ICT student textbook/Data representation and processing
What is this unit about
if someone asks you where is data, what would your answer be? When we see, we are gathering data. When we eat, our tongue gather data. When you cook you gather data. Gathering data from the environment, analyzing and understanding and decision making are important for survival. Imagine human beings hunting and roaming in the forests - if they encounter a wolf, they should process the data and quickly run for cover. So, gathering data ad using for decision making is not new. Throughout history, people have observed that animals also gather data - there have been anecdotes of animals behaving differently before an earthquake.
Gathering data, analyzing and making decisions is not new to human beings. Can you guess what may be different about this unit? Yes - you are correct! Digital technologies have changed the way we are gathering data and representing data. Discuss with your friends, in groups, all the word that come to your mind when you say data. Now look at the following and classify whether the following are data or not.
| Audio | Photo | Illusration | Infographic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Video | Animation | Text | Numbers |
Are you surprised? All the above are data. We saw how computers work by converting everything into data. Whether we see a picture, or listen to a song or perform calculations, we are working with data. In today's world data is becoming more and more important and we should develop skills of understanding data to make decisions.
Look at the following and discuss with your picture
| Image of a pottery | Photo of potter | The potter was gathering data about the mud, the water, the texture and he was making the pot. Now you can see the potter making the pot and also you can see the pot itself. Is there any difference between the data gathered by the potter and the data you have?
This is the key to understanding today's information society. |
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In this unit, you will be learning the following:
- How to read data in various formats and representations and analyze
- Methods of data organizing, analysis and representation
- Processing and representing data in textual, image and numeric formats with different tools
- Understanding the power of data visualization
As in the previous unit, this unit will also have three levels with different activities in each level.