BTT 1O/2O
Class Notes
File Management


File management is the activity we perform to manage our
workspace to ensure that we can find the necessary data or
information when we need it.
Typical file management tasks include:
 Creating and saving files
 Creating folders (also called directories)
 Renaming folders and files
 Copying or moving folders and files
 Deleting folders and files
 Completing the above tasks between different drives (i.e.
creating a back-up on a diskette)
 Creating read only files
 Keyboard Shortcuts can be used in all Microsoft programs
 Ctrl-C “Copy”, Ctrl-V “Paste”, Ctrl-X “Cut”, Ctrl-Z
“Undo”, Ctrl-A “Select all”
File Management (cont'd)
When you start to organize your workspace you need to
determine the type of information you will be creating
and saving (i.e. Science notes, history projects, personal
letters) and creating your folders or directories
accordingly.
Type of Information
Suggested Folder Name
Eg: Science notes and labs
science
History notes and reports
history
Personal letters
personal
File Management (cont'd)
Rules for Naming files and folders:
 Files and Folders can have names up to 255
characters including spaces.
 Special characters such as \ / : * ? ” < > | are
not allowed.
File Management (cont'd)
File Naming
 Files have 2 parts in their name:
Name indicating content (up to 255 characters long)
 Extension: characters after the “.”
 The extension determines the type of file, and which
program will best open the file
i.e. .docx indicates an MS Word file
.mp3 indicates an audio file
.html indicates a web page
* Most programs add the extension for you when you
save the file.

File Management (cont'd)
COPYING AND MOVING FILES AND FOLDERS (2
METHODS) Using Windows Explorer
RIGHT mouse button
 Using the right mouse button, drag the file/folder to the new
destination and release and click MOVE HERE or COPY
HERE.
Drag & Drop (Left mouse button)
 Within The Same Drive: To MOVE: Drag the file/folder to the
new destination and release (drop it). Only works when you are
moving within the same drive. To COPY: Hold down the Ctrlkey to copy it when dragging to the other folder.
 Across Drives: To COPY: Drag the file/folder to the new
destination and release (drop it). Automatically works when you
are copying from one drive to the other (g: to removable). To
MOVE: Use Ctrl-X and Ctrl-V or right mouse button technique
Issues in Information Technology





Ergonomics/Health & Safety
Security
Ethics
Legal Issues
Environmental Issues
Ergonomics
The term ergonomics refers to the
relationship between workers and their
working environment.
To ensure a suitable working environment,
consider the following:
adequate lighting
 adequate ventilation
 monitors with screens free from flicker, interference
and glare
 an adjustable chair
 suitably positioned keyboard
 provision for frequent breaks away from the
computer

Ergonomics (cont'd)
Why worry about ergonomics?
Modifying your:
 technique
and
 your work environment
can be helpful in reducing Repetitive Stress
Injuries like carpal tunnel syndrome—
which is a wrist or hand injury caused by
extended periods of keyboarding—and
Eye Strain.
Ergonomics:
Proper Keyboarding Technique:






Eyes stay focused on copy material not on keyboard or
screen.
Correct fingering used consistently on alphabetic keys.
Fingers rest lightly on home row
Wrists are elevated, not resting on anything
Steady rhythm
Good posture: sitting back in chair, back straight, feet
flat on floor
Chair height: allows you to create a 90º angle with your
forearm and upper arm when fingers are placed over
the home row
Ergonomics:
Good Ergonomic Strategies
Choose a good chair and computer desk.
 Chair should have adjustable height, lower back
support, and arm rests.
 Desk should have a keyboard shelf at the proper
height - this will avoid reaching up for the keyboard.
Position your monitor correctly.
 The monitor should be 2 to 2½ feet away, and a little
below eye level.
 Position your monitor so that bright lights/sunlight do
not reflect off of the screen.
 Tilt the monitor face upwards (approx. 10°)
 Keep your screen clean.
Ergonomics (cont'd)
Sit up straight and keep your feet flat on the floor in
front of you.

Forearms and thighs are parallel to the floor.
Keep your wrists straight.

