ICT - What You Will Learn

Key Stage 4

At Key Stage 4 ICT is a statutory subject and students must study it at examination level. This page contains information about the statutory course. The ICT department also offer GCSE Business & Communication Studies as an optional subject that can be taken at examination level. Follow the link below for further information on this course.

» GCSE Business & Communication Studies

Statutory course

Number of lessons per week: 2 lessons (2 hours)

Qualification: General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE)

Examining board: Edexcel

Further information and full course specification: Edexcel website

This page:
» Aims
» Assessment objectives
» Areas of study
» Scheme of assessment

Aims

This specification aims to:

• encourage students to gather, store, process, present and communicate information through activities in a range of contexts
• encourage students to solve problems through the use of ICT systems and associated principles and techniques
• develop a broad and balanced view of the range of applications of ICT systems including modelling, data logging and control
• give students opportunities to design, implement and document ICT systems
• develop understanding of the wider applications and effects of ICT
• foster an awareness of what characterises information, information processing and ICT systems
• develop an awareness of ethical, social, economic and political consequences of the use of ICT systems for individuals, organisations and society through the study of meaningful applications.

Assessment objectives

Students should demonstrate the ability to work with ICT to:

• apply their knowledge, skills and understanding of ICT to a range of situations
• analyse, design, implement, test, evaluate and document ICT systems for use by others and develop understanding of the wider applications and effects of ICT
• reflect critically on the way they and others use ICT
• discuss and review the impact of ICT applications in the wider world
• consider the social, economic, political, legal, ethical and moral issues and security needs for data which surround the increasing use of ICT.

Areas of study

• Identify the constituent parts of an ICT system and their functions.

Hardware: input and output devices, backup storage, central processing unit, memory (ROM, RAM).
Software: operating system, applications packages.

• Explain the key role of the central processing unit.

Carrying out instructions within the software, handling control signals, performing arithmetic operations, storing data.

• Interpret the internal representation of data in an ICT system.

Use the terms bit, byte and multiples of these units.
Interpret a bit pattern as a character using an internal code (ASCII).

• Describe the key functions of the operating system.

Input/output control, file management, peripheral management, resource allocation, command interpreting.

• Use major applications packages to solve problems and describe their purpose and key features.

Word processing: editing, cut and paste, formatting, spellcheck, mail merge.
Database: record, field, key field, file, sorting, searching (including use of AND, OR and NOT), updating,
reports.
Spreadsheet: cell, row, column, formulae, recalculation, replication, cell format, graph plotting.
Desktop publishing: frames, fonts, text size, styles, import of text and graphics, sources of graphics, resizing of graphics.
Graphics: drawing, painting, CAD, bitmapped images, vector graphics.

• Identify appropriate uses for, and evaluate, software.

Application packages, operating system utilities (eg backup utility).

• Recognise and use file handling terms.

Transaction file, master file, update, merge, file generations, serial/direct access, batch processing.

• Select appropriate input, output and storage media and devices for a given application.

Input: keyboard (QWERTY, concept), mouse, tracker ball, graphics tablet, scanner, digital camera, touch screen, OMR, OCR, bar code scanner, magnetic stripe reader, microphone.
Output: monitor (CRT and LCD), printer (dot matrix, ink jet, laser), plotter, speakers, motors.
Storage: floppy disk, hard disk, CD, magnetic tape.

• Encode data and information for computer processing and relate this operation to a given application.

Benefits of: reduction in space required for storage and display, ease of data entry and validation.

• Describe and use data capture operations and relate these to a given application.

Collection, preparation, input, verification performed by operator. Design of data capture forms and
input screens.

• Describe and use input validation techniques and relate these to a given application.

Validation performed by software. Range, field type and field length checks, check digits.

• Specify the output for a given application.

Design of output screens and printed reports.

• Present results for different target audiences and justify the methods selected.

Tables, diagrams, graphs.

• Specify and create the files necessary for a given application.

