There are four elements of computational thinking, they are:
Decomposition
Simple tasks have simple solutions. You can
break large problems that are complex into
several smaller simpler tasks, this is known as
decomposition
For example you have been tasked with
creating a game and you have broke it down
into smaller tasks
What type of game is it going to be?
What is the style of the game?
Who is the audience of the game?
Does it have challenge and
what are the rewards?
How does the game end?
What is the name of the game?
This is what decomposition
is about, defining the
problem in more detail and
making it easier to solve
Top Down design
Complex problem
Element of problem 1
Element of problem 2
Sub element of this part
Sub element 2 of this part
Element of problem 3
With the top down design the
decomposition element can be
shown
Pattern Recognition
Being aware of any repetition in solving
the task, this pattern can simplify the
steps needed to solve the problem and
furthermore, if the pattern can be made
general, it can be used to solve other
problems as well.
Abstraction
Removing unnessisary information is called abstraction.
Only leaves the data that is required
For example a designer needs to make a T Junction sign
The sign must follow certain rules:
Must take no more that 1 second for a driver to look at it and understand its meaning
Must NOT contain any
words
It MUST use the standard shape and colours of all UK road signs
The first attempt is shown to the right and as you can see
it is very cluttered and will take more than a second for a
driver to recognise the sign
It also doesn't follow the
rules for the shape and
colour
The second attempt is shown to the right and as you can see it is less
cluttered than version 1, however it still breaks the rules as it says that
there must not be any words
It also doesn't follow the
rules for the colour
The third and final attempt follows all the rules, the
shape, the colour and doesn't contain any words
Also any unessisary clutter has
been removed
The same method of abstraction can
be used for many other problems
including those in Computer
Programming
Algorithmic Thinking
There are 2 popular methods to set out an algorithm:
Pseudocode - Text
statements written for
each step of the
algorithm
An example of Psudocode
Psudo code is not a formal
computer language and has no
particular rules governing how it
should be written. What is
important is that Psudocode
should be easy to understand,
unambihiousous and error free.
Especially because programmers
often use it to form the basis
of their programming code
Flow chart - This uses a set of
standart shapes and arrows
(Shown to the right-->) tO make
a diagram of the algorithm
Algorithms often include a decisaion to be made
at some point in the task. In order to handle this,
a conditional statement is used.
1.1 Architecture
CPU
The 3 States of a CPU
Fetch
Decode
Execute
The central processing unit is
the central brains of the
computer
The CPU is used to process data so no
matter what you do on your device it will go
through the CPU
Von Neuman Architecture
Only has one bus with is used to
fetch instructions and deliver them
Components of the VN Architecture
Control Unit
Arithmetic logic unit
Memory Address register (MAR)
Memory data register (MDR)
Program counter
Accumulator
1.6 Network Security
Malware
This is a type of Software that is used for mallicious software.
Botnets
These usually start as worms or
viruses which build up a network of
computers that are under control of
the hackers, this can be any Os such
as Windows, Linux or Mac OS
Security Misconceptions
It is a common misconseption
that Mac's are immune to this
problem. This is simply not the
case with many MacOS malware
coming out everyday
All PC's and internet connected
devices can be vunerable and if
you do get hacked it is not the
machines fault it is the operators
fault
It has got to the point that 86% of the worlds
iPhones can be hacked with just a simple
text, which means that these users are
vunerable to a software called Pegasus
which is impossible to detect.
That means in my class of 34, if 46.% percent of people in the UK have an iPhone, which is 15,
only 1 would not have the Pegasus virus, that's 14 unsecure devices that will leak phone numbers
photos, key strokes and everything that you do. They will even have access to your location and
friends and family's location s through apps like Snapchat and Find my friends and Iphone. They
can also view your browsing History and many other aspects of your iPhone send messages on
your phone and get contacts and make your phone an hive for Criminal activity
Viruses
These can
Ransomeware
Ransomeware is the software that will encrypt files with a code and not
allow them to be unlocked and threatens to delete them within a certain
ti,me, they will demand money to release your files or if not, if you have
photos that you want nobody else seeing on your phone they will
probably be shared on your Social Media which they will take control of.
You can protect yourself from randsomeware by
not clicking on suspicous web pages and links.
Only look through your spam filter if you are
missing an important email.
White hat and Black hat Hackers
White Hat
These are also refered to as Ethical
Hacking as they hack for good. They do
this by stress testing networks and try
to find vunerabilities by breaking into
the network and leaving their calling card
without doing any phyical irriversible
damage.