Hands should be in a straight line with your forearms
as you type.

Do not rest your wrists on anything as you type.

Resting the wrist puts excessive strain on the hands
and fingers.
Rest your eyes occasionally to avoid eyestrain.
Avoid pounding the keys or gripping the mouse.
Ergonomics (cont'd)
An example of an
ergonomically correct
computer setup:



The forearms and thighs are
parallel to the floor,
the keyboard is in easy reach
without bending or flexing the
wrists,
the monitor is positioned to
reduce eye and neck strain.
Ergonomics (cont'd)
Set your GUI for healthy viewing.
 Use quiet color settings (neutral or cool
shades). Avoid staring at bright colours for
long periods of time.
 Choose the large icon setting if it is easier for
you to see the interface.
Take a break when sitting for long periods of
time
 10 minutes after every 50 minutes
Security Issues
Saving
 Save frequently, a PC’s memory is temporary
 Even saved files can be vulnerable to
destruction from hardware failure or fire
 Essential that organizations keep back-ups of
valuable information, in another physical
location if possible
Security Issues (cont'd)
Passwords & User IDs
 Used to gain access to the computer system in
an organization
 Chosen by user and never divulged
 Changed frequently
 Not too obvious
Security Issues (cont'd)
Firewall
 The purpose of a firewall:
 Track and restrict unauthorized outside user
 Control access to authorized network users
Security Issues (cont'd)
Anti-Virus program


A virus is a program or piece of code that is loaded onto your computer
without your knowledge and runs against your wishes.
Use McAfee, Norton Security or AVG to scan and eliminate viruses. AVG is
free to download and use.
Virus Characteristics


All computer viruses are manmade
A simple virus that copies itself over and over again is relatively easy to
produce.


An even more dangerous type of virus is one capable of transmitting itself by
attaching to a legitimate program


Quickly uses all available memory and brings the system to a halt
Through e-mails or executable files on web sites
A virus can be harmless or it can destroy data files, erase an entire hard disk
or even make your computer inoperable
Ethical Issues
Ethical Use of Computers
Ethics are the standards of honesty, morality and
fairness. These standards relate to using
computers. It is your responsibly to respect the
property, rights and privacy of others in the way
you use computers at home and at school.
Ethical Issues (cont'd)
Acceptable Use Agreements
A good policy guides the desirable use of the
computer system by:
 protecting school resources,
 limiting liability,
 Promoting safe behaviour by clarifying rights
and expectations of both students and staff
members.
Ethical Issues (cont'd)
Pick 5 points to record in your notes:
Acceptable Use Agreement at St. Benedict














Do NOT share your login, password, or workspace with anyone.
Do NOT use another person’s account.
Login and Logoff appropriately.
Virus scan all media before use on the school network. You will be held responsible for any viruses
introduced to the network through your workspace.
Do NOT install personal software in your workspace or on the network. This specifically includes
graphic files, games or other executable files unless you have written permission from the school’s
software technician, information systems facilitator, or from the teacher of the course where these files
have been created.
Name the files you have created appropriately. Profanity or rude comments are not acceptable filenames.
Do NOT access, distribute or post offensive material on the network.
Do NOT use the computer to annoy or harass another person.
The school has purchased various software to use on the network. This software is protected by
copyright and therefore cannot be copied in any form by anyone.
Unauthorized access to either system files or other student files is not permitted.
Report any damage or problems to the teacher immediately. Abuse of the hardware or software is called
vandalism and will be dealt with appropriately. Failure to report any damages or problems may result in
the student using the computer being held responsible for the damage.
No food or drink is permitted near the computers or in the computer rooms.
Internet access will be available at St. Benedict based on course requirements, students need, and the
system availability. Use of the Internet involves increased responsibilities and expectations. A separate
Internet agreement is provided.
Students using a computer in individual classrooms must be supervised by a teacher at all times.
Ethical Issues (cont'd)
Spam is generally e-mail advertising for some
product sent to a mailing list or newsgroup.
 In addition to wasting people's time with
unwanted e-mail, spam also eats up a lot of
network bandwidth
Ethical Issues (cont'd)
Hate & Discrimination Promotion
The evolution of the Internet into the World
Wide Web, with its easily accessible and inviting
graphic interface, has provided people, including
extremists, with new ways to communicate with
each other and with a vast new potential
audience, using not only words, but also
pictures, graphics, sound, and animation.
Ethical Issues (cont'd)
Technology Access and Equity




