IST glossary

• What is data

  Data is raw, unorganised facts and figures that represent objects and events.
• What is information

  Information is and organised form of data to provide context to the patterns and trends
• What is analysing data


  Organizing, describing, and exploring data to provide context, create meaning, and make it into information.
• What is the data investigative process?

  1. Question: What is the issue/ Enquiry

  2. Collect data: Collect data based on the question via research, surveys and/or census

  3. Analyse data: Once the data is analysed, (it will be sorted, thus) you will have the information

  4. Make and informed decision: Use the information to implement a decision.
• Data is raw unorganised facts that need to be processed. Data can be something simple, random, and useless until it is organised.
• Data is an individual unit which contains raw material and does not carry any meaning.
• Each students test score is one piece of data.
• ‘Data’ comes from the singular Latin word, datum, which originally meant ‘something given’. Its early use dates to the 1600’s.
• What is data measured in

  Measured in bits and bytes.
• When data is processed, organised, structured, or presented in each context to make it useful it is called information.
• Information is the product and group of data which collectively carry a logical meaning. Relies on data
• ‘Information’ is an older word and goes back to the 1300’s where it had Old French and Middle English origins. It has always referred to ‘the act of informing’ usually in education and knowledge communication.
• What is information measured in?

  Information is measured in meaningful units like: time, quantity and so on.
• 1 byte = 8 bits
• Types of data:

  Integer

  Boolean

  Character

  Strings
• What is character

  Basic unit of information that represents a letter, number, symbol, or control code.
• What is Boolean

  Data type that has one of two possible values. E.g 1 or 2, True of false
• What is Integer?

  Integer: Whole number e.g 1, -3, 107
• What is a string?

  Data type used in programming, that is to represent text rather than numbers.
• Lossy


  Reducing file size by permanently eliminating less important information, making it impossible to restore the original data perfectly.
• Lossless


  Reduces file size without eliminating significant information, and at times perfectly reconstructs file.
• Long


  64 bit
• Double


  64 bit(of decimals)
• Integer


  Whole number