color and the Mystery of Light
• Computing on Representations
• Old Photographs
• Digitizing Sound
• Digital Images and Video
• Optical Character Recognition
• Virtual Reality: Fooling the Senses
• Bits Are It
• Summary
• Try It Solutions
• Review Questions
• Chapter 9 Principles of Computer Operations
• Following Instructions
• What Computers Can and Cannot Do
• The Fetch/Execute Cycle
• Anatomy of a Computer
• The Program Counter: The PC's PC
• Instruction Interpretation
• Cycling the Fetch/Execute Cycle
• Software
• Integrated Circuits
• How Semiconductor Technology Works
• Combining the Ideas
• Summary
• Try It Solutions
• Review Questions
• Chapter 10 Algorithmic Thinking
• What's the Plan?
• Inside Story on Algorithms
• Algorithms-A Basic Concept
• A Closer Look
• Doing the Right Thing
• Summary
• Try It Solutions
• Review Questions
• Interview Ray Kurzweil
• Part 3 Data and Information
• Chapter 11 Social Implications of IT
• Computers in Polite Society
• The Power of the Crowd
• Out on Good Behavior
• Expect the Unexpected
• Creating Good Passwords
• Spam
• Scams
• Protecting Intellectual Property
• Creative Commons
• Summary
• Try It Solutions
• Review Questions
• Chapter 12 Privacy and Digital Security
• Shhh, It's a Secret
• Privacy: Whose Information Is It?
• A Privacy Definition
• Enjoying the Benefits of Privacy
• Fair Information Practices
• Comparing Privacy Worldwide
• The Cookie Monster
• Tracking
• Digital Security
• Plan of Action
• Encryption
• The Take-Home Message
• Back to the Coffee Shop
• Redundancy Is Very, Very, Very Good
• Summary
• Try It Solutions
• Review Questions
• Chapter 13 The Basics of Spreadsheets
• Fill-in-the-Blank Computing
• Arranging Information
• Computing with Spreadsheets
• Daily Spreadsheets
• Importing Data
• Summary
• Try It Solutions
• Review Questions
• Chapter 14 Advanced Spreadsheets for Planning
• "What If" Thinking Helps
• Designing a Spreadsheet
• Conditional Formatting
• Conditional Formulas
• Naming: Symbolic Reference
• "What If" Analysis
• Analyzing Data Using Filtering
• Summary
• Try It Solutions
• Review Questions
• Chapter 15 Introduction to Database Concepts
• A Table with a View
• Differences Between Tables and Databases
• XML: A Language for Metadata Tags
• Tables and Entities
• Operations on Tables
• Structure of a Database
• Summary
• Try It Solutions
• Review Questions
• Chapter 16 A Case Study in Database Organization
• The iDiary Database
• Thinking About a Personal Database
• A Preliminary Exercise
• The iDiary Database
• Using the iDiary Daily
• Summary
• Try It Solutions
• Review Questions
• Interview Alan Kay
• Part 4 Problem Solving
• Chapter 17 Fundamental Concepts Expressed in JavaScript
• Get with the Program
• Overview: Programming Concepts
• Names, Values, and Variables
• Names Have Changing Values
• Names in a Program Are Called Variables
• A Variable Declaration Statement
• Three Basic Data Types of JavaScript
• The Assignment Statement
• An Expression and Its Syntax
• A Conditional Statement
• The Espresso Program
• Summary
• Try It Solutions
• Review Questions
• Chapter 18 A JavaScript Program
• The Bean Counter
• Preliminaries
• Background for the GUI
• Creating the Graphical User Interface
• Event-Based Programming
• Critiquing the Bean Counter
• Bean Counter Recap
• Summary
• Try It Solutions
• Review Questions
• Chapter 19 Programming Functions
• Thinking Big
• Anatomy of a Function
• Forms and Functions
• Writing Functions, Using Functions
• The Memory Bank Web Page
• Improving the Memory Bank Web Page
• Add Final Touches to Memory Bank
• Summary
• Try It Solutions
• Review Questions
• Chapter 20 Iteration Principles
• Once Is Not Enough
• Iteration: Play It Again, Sam
• JavaScript Rules for for Loops
• Experiments with Flipping Coins
• Indexing
• Arrays
• The Busy Animation
• Summary
• Try It Solutions
• Review Questions
• Chapter 21 A Case Study in Algorithmic Problem Solving
• The Smooth Motion Application
• The Smooth Motion Application
• Planning Smooth Motion
• Build the Basic Web Page GUI
• Animate the Grid
• The Best Laid Plans . . .
• Build Controls
• Sense the Keys
• Staircase Detection
• Assemble Overall Design
• Primp the Design
• Summary
• Try It Solutions
• Review Questions
• Chapter 22 Limits to Computation
• Computers Can Do Almost {{qEverything, qNothing}}
• Can Computers Think?
• Acting Intelligently?
• Playing Chess
• Watson
• Acting Creatively?
• The Universality Principle
• More Work, Slower Speed
• Are "Best" Algorithms All Fast?
• Summary
• Try It Solutions
• Review Questions
• Chapter 23 A Fluency Summary
• Click to Close
• Two Big IT Ideas
• Fluency: Less Is More
• Lifelong IT Learning
• Shifting for Yourself
• Try It Solutions
• Review Questions
• Interview Marc Andreessen
• Appendix A HTML Reference
• Appendix B RSA Public Key Cryptosystem
• Appendix C iDiary: Tags and Templates
• Appendix D JavaScript Programming Rules
• Appendix E Bean Counter Program
• Appendix F The Memory Bank Page
• Appendix G The Smooth Motion Application
• Glossary
• Answers to Selected Questions
• Index
• Credits