Fluency with Information Technology: Skills, Concepts, and Capabilities, 2/E
Lawrence Snyder, University of Washington

ISBN-10: 0321357825
ISBN-13: 9780321357823

Publisher: Prentice Hall
Copyright: 2006
Format: Paper; 784 pp
Status: Out of Print

Suggested retail price: $98.60
This item is out of print and is no longer available for purchase.

To meet the demands of today's world and to adapt to future technology advancements, individuals must use technology as a tool for organization, communication, research, and problem solving.  To help students become effective users of today's technology and place them on the path of lifelong learning.  Fluency covers three types of knowledge: Skills, Concepts, and Capabilities.  Skills consists of competence with contemporary computer applications; Concepts are the fundamental principles upon which information technology is founded, including basics ideas relating to information, computers, databases, and networks; Capabilities is the ability to apply reasoning in complex situations, which allows students to master higher-level thinking in the context of information technology.  Larry Snyder covers this foundation of learning by integrating a project-oriented learning approach through examples and real-life problem solving.

 

Read what professionals, college students, and professors have to say about the importance of technology knowledge in a recent New York Times (nytimes.com) article, http://nytimes.com/2005/08/23/technology/23geeks.html?pagewanted=print.

Article: A Techie, Absolutely, and More

By: Steve Lohr

Date: August 23rd, 2005

Business Section

  • Prepares students to adapt to an ever-changing computing environment through lifelong learning by focusing on three different types of content: Skills, Concepts, and Capabilities.
  • Contains both in-chapter and end-of-chapter features including: FIT: Bytes, Tips, Cautions, Links and Try it (in-chapter exercises), along with Great FIT Moments and end-of-chapter Multiple Choice and Short Answer exercises.
  • Skills: refers to proficiency with contemporary computer applications like email, word processing, Web searching, etc. Skills make the technology immediately useful to students and ground their learning of other content in practical experience.
  • Concepts: refers to the fundamental knowledge underpinning IT, such as how computers work, digital representation of information, assessing information authenticity, etc. Concepts provide the principles on which students will build new understanding as IT evolves.
  • Capabilities: refers to higher-level thinking processes such as problem-solving, reasoning, complexity management, trouble-shooting, etc. Capabilities embody modes of thinking that are essential to exploiting IT, but they apply in many other situations as well. The Capabilities component is a standard element of all education, and is essential to the effective use of IT, making it an explicit focus of this book.
  • Extensive supplements package including a computer skills lab workbook which contains fourteen labs that go step-by-step through the basics of Microsoft® Office, Windows®, email, Web browsing, debugging and image editing and an online solutions manual and computerized test bank for instructors.
  • Written by the chairman of the National Research Council's report, “Being Fluent with Information Technology.”

  • NEW CHAPTER-Coverage of spreadsheet principles and the simplified operations to building a spreadsheet.  Includes examples from Excel, AppleWorks, and OpenOffice.
  • ALL NEW Material on how to use the latest operating systems including examples from MacX and Windows XP systems.  
  • NEW Debugging example! Students learn how to debug an HTML page.
  • UPDATED Google coverage including material on page ranking and effective web searches.
  • CURRENT Material on Web Security topics including discussion of the Phishing Fraud.
  • UPDATED Coverage on spam email and the social impact.

I. BECOMING SKILLED AT INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

1. Terms of Endearment: Defining Information Technology

2. What the Digerati Know: Exploring the Human-Computer Interface

3. Making the Connection: The Basics of Networking

4. Marking up with HTML: A Hypertext Markup Language Primer

 

5. Searching for Truth: Locating Information on the WWW

6. Searching for Guinea Pig B: A Case Study in Online Research

 

 

 

 

 

II. ALGORITHMS AND DIGITIZING INFORMATION

7. To Err is Human: An Introduction to Debugging

8. Bits and the "Why" of Bytes: Representing Information Digitally

 

9. Following Instructions: Principles of Computer Organization

10. What's the Plan? Algorithmic Thinking

11. Sound, Light and Magic: Representing Multimedia Digitally

 

III. DATA AND INFORMATION

12. Computers in Polite Society: Social Implications of IT

13. Fill in the Blank Computing: Basics of Spreadsheets

14. Getting to First Base: Introduction to Database Concepts

15. A Table with a View: Database Queries

16. HAI! Adventure Database: Case Study in Database Design

17. Shhh, It's a Secret: Privacy and Digital Security

 

IV. PROBLEM SOLVING

 

18. Get with the Program: Fundamental Concepts Expressed as JavaScript

19. The Bean Counter: A JavaScript Program

20. Thinking Big: Abstraction and Functions

21. Once Is Not Enough: Iteration Principles

22. The Smooth Motion: Case Study in Algorithmic Problem Solving

23. Computers Can Do Almost {Everything, Nothing} Limits to Computation

24. Commencement: A Fluency Summary

 

 

 

 

 

 

Appendix A: HTML Reference

Appendix B: JavaScript Programming Rules

Appendix C: Bean Counter Program

Appendix D: Memory Bank Program

Appendix E: Smooth Motion Program

Glossary

Answers to Selected Questions

Index

    Fluency with Information Technology: Skills, Concepts, and Capabilities, Third Edition, equips readers who are already familiar with computers, the Internet, and the World Wide Web with a deeper understanding of the broad capabilities of technology. Through a project-oriented learning approach that uses examples and realistic problem-solving scenarios, Larry Snyder teaches readers to navigate information technology 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.
  • 0321512391Fluency with Information Technology: Skills, Concepts, and Capabilities, 3/E
    Snyder
    © 2008 | Prentice Hall | Paper; 784 pages | Instock
    ISBN-10: 0321512391 | ISBN-13: 9780321512390
    Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

Larry Snyder was the chairman of the National Research Council's (NRC) committee that issued the report, "Being Fluent with Information Technology." It is this NRC committee, funded by the National Science Foundation, that identified the three types of knowledge needed in Fluency. Larry received his BA in 1968 from the University of Iowa and his Ph.D. in 1973 at Carnegie Mellon. Since then he has taught at schools like Yale, MIT, Harvard, and Syndey University before settling down in 1983 at the University of Washington.

 

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