Название: Cyber Careers: The Basics of Information Technology and Deciding on a Career Path
Автор: Pee Vululleh
Издательство: CRC Press
Год: 2022
Страниц: 99
Язык: английский
Формат: pdf (true)
Размер: 10.2 MB

The approach taken in this book emphasizes the basics of information technology and helps students decide whether to pursue an information technology career. Most students fail to pursue an IT career because of their limited knowledge (sometimes no knowledge) about the area. Similarly, most students pursuing a career in IT do not research the field before their pursuit. This book is purposely designed for students in this category. The book may be offered as a required text for an elective or core course to all bachelor's degree students regardless of specialization. Compared to other textbooks, this text guides students pursuing or wanting to pursue an IT degree/career. Most students often begin their study of IT without knowing the outside and inside of the area. Most of these students can change their minds to pursue a different career path after spending several semesters of studies, a waste of their time. If students are taught from the onset about what an IT career entails and what it takes to become successful, it will significantly help students and not waste their time. This book addresses the issue.

What is Information Technology? For many people, the phrase information technology or IT involves the person you call when your computer has a problem. While that view of IT is not entirely wrong, it understates the scope of this critical career field. If you are not in the field of IT yourself, you might not know and understand just how IT affects your life. To better grasp information technology, you must first define each term (information and technology) separately. Knowing the meaning of each will then give you a better understanding of their combined meaning.

Hardware encompasses the physical (visible) technology that works with information. In other words, hardware is any part, component, or device related to technology and its networks that you can physically touch. In a computing context, hardware is the collection of physical elements that comprise a computer system, such as computer monitors, keyboards, mouse, and so on. Hardware can be distinguished from software. Anything physical related to the computer is considered hardware, while anything nonphysical that makes the computer function - such as the operating system and applications - are considered software. Computer hardware receives directions from the software before executing any instructions or commands.

Software is one of the major components of the technological aspect of any information system. To fully understand information technology, you will need to know how the software component works. Hardware must be told what to do. Software operates directly on hardware devices and tells (instructs) the hardware what to do as well as when and how to do it. Although the CPU of a computer consists of hardware that acts as the computer’s brain, the CPU is useless without the software’s instruction. In the previous chapter we introduced the analogy of bike riding to help explain hardware. Continuing with that analogy, we can see that the knowledge of how to ride the bike and where you want to go represents the software. The head has the information that instructs the body how to pedal and maneuver while also providing a destination. Without your brain, the bike is just a metal object that does not do anything.

Software plays a mediating role between the user and the computer hardware. In the absence of software, a user essentially cannot perform any task on a computer. This means that software encompasses all the data, applications, and programs stored electronically. A system can be created with the help of hardware. However, this system without any software will be nothing but a showpiece. To work efficiently, the system needs various kinds of software. The software will help the system run efficiently, protect it from viruses, or help navigate the Internet. Software may seem more expensive than hardware.

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