Semester One Exam Revision: AIT ATAR 11

Applied Information Technology ATAR Year 11

Semester One Exam Revision Notes

The exam is based on all the content of the course. There are many resources that can help you as you prepare:

The text: Information and Software Technology The Year 11 Syllabus which can be found here The AIT study guide which can be found here Other resources on the Strathit Blog These revision notes

Read through these revision notes and complete the relevant sections, referring to the syllabus, study guide and text as you go. Ask your teacher if there is anything you don’t understand.

Hardware

Functions of an operating system

The functions of an operating system are:

1. Provide a user interface so that the user can run applications and use the computer2. Management of storage areas and files3. Provide services for application software, e.g. printing, keyboard, mouse4. Manage devices connected to the computer

Basic functions of a computer (Input, processing, Storage, Output)

The basic functions of any computer are:

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OutputProcessing

Storage

Input

Semester One Exam Revision: AIT ATAR 11

All components of a computer including peripherals fit into one of the above categories as shown in the following table.

Input Process Storage OutputComputer Ports (e.g.

USB, Ethernet, serial, parallel)

CPUALUControl unitRegistersAdapter cards (e.g. LAN, graphics, sound)

RAMHDDROMBIOS

Ports (e.g. USB, Ethernet, serial, parallel)

Peripherals keyboardMouseScannerGraphics tabletTouch screen

Flash driveMemory stickDVDCDExternal HDD

MonitorPrinterspeakers

Add some more items to the above table if you can think of any.

Peripherals, what are they, examples

A peripheral device is any input or output device that connects to a computer. Define the following peripheral devices and their functions:

Peripheral device Definition and function

Printer

Scanner

Keyboard

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Mouse

Components of computer systems

Computers are made of many components. Some are listed in the table below. Research each component’s function and find a picture for each.

Name Function ImageRAM

Hard Disk Drive

Mother Board

Bus

Adapter card

Cooling Fan

Processor

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Impacts of Technology

The digital divide

The term “Digital Divide” refers to the discrepancy that arises when one group has adequate access to Information Technology and another doesn’t. The groups could be different countries. For instance, many countries in Africa have very little access to the internet while in Western countries more than 80% of people have access. Or the groups could be within a society. For instance aged people tend to have less access to technology than young people, possibly because they don’t know how to use it and are scared of it.

Social networking

Social networking is where computer and communication technology is used to allow people to connect and form virtual communities. Social connections may be built around friendship, interests, professions, commerce or community.

Examples of web based social network applications include:

Name PurposeGoogle+ GeneralFacebook General, photos, videos, blogs, appsTwitter General, micro blogging, RSS, updatesTumblr MicrobloggingLinkedIn Business and professional networkingInstagram Photo and video sharing

Application Skills

Basic structure of formulas and functions in excel

Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet application. A spreadsheet is a collection of discrete cells arranged in columns and rows. Spreadsheets allow the input of three types of data into the cells:

1. Text2. Numbers3. Formula (including self-written and built in functions)

An example of a self-written formula could be

=(A1+A2)*C3

Commonly used built in functions include: sum, average, vlookup, hlookup and if, but there are hundreds more that can do all sorts of interesting things.

All formulas and functions in Excel and other spreadsheet applications must start with the “=” sign. That is how Excel knows the difference between a formula and text or numbers.

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Managing Data

Graphic file formats

There are two basic types of graphic image:

Raster images are made by mapping pixels on a grid and designating a colour for each pixel in the map to create an image. Raster graphics tend to have large file sizes and will pixelate when enlarged or zoomed. This is because as you get closer to the image the pixels become visible as little squares.

Vector images are made according to mathematical equations that describe the lines, colours and shapes in the image. Vector images tend to have smaller file sizes and can be zoomed or enlarged without limit or loss of quality because the equations just keep recalculating themselves to create new smooth images.

Format Short for About, and best used for

gif Graphics interchange format

The format supports up to 8 bits per pixel, allowing a single image to reference a palette of up to 256 distinct colors chosen from the 24-bit RGB color space. It also supports animations and allows a separate palette of 256 colors for each frame. The color limitation makes the GIF format unsuitable for reproducing color photographs and other images with continuous color, but it is well-suited for simpler images such as graphics or logos with solid areas of color. GIF images are compressed using the Lempel-Ziv-Welch (LZW) lossless data compression technique to reduce the file size without degrading the visual quality. Good for web images.

jpg or jpeg Joint Photographic Experts Group

This is the format of choice for nearly all photographs on the web. You can achieve excellent quality even at rather high compression settings. When editing a photo use the software's proprietary format (such as Photoshop PSD) until finished, and then save the result as a JPG.

Digital cameras save in a JPG format by default. Switching to TIFF or RAW improves quality in principle, but the difference is difficult to see. Never use JPG for line art. On images such as these with areas of uniform color with sharp edges, JPG does a poor job. These are tasks for which GIF and PNG are well suited. JPG can achieve astounding compression ratios (lossy) even while maintaining very high image quality.

