Glossary of Terms

Hardware	Hard drive (the brains) – DVD / USB ports
	Monitor
	Keyboard
	Mouse / Mousepad – Learning how to hold it and use it.  Left click, right click, holding it down, using it to move things around on your screen (monitor).
	Speakers
	Printer
	Modem
	How do they speak to each other?
Software	Digital instructions to be run by the computer
Program	A piece of software
Word processor	A program for creating and editing textual documents
Spreadsheet	Mostly used in business for storing and processing data (Excel)
Internet / Web Browser	A program for browsing web pages from the internet.  Internet use now represents about 90% of usage per person.
Email client	A program used for sending and receiving email (electronic mail).
Webmail	A program used for sending and receiving email via the web
Instant Messenger	A program for sending and receiving textual messages in real time (immediate like a textual phone conversation)
Media player	A program for playing media (audio and video)
Image editor	A program for creating and manipulating digital images (Photo Shop / Photo-shopping)
Video Editing	We’ll all go and do a course on this together
Games
Operating system	A program for running other programs – it allows you to run several programs at once.
Desktop	Working area on your monitor (screen)
Hard copy	Document printed out on paper
Soft copy	Document saved on computer which can be sent via email or shared