ICT Newsletter

Grade 9 has completed studying Types and Components of Computers. We have discussed the uses and differences of mainframe computers, desktop computers, laptops, PDAs and smartphones. The ways CPU and the main memories, RAM and ROM, function were challenging for students. They can distinguish between RAM and ROM in terms of being volatile, permanent and random.
Operating systems were explored in Graphical User Interface (GUI) and Command Line Interface (CLI) forms. Computer software was detailed further to application software such as word processing, presentation authoring, image editing, database and graphical modelling.
Moreover, input devices were studied in ICT class. The types of input devices explored are:

• Pointing devices: joystick, mouse, tracker-ball, touchpad
• Typing devices: keyboard, numeric pad, touchscreen
• Sensors: light, pressure, temperature, proximity, motion
• Readers/Scanners: bar code reader, optical character recognition, optical mark recognition, chip reader, magnetic strip reader
• Audio/Visual: microphone, webcam

Uses of optical mark recognition on exam papers, joystick in video games, tracker-ball by disabled people, microphone in digital music editing and sensors in shopping malls are discussed in class.