Computers in Your Future [Paperback]

Que Education & Training (Author), Marilyn Wertheimer Meyer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1995 | ISBN-10: 1565299884 | ISBN-13: 978-1565299887

Extensive End-of-Chapter Material In-Depth reinforcement of critical concepts presented in the text. Highly Visual Visual support of key concepts and terms to meet the needs of varying learning styles. Web Site www.prenhall.com/pfaffenberger - Your own Personal Computer Concepts Tutor, for FREE. Office Hours: 24/7.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

PREFACE ARE YOU HUNGRY FOR A BETTER
COMPUTER CONCEPTS TEXT?

You've made suggestions, and we've listened.

You want the fourth edition of Computers in Your Future to be more current and streamlined than the third edition—but without forcing changes in the way you're teaching the course. You want a concepts book with great learning tools that hold your students' interest and reinforce critical material—but without causing them to lose focus. You want a text specific, interactive Web site that enhances your students' learning ability——as long as they are lead intuitively to key information that is concise, intelligent and clearly laid out. SO YOU WANT TO HAVE YOUR
CAKE AND EAT IT TOO? Well, open up (the book that is), because
at Prentice Hall we're serving Computers
in Your Future, 4th Edition!

With a clean new design, revised content, and updated coverage, this text is ready for the challenge of teaching even your most diversified class—without sacrificing quality, integrity, or taste. A new recipe for success—Computers in Your Future, 4th ed., is low in fat, high in flavor, and with all the right ingredients for computer novices and naturals alike.

The fourth edition is streamlined and shortened (low in fat!) A streamlined book with contents keyed to the order in which you present material. example, former Module 3B (Programming Languages) now appears within Chapter 8, Creating Information Systems. Chapters 7 and 8 (the Internet and the World Wide Web) in the third edition have been combined into one chapter (Chapter 7) in the fourth edition. A shorter book that omits modules you couldn't cover before due to time constraints. The best of the critically praised coverage of computer impacts in the third edition (formerly Chapter 11) now appears in optional IMPACTS boxes within each chapter. This feature deepens and broadens each chapter's coverage—but without adding to overall length. The fourth edition is packed with ingredients to engage your students (high in flavor!) A new electronic commerce Web case, E-COMMERCE IN ACTION, appears at the end of every chapter! Readers learn about PFSWeb, Inc., a company based in Plano, Texas, that helps e-commerce companies keep up with the online buying and selling marketplace. Each case includes a Web-based research task and motivates students to think critically about electronic commerce issues and strategies. The Web publishing chapter (Module 7D) now features "what-you-see-is-what-you-get" (WYSIWYG) software—with an emphasis on Microsoft Front Page and Front Page Express. You don't have time to teach HTML—and with today's WYSIWYG software, there's less need to do so. New SPOTLIGHT boxes highlight innovative thinking in each module subject area. For example, the Module 1A SPOTLIGHT features composer David Cole, whose EMI software processes musical motifs characteristic of classical composers. The result? "New" compositions by composers who have been dead for a century or more—and new controversies concerning computer applications. New! MOVERS & SHAKERS boxes showcase the people who created computing—and are redefining it. These biographies bring computing to life. They also show that computing attracts and increasingly diverse group of people. Featured portraits include Greg Loney (Microsoft), Patty Aftab (Cyberangels), Linus Torvalds (Linux creator), and T.V. Raman (IBM programmer and developer of Emacspeak). New! CURRENTS boxes examine issues in computing as well as cutting-edge computer technology. Students learn about what's going to change the face of computing by the time they become professionals. CURRENTS boxes include Chapter 1, The U.S. Software Industry and Software Quality: Another Detroit in the Making?; Chapter 6, Universal Science: The End of an Era?; Chapter 8, Telemediecine; Chapter 9, Spies in the Sky; and Chapter 10, Is There an Acute Shortage of IT Workers—or just Rampant Age Discrimination? New subject coverage puts this book ahead of the pack The fourth edition emphasizes computer fluency It's one thing to be computer literate, but it's quite another to be computer fluent. Computer literate people are skilled computer and Internet users; computer fluent people are able to navigate the digital world easily. Their knowledge of the underlying concepts and principles of computers and the Internet gives them a tremendous advantage. The more computer fluent people work with computer technology, the deeper and richer their understanding grows. They also understand enough about computing to recognize the technology's risks as well as its benefits. Cutting-edge topics. Some examples: 3D hardware, new microprocessors, new operating systems (including Windows 2000 and MAC OS X), open source software (including open source development and open source software licenses), information warfare, antitrust issues, digital copyrights, software patents, and women and minorities in computing. New or significantly updated chapters and modules. The include Module 1B (emphasizes recent history and the rise of the Internet), Chapter 4 (illustrates application software concepts from the best-selling office suites), Module 7B (extensive coverage of electronic commerce and the World Wide Web), Module 7C (illustrates email concepts with Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express), and Chapter 9 (expanded coverage of privacy, security, and intellectual property issues). SUPPLEMENTS — The icing on the cake! Instructor's Manual

