Fluency With Information Technology, 7th edition

This print textbook is available for students to rent for their classes. The Pearson print rental program provides students with affordable access to learning materials, so they come to class ready to succeed.

For courses in introductory Computer Science.

Teaches today’s students to become not just computer users, but computational thinkers

Having grown up with computers, today’s students already know how to use Information Technology (IT) in their daily lives–but use is not understanding. More than ever, students must become “computational thinkers,” able to conceptualize where and how computation can be used effectively.

Equipping readers with a deeper understanding of the broad capabilities of technology, Fluency with Information Technology, 7th Edition uses a project-oriented learning approach supported by examples and realistic problem-solving scenarios. Authors Larry Snyder and Ray Henry teach readers to navigate IT independently and become effective users of today’s resources, forming a foundation of skills they can adapt to their personal and career goals as future technologies emerge. The text’s approach is centered on three types of content–skills, concepts, and capabilities–that prepare students to adapt to an ever-changing computing environment. This 7th Edition incorporates updates and new content that mirrors the way contemporary students encounter technology in their lives.

About the Book

Prepares students for lifelong learning through the fundamentals of computing

• NEW! Content updates incorporate changes that accommodate how students encounter computation in their daily lives: advances in smartphones, HTML5, CSS3, cloud technology, web accessibility, and more.

• This textbook largely implements the vision of the NRC (National Research Council) committee in which they proposed a three-part content - Skills, Concepts, and Capabilities - and integrates that content through the use of projects.

• Skills refers to proficiency with contemporary computer applications such as email, word processing, web searches, and so forth. Only more advanced skills remain in Fluency as this knowledge is generally known to students on arrival to college.

• Concepts refers to the fundamental knowledge underpinning IT, such as computer functionality, digital representation of information, assessment of information authenticity, and so forth. Concepts provide the principles on which students will build new understanding as IT evolves.

• Capabilities refers to higher-level thinking processes such as creativity, problem solving, reasoning, complexity management, and troubleshooting. Capabilities embody modes of thinking that are essential to exploiting IT, but they apply broadly. Reasoning, problem solving, and so forth are standard components of education; their significance in IT makes them topics of emphasis in the Fluency approach.

Engaging features encourage fluency with Information Technology

• Learning Objectives open each chapter with a list of key concepts that readers should master after reading the chapter.

• Several boxed features appear throughout the text to aid in students’ understanding of the material:

• FluencyTIPs present practical hints and suggestions for everyday computer use.

• FluencyBITs and FluencyBYTEs provide interesting facts and statistics.

• FluencyALERTs provide warnings and explanations of common mistakes.

• TryITs are short, in-chapter exercises, with solutions provided.

• FluencyBACK Stories provide a historical look at some of the major people and milestones in computing.

• Solutions are provided to selected questions for multiple-choice and short-answer sections.

• The companion website is located at: www.pearsonhighered.com/snyder and contains:

• 23 online labs (1 for each chapter in the book). The labs are designed to more fully explore (and test) students’ understanding of concepts in the book and how those issues or concepts apply to their lives.

• VideoNotes: short videos that enhance concepts presented in the textbook.

• HTML sources, database designs, and JavaScript programs used in the textbook examples

• A JavaScript reference card, glossary flashcards, and a downloadable workbook (PDF) on Alice and the Alice development environment

Content updates

Part-by-part updates include:

• Part 1 includes some content updates, with revisions in particular to Chapters 4 (“HTML”) and 5 (“Web Search”) to align with current standards.

• In Part 2, Chapter 8’s in-depth discussion of integrated circuits and semiconductors has been moved to Appendix A. Mentioned in Chapter 10’s investigation of algorithms, Appendix C lists resources for students interested in trying programming with Python.

• In Part 3, Chapters 11 (“Social Implications”) and 12 (“Privacy and Security”) have been updated to include recent examples of the social benefits and costs of IT, as well as a discussion of two-factor authentication. The “Spreadsheets” chapters have been revised to use relative cell references where appropriate.

• In Part 4, two of the project chapters (Chapter 18’s Bean Counter and Chapter 19’s MyApps) have been reviewed and updated to use CSS for tabular layout rather than HTML tables, with revisions to both the code and markup. Chapter 21 adds AlphaGo’s recent achievements to our discussion of Artificial Intelligence.