To The Instructor

As authors, we are enormously gratified by the continued endorsement of USING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY as a teaching tool for the introductory college course on computers. Over 500,000 students have been introduced to this dynamic and exciting subject through UIT's four earlier editions, and instructors in over 500 schools have selected it for use in their courses.

What are the reasons for this acceptance? One is that UIT was the first textbook to foresee and define the impact of digital convergence-the fusion of computers and communications-as the new and broader foundation for this course. And we have continued to try to pioneer in coverage of new developments. Thus, we are extremely pleased to hear reviewers label UIT as the most up-to-date text published for this course.

The UIT Difference: Motivating the Unmotivated

But there is another important reason, we think, for UIT's frequent adoption. We often ask instructors what their most significant challenge is in teaching this course. One professor at a state university seems to speak for most when she says: "Making the course interesting and challenging." Others echo her with remarks such as "Keeping students interested in the material enough to study" and "Many students take the course because they must, instead of because the material interests them." Another speaks about the need to address a "variety of skill/knowledge levels while keeping the course challenging and interesting."

Our experience with reviews, surveys, and focus groups, then, suggests that the number one challenge to instructors ismotivating the unmotivated. As authors, we find information technology tremendously exciting, but we have long recognized that many students come to the subject with attitudes ranging from, on the one hand, complete apathy and even abject terror to, on the one hand, a high degree of experience and technical understanding (such as those taking the course for a certificate).

We address the problem of motivating the unmotivated by offering unequaled treatment of the following:

1. Practicality
2. Readability
3. Currentness

We explain these features below

Feature #1: Emphasis on Practicality

This popular feature received overwhelming acceptance by both students and instructors in past editions. Practical advice, of the sort found in computer magazines, newspaper technology sections, and general-interest computer books, is expressed not only in the text but also in the following:

• The Experience Box: Appearing at the end of each chapter, the Experience Box is optional material that may be assigned at the instructor's discretion. However, students will find the subjects covered are of immediate value. Examples: "Web Research, Term Papers, & Plagiarism." "Career Strategies for the Digital Age." "How to Buy a Notebook." "Preventing Your Identity from Getting Stolen."
  New to this edition: "Should You Upgrade to Windows XP or Mac OS X?" Also, "Virtual Meetings: Linking Up Electronically."
• Bookmark It! Practical Action Box: This box consists of optional material on practical matters. Examples: "Tips for Managing Your
  E-Mail." "Choosing an Internet Service Provider." "Succeeding at
  Distance Learning." "When Software Causes Problems."
• New to this edition! Survival Tips: In the margins throughout we present utilitarian Survival Tips to aid students' explorations of the infotech world. Examples: "Broadband: Riskier for Security." "Accessing E-Mail While Traveling Abroad." "Handling the Annoyance of Spam." "Information on Web Radio." "When Your PC Freezes Up." "Don't Trash Those Icons." "XP Installation." "Ready for Linux?" "Need Info on RAM?" "What to Do When Your Floppy Jams." "Backing Up on Zip." "How Do I Use the Prnt Scrn Key?" "Setting Mouse Properties." "Digital Camera Resource." "Coping with Cookies." "Guard Your Social Security Number." "Some Records Have to Be Hardcopy." "Music File Sharing." "Some Websites about Privacy." "Keep Antivirus Software Updated." "Deal with Secure Websites." "Don't Let Your Domain Name Lapse." "Better Financial Information." "Online Government Help." "Oops! Cancel That E-Mail!"
• Early discussion of Internet: Many instructors have told us they like having "e-concepts" treated earlier and more extensively in this text compared with other books. Accordingly, the Internet and World Wide Web are discussed in Chapter 2 instead of in a later chapter, reflecting their importance in students' daily lives.
• How to understand a computer ad: In the hardware chapters (Chapters 5 and 6), we explain important concepts by showing students how to understand the hardware components in a hypothetical PC ad.

