Geoff Potter - Discovering Computing

INTRODUCTION Welcome to Discovering Computing What is in this Book? Book One is full of things for you to learn. You can learn: to use a keyboard, to use a computer, to play with stories and to think and find answers. How do I use this book? Your book has three parts: Each part is called a module. Module 1 is about computers, cell phones, tablets and Raspberry Pi . You can learn how to use them. You will find many things in this module. You will learn how to make the computer work for you.

Module 2 shows you how to work and play with stories, the alphabet, pictures and sentences. You will also learn about reading a book on an E-reader. In Module 3 you can learn about numbers and shapes and how many and how big and how small. The computer can help you to work with numbers. And through the whole program you will learn how to use the computer keyboard properly. This will take a lot of practice, but once you can do it you will become very fast at using the computer.

And....each adventure begins with some big questions. You may find it fun and interesting to talk about these with your parents and your teacher. Enjoy learning with Discovering Computing.To The Teacher: The purpose of an ICT curriculum is to help young people become technologically literate: able to comprehend what digital technologies are and the ways in which they may be useful; and to decide for themselves which technology skills are worth exploring and possessing. Information technologies particularly devices such as computers, tablets and phones come and go rapidly and are changing every few weeks. It is interesting to possess the latest version of something, but soon it will pass. Being literate in ICT is different from knowing how to use the current digital flavor of the month.

Literacy comes from understanding the world of ICT and its relationship with our human needs, our creativity and our activities. Literacy also means being able to grow with evolving technologies, changes, new ideas, and different ways of doing things. Literacy in ICT is partially a matter of possessing certain skills, but equally it is about understanding how our brains and minds work, how each of us likes to be creative, and how digital ways of getting, storing and using information can help each of us to achieve our goals. Techne -the Greek root of the word technology translates in English as art. Its current definition is the application of scientific knowledge, to practice. Thus the term ICT (Information and Communications Technology) refers to the knowledge behind many human activities and productions, including art, music, literacy, engineering and designing.

This book, and the other nine books in the series, are not, therefore, just about computers and digital devices. More, they are designed to help young people to develop understanding of the role of human digital creativity in our lives. They are also designed to provide you with a way of presenting information and fostering childrens understanding of ICT in its many creative and practical forms. About the Big Questions Each learning unit in this book begins with several questions Big Questions that we each may think about from time to time, but which are quite complicated and difficult to consider. These are offered to students and their teachers as starting points.