access to technology and being proficient in its use is an
important key to one's economic status
Digital divide refers to the gap between those with
regular, effective access to digital and information
technology, and those without this access
It encompasses both physical access to technology
hardware and, more broadly, skills and resources which
allow for its use
Groups of people who are divided by this issue are
(rich/poor), (white/minority), (able/disabled) or
(urban/rural)
Legal Issues
Intellectual Property is a product someone creates based upon his
or her thought or ideas. Some examples:
● a picture or clip art collection
● computer animations
● computer games
● software
● music
Copyright laws exist to protect those who create an idea or
product. Most copyrighted material may not be copied without
consent of the owner. Some programs have built-in security
codes to protect against illegal use. If you copy the material
without permission your are breaking the law → piracy.
Plagiarism is
 stealing and passing off the ideas or words of another as your
own
 using another's production without crediting the source
Legal Issues (cont'd)
Software Agreements have been established to
protect copyrighted material. When you
purchase software you are subject to the terms
of the agreement established by the owner.
 You are legally bound to honour software
license agreements
Types of agreements:
 Freeware, shareware, single machine, site and
network licenses
Legal Issues (cont'd)
Hacking is the unauthorized use of a computer
system or program.
 Hackers may breaking into a system just for fun,
others may be trying to unlawfully access a
computer program to change or steal data.
 Hacking is an invasion of privacy which is
against the law and is punishable by the law
Environmental Issues
Digital Dumping: Disposal of Obsolete
Equipment
What to do with old electronic equipment?




Most charitable groups won’t take it – it’s too old.
The city dump won’t take it –your old machine is full of
toxic substances.
You don’t want it sitting in the closet for eternity.
If you’re lucky, you may have an program in your area
that will take it for “ecycling,” removing toxic chemicals
for proper disposal and valuable metals for reuse.
Environmental Issues (cont'd)
What really happens to your old computer or
broken printer or fried cell phone?




tons of these and other electronic items are loaded onto barges
and shipped off to developing countries, where the recycling
processes are so substandard that they actually contribute to air
and water pollution.
Whatever isn’t salvageable ends up in their landfills.
North American recyclers say it’s not cost efficient to fix broken
items, so they often donate these goods to developing nations to
help “bridge the digital divide.”
Many countries, though, report that up to 75% of this equipment
is not usable, nor do they have the technology to repair or
recycle it properly.
Digital Literacy






What is a computer?
What is a computer system?
Software
Data
Hardware & PowerPoint presentation
Networking
Software
Software is the set of electronic instructions that
tells the computer what to do. It is also referred
to as a program.
Two General Types:
Application Software
 System Software

Application software and system software work
together to provide useful output.
Application Software
Software tells the computer how to accomplish specific
tasks selected by the user.
Examples of Application Software:









Word Processing
Spreadsheets
Databases
Desktop Publishing
Graphics
Entertainment (games)
Educational
Communication
Presentation
System Software
Includes:
 Operating System
 System Tools
Operating System Software

The operating system tells the computer how to:





interact with the user
use all the attached devices (disk drive, keyboard, mouse,
monitor, usb drive, camera etc.)
run other software, and
manage all the files/folders.
Examples: Windows 7, Blackberry OS, Apple/Mac OS
System Tools





File Defragmentation: Re-organizes files on a
disk to speed up processing
Data Clean up: Compresses (and cleans up)
data
System Restore: Undo harmful changes to
your computer and restore settings and
performance it to an earlier version before the
trouble began
Data Recovery: Recover erased files
Virus Protection and Firewall protection
Hardware

See hardware notes ( separate presentation)
Internet
The significance of the Internet and particularly
the World Wide Web cannot be underestimated!
Information is available instantly to the masses
 Communication has few physical barriers (anytime,
anywhere)
 Millions of users
 Knowledge is POWER and now that is widely
available to those that want it
 No one organization owns the Internet and so what
is available is not controlled or limited
 That provides opportunities for everyone: Business,
Governments, Education & Research, Personal

Internet Background
The INTERNET is a worldwide network of computers.
 Created for the U.S. Department of Defense as a tool
for military communications, command, and control,
and exchanges of data with defense contractors.

