WJEC IT1 AS

Data- set of raw facts and figures

Information- is data which has been processed by the computer to give it context. e.g. data into a graph

Knowledge- is derived from information by applying rules to it

 9:00       110/80
10:00      100/70
11:00       90/60
12:00       75/50

Clearly data is 110/80,100/70,90/60 and 75/50
Information is the process of putting the raw facts and figures into the table with the time
Knowledge is the doctor applying his knowledge to tell that the patients blood pressure is decreasing and has fallen into the low area

Why code data?
- Quicker to type
- Less mistakes which make them easier to validate
- Less storage space (hard disk space)
- Faster to search (pattern match)

Problems with coding?
- Coarsening of data which leads to loss of precision (hair colour perceptions)
- Opinion based topics (valued judgement- food)

How quality info adds value?
- Aids decision making
- Monitor progress (slow check out staff)
- Targeting of resources- leads to- giving competitive edge and identifying a gap in the market
- Spotting trends- out of fashion

Good quality information is:
- Accurate (no mistakes)
- Complete (needs to have all data- post need postcode but takes longer without it)
- Upto Date (holiday destinations)
- Relevant (ice cream sales in Alaska when you own a Kiosk in California)
- How easy information is to understand
- How well targeted-give it the right person- no good asking vegetarians about meat eating
- Is your source reliable

Types of costs:
- Time- data collection (training needed to show new employees how to collect data)
- Financial (printers and toner)
- Human Resources (the processing of the data)

Data subject = Me
Data User = Teacher
Data Controller = Headteacher
Information Commissioner: Government official/body that upholds the act

Data Protection entry includes:
- Purpose
- Who
- Where
- Transfers

The 8 points to the data protection act:
1. Be processed within the law
2. Only be used for specific purposes 
3. Be adequate, relevant and not excessive
4. Be accurate and up to date
5. Be kept for no longer than is necessary
6. Be processed within your legal rights
7. Be kept secure
8. Not to be transferred to countries that do not have similar data protection laws
 

Health and Safety:
1. Work space analysis- suitability and safety
2. Regular breaks- for those who use a computer continuously
3. Eye test & glasses- have to eye tests if glasses needed you have to pay
4. Training- sufficient training to use computers

Health problems: 
- Repetitive Strain Injury (solution:-wrist pads, regular breaks)
- Neck & Back strain
- Stress (solution:-help desk, upto date, anti virus, training)
- Eye Strain (solution:- eye tests and possibly glasses, regular breaks, appropriate lighting)
- Elf Radiation 

Eurgonomics:
1. Chairs- adjustable height, lumbar support, 5 point base and wheels
2. Keyboards
3. Wrist Pads
4. Monitor- no flickering, refresh rate, free of reflection
 

Stress:
1. Slow performance on computers
2. System crashes
3. Lost/Deleted files
4. Virus
5. Spam, scams & too much emails
6. Pop up adverts

1. DON'T ACCESS UNAUTHORISED DATA!

2. DON'T ACCESS UNAUTHORISED DATA AND PLAN TO COMMIT A FURTHER CRIME

3. DON'T ACCESS UNAUTHORISED DATA AND CHANGE IT 

Why so few prosecutions? (hackers)
1. difficult to prove
2. who wants to admit it? (customer liability)

punishments: fined £2000 and go to prison is actually £8000 

Acceptable Use Policy:
- Introduction - avoid if possible
- General computer use (no food and drink)
- Network and internet usage
- E-mail
- Security
- Training

Mal Practice:
- Giving log on details (user ID and password) to someone else
- Viewing inappropriate material
- Downloading music or games onto a firm's computer
- Using ICT facilities for unauthorised work
- Wasting time surfing the internet
- Not keeping backup copies of work
- Not logging off when away from desk  

Crime:

• Fraud
• Identity theft
• Hacking
• Deliberate destruction of data
• Deliberately writing and spreading viruses
• Theft of hardware, software or data
• Running unlicensd software
• Software piracy

• Single machine licensing- software on one machine
• Site license- software on every machine the organisation owns
• Single user licensing- possibly more then one computer but only one person can use at any one time
• Multiple use- only a certain number of people can use a program at a time

Copyright- (backup copies of CD software allowed)

