Information and Communication Technology Senior Secondary Subject Selection Information

Is ICT suitable for me? Things to consider: –What is ICT about? –Am I Interested in those things? –Does the study of ICT support the pursuit of my desired career path? –Is it likely that I will enjoy the subject?

What is ICT about?

Compulsory Part Elective Part SBA

Social Implications of I.T. and Communication Technology Information Processing Basic Programming Concepts Computer System Fundamentals Internet & Its Applications

Basic Programming Concepts Software development Coursework: crossword puzzle, Sudoku, etc. Software development elective

Compulsory Part Example questions (I) Uniform Resources Locator (URL) is to locate A. a particular web page or file existing in a web site. B. a leased line reserved for related users. C. a remote line for connecting users to the Internet. D. a data line that provides unlimited access time.

This question requires students understanding of fundamental ICT knowledge and concepts.

Compulsory Part Example Questions (II) Part of a passage written by Alan describing John Lee and John Woo is shown in the following box: Now Alan wants to make some changes in the passage: change Mr. Lee into John Lee change John into John Woo Describe briefly how Alan can do it by only using the search and replace function. Mr. Lee and John are working in ABC University. Mr. Lee is a professor while John is a research assistant. They have been working together for more than two years.

For this question, students need to understand the operation of the search and replace function. The word-processing tool will simply find the pattern of word(s) being searched and replace it with other word(s) – it will not consider the content. So, students should predict the result after changes to avoid mistakes.

To complete the task, students should notice the priority between the two operations of the search and replace function. Students who simply use the search and replace function in the order described in the question will generate a wrong result – instead, it should be done in reverse order. In this way, students problem-solving skills are evaluated.

Compulsory Part Example questions (III) The Internet Fashion Design (IFD) is a web-based fashion retail company which has accumulated a large number of customers during the past two years. Last month, the whole IFD business was sold to a property development company, and the development company screened the customers IFD profiles to select likely property-buyers and mailed its property catalogue to these selected customers. (a) Is it legal for IFD to sell its whole business, including its customer information, to another company? Explain your answer. (b) Is it legal for the development company to use the customer information from IFD to screen for likely property-buyers? Explain your answer.

In this question, students should know about the issue of data privacy. This kind of question assesses students critical thinking skills. They have to support their point of view with convincing arguments; and, to a certain extent, students values and attitudes on controversial issues can also be evaluated.

An Elective Part Question may be like this… A supermarket launches a promotion of milk products and gives bonus points to its customers through their membership cards if they buy a certain number of items of milk products. The details of the bonus system are shown in the following table:

Number of itemsBonus points 1 – 40 5 – 71 8 – – or above5

John, a programmer at the supermarket, is going to write a program for the promotion. In the program, variables, N and R, are used to store the number of items of milk products bought and the bonus points rewarded respectively. There are three methods to be considered.

Method I if (N >= 1 && N <= 4) R = 0; if (N >= 5 && N <= 7) R = 1; if (N >= 8 && N <= 10) R = 2; if (N >= 11 && N <= 13) R = 3; if (N >= 14 && N <= 16) R = 4; if (N >= 17) R = 5; (a) Use a nested-lf statement to rewrite Method I.

Answer to (a) if (N >= 1 && N <= 4) R = 0; else if (N <= 7) R = 1; else if (N <= 10) R = 2; else if (N <= 13) R = 3; else if (N <= 16) R = 4; else R = 5;

Better Answer to (a) if (N > 16) R = 5; else if (N > 13) R = 4; else if (N > 10) R = 3; else if (N > 7) R = 2; else if (N > 4) R = 1; else if (N > 0) R = 0;

An SBA coursework title may be like this one Module A (Algorithm and Programming): Phone book directory Candidates are required to implement a phone book directory program to store names, telephone numbers, addresses as well as other useful personal information. The program should allow entries to be listed in different ways. Candidates should also develop a search engine which locates particular entries by inputting different search criteria. Candidates should demonstrate that they are aware of the reusability of the program design and justify the use of any data structures and algorithms in the implementation.

Am I interested in those things?

Am I interested in basic IT knowledge? If your parents decide that you are going to have a new computer, do you have in your mind what kind of this and what kind of that you will want for your computer, or you will just leave it to somebody to choose a good computer for you? If you are the former, it is likely that you are interested in basic IT knowledge.

Am I interested in software development? Just recall when you were shown the Too big! Too small! number guessing program in F.2. Did you want to write such a program? Do you want to learn to make that kind of things if there is someone to teach you how to write them? If you do, then likely you are interested in programming.

Is the study supportive to the pursuit of my career goal? IT is a learning tool. Program writing is a mental exercise. Computer Programming usually appears in the Year 1 curriculum in the Science Faculty and the Engineering Faculty.

In summary, the studying of this subject can help in the development of core abilities and generic skills.

Is it likely that I will enjoy the study? To enjoy this subject, you need to have the appropriate foundation to study it: –Mathematics, English, or, the will power to achieve.

You are very welcome to approach Mr. K. M. Ng for further information about this subject.