1969 Advanced Research Projects Agency of US
Dept. of Defense (ARPA) connected computers at
universities to create network that would survive
nuclear disaster. Network called ARPANET.

National Science Foundation (NSF) created
NSFnet (higher capacity network) and linked it to
ARPANET
Internet Background (cont’d)
 The
Internet came about through
combination of ARPANET,
NSFnet, and other networks.
 Internet timeline:
* backbones = main communication pipelines
How the Internet Works


Computer equipment on the internet consists of
SERVERS, CLIENTS or ROUTERS
The SERVERS are like electronic filing cabinets that
simply store information and pass it on when
requested. They can be file servers; mail servers; or
Web servers.


There are something like 20 million servers on the Internet.
The CLIENTS connect to the servers through an ISP
(Internet Service Provider) so you can read your
messages, look at a web site or download information

There are far more clients on the Internet than servers—
probably reaching a billion by now!
How the Internet Works (cont’d)

When two computers on the Internet swap
information back and forth on a more-orless equal basis, they are known as peers. If
you use an instant messaging program to
chat to a friend, and you start swapping
files, you’re taking part in what’s called
peer-to-peer (P2P) communication.
How the Internet Works (cont’d)
Apart from clients and servers, the Internet
is also made up of ROUTERS, whose job
is really just to make connections between
different systems.
 The router is like a switchboard that directs
your request to the worldwide network
 It starts, stop and directs traffic(bits) over
the internet.

How the Internet Works (cont’d)
ISP like Rogers
& Bell
Telephone lines or
Cable lines
Some Key Internet Terms

TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet
Protocol)


IP Address (Internet Protocol Address)


Rules & procedures (software) to control timing & data
format so computers can communicate.
Every computer on Internet has unique 4 part numeric
address (ex. 205.46.117.104). Address contains routing
information that identifies location
DNS Address (Domain Name System Address)



is the IP address using words.
2 parts: individual name + domain & sub-domains
ex. microsoft.com
Common Internet Domains
.com
.edu
.gov
.mil
.net
.org
.on.ca
.fr
.us
commercial business (for profit)
education
government
military
gateway or host
other organization (usually non-profit)
Ontario, Canada
France
United States
Major Features Of The Internet







E-Mail
WWW (web pages)
News
Chat
FTP (file transfer protocol)
Bulletin Boards
Entertainment (gaming)
World Wide Web
(WWW or The Web)
The WWW is not the same as the Internet. The
Internet is a world-wide computer network. The
WWW is just one software system running
on the Internet.
To view a web page you need:
 Browser: Software that displays graphics and
text of a specified site (IE/Firefox).
 Uniform Resource Locator (URL): Special
address that tells the browser where to go.
Example of a URL
http://www.cnn.com/feedback/comments.html
http
Protocol or rules used to transfer this
type of data over the internet.
(Hypertext Transfer Protocol)
www
Address is found on WWW
cnn
Domain name
com
Type of Domain
feedback
Directory or folder name
comments.html
Filename
World Wide Web
(WWW or The Web)


Web Sites are divided into pages with one page
(usually the first) of the site designated as the
Home Page.
Web pages contain internal and/or external
hyperlinks. These links allow the reader to
click on the highlighted word/phrase/image and
jump to another location in the document or
another file located anywhere on Internet.
Connecting to the Internet