Verification: is the process of making sure that data is entered correctly and matches source data

Methods:
-Double entry of data (passwords or emails)
-Proof reading
-Sending back printouts (try to avoid)

Validation: is a check done by the computer to see if the data is possible

-transcription errors- errors occur when data is being transferred so that it doesn't match the source data 
-transposition- two characters that are switched

Validation checks: -presence check- is it present (to place an order the order number must be present or email and passwords)
-format- NI number
-range check- between two values- date of birth
-data type- numerical or letters- how much sold has to be a number 

Expert system: a computer system which emulates the decision making of a human expert

Three components:
- User interface
- Infrarance engine- if this is clicked then..
- Knowledge base

advantages:
- larger knowledge base than anyone expert
- available 24/7  
- rural areas 
- lack of human error (humans can forget and make mistakes)

disadvantages:
- GIGO (garbage in garbage out)
- Start up costs
- Over reliance on IT system
- Poorly built program 

CAT scanner:
- x-ray (bones)
- dangerous prolonged use

MRI scan:
- magnets and radio waves (soft tissue)
- no metal

advantages:
- planning (can plan for an upcoming operation because of the scan)
- reduce uneccesary operations (no need to check the patient by operation)
- routine (easy)
- faster diagnosis

disadvantages:
- expensive
- break down
- dangerous (staff, CAT scan prolonged use)
- having to be still for long periods of time 

1. Pulse
2. Blood pressure
3. Temperature (thermista)
4. O2  sats (saturation)

advantages:
- accuracy
- frees up medical staff
- spotting trends in patient symptoms
- measurements never missed (automatic/every 10 minutes) allowing for 24/7 monitoring

disadvantages:
- NONE

Blood tracking:
1. donor gives blood
2. blood stored and labelled
3. blood sent to hospital, scanned and put in fridge
4. staff scan badge, open fridge, scan blood
5. scan patient's wrist band, and give blood

advantages:
- stock control
- audit trail
- no paper records (less costs, more space, saves time)
- security

disadvantages:
 - damaged bar codes can cause delays

wrist bands (patients):- patient name
- date of birth
- NHS number or some other number that uniquely identifies the patient 

Electronic sources of information:
- search engines
- online encyclopedias
- forums
- email teachers

 Why use HTML
- positioning of images
- control of text
- less memory = faster to load

Websites:
- hyperlinks (text or image when clicked on link to another webpage or downloads a document)
- frames - a section of a web page in which semi-independent activities take place

Benefits of computer networks:
- share peripharels (printer)
- emails
- ability to share files (collaborative working and central pool)
- lower software costs and central software installation
- central backup- easier to backup dat by being able to do it from one central location

Remote management:
- you can see what people are doing on their computersm scroll through windows and see the live screen
- install software without moving to that machine
- shut down stations, remote control
- log off users

Benefits of a network :
- central backup
- centralised anti-virus

Intranet: a private network only to be used by employees of an organisation (only accessible within the organisation)

Extranet: an intranet opened upto customers/suppliers

EFT (electronic funds transfer): moving money (electronically) from one account to another e.g. from a customer account to pay for good purchased

EPOS/EFTPOS (electronic point of sale): hardware and software needed to automate the checkout process

advantages:
- stock control (reorder)
- guaranteed money
- less queues 

OMR (optical mark recognition): 
disadvantages:- non-return of forms
- they can be altered
- forms can be rejected if not filled in properly

Admin software on PC:
disadvantages:- if program falls, no registration

Smart card (each pupil has own smart/swipe card which swipe beginning of every lesson):
disadvantages:- pupils may swipe for a friend using their card whilst they are not there

Biometrics (finger scanning or retina scanning):
disadvantages:- cost of biometric hardware

Radio Tags (RFID):
disadvantages:- set up costs

Advantages for all of these methods:- spot absence patterns
- automatic text to parents (SMS)
- automatic creation of statistics about attendance 

• Zoom- helps to see the building in fine detail
• Walkthrough- going through a building, looking through it, giving perspective
• Stress/strain- do calculations to see if building is safe
• Rendering (hatching)- allows to see different finishes (materials) on a building, to aid picking the best
• Costing- aids you to see/price how much materials cost on a building
• Wire drawing- skeleton view of building

