Computer Applications – Computer Literacy
Course Syllabus – A. Malchiodi, Instructor
Unit I: History of Computers
Having a sense of time is critical to understanding the evolution of man's technological advancements. As a preliminary to this unit, students review the human time line as developed in Western Civilization, e.g. B.C. & A.D. epochs, identifying the centuries and years that fit into the centuries. Religion is definitely not taught. However, the implementation of the modern calendar by the early Christian church is appropriately covered. When one can successfully visualize the passage of time through the milleniums and identify any year with its' century, etc., one is ready to learn history.
Students receive an overview of the computer's evolution, from Man’s earliest efforts to create computational devices to modern computers and how technological innovations, throughout history, have dramatically altered society. “Necessity is the Mother of Invention” is a sub-theme.
Unit II: Legal Issues & Technology, Intellectual Property & Plagairism
Students
learn about the law, particularly the body of laws that cover intellectual property
(patents, trademarks, copyrights). They also learn about Plagiarism as
standards of academic integrity are taught, including what is “plagiarism”
and how to avoid it. What is “Fair Use”, “Public Domain” and current
copyright law.
They learn how to avoid infringement on intellectual property that can
lead to lawsuits. They learn which occupational groups benefit most from
different intellectual property protections.
Unit III: Hardware vs Software
Students
learn the difference between hardware and software. Whenever possible, student get hands-on experience with basic hardware trouble-shooting. They learn about operating systems,
application software. By the end of
the unit, students should be able to identify various internal hardware
components of a computer, peripheral devices and be able to recognize various
well-know operating system, explain the purpose for a variety of software
applications, e.g. spreadsheets, databases, word processing, presentation and
image/graphic applications.
Unit IV: Window Operating System
Environment
Students
will learn how to organize their documents in folders/directories and good
file naming practices. The will learn
about different file types, file naming conventions, the difference between
“save” and “save as”, how to browse their way through the heirarchy
of directives with the explorer window, useful command key combinations and
how to search for files in the computer. By the end of this unit, students
should be adept at organizing and know many ways to “work smart” for more
efficient use of computer time.
Unit V: Internet Etiquette (NETiquette)
Students
learn how to use email as a tool for academic purposes in our classroom.
Activities involve web based email tools for better organization of agendas,
event calendars. Though a seemingly informal communication medium, they learn
how to communicate appropriately with teachers and fellow students and to
employ their best writing efforts.
Students also learn about the pitfalls of spam, cookies, viruses and
how to avoid these banes of the internet.
Unit VI: Internet & Internet
as a Research Tool
In this
unit, students learn how to be adept and effective users of the internet as
an informational and work tool. This includes understanding the difference
between search engines and directories and when one is more effective than
another. They learn how to use Boolean
search expressions for advanced search techniques for more
effectiveness. Students will also
learn how to use various internet tools available to help them with their
academic research activities.
Unit VII: Practical Learning in Software
Applications
Students
will experience an hands on overview of different
software application programs of particular use in furthering academic
success. These include employing
Microsoft’s Excel program to compile data from a survey and Microsoft’s Power
Point to present survey data alongside analysis and interpretation of the
data. Students are expected to use the
survey to present a persuasive argument based upon the data analysis.
Unit VII: Web Publishing – if time allows,
students will learn the basics of web page publishing and web site
maintenance: domain names and registration, web space and hosting issues,
FTP, IRC and other branches of the internet.