Record structure in terms of fields. Defining the necessary fields in terms of their length, type and validation. Showing typical values for fields.

• Explain the need for backup procedures and identify suitable techniques.

Frequency, quantity of data, compression, duration, choice of media.

• List and describe in outline the main aspects of systems analysis and relate these to a given application.

Investigation, analysis, design, implementation, monitoring.

• Develop an algorithm (series of commands) to solve a problem.

Describing or interpreting an algorithm in the form of a flowchart.

• Describe methods of system security.

Personal and file passwords, levels of access, restricted physical access.

• Explain the need for testing and design the testing procedures for a given application.

Use of typical, extreme and invalid data.

• Evaluate the solution to a problem.

Identification of existing shortcomings and possible future improvements.

• Document the solution to a problem.

Using appropriate methods of communication eg sketches, diagrams, tables, graphs, flowcharts, photographs.

• Demonstrate an appreciation that ICT systems should be designed to communicate with humans.

Evaluation and design of user interface. Command line, menu driven, GUI.

• Describe the social, economic, legal, ethical and moral effects of using ICT systems.

The role of government legislation regarding ICT use.
Potential benefits and drawbacks of ICT usage in a wide context, including: commerce, industry, home, school, leisure and government.
Health and safety issues.
Internet use: undesirable material, child access, filtering, junk E-mail, copyright issues, accessibility for all members of society.
Unauthorised computer access "hacking".

• Describe the nature of a real or imaginary system that has been modelled in an ICT system.

Flight simulators, games, science experiments, weather forecasting, economic models, virtual reality.

• State the benefits and limitations of models and simulations.

Benefits: safety, economic, variety of possible experiences/situations.
Limitations: differences between simulation and reality.

• Design and perform experiments that involve modifying the data used by a model and the rules that define a
  model.

For example, data: speed at which collision of cars occurs; rules: effect of collision at different speeds.

• Describe the concepts of data logging and control technology.

Specify the input, processing, output and storage required for a stated data-logging or control application.
Range of sensors available. Need for appropriate interface. Interpret a bit pattern as a collection of control signals. The concept of real time processing.

• Use the terms local area network (LAN) and wide area network (WAN).

LAN: computers on one site, connected using own cabling.
WAN: computers on different sites, connected using telephone/satellite links.

• Explain the hardware and software requirements for the formation of a LAN.

Cabling, network interface card, server, operating system.

• Explain the advantages and disadvantages of networked ICT systems compared to stand-alone ICT systems.

Advantages: access from any workstation, central storage of data and software, sharing of expensive
peripherals, control of users' access rights.
Disadvantages: cost of installation, reliance on server, need for security, need for network manager.

• Identify differences between network topologies.

Bus, star. Greater fault tolerance of star networks.

• Identify the advantages and disadvantages of different communication methods.

Post, telephone, fax, E-mail, video conferencing.

• State how data transfer speeds are apparent to the user.

Response time, download time.

• Identify requirements for connecting to the Internet.

Hardware: modem.
Software: web-browser, E-mail package.
Internet Service Provider (ISP).

• Describe and use the key features of communications software to access the Internet.

Web-browser: storing links (shortcuts, favourites), history, navigation, cache (temporary pages).
E-mail: on-line/off-line use, reply, forward, address book, mailing lists, attachments.

• Identify the features of common Internet services.

World Wide Web, E-mail, news groups, chat rooms.
Describe the wide range of services available on the World Wide Web: advertising, customer support,
distribution of software, ecommerce.

• Identify the advantages and disadvantages of the Internet as a source of information.

Advantages: readily accessible from any computer, up to date, multi-media, huge amounts of available data, search engines, Email response.
Disadvantages: cost of equipment/connection, difficulty of finding information required from all that is suggested in searches.

Scheme of assessment

Paper 1 - 60%

Four coursework projects

Paper 2 - 40% 2 hours

Section A
Multiple-choice answer questions

Section B
Structured questions based on an annually prereleased case study

Section C
Structured questions

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