Chapter 6: The Explore Curricular Requirement

Computing Innovations

• A computing innovation is one that has a computer program that is essential to the innovation being able to operate.

• You should be able to describe the program and what it does for an innovation.

  • A physical innovation—such as a GPS

  • Nonphysical computing software—such as an app

  • Nonphysical computing concept—such as social networking

Input/Processing/Output

• A key concept is being able to distinguish the data from the device that collects the data.

• For example, a sensor is a data collection device.

  • It sends the data it collects to the program.

  • The data would be values for distance, temperature, motion, among many others, and it is input to the computer program in the innovation.

• The innovation’s program then processes the data and produces some type of output.

  • The message and “turn on” signal are examples of output.

Analyzing Data

• You could also see questions about other important concepts related to analyzing a computing innovation’s data.

• These include the following:

  • How the data collected could be traced to an individual (privacy)

  • Who can access the data (security)

  • Where the data is warehoused (storage)

• Privacy is protecting our identity.

  • Could partial data and other publicly available data reveal our identity?

  • Can an individual be identified if our data is mixed with a lot of other data to hide our identities?

• Security deals with who can access our data.

  • Organizations should restrict data access and update.

  • Schools keep much of student and teacher data.

  • Keeping your data secure means not letting other students view your grades or vice versa in an online gradebook.

• Data storage concerns center around where the data is located.

  • If your school data is stored on a local server, the data should be protected so only authorized people are able to access it.

Impact of Computing Innovations

• Computing advancements have implications based on their intended usage.

• These impacts might be good or bad, sometimes for the same person.

• When examining stimulus questions, attempt to observe the effects from many perspectives to determine whether they are positive or negative.

Next Chapter:

Chapter 7: Creative Development