Information and Communications Technology Glossary
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audience/user needs: Attributes of an information product that are stipulated by, or suitable for, the intended users (for example, functions easy to use, language and content are appropriate).
blog (or weblog): A personal website that is updated frequently with commentaries or personal viewpoints about one or a range of topics (adult-created blogs are usually highly interactive, as other readers can lodge their feedback on the website; non-interactive blogs are recommended for students).
boolean: [logic]: A system of logical thought; the operators OR, AND and NOT are used to refine a search (for example, if you want to find information on rivers, but not the Murray River , the search string would read ‘river NOT Murray’).
cause-and-effect diagrams: Graphic organisers that enable the visual representations of possible causes of problems or events, and the effects of those causes.
conventions: Commonly understood or accepted ways of doing something (for example, including a postcode in an address; displaying file size and download time required for video links in a webpage).
criteria: For information products include suitability for audience, accuracy, readability, effective use of colour, functional navigation links, and communication of intended meaning.
double-cell diagram: A graphic organiser that is ideally suited for describing and comparing attributes and characteristics of two items, things, people, places, events or ideas.
effectiveness: A measurement of how well something meets its intended purpose. Typical criteria include clarity, accuracy, relevance, ease of use, attractiveness, completeness.
efficiency: Measured in terms of the effort, speed and cost of creating a solution or information product. For example, students explore techniques such as using short-cuts and macros to increase the speed of processing and reduce effort.
e-learning tools: ICT-generated interactive tutorials or other products designed to assist learning; commonly found on CD-ROM, DVD and the World Wide Web.
electronic portfolio: An electronic portfolio (e-portfolio) is a bank of files or a repository of digital evidence selected by students to demonstrate their learning and to monitor their learning progress.
expert system: A computer program that uses a set of predetermined rules for providing answers to questions by drawing on a stored knowledge base developed from the knowledge of experts in a particular field such as medicine or automotive engineering. They simulate how human experts solve problems.
graphic/visual organisers: Frameworks that help students structure their thinking processes (including concept maps, time-sequence patterns, cause-and-effect patterns, flow charts). They are visual frameworks, which help students make connections between existing knowledge and new information, and make visible their thinking processes. Electronic templates can be created by teachers, or students can use available software for generating them.
ICT-controlled models: Tools used to control devices or actions in a pre-determined way; for example, controlling a robot.
ICT presentation conventions: Commonly accepted guidelines for layout and presentation of information.
ICT tools: The range of hardware and software available to perform particular functions. For example, software such as spreadsheets can perform mathematical calculations; a digital camera can capture images.
ICT intellectual property law: Any use of others’ works (for example, images, text) must be in accordance with the law and must be acknowledged.
influence diagram: A graphic organiser that enables the visual representation of the relationship between the components of a system, or the elements in a process, that identifies the components/elements that will be affected by particular decisions.
information product: Output created by students using ICT tools, functions and techniques to demonstrate their knowledge or understanding of ideas, concepts and processes from different areas of the curriculum. Typically printed or displayed on-screen; in some cases, output is an action as a result of students using an ICT-controlled model; examples include reports, slide shows, multimedia, cartoons, tables, websites and programs used to control robots.
interaction outliner: A graphic organiser that is used to show the nature of an interaction between individuals or groups.
multimedia resources: Commercially published CD-ROMs, DVDs and websites containing combinations of text, images and sound which allow students to interact with them to control pace, receive feedback, or determine their own path through the program.
operating system: (for example, Windows, Linux, Macintosh) in a computer allows file names to be changed, files to be copied, stored, retrieved, moved, deleted and printed.
planned information products: Products for which the form and layout is designed by students before any data is processed. Typically students would decide how their product would be viewed – printed, on-screen, or as an action – and how the major elements of the product will be displayed. Students then process the data in accordance with their design.
privacy law principles: Any personal data held about a person must not be disclosed to others without the permission of the person.
purposes of information: To entertain, to persuade, to educate, to inform.
structures of information: How parts of information are arranged (for example, detailed or summarised, or presented in blocks of text with hyperlinks to external files).
virtual teams: Those in which people work together via the Internet, meeting and working electronically; can comprise people from intrastate, interstate and overseas.
visualising thinking: The process of using ICT tools and editing techniques to visually code and represent thinking (for example, classifying data by colour coding; using a graphic organiser such as a concept map to discover links between data; using simulation software to model a process). It is a process that allows students to clarify thought, and to identify patterns and form relationships between new and existing knowledge.
