Principles of Information Technology
IT 111 (3 credits)

Theme: Computer Science

Fall 2008 SYLLABUS


Objectives 

Grading 

 Course Schedule 

Course policies 


Instructor: Prof. John Wright
E-mail:       wrightj@juniata.edu
Office:        Brumbaugh Academic Center, C-201
Phone:        641-3592

Office Hours are kept current on my home page. See the home page or my office door for recent changes; other office hours may be arranged by appointment.

Class meeting times:
T/Th     09:00-10:00am         BAC P-107


Textbooks:

Required: None. Course content is on the web at http://projects.juniata.edu/it110

Grading:

20% Discussions/Assignments
15% Quizzes
15 % Presentation/Paper
25% Midterm
25% Final

Objectives:

The overall goal of this course is to provide students with a basic introduction to technology. The goal of individual tracks is to illustrate the notion that technology has and will continue to permeate all aspects of society. Given this, it is desirable to have the students from each track develop a basic familiarity with the subject area of each track to the extent that they can apply basic skills in databases, networks, web development, and multimedia applications. However, many course examples will go beyond the subject matter of each individual track in order to demonstrate that information technology can be applied to any field. An anticipated outcome of this course is that each student will be able to apply the skills that they learn to any discipline.

Prerequisites: None

Course policies

These standard course policies are described on the web page linked above. Please read these carefully, especially on academic integrity.

Course Communication Space Ethics

A portion of this course will take place in "web-space". This is known as the course communications space. This space MUST be treated as though it is an extension of the classroom. This means it should be utilized in a mature and responsible fashion. DO NOT make negative and inappropriate comments in the space. It is generally safe to say that if you wouldn't say it in a classroom - then don't say it in the web space!

Each week, you are to have completed the readings and worked through the various assignments before coming to class that week. There are numerous exercises and assignments throughout the readings. There may also be thought or study questions about the readings. Anything that will be required for submission and grading will be found in Moodle.

So basically, your weekly checklist for this course is as follows:

• Complete all readings
• Examine all exercises/assignments within the readings (these may or may not be collected - Check Moodle)
• Complete all assignments as specified in Moodle - Post to Moodle by the due date
• Come to class prepared to question/discuss the topic of the week.

Online Collaboration

As you will see throughout the course, the sharing of information is critical to society. This includes online collaboration. Online collaboration is part of IT110/111. Here at Juniata College, we use a course management system (CMS) to “manage” a number of courses. You may ask: “What is a course management system?” A CMS is a website (a big one) that allows instructors and students to collaborate during a course. Functions of a CMS include providing course content, testing, threaded messages, email, and homework (assignment) repositories to name but a few. Here at Juniata College, we use Moodle as our course management system.

Academic Integrity:

Simply stated: Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated! This type of course delivery and team approach lends itself to possibly "straying"! Academic dishonesty includes (but is not limited to): cheating, plagiarism, fabrication (of any kind), facilitating dishonest acts by others, and submitting the work of another to name a few. Please consult the instructor if you're unsure of your actions.

Course Schedule:

This is an approximate schedule and is subject (very likely) to change at any time.

Class Online Topic Class Topic
8/26 Introduction Cover Syllabus; Introductory Material
8/28 Introduction IT versus CS; History of Computing
9/2 A Brief History of Computing History of Computing; 10 Historical Events
9/4 A Brief History of Computing History of Computing
9/9 Introduction to Computing What's in a PC
9/11 Introduction to Computing HLL to Machine Code; How Programs Run; CPU/ALU processing
9/16 Introduction to Computing Binary number systems; Boolean Algebra
9/18 Introduction to Computing Gates; Binary Arithmetic; Mechanical Addition
9/23 Networking Networking; Internet; The World Wide Web
9/25 Networking Software; Intro to OS (if time allows); Algorithms
9/30 Web Development Programming; Raptor
10/2 Web Development Programming
10/7 Fall Recess  
10/9 Web Development Programming
10/14 Web Development HTML
10/16 Web Development HTML; DreamWeaver
10/21 Database HTML; JavaScript
10/23 Database HTML; JavaScript; Examples: survey & business
10/28 Database HTML; JavaScript; Databases
10/30 Database Databases
11/4 Multimedia Pixels; Image Mapping; HTML tags for including multimedia
11/6 Multimedia  
11/11 Emerging Technologies Emerging Technologies (HCI)
11/13 Emerging Technologies  
11/18   Work Days
11/20   Operating Systems?
11/25   Entrepreneurship?
11/27 Thanksgiving Recess  
12/2   Ethics and Society?
12/4   RSS feeds/Web 2.0?

12/9

Last Day of Classes