Fluency with IT: Skills, Concepts, & Capabilities

Defining Information Technology

• Computation's Greatest Hits
• Terms of Endearment
• Computers, Software, Algorithms
• The Words for Ideas
• Summary
• Short Answers
• Exercises

Exploring the Human-Computer Interface

• A Few Useful Concepts
• Perfect Reproduction
• What We See and What We Think
• Summary
• Short Answers
• Exercises

The Basics of Networking

• Comparing Communication Types
• The Medium of the Message
• The World Wide Web
• File Structure
• Summary
• Short Answers
• Exercises

A Hypertext Markup Language Primer

• Marking Up with HTML
• Lab Practice I
• Structuring Documents
• Lab Practice II
• Get Into Style with CSS
• Marking Links and Images
• Referring to Files
• Span, Lists, Tables, and Boxes
• Cascading Style Sheets
• Styling with Class
• Hovering Above Links
• HTML Wrap–Up
• Summary
• Short Answer
• Exercises

Locating Information on the WWW

• Web Search Fundamentals
• Advanced Searches
• Web Searching
• Authoritative Information
• Truth or Fiction?
• Summary
• Short Answer
• Exercises

An Introduction to Debugging

• 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
• Short Answers
• Exercises

Representing Information Digitally

• Digitizing Discrete Information
• Information Representation
• Binary and Hex
• Digitizing Numbers in Binary
• Digitizing Text
• UTF-8
• The Metadata and the OED
• Summary
• Short Answer
• Exercises

Representing Multimedia Digitally

• Digitizing Color
• Computing on Representations
• Digitizing Sound
• Digital Images and Video
• Optical Character Recognition
• Multimedia Challenges
• Bits Are It
• Summary
• Short Answers
• Exercises

Principles of Computer Operations

• There's an App for That
• Software Isn't So Hard
• Instruction Execution Engine
• The Program Counter: The PC's PC
• Instruction Execution
• Translation
• Integrated Circuits
• How Semiconductor Technology Works
• Combining the Ideas
• Summary
• Short Answer
• Exercises

Algorithmic Thinking

• Algorithms
• Algorithms—A Basic Concept
• A Closer Look
• Doing the Right Thing
• Summary
• Short Answer
• Exercises

Social Implications of IT

• The Power of the Crowd
• Out on Good Behavior
• Expect the Unexpected
• Creating Good Passwords
• Spam
• Scams
• Protecting Intellectual Property
• Creative Commons
• Summary
• Short Answer
• Exercises

Privacy and Digital Security

• Privacy and Technology
• A Privacy Definition
• Enjoying the Benefits of Privacy
• Fair Information Practices
• Is There No Privacy?
• Tracking
• Cookies
• Digital Security
• Prevention
• Encryption
• Redundancy Is Very, Very, Very Good
• Summary
• Short Answer
• Exercises

The Basics of Spreadsheets

• Arranging Information
• Computing with Spreadsheets
• Daily Spreadsheets
• Importing Data
• Summary
• Short Answer
• Exercise

Advanced Spreadsheets for Planning

• Designing a Spreadsheet
• Conditional Formatting
• Conditional Formulas
• Naming: Symbolic Reference
• What If Analysis
• Analyzing Data Using Filtering
• Summary
• Short Answer
• Exercises

Introduction to Database Concepts

• Differences Between Tables and Databases
• XML: A Language for Metadata Tags
• Tables and Entities
• The Science of Tables
• SQL: The Language of Databases
• Structure of a Database
• Summary
• Short Answer
• Exercises

A Case Study in Database Organization

• Thinking About a Personal Database
• A Preliminary Exercise
• The iDiary Database
• Using the iDiary Daily
• Summary
• Short Answer
• Exercises

Fundamental Concepts Expressed in JavaScript

• Overview: Programming Concepts
• Names, Values, and Variables
• Three Basic Data Types of JavaScript
• The Assignment Statement
• Lab Practice
• An Expression and Its Syntax
• A Conditional Statement
• The Espresso Program
• Summary
• Short Answer
• Exercises

A JavaScript Program

• Preliminaries
• Background for the UI
• Creating the Graphical User Interface
• Event-Based Programming
• Critiquing the Bean Counter
• Bean Counter Recap
• Summary
• Short Answer
• Exercises

Programming Functions

• Anatomy of a Function
• Forms and Functions
• Writing Functions, Using Functions
• Customizing Pages
• Making a Web-Based Phone App
• Social Functions
• Summary
• Short Answer
• Exercises

Iteration Principles

• Iteration: Play It Again, Sam
• JavaScript Rules for for Loops
• Experiments with Flipping Coins
• Indexing
• Arrays
• It's Magic
• The Busy Animation
• Not So Busy Animation
• Summary
• Short Answer
• Exercises

A Case Study in Algorithmic Problem Solving

• The Smooth Motion Application
• Planning Smooth Motion
• Build the Basic Web Page UI
• Animate the Grid
• The Best Laid Plans . . .
• Build Controls
• Sense the Keys
• Staircase Detection
• Assemble Overall Design
• Primp the Design
• Summary
• Short Answer
• Exercises

Limits to Computation

• Can Computers Think?
• Acting Intelligently?
• Watson
• Acting Creatively?
• The Universality Principle
• More Work, Slower Speed
• Are Best Algorithms All Fast?
• Summary
• Short Answer
• Exercises

A Fluency Summary

• Two Big Computing Ideas
• Fluency: Less Is More
• Lifelong IT Learning
• Shifting for Yourself
• Short Answer
• Exercises

Appendix A

• HTML5 Reference

Appendix B: RSA Public Key Cryptosystem

Appendix C: iDiary: Tags and Templates

Appendix D

• JavaScript Programming Rules

Appendix E: The Bean Counter Program

Appendix F: myApps Page

Appendix G: Smooth Motion Program