What is ICT

ICT (information and communications technology - or technologies) is an umbrella term that

includes any communication device or application, encompassing: radio, television, cellular
phones, computer and network hardware and software, satellite systems and so on, as well as the
various services and applications associated with them, such as videoconferencing and distance
learning. ICTs are often spoken of in a particular context, such as ICTs in education, health care,
or libraries.
Information and communications technology (ICT) is often used as an extended synonym
for information technology (IT), but is a more specific term that stresses the role of unified
communications
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and the integration of telecommunications (telephone lines and wireless
signals), computers as well as necessary enterprise software, middleware, storage, and audio-
visual systems, which enable users to access, store, transmit, and manipulate information.
[

Introduction to Services and Network
A computer network or data network is a telecommunications network that
allows computers to exchange data. In computer networks, networked computing devices pass
data to each other along data connections. The connections (network links) between nodes are
established using either cable media or wireless media. The best-known computer network is
the Internet.
Network computer devices that originate, route and terminate the data are called network
nodes.
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Nodes can include hosts such as computers, phones, servers as well as networking
hardware. Two such devices are said to be networked together when one device is able to
exchange information with the other device, whether or not they have a direct connection to each
other.

A group of two or more computing devices connected via a form of communications technology.
For example, a business might use a computer network connected via cables or
the Internet in order to gain access to a common server or to share programs, files and
other information.


Input/output devices
Input devices allow us to enter raw data into a computer. The computer processes the data and
then produces outputs that we can understand using an output device. Input devices can be
manual or automatic.
The processing is mainly handled by the Central Processing Unit (CPU).
Manual input devices
The most common manual input devices are the keyboard and mouse. Other manual input
devices include:
Concept keyboard
Each button on a concept keyboard relates to a particular item or function. Buttons can be
labelled with text or a picture. Fast food restaurants often use concept keyboards because very
little training is needed to operate them and they're efficient - a single button can order an entire
meal.
Trackball

Used as an alternative to a mouse. To operate it the user rotates the ball which moves the pointer
on screen. They are particularly easy to use for those with limited movement in their hands and
are often used in Computer Aided Design (CAD) for their increased precision over a mouse.
Joystick
Joysticks used to be popular with gamers but have slowly been replaced by other types of game
controller. In construction, joysticks are used to control machinery such as cranes.
Digital camera
A digital camera takes pictures and can usually record video too. The pictures it takes and the
videos it records are stored in files. These files can be copied to a computer and later edited.

Microphone
Microphones are used to input sound. In computing they can be used with voice
recognition software and a word processing application to enter text. Webcams commonly have
microphones built-in too.
Touch screen
A touch sensitive visual display unit (VDU) or screen has a grid of light beams or fine wires
criss-crossing the screen that are used to detect touch. Many mobile phones use touch screens
and do away with the keypad entirely. They're often used on cash machines and in shopping
centres too. Touch screens are robust, easy to operate and easy to reprogram.
Video digitiser
A video digitiser takes an image from a video camera or television and digitises it so it can be
read by, and stored on, a computer. Video sequences captured using a video digitiser are often
used in multimedia presentations.

Scanner
A scanner can be used to digitise images. They're similar to a photocopier but they make
a digital copy instead of a physical copy. They can also be used with optical character
recognition (OCR) software to scan in text that is then editable.
Automatic input devices
Sensors
Sensors are often used as part of a feedback cycle. They collect data continuously and are
typically linked to a control program that specifies acceptable levels, eg the minimum and
maximum temperature in a green house. The control program decides what to do next based on
the data it's fed by the sensors.
Barcode reader
Barcodes are represented by black vertical bars and are read by a barcode reader. Barcodes are
printed on nearly every product you buy, each product has a unique code. When read,
information stored in the shop's database is recalled, such as the product name and price. This
information later appears on your receipt. The scanning process also assists in stock
management, reducing the stock by one each time a product is scanned/sold.
Magnetic strip (or stripe) reader
Magnetic stripes are built into many plastic cards such as debit or credit cards and personal
identity cards. The magnetic strip on the back of the card can hold the personal details of the card
owner and, with the necessary PIN, will allow access to secure information, eg bank account
details. Data stored on the strip is scanned and input into a computer system by a magnetic stripe
reader.
Magnetic Ink Character Reader (MICR)
Magnetic ink characters appear at the bottom of cheques. Banks use MICR to read the numbers
from the bottom of cheques to obtain data such as account numbers and bank sort codes. A
particular font is used that makes it easy for the machine to discriminate between characters. The
ink is magnetised, this makes it immune to creases and dirty marks.
Optical Mark Reader (OMR)
An OMR reads marks made by pencil on a printed form into the computer. OMR systems are
suited to reading pre-printed forms and check boxes such as National Lottery number selection
sheets and multiple choice exam papers.
Output devices
Common output formats are printed paper, sound, video and on-screen documents. They let the
computer communicate with the user. Examples of devices that take advantages of these formats
are:
Monitor
The most common output device is the monitor or VDU.
Modern monitors, where the case isnt more than a few centimetres deep, are usually Liquid
Crystal Displays (LCD) or Thin Film Transistors (TFT) monitors.
Older monitors, where the case is likely to be around 30 cm deep, are Cathode Ray Tube (CRT)
monitors.
Printers
Laser printers are quite expensive to buy and run but produce a high quality output and are
quiet and fast.
Ink-jet printers offer black and white or colour printing with reduced levels of quality and
speed. Colour ink jet printers are cheaper to buy than colour laser printers.
Dot matrix printers are not so common today. They are comparatively noisy and low quality
but are cheap to run and are used when carbon copies or duplicates need to be made, such as for
wage slips. Also, they are useful in dirty environments such as a garage because they are much
sturdier than the other two types of printer.
Plotters
A plotter can be used to produce high quality, accurate, A3 size or bigger drawings. They are
usually used for Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Computer Aided Manufacture
(CAM) applications, such as printing out plans for houses or car parts.
Other output devices
Many other types of output device exist including:
speakers
projectors
buzzers
motors
switched outputs
lights
mechanical devices, eg a robot arm

