The following is a Glossary of terms you may encounter whilst navigating our blog posts.
BIOS – The hypothalamus of any PC or Laptop. The core software that allows the computer to run the basic functions in the background.
Cloud Computing – The process of accessing and using software online, using the internet, rather than from software running locally on a PC. YouTube is an example of this. The videos do not exist on your computer, but are stored externally by YouTube and accessed by you computer/device.
Glow – The Scottish Government intranet that allows all schools the potential to connect with each other, sharing learning, ideas and collaborating on projects.
Hardware – The physical componenents of a computer system. This could be a monitor, hard drive, keyboard, mouse, tablet etc
Install – To add a piece of software to an operating system, or a piece of hardware to a computer system
Internet – The global network of computers, connecting together to share data/information.
Intranet – A closed network of computers to share data/information to select users e.g. an office or workplace.
MB (Megabytes) – 1,048,576 bytes (chunks of computer information)
Mb (Megabits) -1,000,000 bits (chunks of information). Bits are 8 times smaller than bytes.
Network – A collection of computers that can share data/resources (e.g. printers)/information
One Drive -Microsoft’s cloud computing storage. Glow includes 1TB of storage for every pupil. This is the equivalent of 500hrs of High Definition of films!
Operating System – The software that is installed on a device (PC/laptop/Mac/phone/tablet) that lets all the other software run. It is a layer of communication between the hardware and the software. This comes in many forms, Windows (PC or Laptop), Linux (PC or Laptop), OS (Mac/Macbook etc) Android (phone), iOS (iPhone/iPad), Chrom OS (Chromebook)
Sharepoint – The software that underpins Teams, One Drive, Glow etc.
Software – The computer programs that you install on your machine, apps that you install on your phone/tablet or the operating system that runs on these devices.
Teams – A piece of software that uses Cloud technology to allow people to share information and communicate in small groups, all in one place. Information in Teams is not stored on the device you are working on, but in the cloud so you can access it anywhere.
Upload/Download – To send information to (upload), or recieve information from (dowload), the internet. The speed the information travels at is measured in Megabits per second (Mbs). When you are looking at web pages or saving files to a device from the internet this is dowloading. When you save information to the internet (e.g putting a file in Teams) this is uploading. Uploading speeds are usually slower than dowloading speeds.
