Download Glossary - Medway Adult Education

Section 10
Supplementary information
Glossary
Abbreviation
Meaning
Explanation
ADSL
Asymmetrical digital
subscriber lines
One of the fastest technologies for connecting
to the internet. Data is sent over existing copper
telephone lines.
CD-R
Compact disk (recordable)
A write-once optical-disk format designed to be
readable by systems that can read CD-ROM
disks.
CD-ROM
Compact disk read-only
memory
Optical storage device for computer data and
programs. A CD-ROM can store more data and
allows much faster access than a magnetic
disk.
CD-RW
Compact disk (rewritable)
An optical disk that can be written to more than
once, and which is readable by systems that
can read CD-ROM disks.
CLAIT
Computer Literacy And
Information Technology
A nationally recognised qualification
administered by the Oxford Cambridge and
RSA Examination board (OCR)
CPU
Central processing unit
The principal operating part of a computer.
DAT
Digital audio tape
Magnetic tape now used for computer storage
and backup.
DVD
Digital versatile disk
Optical disk that can store much more data
than a compact disk.
ECDL
European Computer
Driving Licence
Europe-wide qualification in computer skills.
EULA
End-user licence
agreement
The type of licence used for most software.
FENTO
Further Education National
Training Organisation
The national training organisation responsible
for workforce development across the UK in the
further education sector.
Apple® Computer’s trade name for a highspeed data transfer technology. Transferring
data at up to 800Mbps, FireWire delivers many
times the bandwidth of the original USB ports.
FireWire
GUI
Graphical User Interface
An operating system which displays the
computer’s programs and data files as icons
and menus, and allows commands to be
entered using key-strokes and mouse-clicks.
HTTP
Hypertext Transfer
Protocol
The agreed format for transmitting data on the
World Wide Web.
ICT
Information and
communication technology
The combination of computing and
communication technologies.
ILT
Information and learning
technologies
The use of ICT to support the delivery and
management of learning.
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Section 10
Supplementary information
IRC
Internet Relay Chat
A chat system which enables people to join in
live discussions on the internet.
ISDN
Integrated Services Digital
Network
An international communications standard for
sending voice, video, and data over digital
telephone lines or normal telephone wires.
ISP
Internet service provider
A company that provides access to the internet.
IT
Information technology
Technology used by people to handle
information.
LAN
Local area network
A computer network over a relatively small
area, such as a single building or group of
buildings.
LCD
Liquid crystal display
A type of display used, for example, in portable
computers.
NIACE
National Institute of Adult
Continuing Education
The leading non-governmental
organisation for adult learning in England and
Wales.
NLN
National Learning Network
A national partnership programme designed to
increase the uptake of ILT across post-16
education in England.
OCR
Optical character
recognition
The process of reading text from paper and
translating the images into a form that a
computer can manipulate.
PCMCIA
Personal Computer
Memory Card International
Association
A PC card originally designed to add memory to
portable computers, and frequently used with a
laptops to create a wireless network.
PDA
Personal digital assistant
A hand-held device that combines computing,
telephone/fax, internet and networking features.
PDF
Portable Document Format
A file format developed by Adobe Systems.
PDF captures formatting information from a
variety of desktop publishing applications,
making it possible to send formatted documents
and have them appear on the recipient’s
monitor or printer as they were intended.
POST
Power On Self Test
Occurs when a computer is booted up to
ensure all hardware components, the CPU and
memory are all functioning correctly.
PSTN
Public Switched Telephone
Network
The international telephone system based on
copper wires carrying analog voice data.
RAM
Random-access memory
A computer’s main memory, where data is
manipulated. The amount of main memory
determines how many programs can be run at
one time and how much data can be readily
available to a program.
ROM
Read-only memory
The memory used to store the programs that
boot the computer and performs diagnostics.
SCSI
Small computer system
interface
An interface standard, used for connecting
devices such as disk drives and printers to
computers.
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Section 10
Supplementary information
SMS
Short Message Service
A service for sending short text messages to
mobile phones, fax machines or computers.
UCS
Unicode Character System
An international standard character set
reference that is part of the Unicode standard: a
standard system for encoding characters from
almost all human languages enabling them to
be easily mixed in the same file and displayed
reliably without the need for special fonts.
Windows 2000 and XP support Unicode
natively.
URL
Uniform resource locator
The unique address of a document or other
resource on the World Wide Web.
USB
Universal Serial Bus
A standard used for ports used to connect
devices such as mice, modems and keyboards
to a computer. A single USB port can be used
to connect up to 127 devices.
VDU
Visual display unit
A display monitor attached to a computer.
W3C
World Wide Web
Consortium
An international consortium of companies
involved with the internet and the Web, whose
purposes are to develop open standards to
ensure the Web evolves in a single direction.
WAN
Wide Area Network
A computer network over a large geographical
area.
WEP
Wired Equivalent Privacy
A security protocol for wireless local area
networks.
wLAN
Wireless LAN
A type of LAN connected by high-frequency
radio waves rather than wires.
XML
Extensible Markup
Language
A language code that allows Web designers to
create customised tags enabling the definition,
transmission, validation and interpretation of
data between applications and between
organisations.
XSLT
Extensible Style Language
Transformation
A language code used in XSL style sheets to
transform XML documents into other XML
documents using an XSL processor.
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