Unit. Information technology. Text 1. What is information technology? Active vocabulary.

1.) information technology – информационные технологии.

2.) implementation – обеспечение, выполнение, снабжение.

3.) information system – информационная система.

4.) computer software – программное обеспечение.

5.) to convert (information) – изменять (информацию).

6.) to store (information) – хранить (информацию).

7.) to protect (information) – оберегать (информацию).

8.) to process (information) – обрабатывать (информацию).

9.) to transmit (information) – передавать (информацию).

10.) to retrieve (information)– восстанавливать / исправлять (информацию).

11.) to install applications – устанавливать оборудование.

12.) computer network – компьютерная сеть.

13.) database – база данных.

14.) data management – управление данными.

15.) computer hardware – компьютерная техника.

16.) data capture – сбор данных.

17.) to disseminate information – распространять информацию.

18.) substitution of words – замена слов.

19.) applied science – прикладная наука.

20.) artificial intelligence – искусственный интеллект.

21.) computer graphics – компьютерная графика.

22.) data storage device – устройство для сохранения данных.

23.) memristor – запоминающее устройство.

24.) consciousness – сознание, самосознание.

25.) holography – голография.

Ex. 1. Find the transcription of the following words in the dictionary and read them:

Technology, implementation, convert, retrieve, install applications, data capture, disseminate, applied science, artificial, consciousness, substitution.

Ex. 2. Read and translate the text. Pay special attention to the pronunciation of the words from ex. 1.

Information technology (IT), as defined by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), is "the study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware." IT deals with the use of electronic computers and computer software to convert, store, protect, process, transmit, and securely retrieve information. Today, the term information technology has ballooned to encompass many aspects of computing and technology, and the term has become very recognizable. IT professionals perform a variety of duties that range from installing applications to designing complex computer networks and information databases. A few of the duties that IT professionals perform may include data management, networking, engineering computer hardware, database and software design, as well as the management and administration of entire systems. When computer and communications technologies are combined, the result is information technology, or "InfoTech". Information technology is a general term that describes any technology that helps to produce, manipulate, store, communicate, and/or disseminate information. Presumably, when speaking of Information Technology (IT) as a whole, it is noted that the use of computers and information are associated.

The term information technology is sometimes said to have been coined by Jim Domsic of Michigan in November 1981. Domsic, who worked as a computer manager for an automotive related industry, is supposed to have created the term to modernize the outdated phrase "data processing". The Oxford English Dictionary, however, in defining information technology as "the branch of technology concerned with the dissemination, processing, and storage of information, esp. by means of computers" provides an illustrative quote from the year 1958 "The new technology does not yet have a single established name. We shall call it information technology", that predates the so-far unsubstantiated Domsic coinage. In recent years ABET and the ACM have collaborated to form accreditation and curriculum standards for degrees in Information Technology as a distinct field of study separate from both Computer Science and Information Systems.

Notes:

ITAA - The Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) is a leading industry trade group for information technology companies. It was formerly known as the Association of Data Processing Service Organizations (ADAPSO). The Association's membership contains most all of the world's major ICT firms and accounts for over 90% of ICT goods and services sold in North America.

ABET - formerly the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, is a non-profit organization that serves the public by accrediting United States postsecondary degree programs in applied science, computing, engineering, and technology. Accreditation is intended to certify the quality of these programs. There are over 2,800 programs accredited at over 600 colleges and universities in the U.S. ABET is the recognized U.S. accreditor of college and university programs in applied science, computing, engineering, and technology. ABET also provides leadership internationally through workshops, consultancies, memoranda of understanding, and mutual recognition agreements, such as the Washington Accord. ABET has been recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) since 1997.

ACM - The Association for Computing Machinery, or ACM, was founded in 1947 as the world's first scientific and educational computing society. Its membership was approximately 83,000 as of 2007. Its headquarters are in New York City.

Ex. 3. Determine which part of speech the following words are and the rules they are formed. Translate them into Russian:

Technological – technologist – technologize – technology.

Install – installation – installer – installment.

Retrievable – retrieval – retrieve – retriever.

Computer – computerite – computerization – computerizable – computerize – computerized.

Inform – information – informative – informed – informatics – informer.

Ex. 4. Find the synonyms among these words:

A: intelligence, application, data, to store, to process, consciousness, machine, to recognize, to define, leadership, agreement, major.

