coming to terms with it

Coming to Terms with ITFluency with Information Technology

Katherine Deibel

INFO100 and CSE100

Katherine Deibel

2012-03-28 Katherine Deibel, Fluency in Information Technology 1

Some Perspective If you do the work, you can expect the

following grades (from winter 2012) Average: 3.44 Median: 3.60 St. Dev.: 0.62


1.7 1.9 2.1 2.3 2.5 2.7 2.9 3.1 3.3 3.5 3.7 3.90

5

10

15

20

25

Regarding Labs Computers are provided but feel free

to bring your own laptop Most of the software used in this course

is free and available for PCs and Macs


Lab 1: UW Computing Introduction to several computing

services available here at UW Setting up your account for this class


Katherine Deibel, Fluency in Information Technology 5

Turning In Labs Lab 1 is due on Monday by 10pm

Turn in is the submission of the WebQ quiz In general

Labs assigned on Monday/Tuesdayare due by 10pm on Thursday

Labs assigned on Wednesday/Thursdayare due by 10pm on Monday

2012-03-28

Late Policy You can turn in most work up to two

days late 20% penalty for being 1-day late 50% penalty for being 2-days late

Applies to projects and labs Does not apply to GoPosts and other

assignments unless otherwise stated


Lab 1: A Teaching Moment


Lab 1: A Teaching Moment When you activate your web storage,

you might not see the disk usage listed right away

Why?


Usage Data Missing—Why? Consider a wastebasket

We hire a person to check on it and empty it when it is full

How often do we have thatperson check its status?


Usage Data Missing—Why? Option 1:

The employee stands by the basket constantly watching it

Option 2:The employee periodicallychecks the basket


How often should they check? When should they check?

Storage Data Missing—Why? How many wastebaskets are there?


Storage Data Missing—Why? UW hosts 1000s of web accounts

Each account’s usage changes infrequently

Monitoring the usage constantly would be a waste of resources


This is an example of what it means to be operationally attuned.

Operationally Attuned Think about how devices operate Observe what they tell us—feedback

Progress bars, spinning cursors, etc.

So, if you think you’re waiting for the computer but there is no feedback, it’s waiting for youOne of the most effective habits new users can adopt is to be operationally

attuned.2012-03-28 Katherine Deibel, Fluency in Information Technology 13

Icons Icons tell us a lot about software

functionality What do you think click on these

icons would do?


Paying Attention is Not Enough

Things can go wrong You may need to seek out help To do so requires knowing the right

terminology


Le Mot Juste

Learning le mot juste, the right word for something, aids us in two ways: Helps learning ... our brains anchor

concepts to words & phrases Helps us get help ... asking “tech support”

for help requires us to describe the problem precisely

mot juste/MO zoost/ (Fr.) most appropriate word, expression


Back in the days of CRTs I’ve had a few CRT monitors go bad

One started only showing red One started only showing yellow

What do you think happened? Turn to your neighbors and hypothesize

some explanations?


Back in the days of CRTs I’ve had a few CRT monitors go bad

One started only showing red One started only showing yellow

What happened: The green/blue components died The blue component died


Colors We learned this as kids

Primary colors: Red Yellow Blue Secondary colors: Orange Purple Green

That’s for mixing pigments, not light Primary colors: Red Green Blue Secondary colors: Cyan Magenta Yellow


Mixing Light


Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow? Sound familiar? Think printing. Color printers are CMYK printers They use four types of ink

Cyan Magenta Yellow blacK (actually Key)


CMYK Printing Technically, CMYK printing is

mixing pigments, not light Cyan + Magenta = Blue Magenta + Yellow = Red Cyan + Yellow = Green C + M + Y = Black(ish)


Definitions Where can you find IT definitions?

Glossary in the back of the book Google query: define <new term> Online flash cards Wikipedia


Software/Hardware Hardware refers to physical devices Software refers to programs The main difference is:

Hardware cannot be changed Software can be modified

The same hardware (computer) runs different software (applications)


Software/Hardware Separating the two is tricky A mouse is actually both

Hardware: the mouse itself Software: the mouse drivers


It’s not just components Hardware & software make up a computer How the computer performs also needs to

be described Memory Speed Storage space

And you need to compare different performance levels!