Feature #2: Emphasis on Readability & Reinforcement for Learning

We offer the following features for reinforcing student learning:

• Interesting writing: Studies have found that textbooks written in an imaginative style significantly improve students' ability to retain information. Both instructors and students have commented on the distinctiveness of the writing in this book. We employ a number of journalistic devices-colorful anecdotes, short biographical sketches, interesting observations in direct quotes-to make the material as interesting as possible. We also use real anecdotes and examples rather than fictionalized ones.
• New to this edition! "Click-along" web connection for student "multitasking" for learning reinforcement: Today's students often do "multitasking"-many tasks at once, such as studying while talking on the phone, watching TV, or surfing the Web. Educators say because the brain has limits, the distraction in attention often means less learning takes place (although the trend among students may be irreversible). This book addresses this impulse by harnessing multitasking in the service of student motivation and learning. Wherever the Click-along icon (shown at left) appears in the book, readers are invited to use their computers to go to our website (www.mhhe.com/cit/uit5e/complete/clickalong) and use their mouse to "click along" while reading the text. Principal uses of the Click-along website include updates, elaboration, examples, more practical advice, and access to the Student Online Learning Center.
• Emphasis throughout on ethics: Many texts discuss ethics in isolation, usually in one of the final chapters. We believe this topic is too important to be treated last or lightly, and users have agreed. Thus, we cover ethical matters throughout the book, as indicated by the special logo shown here in the margin. Example: We discuss such all-important questions as copying of Internet files, online plagiarism, privacy, computer crime, and netiquette.
• Key terms AND definitions emphasized: To help readers avoid any confusion about which terms are important and what they actually mean, we print each key term in bold italic underscore and its definition in boldface.Example (from Chapter 1): "Data consists of raw facts and figures that are processed into information."
• Material in bite-size portions: Major ideas are presented in bite-size form, with generous use of advance organizers, bulleted lists, and new paragraphing when a new idea is introduced. Most sentences have been kept short, the majority not exceeding 22-25 words in length.
• Key Questions-to help students read with purpose: We have crafted the learning objectives as Key Questions to help readers focus on essentials. Each Key Question appears in two places: on the first page of the chapter and beneath the section head. Key Questions are also tied to the end-of-chapter summary, as we will explain.
• Concept Checks: Appearing periodically throughout the text, Concept Checks spur students to recall facts and concepts they have just read.
• Summary: Each chapter ends with a Summary of important terms, with an explanation of what they are and why they are important. The terms are accompanied, when appropriate, by a picture. Each concept or term is also given a cross-reference page number that refers the reader to the main discussion within the text. In addition, the term or concept is given a Key Question number corresponding to the appropriate Key Question (learning objective).

Feature #3: Currentness

Reviewers have applauded previous editions of UIT for being more up to date than other texts. For example, we have traditionally ended many chapters with a forward-looking section that offers a preview of technologies to come-some of which are realized even as students are using the book. Among the new topics and terms covered in this edition are: backside bus, buffer, bursting, Cable Act, CDMA, Child Online Protection Act, Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, Computer Abuse Amendments Act, cordless mice, cyborgs, E-911, 4G wireless, frontside bus, GSM, HomeRF, iDEN, intelligent smart cards, Intel P4 chip, interleaving, Internet help sites, large-format printer, "lights-out factory," Mac OS X, memory bus, M-RAM, National Information Infrastructure Protection Act, No Electronic Theft Act, Office XP, packet loss, page printer, ping time, pipelining, point of presence, RDRAM, SAR, spooling, STS-connection, STS-48 connection, 2G wireless, 2.5G wireless, 3G wireless, TDMA, Telephone Consumer Protection Act, touch-screen voting, video/audio editing software, VRAM, WAP, webcams, WiFi, Windows XP.

In addition, in this latest edition, we have taken the feature of currentness to another level through use of the Click-along feature to offer updates to new material throughout the life of the book.

Feature #4: Three-Level System to Help Students Think Critically about Information Technology

This is a feature first created for the last edition that we have tried to make even more prominent and useful in this one. More and more instructors seem to have become familiar with Benjamin Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, describing a hierarchy of six critical-thinking skills: (a) two lower-order skills-memorization and comprehension; and (b) four higher-order skills-application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.

Drawing on our experience in writing books to guide students to college success, we have implemented Bloom's ideas in a three-stage pedagogical approach, using the following hierarchical approach in the Chapter Review at the end of every chapter:

• Stage 1 learning-memorization: "I can recognize and recall information." Using self-test questions, multiple-choice questions, and true/false questions, we enable students to test how well they recall basic terms and concepts.
• Stage 2 learning-comprehension: "I can recall information in my own terms and explain them to a friend." Using open-ended short-answer questions, we enable students to re-express terms and concepts in their own words.
• Stage 3 learning-applying, analyzing, synthesizing, evaluating: "I can apply what I've learned, relate these ideas to other concepts, build on other knowledge, and use all these thinking skills to form a judgment." In this part of the Chapter Review, we ask students to put the ideas into effect using the activities described. The purpose is to help students take possession of the ideas, make them their own, and apply them realistically to their own ideas.
  New to this edition! Many new and different Internet activities have been created as Stage 3 learning activities for this edition of the book.