Data And Computer Storage
Data is the quantities, characters, or symbols on which operations are performed by a computer,
being stored and transmitted in the form of electrical signals and recorded on magnetic, optical,
or mechanical recording media.
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A program is a set of data that consists of a series of coded
software instructions to control the operation of a computer or other machine.
Computer data storage, often called storage or memory, refers to computer components
and recording media that retain digital data used for computing for some interval of time.
Computer data storage provides one of the core functions of the modern computer, that of
information retention. It is one of the fundamental components of all modern computers, and
coupled with a central processing unit(CPU, a processor), implements the basic computer model
used since the 1940s.
In contemporary usage, memory usually refers to a form of semiconductor storage known
as random-access memory, typically DRAM (Dynamic-RAM) but memory can refer to other
forms of fast but temporary storage. Similarly, storage today more commonly refers to storage
devices and their media not directly accessible by theCPU (secondary or tertiary storage)
typically hard disk drives, optical disc drives, and other devices slower than RAM but more
permanent.
[1]
Historically, memoryhas been called main memory, real storage or internal
memory while storage devices have been referred to as secondary storage, external
memory orauxiliary/peripheral storage.
In a computer, storage is the place where data is held in an electromagnetic or optical form for
access by a computer processor. There are two general usages.
1) Storage is frequently used to mean the devices and data connected to the computer through
input/output operations - that is, hard disk and tape systems and other forms of storage that don't
include computer memory and other in-computer storage. For the enterprise, the options for this
kind of storage are of much greater variety and expense than that related to memory. This
meaning is probably more common in the IT industry than meaning 2.
2) In a more formal usage, storage has been divided into: (1) primary storage, which holds data
in memory (sometimes called random access memory or RAM) and other "built-in" devices such
as the processor's L1 cache, and (2) secondary storage, which holds data on hard disks, tapes,
and other devices requiring input/output operations.
Primary storage is much faster to access than secondary storage because of the proximity of the
storage to the processor or because of the nature of the storage devices. On the other hand,
secondary storage can hold much more data than primary storage.
In addition to RAM, primary storage includes read-only memory (ROM) and L1 and L2 cache
memory. In addition to hard disks, secondary storage includes a range of device types and
technologies, including diskettes, Zip drives, redundant array of independent disks (RAID)
systems, and holographic storage. Devices that hold storage are collectively known as storage
media.
Formatting Document-Wording

Formating Characters and Paragraphs
The appearance of characters, (bold, italic, underline, etc.) and the format of paragraphs
(justified, centred, etc.) can be changed in a number of ways. The most comprehensive range of
options will be obtained by using the Format menu from the Menu Bar and then
selecting Font or Paragraph (or indeed any of the other format choices). NOTE that the area to
be formatted must first be selected.
The Format>Font Dialogue Box is shown below:

To use this box do the following:-
Click in any of the boxes in the Font Style area to turn on or off the feature. To change Size
(measured in points), Colour, etc. choose from the list provided by pointing and clicking with
the left-hand mouse button. The changes you make are illustrated in the Preview box, to apply
them to the document click on OK, or if you decide not to make any changes click Cancel.
If you wish to change character spacing click on the character spacing tab.
Format Paragraph

This option allows you to format the shape of paragraphs (left or right alligned, centred or
justified), the amount of space before and after the paragraph, the line spacing withing the
paragraph, any indents required (left, right or hanging). As with Format Font there is a
Preview window to show you what effects your changes will have
Quick Formatting

On the Formatting Toolbar (illustrated above) there are three buttons for character
formatting, B for bold; I for italic and u for underlined; and there are four buttons for paragraph
formatting which are marked with a picture of how that style of paragraph would appear; Left
Aligned; Centred; Right Aligned and Justified. To use them, select the text to be formatted
and click. With the character formatting buttons clicking the button again undoes the action. I.e.
if the selected text is already Bold then clicking on the Bold button turns it back to normal.
Other format options include Borders & Shading and Bullets & Numbering.


