Chapter Topics and Key Questions
1.1 Infotech Is Commonplace: Cellphones, Email, the Internet, and the E-World
How does information technology facilitate email, networks, and the use of the internet and the web; what is the meaning of the term cyberspace?
1.2 The "All-Purpose Machine": The Varieties of Computers
What are the five sizes of computers, and what are clients and servers?
1.3 Understanding Your Computer: How Can You Customize Your PC?
What four basic operations do all computers follow, and what are some of the devices associated with each operation and what are some of the devices associated with each operation? How does communications affect these operations?
1.4 Where Is Information Technology Headed?
What are three directions of computer development and three directions of communications development?

Chapter 2
The Internet and the World Wide Web
Exploring Cyberspace

Chapter Topics and Key Questions
2.1 Choosing Your Internet Access Device and Physical Connection: The Quest for Broadband
What are the means of connecting to the internet, and how fast are they?
2.2 Choosing Your Internet Service Provider (ISP)
What is an internet service provider, and what do ISPs provide?
2.3 Sending and Receiving Email
What are the options for obtaining email software, what are the components of an email address, and what are netiquette and spam?
2.4 The World Wide Web
What are websites, web pages, browsers, URLs, and search engines?
2.5 The Online Gold Mine: More Internet Resources
What are FTP, Telnet, newsgroups, real-time chat, blogs, distance learning, and e-commerce?

Chapter 3
Application Software
For Productivity and Creativity

Chapter Topics and Key Questions
3.1 System Software
What are three components of system software; what does the operating system (OS) do; what is an OS interface; and what are some common desktop, network, and portable OSS?
3.2 Application Software: Getting Started
What are five ways of obtaining application software, tools available to help you learn to use software, three common types of files, and the types of software?
3.3 Word Processing
What can you do with word processing software that you can't do with pencil and paper?
3.4 Spreadsheets
What can you do with an electronic spreadsheet that you can't do with pencil and paper and a standard calculator?
3.5 Database Software
What is database software, and what is personal information management software?
3.6 Specialty Software
What are the principal uses of specialty software such as presentation graphics, financial, desktop publishing, drawing and painting, project management, computer-aided design, video/audio editing software, and web page design software?

Chapter 4
Hardware: The CPU and Storage
How to Buy a Multimedia Computer System

Chapter Topics and Key Questions

4.1 Microchips, Miniaturization, and Mobility
What are the differences between transistors, integrated circuits, chips, and microprocessors?
4.2 The System Unit
How is data represented in a computer; what are the components of the system cabinet; what are processing speeds; how do the processor and memory work; and what are some important ports, buses and cards?
4.3 Secondary Storage
What are the features of floppy disks, hard disks, optical disks, magnetic tape, smart cards, and online secondary storage?

Chapter 5
Hardware: Input and Output
Taking Charge of Computing and Communications

Chapter Topics and Key Questions
5.1 Input and Output
How is input and output hardware used by a computer system?
5.2 Input Hardware
What are the three categories of input hardware, what devices do they include, and what are their features?
5.3 Output Hardware
What are the two categories of output hardware, what devices do they include, and what are their features?
5.4 Future Developments in Processing and Storage
What are some forthcoming developments that could affect processing power and storage capacity?

Chapter 6
Networks and Communications
The "New Story" in Computing

Chapter Topics and Key Questions
6.1 From the Analog to the Digital Age
How do digital data and analog data differ, and what does a modem do?
6.2 The Practical Uses of Communications
What are some uses of new telecommunications technology?
6.3 Communications Media and Transfer Rates
What are types of wired and wireless communications media, and what affects data transmission efficiency and speed?
6.4 Networks
What are the benefits of networks, and what are their types, components, and variations?
6.5 Cyberethics: Controversial Material and Censorship
What are some concerns regarding censorship of internet information?

Chapter 7
Files, Databases, and E-Commerce
Digital Engines for the New Economy

Chapter Topics and Key Questions
7.1 Managing Files: Basic Concepts
What are the data storage hierarchy, the key field, types of files, and some methods of data access and storage?
7.2 Database Management Systems
What are two types of database access?
7.3 Database Models
What are four types of database models?
7.4 Databases and the New Economy: E-Commerce, Data Mining, and B2B Systems
How are e-commerce, data mining, and business-to-business systems using databases?
7.5 The Ethics of Using Databases: Concerns about Accuracy and Privacy
What are some ethical concerns about the uses of databases?

Chapter 8
Society and The Digital Age
Challenges and Promises

Chapter Topics and Key Questions
8.1 The Digital Environment: Is There a Grand Design?
What are the Internet 2, the 1996 Telecommunications Act, and ICANN?
8.2 Security Issues: Threats to Computers and Communications Systems
What are some characteristics of the key security issues for information technology?
8.3 Security: Safeguarding Computers and Communications
What are the characteristics of the four components of security?
8.4 Quality-of-Life Issues: The Environment, Mental Health, and the Workplace
How does information technology create environmental, mental-health, and workplace problems?
8.5 Economic Issues: Employment and the Haves/Have-Nots
How may technology affect the unemployment rate and the gap between rich and poor?
8.6 Artificial Intelligence
What are the Main areas of artificial intelligence?
8.7 The Promised Benefits of the Digital Age
What are some benefits of the digital age?