ICT student textbook/What all can a computer do

What all can a computer do
In this activity, you will learn about the various things that you can do with ICT and also get introduced to different devices and applications.

Check your readiness

1. You must be familiar with the basic functioning of the computer environment
2. You have been introduced to what an operating system is and what is application software

What resources do you need

1. Computer lab with projection equipment
2. Internet availability to demonstrate a web page
3. Videos, images to show
4. Text documents
5. Geogebra files, animations
6. Mindmaps
7. Handout for Ubuntu
8. Handout for Tux Typing
9. Handout for Tux Paint
10. Handout for Text editor

What digital skills will you learn

1. Getting familiar with the ICT environment; operating system, files and folders
2. Learning to work with input devices
3. Learning to work with multiple applications
4. Text input (English)

Description of activity with detailed steps

Teacher led activity

1. Watch the video shown by your teacher and see if any of the applications are familiar to you
2. Your teacher will demonstrate a file folder, containing different kinds of files, which are opened by different applications. Some files are stored on your computer and some are not. With your friends, discuss how your teacher opens any file. Your teacher will help you to tabulate this information as follows:
   1. What is the file name and file extension
   2. How the application was opened (from the application menu or by right click selecting the file)
   3. What all did they see on the application
   4. What input had to be given (for example, opening a browser and typing an URL)
   5. What controls are available (increase in size, volume, etc)
3. Your teacher will also demonstrate the Applications Menu to demonstrate Tux Typing and Tux Paint.
4. She will also show you how to open a text editor and make your notes on the lesson in the text document

Student activities

On your computers, open the files that have been saved in a folder.

Mahbubnagar district farmer		India political map with Telangana	Warangal Fort pillars
File:Have you heard of ICT terms.mm	Missing Square!	File:Birds in Telugu from Vidyaonline.pdf	File:Angle sum property of a triangle.ggb

Image credits: YouTube, Geogebra file shared by government high school teacher in Karnataka, Wikimedia Commons. All images are licensed under Creative Commons license which allows for free sharing with attribution. Telugu book from Vidyaonline is free to use for non-commercial purposes.

1. As you opened each of the files, please make a note of how it opened, what was the file name, what it did. Your teacher will help you document it in a table. Did you get to open many different applications on the computer?
2. Now, you need to practice with the input devices of the computer so that you can interact with the computer faster and more easier.
3. Open the Application called Tux Typing and take turn with your friends in a group to practice, this will make you comfortable using the keyboard to type text and numbers. Try to complete all the lessons in Tux typing so that you become comfortable in typing any letter of the English alphabet. This will also help you in typing in Telugu comfortably.
4. Open the Application called Tux Paint and take turn with your friends in a group to practice, this will make you comfortable using the mouse to point items, drag and drop, click the left and right sides of the mouse etc. Becoming comfortable in using the mouse will help you in navigating all applications easily.
5. Create your own work folders on the computer, if not done already
6. Open a text editor and make a list of 8-10 things you understood about ICT. You will add this text document to your portfolio.

Portfolio

1. Lesson logs of Tux Typing. You can maintain this in your own notebook for this subject. Record the date, lesson learnt and time taken for each lesson. Over a period of time, try and complete all the lessons in Tux Typing. This will help you become familiar with the Keyboard, which is useful for using the computer efficiently.
2. Files created with Tux Paint. These files will be stored inside Tux Paint.
3. Text file created with text editor. You should save the file with a proper file name, in a manner that the file contents can be understood by looking at the file name. For e.g. the file you created now can have a file name such as 'My understanding about ICT - <your name> - <month, year>.odt' Anytime later you will get an idea about the file contents, simply by reading the file name itself. Similary name your folders also with full descriptions. For e.g. you can store this file in a folder called 'Nature of ICT'