B: to keep, mind, awareness, main, to find out, consent, information, to determine, equipment, to compute, supervision, apparatus.

Ex. 5. Find the antonyms among these words:

A: securely, automatic, artificial, direct, to create, to follow.

B: to precede, indirect, openly, natural, hand, to destroy.

Ex. 6. Do you agree or disagree with the following statements? Explain why.

1. Today the term “Information technology” has become very recognizable.

2. We can find IT almost in every sphere of our everyday life.

3. IT professionals perform a variety of duties.

4. The Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) is not a leading industry trade group for information technology companies.

5. ABET is a profit-making organization.

6. There are a lot of different sources today where we can find a lot of information about IT.

Ex. 7. Read and become familiar with the following information:

Emerging information technology:

1. Artificial intelligence	The intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science which aims to create it. Or "the study and design of intelligent agents," where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions which maximize its chances of success.
2. Machine translation	A sub-field of computational linguistics that investigates the use of computer software to translate text or speech from one natural language to another. At its basic level, it performs simple substitution of words in one natural language for words in another.
3. Machine vision	The application of computer vision to industry and manufacturing. The systems are programmed to perform narrowly defined tasks such as counting objects on a conveyor, reading serial numbers, and searching for surface defects.
4. Machine augmented cognition / exocortex	A theoretical artificial external information processing system that would augment a brain's biological high-level cognitive processes.
5. Semantic Web or Answers Machine	An evolving development of the World Wide Web in which the semantics of information and services on the web is defined, making it possible for the web to understand and satisfy the requests of people and machines to use the web content.
6. General-purpose computing on graphic processing units	The technique of using a GPU, which typically handles computation only for computer graphics, to perform computation in applications traditionally handled by the CPU.
7. Solid-state drive	A data storage device that uses solid-state memory to store persistent data.
8. 3D optical data storage or holographic data storage	The term given to any form of optical data storage in which information can be recorded and/or read with three dimensional resolution. A potential replacement technology in the area of high-capacity data storage currently dominated by magnetic and conventional optical data storage.
9. Spintronics	An emerging technology that exploits the intrinsic spin of electrons and its associated magnetic moment, in addition to its fundamental electronic charge, in solid-state devices.
10. Optical computing	A device that uses the photons in visible light or infrared (IR) beams, rather than electric current, to perform digital computations.
11. Quantum computing	A device for computation that makes direct use of quantum mechanical phenomena, such as superposition and entanglement, to perform operations on data.
12. Quantum cryptography	A device that uses quantum mechanics to guarantee secure communication. It enables two parties to produce a shared random bit string known only to them, which can be used as a key to encrypt and decrypt messages.
13. Wireless communication	The transfer of information over a distance without the use of electrical conductors or "wires".
14. Screenless display	This system describes systems for transmitting visual information from a video source without the use of a screen.
15. 3D displays	Any display device capable of conveying three-dimensional images to the viewer.
16. Organic light-emitting diode	Any light emitting diode (LED) whose emissive electroluminescent layer is composed of a film of organic compounds.
17. Interferometric modulator display	An electrically switched display composed of miniature Fabry-Perot interferometers (etalons) that are switched on and off with microelectromechanical systems (MEMS).
18. Laser displays / Stimulated emission	The process by which an electron, perturbed by a photon having the correct energy, may drop to a lower energy level resulting in the creation of another photon.
19. Phased array optics	The technology of controlling the phase of light waves transmitting or reflecting from a two-dimensional surface by means of adjustable surface elements.
20. Holography	A technique that allows the light scattered from an object to be recorded and later reconstructed so that it appears as if the object is in the same position relative to the recording medium as it was when recorded.
21. Memristor	Any of various kinds of passive two-terminal circuit elements that maintain a functional relationship between the time integrals of current and voltage.
22. 3D printing	A form of additive manufacturing technology.
23. Thermal copper pillar bump
24. Immersive virtual reality	The state of consciousness where an immersant's awareness of physical self is diminished or lost by being surrounded in an engrossing total environment; often artificial.

Ex. 8. What new information have you learnt from this table? Have you got anything to add? Discuss it into groups.

Ex. 9. Find some extra information about one of emerging IT given above and prepare a short report.