IT

• Data can be defined as raw facts and figures that may be meaningless or ambiguous and often have little meaning until they are sorted or until calculations are made from them.
• Data processing is the calculation that is made on data to transform it into information.
• Information is data that has been processed and organized in a form that people understand.
• Information Processing involves the collection, documentation, organization, retrieval, display, and distribution of information.
• Information has characteristics such as accuracy, reliability, comprehensibility, timeliness, relevance, security, confidentiality, value, and distortion.
• Reliability in information is the consistency with which the information is accurate.
• Information that is consistently correct is reliable.
• Interpretation in information is when the same information is given different meanings by different users.
• Check digit is an extra digit added to the end of a code used to detect errors arising from transcription and also to ensure that codes originally produced by a computer are re-entered into another computer correctly.
• Data validation is the computerized checking of input data for errors (data that may be unreasonable or incomplete) before it is processed.
• Data type check, also known as character or alphanumeric check, is used when a database is created each field in the database is given a data type.
• Consistency check compares the contents of two or more fields to make sure that they make sense.
• Data verification is the checking for mistakes such as transcription errors when data is copied from one medium or device to another.
• Double entry is a procedure where the same data is entered twice, sometimes by different people.
• Parity checks detect error where a bit is swapped from a 0 to a 1 or a 1 to a 0 by electrical interference.
• Range check ensures that the data entered is within a certain range.
• Presence check ensures that the data is actually entered and can be used on any field in a database.
• Security in information is the accessibility of data by authorized users and the prevention of any unauthorized users from accessing the data.
• Confidentiality in information is the availability of data only to a very restricted set of users.
• Value in information is the usefulness of information to facilitate problem solving and decision making and to enable the organization to gain advantage over its competitors.
• Distortion in information is the presentation of data to induce a particular presentation.
• Source documents are documents that contain data that is going to be input into a computer system.
• When an employee takes a document and enters the data into a computer system, the document is referred to as a source document.
• The Optical character recognition (OCR) is used to read the student’s pre-printed information from the form whereas optical mark recognition (OMR) is used to read the answers that have been added.
• Data logging is a method of automatic data capture where a reading from a sensor is input at regular intervals.
• An example of a turnaround document is the multiple-choice sheets used in examinations.
• Information such as candidate number, subject and school code is printed on the multiple-choice answer sheet by the computer.
• Sometimes a series of boxes are placed on a form in order to make the writing more legible, these forms must be designed so that their instructions are clear and concise leaving no doubt as to how to enter the data onto the form.
• A machine-readable document is one on which the data can be ‘read’ by an input device, such as a scanner or optical mark reader.
• Validation and Verification Methods are used to eliminate errors in data and information collection.
• Handheld devices are used as alternatives to turnaround documents.
• Turnaround documents are used to verify the accuracy and completeness of information that has already been entered and to update information already entered with additional data.
• Turnaround documents are machine-readable documents that have some information printed on them by a computer but have more information added to them by a human, they are then fed back into a computer to transfer this newly added information.
• Turnaround documents allow cheap, fast input of information into a computer system.
• A human-readable document is any document that needs to be read by humans.
• A computer network is a group of computing devices that are connected together so that they can share data and resources.
• A mobile network is a network of communication and computing devices where the last link is over a mobile phone network.
• Mobile communications technology allows a journalist to file a report on the go when a big story breaks.
• Camera applications allow the capture of video and still photographs, word processing apps allow words to be added to the story and audio-recording apps allow for the capture of interviews for radio stations and podcasts.
• Computer networks are needed because organisations want to communicate with others and share data files and other resources.