glossary

Glossary of Terms

TERM	DEFINITION
Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)	A policy that a user must agree to abide by in order to gain access to a network or the internet. In the school context, it may also cover how other communication devices, such as mobile or camera phones, can be used on the school, premises.
Blog	A blog, also known as a weblog, is a form of online diary or journal. Blogs contain short or frequently updated posts, arranged chronologically with the most recently posted item appearing at the top of the page. In addition to text, blogs can contain, photos, images, sound, video, archives and related links, and can incorporate comments from visitors.
Chatroom	A place where a user can communicate with people more or less instantaneously by typing messages which then appear on your computer screen, and are transmitted across the internet to be read by everyone else participating in the chat at that time. The conversation continues through the exchange of messages. Chat can either be moderated or un-moderated. In the latter case the conversation will be completely unsupervised. It is very easy to fake an identity when participating in a chat so be especially wary.
Discussion Forum/ Messageboard	A discussion site on the internet, often focusing on a special theme, where people can post messages online using the formats specified by the provider of this service. Some discussion forums require registration. Some forums contain an archive, which you can use to search for a given topic. Some forums are moderated where the administrator of the forum has the right to delete or edit any messages posted. or to ban abusive users.
Email Groups / Mailing List	Email mailing lists on specific topics that users can subscribe to. Once subscribed the user receives all the messages sent to the group and anything the user sends in is similarly distributed. It is mainly used to conduct discussions about the topic of the mailing list.
Filtering	A method used to prevent or block users’ access to unsuitable material on the internet.
Firewall	A network security system used to restrict internal and external traffic
Hacking	The process of illegally breaking into someone else’s computer system, breaching the computer’s security.
Information Literacy / Digital Literacy	The ability to locate pertinent information, evaluate its reliability, analyse and synthesise it to construct personal meaning and apply it to informed decision making.
Instant Messaging	A form of live chat. Generally a user joins a service (most popular is MSN) and then whenever they log on to the internet their name will appear in a central register. The user can then be contacted by anyone on the register and added to that person’s contact list, although they will, of course, have to agree to accept their call. A user’s email address must be known before they can be added to someone’s list of contacts. With some of the more popular forms of instant messaging a user can join a club and all members of the club are notified when any other member logs on.
International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI)	A unique 15-digit serial number for mobile phones. When a phone is lost or stolen the number can be identified as invalid, so rendering the handset useless. It can be found by keying *#06# on your phone’s keypad
Internet Service Provider (ISP)	A company providing a connection to the internet and other services, such as browser software, email, a helpline, web space and subscriber-only content.
Newsgroups	Like an electronic bulletin board where people with common interests can keep in touch and up to date. You post to the newsgroup using a newsreader, a basic newsreader is included in Outlook Express. Newsgroups can also include video and music files for download.
Parental Control Software	Programmes that allow parents or other responsible adults to control various aspects of how a particular computer or network might interact with the internet. Some internet service providers offer free parental control software to members.
Peer-to-Peer (P2P)	P2P software allows users to search for files (such as music or videos) in specific folders of other users who are connected to the software. And therefore, also allows others to search the user’s specified folders. These files are mostly copyrighted material and so illegal to download unless the user already owns a legally purchased copy. P2P networks are also littered with viruses.
Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)	A small, mobile, handheld device that provides computing and information storage/retrieval capabilities, and possibly phone facilities too.
Podcast	An audio file which can contain music, speaking or a mixture of the two. Can be made by anyone from large companies like the BBC to non-professional individuals. They can be downloaded and played through iTunes or on an iPod.
Pop-Up	A new window that opens on top of the active internet browser window. This window does not usually contain it’s own web address, however in some cases it can do. Pop-ups that open without the user’s request usually contain advertisements. Pop-up blockers are available as part of most browsers.
SMS / Test Messaging
Social Networking Sites	Sites such as myspace or bebo which allow users to create an online profile that others can then search for and ask for permission to add that person to their list of friends. The online profile would usually include a photo, the user’s age, gender, hometown and a list of their hobbies/favourite things. The user can also post a blog, music and video on their page. People on the user’s friend list are allowed to send messages, leave comments or contact the user through instant messaging services.
Spam	Unsolicited junk email. The term is also used to describe junk text messages received via mobile phones. A related term SPIM (or spIM), describes receiving spam via instant messaging.
Spoofing	Assuming the identity of someone else, using an email address either guessed or harvested from repositories of valid email addresses (such as the address book of a virus-infected computer). Spoofing is typically practised to veil the source of virus-laden emails, or, often, to obtain sensitive information from spam recipients, without revealing the source of the spammers.
URL	An abbreviation for uniform resource locator, another way of saying address.
Virus	A computer program that enters a computer, often via email, and carries out a malicious act. A virus in a computer can corrupt or wipe all information in the hard drive, including the system software. All users are advised to guard against this by installing anti-virus software.
Webcam	A webcam is a camera connected to a computer that is connected to the internet. A live picture is uploaded to a website from the camera at regular intervals, typically every few minutes. By looking at the website you can see what the camera sees – almost as it happens.