BS Information Technology: Course Description

While some people gravitate toward careers that involve managing people, others tend more toward more computer-related careers. Theres something about the technical field that resonates within them more than any other profession does. What exactly can a promising young person expect from Information Technology (I.T). training? Lets find out. Changing the Subject If other courses deal more with the management of people, IT focuses more on managing systemscomputer systems, that is. Expect to spend a lot of time studying programming languages,database systems, operating systems and the like. You can also look forward to some training in the use of the Internet and the mechanics of E-commerce, with other, more general humanities and mathematics subjects thrown in for good measure. Technical Savvy If there was ever a course for the geeks, then this is probably it. The subjects were designed with the technical person in mind, thus, computer algorithms, architecture and structures all play a big part in the learning process. As with any good course, expect thorough instruction in both the theoretical and hand-on aspects of things. In other words, you wont just be cracking books about computer networks; youll actually be designing them yourself. The Final Analysis You may think that the field is all about computers, but its ultimate end is still the good of the human race. IT specialists manage systems to help meet the needs of business and industry people. Everything from building a database to getting an application to run is part and parcel ofmeeting people at the point of their needs.

Information technology
Information Technology (IT) is a type of technology that deals with the use of computers and telecommunications to store, retrieve and transmit information.[1] The acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications are its main fields.[2] The term in its modern sense first appeared in a 1958 article published in the Harvard Business Review, in which authors Leavitt and Whisler commented that "the new technology does not yet have a single established name. We shall call it information technology (IT)."[3] Some of the modern and emerging fields of Information technology are next generation web technologies, bioinformatics, cloud computing, global information systems, large scale knowledge bases, etc. Advancements are mainly driven in the field of computer science.

nformation
Main article: Information The English word was apparently derived from the Latin stem (information-) of the nominative (informatio): this noun is in its turn derived from the verb "informare" (to inform) in the sense of "to give form to the mind", "to discipline", "instruct", "teach".

Technology
Information and communication technology spending in 2005

IT is the area of managing technology and spans a wide variety of areas that include computer software, information systems, computer hardware, programming languages but are not limited to things such as processes, and data constructs. In short, anything that renders data, information or perceived knowledge in any visual format whatsoever, via any multimedia distribution mechanism, is considered part of the IT domain. IT provides businesses with four sets of core services to help execute the business strategy: business process automation, providing information, connecting with customers, and productivity tools.

IT professionals perform a variety of functions that range from installing applications to designing complex computer networks and information databases. A few of the duties that IT professionals perform may include data management, networking, engineering computer hardware, database and software design, as well as management and administration of entire systems. Information technology is starting to spread further than the conventional personal computer and network technologies, and more into integrations of other technologies such as the use of cell phones, televisions, automobiles, and more, which is increasing the demand for such jobs. In the recent past, the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology and the Association for Computing Machinery have collaborated to form accreditation and curriculum standards[4] for degrees in Information Technology as a distinct field of study as compared[5] to Computer Science and Information Systems today. SIGITE (Special Interest Group for IT Education)[6] is the ACM working group for defining these standards. The Worldwide IT services revenue totaled $763 billion in 2009.[7]

Technological capacity and growth

Hilbert and Lopez[8] identify the exponential pace of technological change (a kind of Moore's law): machines application-specific capacity to compute information per capita has roughly doubled every 14 months between 1986-2007; the per capita capacity of the worlds general-purpose computers has doubled every 18 months during the same two decades; the global telecommunication capacity per capita doubled every 34 months; the worlds storage capacity per capita required roughly 40 months to double (every 3 years); and per capita broadcast information has doubled roughly every 12.3 years.[8]

HARDWARE - contains information on the physical parts of a computing system, including electrical and mechanical components. SOFTWARE - covers the use of popular programs such as word processing, spreadsheets, databases and DTP. COMPUTER LANGUAGES - explains the development, different conventions, and basic terminology used within programming languages. DEVELOPING AN INFORMATION SYSTEM - contains information on how to create a system to organise, catalogue, store, retrieve and maintain information. INFORMATION REPRESENTATION - highlights the different ways that information is represented covering topics such as binary, hexadecimal, octal and other number systems. NETWORKS - explains the different ways in which information systems are connected together. INTERNET - describes the basic functions of the largest network of computers called the Internet.