DATABASE SOFTWARE- MICROSOFT ACCESS
What is a database?
A database is a tool for collecting and organizing information. Databases can store information
about people, products, orders, or anything else. Many databases start as a list in a word-
processing program or spreadsheet. As the list grows bigger, redundancies and inconsistencies
begin to appear in the data. The data becomes hard to understand in list form, and there are
limited ways of searching or pulling subsets of data out for review. Once these problems start to
appear, it's a good idea to transfer the data to a database created by a database management
system (DBMS), such as Office Access 2007.
A computerized database is a container of objects. One database can contain more than one table.
For example, an inventory tracking system that uses three tables is not three databases, but one
database that contains three tables. Unless it has been specifically designed to use data or code
from another source, an Access database stores its tables in a single file, along with other objects,
such as forms, reports, macros, and modules. Databases created in the Access 2007 format have
the file extension .accdb, and databases created in earlier Access formats have the file extension
.mdb. I can use Microsoft Access 2007 to create files in earlier file formats (for example, Access
2000 and Access 2002-2003).
Using Access, you can:
Add new data to a database, such as a new item in an inventory
Edit existing data in the database, such as changing the current location of an item
Delete information, perhaps if an item is sold or discarded
Organize and view the data in different ways
Share the data with others via reports, e-mail messages, an intranet , or the Internet

Presentation Software Microsoft PowerPoint
PowerPoint presentations consist of a number of individual pages or "slides". The "slide"
analogy is a reference to the slide projector. A better analogy would be the "foils" (or
transparencies/plastic sheets) that are shown with an overhead projector, although they are in
decline now. Slides may contain text, graphics, sound, movies, and other objects, which may be
arranged freely. The presentation can be printed, displayed live on a computer, or navigated
through at the command of the presenter. For larger audiences the computer display is often
projected using a video projector. Slides can also form the basis of webcasts.
PowerPoint provides three types of movements:
1. Entrance, emphasis, and exit of elements on a slide itself are controlled by what
PowerPoint calls Custom Animations.
2. Transitions, on the other hand, are movements between slides. These can be animated in
a variety of ways.
3. Custom animation can be used to create small story boards by animating pictures to enter,
exit or move.
PowerPoint provides numerous features that offer flexibility and the ability to create a
professional presentation. One of the features provides the ability to create a presentation that
includes music which plays throughout the entire presentation or sound effects for particular
slides. In addition to the ability to add sound files, the presentation can be designed to run, like a
movie, on its own. PowerPoint allows the user to record the slide show with narration and a laser
pointer. The user may customize slide shows to show the slides in a different order than
originally designed and to have slides appear multiple times. Microsoft also offers the ability to
broadcast the presentation to specific users via a link and Windows Live.


SPREADSHEET-Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet application developed by Microsoft for Microsoft
Windows and Mac OS. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro
programming language called Visual Basic for Applications. It has been a very widely applied
spreadsheet for these platforms, especially since version 5 in 1993, and it has replaced Lotus 1-2-
3 as the industry standard for spreadsheets. Excel forms part of Microsoft Office.
Microsoft Excel has the basic features of all spreadsheets, using a grid of cells arranged in
numbered rows and letter-named columns to organize data manipulations like arithmetic
operations. It has a battery of supplied functions to answer statistical, engineering and financial
needs. In addition, it can display data as line graphs, histograms and charts, and with a very
limited three-dimensional graphical display. It allows sectioning of data to view its dependencies
on various factors for different perspectives (using pivot tables and the scenario manager). It has
a programming aspect, Visual Basic for Applications, allowing the user to employ a wide variety
of numerical methods, for example, for solving differential equations of mathematical
physics,
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and then reporting the results back to the spreadsheet. It also has a variety of interactive
features allowing user interfaces that can completely hide the spreadsheet from the user, so the
spreadsheet presents itself as a so-called application, or decision support system (DSS), via a
custom-designed user interface, for example, a stock analyzer, or in general, as a design tool that
asks the user questions and provides answers and reports.