Introduction To Information Technology

We present our experience in designing a course of Introduction to Information Technology (IIT) for the first-year students. The main purpose of this course is to introduce the concepts of computing and computer, and to present a hierarchy of information technology (IT) knowledge from basic to advance through the introduction of syllabus system, research trends of our faculty, IT applications in society, ethics and career potentials in IT. The content of this course is set up to meet the Standard 4 in CDIO. We divide the introduction into two courses and teach the first- year students in the first and second semesters. The first course is the introduction of computer, computing, internet, ethics, and some technical skills of analysis, design, implementation, and testing. This is an overview of IT from the outsiders. The second is a hierarchy of IT knowledge from basic to advance through education systems and research in our faculty. This is an overview of IT from inside viewpoint. We also present some experiences about the project-based approach for labs and explain how we train personal skills and professional attitude for our students. Finally, we conclude by providing comments with pros and cons in operating the courses. 

Proceedings of the 9th International CDIO Conference, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Cambridge, Massachusetts, June 9 – 13, 2013.