Fluency with Information Technology: Skills, Concepts, and Capabilities, Fourth Edition, equips readers who are already familiar with computers, the Internet, and the World Wide Web with a deeper understanding of the broad capabilities of technology. Through a project-oriented learning approach that uses examples and realistic problem-solving scenarios, Larry Snyder teaches readers to navigate information technology independently and become effective users of today’s resources, forming a foundation of skills they can adapt to their personal and career goals as future technologies emerge.

Table of Contents:
Part 1 Becoming Skilled at Computing Chapter 1 Defining Information Technology Terms of Endearment 3 Why Know Just the Right Word 5 Where’s the Start Button? 6 Where Is the Computer? 11 How Soft Is Software? 15 The Words for Ideas 17 Analytical Thinking 19 Summary 23 Try It Solutions 24 Review Questions 24 Chapter 2 Exploring the Human—Computer Interface What the Digerati Know 28 Learning about Technology 30 Two Concepts of Computing 35 “Clicking Around” 37 “Blazing Away” 38 Watching Others 39 Principle: Form Follows Function 41 Searching Text Using Find 43 Editing Text Using Substitution 47 Technology: Take It Personally 52 Summary 54 Try It Solutions 54 Review Questions 55 Chapter 3 The Basics of Networking Making the Connection 58 Comparing Communication Types 60 The Medium of the Message 62 The Internet and the Web 77 The World Wide Web 74 Summary 81 Try It Solutions 81 Review Questions 82 Chapter 4 A Hypertext Markup Language Primer Marking Up with HTML 85 Marking Up with XHTML 87 Lab Practice I 89 Structuring Documents 92 Lab Practice II 96 Marking Links with Anchor Tags 98 Including Pictures with Image Tags 101 Lists and Tables 106 Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) 111 Style from Files 115 HTML Wrap-Up 118 Summary 119 Try It Solutions 119 Review Questions 120 Chapter 5 Locating Information on the WWW Searching for Truth 124 Searching in All the Right Places 126 How Is Information Organized? 128 Searching the Web for Information 135 Searching the World Wide Web 141 Web Information: Truth or Fiction? 147 The Burmese Mountain Dog Page 150 Summary 151 Try It Solutions 152 Review Questions 152 Chapter 6 A Case Study in Online Research Searching for Guinea Pig B 156 Getting Started with Online Research 158 Learning About Fuller 163 Primary Sources 166 Chronfile and “Everything I Know” 170 Resolving Questions 174 Case Study Wrap-Up 180 Exploring Side Questions 178 Summary 185 Try It Solutions 185 Review Questions 185 interview Vinton G. Cerf 188 Part 2 Algorithms and Digitizing Information Chapter 7 An Introduction to Debugging To Err Is Human 195 of Computing 197 Exactly How Accurate Is “Precise?” 197 Debugging: What’s the Problem? 198 A Dialog About Debugging 201 Precision: The High Standards Butterflies and Bugs: A Case Study 204 Debugging Recap 204 No Printer Output: A Classic Scenario 214 Ensuring the Reliability of Software 217 Summary 219 Try It Solutions 220 Review Questions 220 Chapter 8 Representing Information Digitally Bits and the “Why” of Bytes 223 Digitizing Discrete Information 225 Fundamental Information Representation 227 Hex Explained 232 Digitizing Text 233 The Oxford English Dictionary 237 Summary 241 Try It Solutions 242 Review Questions 242 Chapter 9 Principles of Computer Operations Following Instructions 246 Instruction Execution Engines 248 The Fetch/Execute Cycle 250 Anatomy of a Computer 250 The Program Counter: The PC’s PC 255 Instruction Interpretation 256 Cycling the Fetch/Execute Cycle 260 Software 262 Integrated Circuits 267 How Semiconductor Technology Works 270 Combining the Ideas 273 Summary 274 Try It Solutions 275 Review Questions 275 Chapter 10 Algorithmic Thinking What's the Plan? 279 Algorithm: A Familiar Idea 281 Analyzing Alphabetize CDs Algorithm 288 Abstraction in Algorithmic Thinking 292 Summary 296 Try It Solutions 296 Review Questions 296 Chapter 11 Representing Multimedia Digitally Light, Sound, Magic 300 Digitizing Color 302 Computing on Representations 309 Digitizing Sound 312 Digital Images and Video 316 Optical Character Recognition 319 Virtual Reality: Fooling the Senses 321 Bits Are It 323 Summary 324 Try It Solutions 325 Review Questions 325 interview Ray Kurzweil 329 Part 3 Data and Information Chapter 12 Social