Week one - Personal Computing 31/07/2007

In this first week in UPC 0004, we learnt quite a lot of useful skills to do with the use of computers. Some of these skills we learnt included of :-

Getting to understand how to use the ECU website and how it has various functions as a means of communications. Then we got presented with some slides on the projector in our lectures that showed us how to communicate with out tutors and lecturers through email. Being the first week, our lecture was mainly an introduction for us to this unit. The key points addressed in the the first week's lecture included of:

- This unit provides a project-based approach to accessing knowledge through library and information & communication technologies.

- Students and staff have two hours contact time per week.


In our tutorial, we got taught how to :

- access the ECU website

- use the SIMO system

- use the BLACKBOARD and explore all the quick links

Below is a screen capture of the ECU website.

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- use the email and learning management systems

Below is a screen capture showing the steps in accessing the email system on the ECU website.

First, you need to access the ECU homepage. Secondly, on the homepage, click on the link "current students". This can be seen in the screen capture below.


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The next step is to wait for the page to open and then click on the link that says "email".


Below is a screen shot that explains the process above.


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After clicking on the "email" link, you will be directed to another page which will require you to fill in your username and password. Below is a screen capture of the last page in the accessing email process.


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The most useful information we got taught was how to create a blog where we can record entries on our progress in this unit. Furthermore, we also learnt how to create an image shack account where we can store our images for our blogs.

Finally, we learnt how to capture a screen and paste it on the image shack by saving it as a word document as JPG file.




Every week, as part of our workshop, we have extra readings that relate to our weekly topics we cover in tutorials. These readings further enhance our understanding of what we learn by providing more sources of information such as websites and references.





In this week's folder, there are two readings. These are:-

- PC Lube & Tune and

- How Stuff Works.

Below is a screen capture of the first reading's web page.





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http://www.yale.edu/pclt/default.htm



This reading provides artciles that further explain concepts of:

- PC Hardware

- Exceptional handling in Java and C#

- Graphic User Interface

- TCP/IP and many other articles on the basics of PC operation.

The second reading comes from the following address:

http://www.howstuffworks.com/pc.htm

Below is a screen capture of the webpage's homepage.

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In this reading, it is discussed what a PC is and how it works. The components are addressed as well along with the basic functions they perform.

From the reading, I have gathered that a PC can be defined as general-purpose information processing device.

Furthermore from the reading, I have managed to gather the main components of a PC.

These include of:

- Central Processing Unit (CPU)
- Memory
- RAM
- BIOS
- Caching
- Virtual Memory
- Motherboard
- Power supply
- Hard disk
- Operating System
- IDE
- Sound and
- Graphics card.

These were week one's readings that further helped us understand the basics of computing.