Speed of Change: Mile Runs How fast to run a mile?

First four minute mile was in 1954:Roger Bannister (3:59.40)

Current record was set in 1999:Hakim El Guerrouj (3:43.13)

Their speeds: Bannister’s rate = 15.04 mph El Guerrouj’s rate = 16.27 mph

45 years to get 7% faster!

Still holds the record

today!


A Speed Comparison How fast can you run a mile?

Healthy people in their twenties run a mile in 7:30 (≈8 mph)

El Guerrouj is twice as fast as us He is about a factor-of-2 faster than

normal people

A factor-of-2 is a good rule for human strength


One More Factor How fast do computers run?

Univac I ran 100,000 adds/sec in 1954 ASCI Red ran 2.1×1011 adds in 1999▪ A factor-of-21 Million improvement▪ This was a teraflop machine. We have since

built petaflop machines (1000x faster)

Can we comprehend such speeds or factors of improvement?


Factors Precisely A factor of improvement is different than a

percent improvement … factor = new_rate/old_rate percent = 100 x (new_rate-old_rate)/old_rate

Expressing an improvement by its factor is easier, especially for large changes El Guerrouj’s 7% improvement over Bannister is

a 1.07 factor of improvement

Indy 500: 1911 Harroun 74.59 mph2002 Castroneves 166.5 mph


Analytical Approach One reason to notice the factors of

improvement is to recognize scale The time for the mile run has improved Maximum adds per second has improved

But the difference in scale is dramatic A factor-of-1.07 for the mile run A factor-of-21,000,000 for additions

Getting information is easy with IT, but we need analysis to understand its significance.


Summary of Chapter 1 Fluency involves

Knowing the correct vocabulary and concepts Paying attention to what the computer does Being able to make comparisons


GoPosts The GoPost board is now up Let’s visit it:

https://catalyst.uw.edu/gopost/area/deibel/27196


Katherine Deibel, Fluency in Information Technology 34

GoPost Discussions Ten weekly discussions Goal is to engage in conversations

about IT and fluency Bring in our "barnyard" of diverse

viewpoints and backgrounds Talk in greater detail about what we

might not have time for in lecture/labs

2012-03-28

Discussion Topics Topics of discussions can include anything

we have been studying Asking questions about the material Interesting applications Your own thoughts

I will add additional topics in each week Example: Digital natives and immigrants

You are invited to suggest/post other topics


GoPost Grading Your contributions to the weekly

discussion is graded on a 0-12 scale 0 pts: No posts 1 pts: Minimal contributions

(+1, this, I agree, etc.) Up to 6pts: Contributes a decent

post but mostly repeats previous posters and does not add to the conversation



discussion is graded on a 0-12 scale 7 pts: Post contributes to discussion:

says something somewhat novel or replies to previous comments

8 pts: Post contributes a link or question but does not provide context

10 pts: Significant contributions: asking questions with stated reason; posting links and discussing them; etc.



discussion is graded on a 0-12 scale 12 pts: Student makes exceptionally

strong contributions to the conversation(s)

Note that serious grammatical errors posting incorrect information, or unclear writing will lose points


GoPost Grading 10 weekly discussions worth up to 12

points each Total possible points is 120 Your score will be out of 100 points

Ergo, you may earn up to 20 points of extra credit


More about Weekly Discussions

Late postings not accepted You can post multiple times and is

probably a good idea if you want to have a conversation

Summarizing topics is an easy 6 pts, but it is only 6 pts

I will be contributing as well


To get you used to GoPosts…

Post Your Biography Activity Instructions linked on the Calendar page Due Friday by 10pm


Announcements Read Chapter 2 for Friday Lab 1 is due on Monday by 10pm Submit your GoPost biography by 10pm

on Friday Bring clickers on Friday… we will do a test

run and discuss their HCI aspects


coming to terms with it

Documents

information technology14

information technology6lab

information technology3lab

information technology4turning

information technology12this

information technology10how

information technology7

attuned think