JPEG is designed to exploit known limitations of the human eye, notably the fact that small color changes are

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perceived less accurately than small changes in brightness. Thus, JPEG is intended for compressing images that will be looked at by humans.

png Portable Network Graphic

Is a bitmapped image format that employs lossless data compression. PNG was created to improve upon and replace GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) as an image-file format not requiring a patent license. PNG supports palette-based (palettes of 24-bit RGB colors), greyscale or RGB images. PNG was designed for transferring images on the Internet, not professional graphics, and so does not support other color spaces (such as CMYK).

Is good for retaining transparency in pics, when using in powerpoint or flash.

PNG offers a variety of transparency options. With truecolor and greyscale images either a single pixel value can be declared as transparent or an alpha channel can be added (enabling any percentage of partial transparency to be used). For paletted images, alpha values can be added to palette entries. The number of such values stored may be less than the total number of palette entries, in which case the remaining entries are considered fully opaque.

tiff Tagged Image File Format

Is a flexible format that normally saves 8 bits or 16 bits per color (red, green, blue) for 24-bit and 48-bit totals, respectively, using either the TIFF or the TIF filenames. The TIFF's flexibility is both blessing and curse, because no single reader reads every type of TIFF file. TIFFs are lossy and lossless; some offer relatively good lossless compression for bi-level (black&white) images. Some digital cameras can save in TIFF format, using the LZW compression algorithm for lossless storage. The TIFF image format is not widely supported by web browsers. TIFF remains widely accepted as a photograph file standard in the printing business. The TIFF can handle device-specific colour spaces, such as the CMYK defined by a particular set of printing press inks. OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software packages commonly generate some (often monochromatic) form of TIFF image for scanned text pages.

bmp Windows bitmap The BMP file format handles graphics files within the Microsoft Windows OS. (invented by Microsoft). Typically, BMP files are uncompressed, hence they are

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large; the advantage is their simplicity, wide acceptance, and use in Windows programs.

raw RAW refers to a family of raw image formats

Are options available on some digital cameras. These formats usually use a lossless or nearly-lossless compression, and produce file sizes much smaller than the TIFF formats of full-size processed images from the same cameras. The raw formats are not standardized or documented, and differ among camera manufacturers. Many graphic programs and image editors may not accept some or all of them, and some older ones have been effectively orphaned already. Adobe's Digital Negative specification is an attempt at standardizing a raw image format to be used by cameras, or for archival storage of image data converted from proprietary raw image formats.

PSD PhotoShop Document

PSD, proprietary format used by Photoshop's. Files have the PSD extension. This is the preferred working format as you edit images in Photoshop, because only the proprietary format retain all the editing power of the program. Photoshop uses layers, for example, to build complex images, and layer information may be lost in the nonproprietary formats such as TIFF and JPG. However, be sure to save your end result as a standard TIFF or JPG, or you may not be able to view it in a few years when your software has changed.

Techniques for minimisation of file size

Compression

Compression involves removing data from a file to make the file size smaller. Lossless compression achieves this without significantly affecting the quality of the image. Lossy compression removes some image data in order to achieve smaller file size. The lost data cannot be restored.

Cropping

Cropping means removing those parts of the image which are not essential, to produce smaller file size.

Resampling

Resampling is changing the number of pixels in the image to make the whole image smaller. Each pixel is re-rendered by the graphics software.

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Design Concepts

The creation of an effective information product requires the following steps:

Clear statement of the purpose of the information product Identification of target audience along with their specific characteristics Development of design criteria Adherence to the established principles of design and compositional rules and the use

of appropriate typography and design elements in the design and creation of the product.

See the following table for explanation and examples of design principles, compositional rules, typography and elements of design.

PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN

EXPLANATION EXAMPLE (GRAPHIC)

Balance To understand balance, think of the balance beam. When objects are of equal weight, they are in balance. If you have several small items on one side, they can be balanced by a large object on the other side. Visual balance works in much the same way. Use of rule of thirds, consideration of balance (symmetrical or asymmetrical.

Proportion Proportion refers to the relative size and scale of the various elements in a design. Proportion is the comparison of dimensions or distribution of forms. It is the relationship in scale between one element and another, or between a whole object and one of its parts. Differing proportions within a composition can relate to different kinds of balance or symmetry, and can help establish visual weight and depth. In the examples to the right, notice how the smaller elements seem to recede into the background while the larger elements come to the front.

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Dominance / Emphasis

Dominance relates to varying degrees of emphasis in design. It determines the visual weight of a composition, establishes space and perspective, and often resolves where the eye goes first when looking at a design. There are three stages of dominance, each relating to the weight of a particular object within a composition.

Dominant: The object given the most visual weight, the element of primary emphasis that advances to the foreground in the composition.

Sub-dominant: The element of secondary emphasis, the elements in the middle ground of the composition.

In the example to the right, the trees act as the dominant element, the house and hills as the secondary element, and the mountains as the tertiary element.

