CS 101/may2011

Updated on Thu, 05/19/2011 - 11:14am

CS101 - Fluency in Information Technology

Spring 2011 Syllabus

Instructor: Sagar Thapaliya

MTWRF 8:00am - 9:20am -- Location: CH430

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
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 CH 435, go to section page

MTWRF

10:00am - 12:00am Thapaliya

Instructors:

Name Email Office Location

Sagar Thapaliya sagar at cis.uab.edu CH142

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%).

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

Course Outline:

Topic Lab Work Lab Slides Lecture 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

Searching the web * Lab 1.4 1.4 * Searching for Truth - Locating Information on the WWW

Privacy and security * Shhh, It's a Secret - Privacy and Digital Security

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 - Introduction to Database Queries

.... Lab 3.2 (Work on Project) * What's the Plan - Algorithmic Thinking

Programming with Javascript * Lab 4.1
    - Firefox Javascript Settings
..... Work on Project 4.1 * Get with the Program - Fundamental Concepts Expressed in JavaScript

Photoshop Lab * Lab 4.2
    - Start Data
    - .... Work on Project 4.2 * TBA

Multimedia .... Lab 4.1 (Work on Project) * Light, Sound, Magic -- Representing Multimedia Digitally

.... Work on Project * TBA

Good computing habits .... Work on Project * Computers in Polite Society - Social Implications of IT

Finishing up .... Work on Project * Computers Can Do Almost {Everything, Nothing} - Limits to Computation
* A Fluency Summary - Click to Close

HTML Links

W3Schools HTML Tutorial: One of the best. Has links that allow you to experiment with HTML code on-line.

W3Schools JavaScript Tutoral: Excellent as well. In the same format as the above HTML tutorial.