• Animated transition: effect that happens between two slides, to keep viewer interested (e.g. fading)
• Templates: pre-written master slides (e.g. keeping corporate identity making it look more professional)
• Hyperlink: when clicked takes you to another file, (can be used to take them to an online demonstration of some feature)

Email
advantage:- speed
- cheap
- can attach files
- can have multiple recipients

disadvantages: - emails with viruses
- junk email
- phishing email 

1. Gaming: advantage- helps young children learn
disadvantage- addiction

2. Music/software downloading: advantage- instant
disadvantage: torrents download software and malware?

3. Digital Photography: advantage- get better/only have to print best ones
disadvantages: inappropriate material

4. Betting: advantage- don't have to leave your house
disadvantage- spend more with card

5. Voting: advantage- don't have to print out paper/save money
disadvantage- hacking

generic disadvantage: - health (RSI) 

Factors which effect data processing systems:
1. Hardware- new software doesn't like old hardware
2. Software- magazines in word = bad/inefficient
3. Suitability of operating system
4. Insufficient testing
5. GIGO
6. User abilities/competance of user

 Advantages of ICT systems over manual:
1. repetitive processing - production of pay slip, repetitive task
2. speed of processing - weather forecasts, powerful computers
3. data storage capacity - hardware vs cabinets
4. speed of searching
5. accuracy- spreadsheet if formula and data are correct calculations are correct
6. backup - central
7. speed of data communicatinos - messages sent UK to USA 

• Thumbprints recognition - to take out a library book
  advantage - difficult to copy
  disadvantage- equipment is expensive
•  Touch sensitive screen - buying tickets at train stations
  advantage - don't have to typr so it is quicker to enter information
• GUI (graphical user interface) - a primary school child using a maths program
  advantage - user friendly and easy to use
• DOS- writing small batch files in DOS
  advantage -  don't have to go through menu to run command
  disadvantage - you have to to learn commands 

Distance/online learning:

advantages:- work at home
- coursera - access other courses

disadvantages:- no internet
-motivation
-need hardware 

When explaining the mail merge be sure to include the ket words to ensure getting the marks, "merge fields in outline documents completed automatically"
 

template- pre-prepared and reused

macro- stored list of instructions (which is used to automate a task)

Database

• query- a query is when you interrogate a database to find some information
• report- output of results that has been formatted
• import/export- transferring data from one piece of software to another

advantage of relationship database compared to flat data:
- no data duplication
- easier to search for specific information
- data integrity is maintained (correct data as you are not duplicating it) 

Patient Databases

- Instant updating
- Available at bedside (saves time as there is no need to get paper documents)

advantage:- can track blood
- can track patients
- link with GP surgeries
- filing cabinet or Ipad
- easier to backup 

Computers for teaching and learning:

• CAL/CBT
• authoring software- videos and creator for CDs, enables people an interactive DVD
• chatrooms 

Barcodes:- numeric code
- product ID
- manufacturer ID
- check digit

Just in time stock control: goods are delivered to the srore as fast as they are being sold when stock reaches a particular lower level, automatic level request sent to supplier, stock delivered and table updated

advantages:- smaller warehouse
-less risk of stock going out of data

disadvantages:- true stock may differ because of theft
- cannot respond to unusual demand 

What is needed for an e-commerce site?
1. specialist staff
2. database of all your products
3. payment system
4. database for all orders

customer benefits:-  can shop 24/7  
- don't have to leave house
- helpful for disabled people who can't leave their house

disadvantages:- harder to send back items
- no try before you buy
- fake websites
- delay in postage
- lack of interaction with people
- security

business- open all the time 27/7
- low start up costs and running costs
- save space
- global market space
disadvantages:- competitors
- reliant on postal service 

Definition: program to replicate a real life system (e.g. flight simulator)

advantage:- many different scenarios can be created
- it is cheaper (e.g. pilots in a simulator rather than in a real place)
- car crash simulation

disadvantage:- incorrect program

Financial forcasting
- taxes VAT change 

Benefits if spreadsheet software:- automatic recalculation
- graphs
- perform what if scenarios 

1. Collect data
2. Create model
3. Test model

Weather forecasting advantage:- can forecast the path of hurricanes 
- can help farmers plan

disadvantage:- cost of hardware (not for financial forecasting)