Unity / Harmony Unity is the relationship among the elements of a visual that helps all the elements function together. Unity gives a sense of oneness to a visual image. In other words, the words and the images work together to create meaning.

Unity can be fostered by:

ensuring that all the items which are present on a page appear to belong together,

different pages in the site are similar in content and design.

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COMPOSITIONAL RULES

EXPLANATION EXAMPLE

Rule of thirds When placing significant objects within images, they are more pleasing to the eye if they are placed along the lines that divide the image into thirds both vertically and horizontally or on the points where those lines intersect.

Reading gravity In our culture, our eyes tend to move from left to right and from top to bottom when reading. In other words we move from the top left hand corner to the bottom right hand corner. Texts that allow the human eye to follow this pattern are easier to read.

Grids and alignment

The human eye prefers organization to chaos. Grids allow designers to provide organization that can support the message or concepts being communicated

DESIGN ELEMENTS

Typography Typography is the art of selecting and arranging

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typeface (font) font size colour alignment (left, centre,

right, justified) character and line spacing format (bold, italic etc)

as a means of clarifying the message of the text.

Colour One of the elements of design, color is not essential to a good design. However, color is an added dimension that can evoke moods and make powerful statements when used wisely. Colour is a dynamic element that adds visual appeal and can be used to indentify, differentiate or unify parts of the overall product.

Shape A shape is an enclosed object. Shapes can be created by line, or by color and value changes which define their edges. A shape is defined as an area that stands out from the space next to or around it due to a defined or implied boundary, or because of differences.

The effect created by the elements of line, shape, direction, space and size.

Texture The use of pattern, texture, perspective and movements. Texture is always a part of our designs whether intentional or not. It is the visual or tactile surface characteristics of a piece. What does your paper feel like -- slick, fuzzy, rough? Does its actual or

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visual texture (created through lines, shapes, or photographic images) match the overall message you want to convey?

Space Designs that try to cram too much text and graphics onto the page are uncomfortable and may be impossible to read. White space gives your design breathing room.

Identifying design rules built in to products and how they contribute to the purpose of the product, target audience message etc.

One way of using design rules is as a framework for analysing existing digital products. In the exam you will be required to comment on a digital product and explain how design rules have been used to achieve the purpose of the product.

Target Audience

When designing digital solutions and products the designer must take into account the characteristics of the people that the product is being made for, the target audience. Characteristics that may need to be considered include but are not limited to:

o Ageo Gendero Interestso Cultureo Religiono Spending powero Impairments, disabilities of various kinds

Design criteria

Before actually creating a design for a digital product it is important to decide what the criteria are by which the success of the product will be judged. These criteria usually relate to the following areas:

The design brief provided by the clientThe client for whom you are designing the product will have certain requirements for theme, colour, purpose etc.

Design rulesThe principles of design, compositional rules and appropriate use of design elements

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and typography should be adhered too in all designs.

Standards and conventionsDifferent types of media have different conventions that people normally expect see. For instance, websites normally have some sort of easy to use menu system for ease of navigation.

The target audienceYour design has to be appealing to the target audience or it will not achieve its purpose

Design criteria can be written as statements or as questions. Here are some examples.

Does the website incorporate the sporting club’s colours?

Does the use of balance enhance the message of the poster?

Does the website have an efficient and easy to use navigation system?

Is the advertisement appealing to teenagers who like grunt music?

Project Management

Goals of a project manager

There are three main goals for a project manager. They are to complete the project:

1. Within the given time frame2. Within the allocated budget3. To the required standard

Skills required of a project manager

The Mind Map on the following page outlines the skills required for a project manager. The broad categories are:

1. Communication skills2. Organisational skills3. Human resources management4. Ethical, legal and social understandings

The technology process

Refer to the diagram on the next page for more detail about the technology process. It is the process you have been using in all your assessment tasks during the semester. There are four main aspects to this process:

1. Investigate: define and analyse problem and research similar solutions

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2. Devise: generate ideas draft designs and evaluation (design) criteria3. Produce: Develop the product using appropriate software, hardware and techniques4. Evaluate: Use various methods to assess the standard of what you have produced.

Various roles in a project

Most projects are the result of a team of people each contributing their own knowledge and skills to the task. Some of those roles include:

Software developers Graphic designers

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Systems analysts Web developers Database administrators Security specialists Network specialists Clients Users Writers Market researchers

The job of the project manager is to bring all these different roles together to achieve the goals of the project.

Dividing a project into individual tasks

One of the first things a project manager needs to do is make a big list of all the tasks that need to be done, allocate those tasks to people and schedule those tasks. Some tasks cannot be started until other tasks have been done. For instance the web developer cannot make the web pages until the graphic designer has made the button elements, logo and other required images.

The project manager schedules all these tasks taking account their dependencies using something like a Gantt chart which can be made in a program like Microsoft Excel or in custom made software.

Evaluation methods

There are many ways of evaluating a finished or draft product to get feedback about possible improvements or modifications. These include:

Alpha testing Beta testing Feedback from client Feedback from target audience Surveys Self-assessment using design criteria

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