PC architecture, Central Unit Processor, memories, devices, information coding. Software and Operating Systems. Hints on programming languages object oriented. Introduction to Visual Basic and applications in the Excel environment. Concepts about spreadsheets, managing simple data using Excel. Computer networks: basic notions, web architectures and web topologies. The main web services: telnet, web mail, files transfer and www.
- On-line slides
- Tutorials on-line
- Mari L., Buonanno G., Sciuto D. (2007). Informatica e cultura dell'informazione. McGraw-Hill,
Milano (suggested).
Learning Objectives
a) General objectives: the course wants to provide basic interdisciplinary knowledge about the tools for collecting and handling information, the information technologies and the information systems, with the aim of completing the formation of a psychologist.
b) Detailed objectives: more precisely, the course presents the use of the information technologies and their advantages in the aim of enhancing the technological choices that would be of any help for the future activity of psychologist. The course is divided into three parts: the first one deal with computer science and information theory, while later it focuses on the potentiality and on the use of the spreadsheets in Windows. In the second part the course presents the computer networks and gives some hints on how a psychologist may use them. Finally, in the third part, the course deals with the basis of the object oriented programming languages. Here, it introduces the VBA language in the Excel environment. The high versatility of VBA in collecting and handling experimental datasets is presented, and its high impact both in the work and in the research of the psychologist is underlined. The course is enriched with practical activity and laboratory tests for each of the three described parts.
c) Expected knowledge results (the knowledge, to know how to do, to know what to do)
The knowledge: the aim of the course is that of providing basic knowledge on the information technology together with that about the more useful software tools for the psychological activity. In particular, the course provides:
- The concepts of information, digital;
- Characteristics of the components of a computer;
- Characteristics of the devices of a computer;
- Definition of software and the characteristics of the operating systems;
- Characteristics of the spreadsheet;
- Basic knowledge of the computer networks: hardware, architecture and topologies;
- How to exchange information on the web;
- The web services;
- Basic concepts on object oriented programming languages;
- How to program VBA language in the Excel environment.
Know how to do: The student that passes the final exam is able to:
- Understand the internal structure of a computer and the tools that it offers to the psychologist;
- Appropriately use the Windows OS, and the more common software;
- Use the software Excel to manage data in the perspective of defining solutions to problems in the psychological field;
- Appropriately use the web and its services, understanding their potentiality as tools for their future activities;
- Distinguish between given data, required data and hypothesis in the problem solving process;
- Define solutions for medium difficulty algorithm problems;
- Write a pseudo-code solution to a problem and then the related VBA program;
- Debug a program and verify its correctness.
Know what to do: At the end of the course, the student will be able to autonomously tackle and solve problems both in the future work and in the social life, thanks to a way of proceeding that, for each of them, starts from the consciousness raising of a problem, and then, through critical thinking, splits it into sub-problems, and define how they interact to give raise to the final solution, deeply understanding the involved social and ethical consequences. At that step, the student succeeds at evaluating with critical thinking, the difficulties of his problem with respect to the tools offered by the information technology. After such evaluation, the student will be able to achieve the desired solution.
Prerequisites
none
Teaching Methods
lessons and practical sessions
Further information
none
Type of Assessment
written and oral test
Course program
Computer architecture: study of the characteristics of the devices that constitute a computer regarded as a Von Neumann machine, focusing on the central process unit, registers, cache, buffer, RAM (Random Access Memory), and ROM (Read Only Memory).
The coding process of numerical and non numerical information. Study of the characteristics of the external devices of a computer: mass memories, pointing devices, I/O devices, and others common ones.
Definition of software; characteristics and tasks of the Operating Systems, focusing on the Windows OS. Characteristics and capability of the spreadsheets and high level usage of the software Excel, including the study of the mathematical formulas and the creation of macros in VBA. The usage of VBA is related to the basic concepts of computer programming as type assignment to constants and variables, and their scope, if sentences and loops.
Basic knowledge on computer networks and their characteristics related to the hardware, the architecture and the topology. Services of the web: e-mail, telnet, files transfer, www, and synchronous and asynchronous communications.