CS101 - Fluency in Information Technology

Fall 2010 Syllabus

Instructor: Dr. Thamar Solorio

Tuesday 2:00pm - 3:15pm -- Voelker Hall 101A

REMINDERS:

CS101 labs meet on ALL days that are not official UAB school holidays.

If your lab work is not properly linked to your index.html, you will NOT receive credit for the work. This can lead to a failing grade in CS101. See your lab instructor if you have problems creating these links.

Table of Contents
Catalog Description
Prerequisites
Lab Sections
Instructors
Office Hours
Course Text
Overview
Course Outline
Previous Semesters
HTML/JavaScript Resources
TA Resources

Catalog Description

Skills, concepts, and capabilities associated with Information Technology. Fundamentals of hardware, software, human-computer interfaces, networking, multi-media, databases, eCommerce, privacy and digital security. Project oriented hands-on approach.

Prerequites:

NONE, 3hrs

Lab Sections:

All sections meet in CH435 except Tuesday at 10am meets in CH137A.
M T W R F
10:00am - 11:50am Larkins Thapaliya Larkins
1:00pm - 2:50pm Thapaliya Thapaliya Thapaliya
3:30pm - 5:20pm Britt Larkins Larkins

Instructors:

Email Office Location
Dr. Thamar Solorio solorio@uab.edu CH 113

Office Hours:

N/A

Text:

Snyder, Fluency with Information Technology: Skills Concepts, & Capabilities, 4th edition, Addison Wesley, ISBN 9780136091820

Overview

This course gives students the experience, knowledge, and capabilities needed to apply information technology effectively throughout their lives. In addition to computer literacy (immediately useful skills), Fluency involves problem solving, reasoning and complexity management to prepare students to use computers today and to be effective technology users tomorrow.

This is an intense, hands-on, project/paper driven course. It is aimed at students who have no intention of becoming CIS majors, as well as potential CIS majors who lack a sound IT foundation.

Classes will be a mixture of lecture, demonstration, and structured lab work, leading to a major term project.

Lecture and labs are both mandatory.

Grades are based on the final project (45%), the lab assignments (45%), and class/lecture participation (10%). There are no exams.

Each student's work is due by the last day their section meets.

Course Outline:

TopicLab WorkLab SlidesLecture Slides (not available to students)
Basic terminology * Lab 1.1
* Local guide for 1.1 		Intro * Terms of Endearment - Defining Information Technology
Human-computer interface
and networking		 * Lab 1.2
* Local guide for 1.2 		1.2 * What the Digerati Know - Exploring the Human-Computer Interface
* Making the Connection - The Basics of Networking
HTML and debugging * Lab 1.3
* Local guide for 1.3 		1.3 * Marking Up with HTML - A Hypertext Markup Language Primer
* To Err is Human - An Introduction to Debugging
Searching the web * Lab 1.4 1.4 * Searching for Truth - Locating Information on the WWW
Spreadsheets * Lab 3.1
* Excel Lab 1
    - Lab 1 starter data
    - Local Guide for Graphs
* Excel Lab 2 (Optional)
    - Lab 2 starter data
* Excel Lab 3 (Optional)
    - Lab 3 starter data
 3.1 * Fill-In-the-Blank Computing - The Basics of Spreadsheets
How computers work .... Excel Labs * Bits and the "WHY" of Bytes - Representing Information Digitally
* Following Instructions - Principles of Computer Operation
Database concepts * Lab 3.2
    - BCCBA.accdb
    - Local Guide for 3.2
* Lab 3.3 (Optional)
* Lab 3.4 (Optional)
* Begin Work on Project 		3.2 * A Table with a View - Database Queries
Privacy and security .... Lab 3.2 (Work on Project) * Shhh, It's a Secret - Privacy and Digital Security
Programming with Javascript * Lab 4.1
    - Firefox Javascript Settings
..... Work on Project 		4.1 * What's the Plan - Algorithmic Thinking
* Get with the Program - Fundamental Concepts Expressed in JavaScript
Photoshop Lab * Lab 4.2 4.2
Multimedia .... Lab 4.1 (Work on Project) * Light, Sound, Magic -- Representing Multimedia Digitally
Good computing habits .... Work on Project * Computers in Polite Society - Socail Implications of IT
Finishing up .... Work on Project * Computers Can Do Almost {Everything, Nothing} - Limits to Computation
* A Fluency Summary - Click to Close

Previous semesters

HTML Links
Josh Larkins
Last Modified: 5 October 2010