Unit 1 | Navigating Your Tablet

Terminology

Font: Font refers to both how big the letters are (can also be called font size), and how the letters look. For example, this document’s font is Calibri. A few other commonly used fonts: Times New Roman, Arial Black, Courier New.

Cursor: A symbol that looks like a capital “I”, indicates where the next character you type on your screen will appear. You use your mouse, touch screen, touch pad or the arrow keys on your keyboard to move the cursor around on your screen.

GIF: This is an acronym for graphics interchange format, which is an animated image file. A GIF is used to add images to text in messages and emails. Usually a fun addition and not appropriate for meetings or texts to your boss or other professionals you don’t have a personal relationship with.

Web Page: A web page is a page of information that you access using the internet. It can include text, images, buttons, videos, and other types of content.

Link: A hyperlink, or link for short, is a piece of text or a button that you click to lead you to something else. Often this ‘something else’ is a web page, or a specific section of a web page. Behind the scenes, the link has an address, and clicking it will take you to the web page at that address.

Links are often formatted as blue or purple underlined text. Blue links lead to web pages you have not been to before. Purple links lead to web pages you have previously visited. Sometimes links are formatted as buttons like or . These examples don’t actually lead to anything when you click them, so they are not true links. They are just meant to show what links look like visually.

Link is also used as an action word. Saying “page 1 links to page 2” is the same thing as saying “page 1 contains a link to page 2.”

Homepage: This is the first page of a website that a user visits after clicking on the link.

Website: A set of online web pages that are linked by one domain name (an identifying name), usually made by a single person or company. “Go Daddy” is a popular website creation page. If there’s something more current, we can use that as well

Download and Upload: When you take information on the internet and store it on your device, this is called downloading. For instance, you might download images from a web page so that you can use them in a document you are working on. When you take information from your device and store it on the internet, this is called uploading. For instance, you might upload a document so that you can email it to your boss to read.

Streaming: A method of getting content on the internet where the data is sent as a continuous stream. This data could be music or a video, and you can watch/listen as it is being sent. This takes up less space on your device than if you downloaded the whole song/video and then watched it.

App: Apps are computer programs on a device that serve a specific purpose. If your device was a toolbelt, then the apps would be the tools. For instance, if you want to take a picture of something with your device, you would use the camera app on your device. If you want to send your friend a text, you would use the messages app.

Android/iphone:

Laptop/Macbook (or whatever): A laptop is a small computer that folds flat (the screen folds towards the keyboard). This makes it easy to transport. Macbooks are a type of laptop produced by the company Apple.

Bot:

Web Server:

Browser: A web browser is a tool that provides you the ability to browse web pages on the internet. There will almost always be a web browser available on any computer, phone, or tablet you are using. Some common examples of web browsers are Google Chrome, Safari, and Microsoft Edge.

Using a browser you can: search the internet for information using keywords view web pages and websites “bookmark” web pages you want to go back to look through your “history” of past web pages you have visited …and much more!

URL: Every web page or other resource on the internet is given a web address like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puffin. This web address is like a “place” on the internet that the resource can be retrieved from. When you view a web page on your device, it is called visiting the web page because you are "going" to this address, even though you are not physically travelling anywhere.

Data: Data can mean two different things depending on what it refers to. When referring to computer data, it means information that is either sent or received and processed. When referring to a phone or tablet’s connections, it means the ability for the said phone or tablet to connect to the internet without needing to connect to WiFi.

Online: When an activity, person, or service is available and goes through the internet or network.

Internet: An interconnected network of computers and other devices. These devices can send data to each other, which allows for worldwide exchange of information. The internet can be used for many purposes, such as communication, education, and entertainment.

WiFi: A technology that allows devices to connect to the internet wirelessly. Connecting to Wi-Fi provides access to the internet through radio waves, meaning that the connection is invisible and there are no cords/cables involved.

Bluetooth: A technology that lets you connect to headphones, speakers, projectors, and other devices without wires. The information is transferred using radio waves, so the connection is invisible.

Software: Software is a program or set of instructions that tells a computer, phone, or tablet what to do. Software includes individual applications (web browsers, word processors) as well as system software like operating systems (Microsoft Windows), drivers (software that allows operating systems to communicate with hardware like printers), and utilities (tools like anti-virus programs or hard drive defragmenters).

Bug: A bug represents an error in software coding that prevents a program from working.