To access the Internet your browser sends a request to
the SERVER, usually an Internet Service Provider like
Rogers or Bell using your computer’s MODEM
Communication occurs over phone lines or cables
Your information is not sent all at once but broken up
into smaller packets
Each packet contains some information PLUS the
sender’s and receiver’s address or IP address
The router determines how the packets are sent (the
quickest route)
E-Mail


Most common use of the Internet
E-mail programs send text + attachments
(graphics, sound, video, etc.)
Offline: Pegasus, MS Outlook, Thunderbird
 Online: Gmail, HotMail, YahooMail



E-mail normally involves communication
between two people, but can also be sent to
multiple users (distribution list)
Can send to people without others knowing
(BCC: blind carbon copy)
E-Mail Etiquette
Keep messages short and to the point.
 Always include a subject with your message
that briefly indicates its content.
 Do not send abusive messages to others.
 Be careful what you say about others, as
your messages reflects upon you.
 Use humour and sarcasm where
appropriate, but be sure your intent is
understood.

E-Mail Etiquette
Do not be critical of others’ spelling or
grammatical errors, you’ll make them too.
 DO NOT USE CAPITAL LETTERS as
this is the Internet equivalent of shouting.
 You can’t take it back: after email is sent,
it’s gone, and it’s a permanent record of
what you said.

Evaluating an
Information Website
Consider the following criteria:
Authority and Accuracy

What do you know about the author?


What indicates they are an expert
Can you contact him/her?

Email?
Why check? Anyone can publish anything!

Can you check the information?

Links to other sites?
Why check? no web standards exist to ensure
accuracy
Advocacy and Objectivity

What is the purpose of the website?


Educate, entertain, persuade?
Does the website try to persuade you to one side
of an issue?

Is it opinion or is it strictly facts?
Why check? People could be trying to
persuade you to do things that might not be
right! You’re not hearing both sides of the
story.
Currency and Coverage

Is the information current?


When was it last updated?
Does it cover the topic in enough depth?

Are links relevant and appropriate?
Why check? Older information may not still be
accurate. You may not be getting the full
picture.
Style and Functionality

Is the site organized in a clear and logical
manner?
Is it easy to read and find things?
 Are you able to search or use menues easily?

Why check? Your time is valuable, don’t
waste it on a website that takes too long to
find things.
Try this:
Go to:
http://dhmo.org
Try this:
Go to:
http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/evalexpl.html
Click on:
Secondhand Smoke: The Big Lie
Evaluation:Give an opinion and back it up
with evidence from the website




Authority & Accuracy:
Advocacy and Objectivity
Currency and Coverage
Style and Functionality
Networking

A stand-alone computer system works well for
normal use on an individual basis. This refers to
regular student use, common household
requirements, and perhaps even home office or
low-end business needs. However, as tasks
become more complex and more users are
involved, connecting PCs to create a network is
frequently used as a solution to improve
efficiency.
Network

A network is a system of interconnected
computers that communicate with each other
and share:
Applications
 Data
 Hardware Components

Advantages of a Network




Simultaneous (all at the same time) access to
programs and data
Sharing of peripherals (i.e. printers and scanners)
Easy communication with others using e-mail
Easy back-up of important data
Disadvantages of a Network





Need for increased security to protect the
network (Users must login using unique ID and
password)
Higher maintenance due to larger number of
users
Possible loss of privacy through hacking
More complex – need network administrator
Vandalism
Parts of a Network





Server: computer that has large storage capacity
that holds all shared storage and programs
Shared peripherals: printer, scanner
PCs
Specialized Network
Software - programs
that manage the
resources on the
network
All joined through
wired or wireless
connections
Network Setup
A network can be setup as:
 LAN (Local Area Network) – A network of
computers located relatively near each other and
connected by a cable or wireless.

WAN (Wide Area Network) – Two or more
LANs connected together, generally across a
wide geographical area using high-speed or
dedicated phone lines.

A router is necessary to join the LANs within a
WAN
Most Common Network Layout
Star – Places a hub
(server) in the center
of the network nodes.
Groups of data are
routed through the
central hub to their
destination.
 Broken path affects
only one device.
Network goes down
only if hub is lost.
