COMPUTER TERMS

 

In study skills classes in High School, students will learn how to use a computer.  This is just a preview of terms they will come across in their studies.  We will discuss each in length during the summer session

 

Term

Definition

Example

Application Software

Programs that are written to do tasks that humans want to do such as writing a letter or drawing a picture

Education Software

Browse the Internet

When a person sits down at a computer, opens the browser, hits the search button, puts a word in the box and finds a lot of references to that word.

 

CD-ROM

Compact disk – Read only memory

Games

Computer System

Composed of hardware and software

Hewlett Packard/Apple computers

CPU

Central Processing Unit

Internal hardware

Disk Drives

Stores information magnetically and requires some type of media such as tapes or CDs

Hard Drive/Floppy Disk/CD-Rom

E-mail

Electronic mail

JudyDurbin@aol.com 

Hardware

Part of the computer system is the metal, plastic, and silicon, that use electric power 

 

Hits

Number of results found in a search on the Internet

 

HTML

Hyper text markup language, special program language used to communicate on the World Wide Web http://www.antionline.com/features/jargon/=H=.html

<H1> means Heading 1

Icon

Pictures, besides words, that give the user directions

A book/an open file folder

Input Device

What you use to get information into the computer

Keyboard/scanner

Internet

Network of networks made up of thousands of education, government, business and community networks sharing information.

World Wide Web

ISP

Internet Service Provider

America on Line (AOL)

Keyboard

Most common input device

Other: mouse

Modem

A communications device that lets you communicate with other computers

Can be built in or attached as additional hardware

Output Device

What you use to get information from the computer

Monitor/Printer

Search the Internet

A planned, quality search of the Internet

 

Search Engine/

Meta-search Tool

In a search engine, you type a keyword to find information on that subject

http://www.dogpile.com/

http://www.metafind.com/

 

Software

(Programs) A way to communicate with a computer to give it instructions written in specially designed languages

Works

System Software

Software that makes the computer system perform its most basic operation such as starting up and reading disks

Windows

URL

Universal resource locator

http://Jdurbin50.tripod.com/index.htm

www

World Wide Web Hypertext information retrieval system that navigates databases on the Internet

 

Web Site

A special kind of publication of information on the Web

Library of Congress (http://www.loc.gov.)