Implications of IT Computers in Polite Society 335 Out on Good Behavior 337 Expect the Unexpected 340 Creating Good Passwords 343 Spam 347 Scams 350 Viruses and Worms 353 Protecting Intellectual Property 361 Plan of Action 366 Summary 369 Try It Solutions 369 Review Questions 370 Chapter 13 Privacy and Digital Security Shhh, It's a Secret 373 Privacy: Whose Information Is It? 375 A Privacy Definition 377 Enjoying the Benefits of Privacy 378 Fair Information Practices 379 Comparing Privacy Across the Atlantic 380 The Cookie Monster 384 Encryption and Decryption 388 Public Key Cryptosystems 391 RSA Public Key Cryptosystem 392 Redundancy Is Very, Very, Very Good 398 Summary 401 Try It Solutions 402 Review Questions 403 Chapter 14 The Basics of Spreadsheets Fill-in-the-Blank Computing 406 Arranging Information 408 Computing with Spreadsheets 412 Daily Spreadsheets 422 Importing Data 429 Summary 434 Try It Solutions 435 Review Questions 435 Chapter 15 Advanced Spreadsheets for Planning "What If” Thinking Helps 440 Designing a Spreadsheet 442 Conditional Formatting 445 Conditional Formulas 449 Naming: Symbolic Reference 452 “What If” Analysis 455 Analyzing Data Using Filtering 461 Summary 465 Try It Solutions 466 Review Questions 466 Chapter 16 Introduction to Database Concepts A Table with a View 470 and Databases 472 XML: A Language for Metadata Tags 474 Tables and Entities 481 Operations on Tables 485 Differences Between Tables Join Operation 493 Structure of a Database 496 Summary 507 Try It Solutions 508 Review Questions 508 Chapter 17 A Case Study in Database Organization The iDiary Database 511 Thinking About a Personal Database 513 A Preliminary Exercise 514 The iDiary Database 524 Using the iDiary Daily 538 Summary 540 Try It Solutions 540 Review Questions 541 interview Alan Kay 543 Part 4 Problem Solving Chapter 18 Fundamental Concepts Expressed in JavaScript Get with the Program 549 Overview: Programming Concepts 551 Names, Values, and Variables 553 Names Have Changing Values 553 Names in a Program Are Called Variables 554 A Variable Declaration Statement 555 Three Basic Data Types of JavaScript 557 The Assignment Statement 560 An Expression and Its Syntax 563 A Conditional Statement 567 The Espresso Program 571 Summary 574 Try It Solutions 575 Review Questions 576 Chapter 19 A JavaScript Program The Bean Counter 579 Preliminaries 581 Recap of the Bean Counter Background for the GUI 582 Creating the Graphical User Interface 586 Event-Based Programming 589 Critiquing the Bean Counter 594 Application 595 Summary 597 Try It Solutions 598 Review Questions 598 Chapter 20 Programming Functions Thinking Big 601 Anatomy of a Function 603 Forms and Functions 606 Summary 629 Writing Functions, Using Functions 610 The Memory Bank Web Page 618 Improving the Memory Bank Web Page 622 Add Final Touches to Memory Bank 626 Try It Solutions 630 Review Questions 630 Chapter 21 Iteration Principles Once Is Not Enough 633 Iteration: Play It Again, Sam 635 JavaScript Rules for for Loops 638 Experiments with Flipping Coins 642 Indexing 645 Arrays 646 The Busy Animation 648 Summary 653 Try It Solutions 654 Review Questions 655 Chapter 22 A Case Study in Algorithmic Problem Solving The Smooth Motion Application 659 The Smooth Motion Application 661 Planning Smooth Motion 662 Build the Basic Web Page GUI 665 Animate the Grid 666 The Best Laid Plans . . . 671 Build Controls 673 Sense the Keys 674 Staircase Detection 677 Assemble Overall Design 679 Primp the Design 680 Summary 682 Try It Solutions 683 Review Questions 684 Chapter 23 Limits to Computation Computers Can Do Almost {!Everything,!Nothing} 687 Can Computers Think? 689 Acting Intelligently? 691 Acting Creatively 696 The Universality Principle 699 More Work, Slower Speed 703 How Hard Can a Problem Be? 705 Summary 707 Try It Solutions 708 Review Questions 708 Chapter 24 A Fluency Summary Click to Close 712 Two Big IT Ideas 714 Fluency: Less Is More 715 Lifelong IT Learning 717 Shifting for Yourself 720 Try It Solutions 720 Review Questions 720 interview Tim Berners-Lee 723 Appendix A XHTML Reference 725 Appendix B iDiary: Tags and Templates 730 Appendix C JavaScript Programming Rules 736 Appendix D Bean Counter Program 743 Appendix E Memory Bank Code 746 Appendix F Smooth Motion Program 752 Glossary 755 Answers to Selected Questions 769 Index 781 Credits 798