The comprehensive Instructor's Manual includes additional material on how to use the text in conjunction with the Web site to help you understand the key concepts and exercises in the text. Test Manager

The Prentice Hall Test Manager allows faculty to organize and choose test material by providing true/false, multiple-choice, fill-in, and essay questions. Instructor's Resource CD-ROM

One convenient disk contains all of the instructor resources needed for the text, including the IM, Test Manager, and PowerPoint slides.

Companion Web site/my PHLIP site
(prenhall/pfaffenberger)

A complete online Web site includes chapter-specific and interactive quizzes; Web exercises that expand on the book's Spotlights, Currents, Impacts, and Movers and Shakers features; and video cases. Professors can use the site to communicate online with the class and download instructor's resource materials. WebCT and Blackboard Content

The custom-built distance learning course features all new interactive lectures, sample quizzes, and tests. Video

Through our partnership with The Computer Chronicles television series, we have developed a CIS Volume II Video compilation that features real-life computer stories and problems, and how technology is changing. Explore IT Labs

Prentice Hall's Explore Generation IT Labs illustrate, via interactivity, key computer concepts not easily covered in a lecture. These twelve labs bring challenging topics in computer concepts to life and assess students knowledge via a quiz section, that can be e-mailed, saved to a floppy, or printed. The labs can be delivered via the web or on CD-ROM for added flexibility. These labs are as follows: Building a Web Page; Internet and WWW; E-Commerce; Introduction to Computer Programming, Application Software, Operating Systems, Multimedia, Building a Network; Buying a Computer; Hardware; Directories, Folders, and Files; and Binary Representation. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Back Cover

Extensive End-of-Chapter Material

In-Depth reinforcement of critical concepts presented in the text.

Highly Visual

Visual support of key concepts and terms to meet the needs of varying learning styles.

Web Site

www.prenhall.com/pfaffenberger — Your own Personal Computer Concepts Tutor, for FREE. Office Hours: 24/7.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 442 pages
• Publisher: Que (January 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565299884
• ISBN-13: 978-1565299887
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,767,789 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Computers In Your Future, May 17, 2000

By 

Carol Farabee (Arizona, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Computers In Your Future (3rd Edition) (Paperback)

This book was the best beginners computer book I have found to date. I teach computers to Senior Citizens and middle aged adults. This book has helped me introduce them to computers with an understanding that is relative to thier way of thinking. It is not too technical so that the average person, someone who is not techie, can understand computers, their relationship to today's world and its future growth. I would recommend it to anyone who would like to get a look at computers from a non-heavy technical aspect.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Should be called Computers of your past, Badly written, November 20, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Computers in Your Future (Paperback)

Blah, Blah Blah, This book is far too wordy. Would make anyone who knew the slightest about computers fall asleep, Dull! Would hate for a newbie to pick up this book, would make you fear computing. Alot of info prestented is out dated and sometimes down right WRONG! Best thing to do with this book is put it by your bed and if you can't sleep read a paragraph and you'll be fast asleep.

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent text for an introduction to computer technology., August 6, 2003

By 

Michael Meredith "e-Mike" (St. Louis, MO United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Computers in Your Future, Complete Edition (5th Edition) (Paperback)

I have used the last three editions of this book and been impressed with the author's willingness to revise and upgrade it as the technology evolves and progresses. Despite a wide range of backgrounds and abilities, my students have been almost universally complimentary about it's value. The auxillary material offered online is excellent, aiding the beginners while still providing a challenge or two for the semi-experts bent on validating their knowledge.

The illustrations support the text very well, and the material covers a great deal of ground from the history of computing to the propagation of the Internet. This is an excellent introductory book, very well written.