Unit 2 - DIGITAL INFORMATION

Lesson 07 - Rapid Research - Format Showdown

LESSON MATERIALS (YOU CAN ACCESS ONLY VIA @BERGEN.ORG ACCOUNT)

Objectives

Students will be able to:

Identify reliable sources of information when doing research
Synthesize information taken from multiple online sources
Create an artifact (video, image, slide, poster, etc.) to communicate information about a computing topic.

Lesson 06 - RUN LENGTH ENCODING & HUFFMAN CODING

LESSON MATERIALS (YOU CAN ACCESS ONLY VIA @BERGEN.ORG ACCOUNT)

Objectives

Students will be able to:

See some lossless algorithms in action and their usage.

SUPPLEMENTARY RESOURCES

Lesson 05 - Lossy vs. Lossless Compression

LESSON MATERIALS (YOU CAN ACCESS ONLY VIA @BERGEN.ORG ACCOUNT)

Objectives

Students will be able to:

Explain the difference between lossy and lossless compression.
Explain the relative benefits or drawbacks of different file formats, particularly in terms of how they compress information.

SUPPLEMENTARY RESOURCES

VOCABULARY

Lossless Compression - a data compression algorithm that allows the original data to be perfectly reconstructed from the compressed data.
Lossy Compression - (or irreversible compression) a data compression method that uses inexact approximations, discarding some data to represent the content. Most commonly seen in image formats like .jpg.

Lesson 04 - Encoding COLOR Images

LESSON MATERIALS (YOU CAN ACCESS ONLY VIA @BERGEN.ORG ACCOUNT)

Objectives

Students will be able to:

Use the Pixelation Tool to encode small color images with varying bits-per-pixel settings.
Explain the color encoding scheme for digital images.
Use the Pixelation Tool to encode an image of the student’s design.

VIDEO

Notes

Images

Supplementary Resources

Notes on Multimedia from Computer Science E-1a, Understanding Technology, offered at Harvard’s Extension School
Sue Chastain on Graphics File Format Types and When to Use Each One
Isomer Staff on JPEG, PNG, GIF!? A quick guide to image file types for the web
Cam Sackett on Image File Type Choices

VOCABULARY

Hexadecimal - A base-16 number system that uses sixteen distinct symbols 0-9 and A-F to represent numbers from 0 to 15.
Pixel - short for "picture element", the fundamental unit of a digital image, typically a tiny square or dot that contains a single point of color of a larger image.
RGB - the RGB color model uses varying intensities of (R)ed, (G)reen, and (B)lue light are added together in to reproduce a broad array of colors.

Lesson 03 - Encoding B&W Images

LESSON MATERIALS (YOU CAN ACCESS ONLY VIA @BERGEN.ORG ACCOUNT)

Objectives

Students will be able to:

Explain how images are encoded with pixel data.
Describe a pixel as an element of a digital image.
Encode a B&W image in binary representing both the pixel data (intensity) and metadata (width, height).
Create the necessary metadata to represent the width and height of a digital image, using a computational tool.

Lecture

Notes

Images

Supplementary Resources

Notes on Multimedia from Computer Science E-1a, Understanding Technology, offered at Harvard’s Extension School
Sue Chastain on Graphics File Format Types and When to Use Each One
Isomer Staff on JPEG, PNG, GIF!? A quick guide to image file types for the web
Cam Sackett on Image File Type Choices

VOCABULARY

Image - A type of data used for graphics or pictures.
metadata - is data that describes other data. For example, a digital image my include metadata that describe the size of the image, number of colors, or resolution.
Pixel - short for "picture element", the fundamental unit of a digital image, typically a tiny square or dot that contains a single point of color of a larger image.

Lesson 02 - TEXT COMPRESSION

LESSON MATERIALS (YOU CAN ACCESS ONLY VIA @BERGEN.ORG ACCOUNT)

Objectives

Students will be able to:

Collaborate with a peer to find a solution to a text compression problem using the Text Compression Widget (lossless compression scheme).
Explain why the optimal amount of compression is impossible or “hard” to identify.
Develop a strategy (heuristic algorithm) for compressing text.
Describe the purpose and rationale for lossless compression.

VIDEOS

Video: Text Compression with Aloe Blacc

Vocabulary

Heuristic - a problem solving approach (algorithm) to find a satisfactory solution where finding an optimal or exact solution is impractical or impossible.
Lossless Compression - a data compression algorithm that allows the original data to be perfectly reconstructed from the compressed data.

Additional Resources for you to Explore

Text Compression Widget

Lesson 01 - MEMORY: Bytes and File Sizes

LESSON MATERIALS (YOU CAN ACCESS ONLY VIA @BERGEN.ORG ACCOUNT)

Objectives

Students will be able to:

Use appropriate terminology when describing the size of digital files.
Identify and compare the size of familiar digital media.
Solve small word problems that require reasoning about file sizes.

Lecture

Notes

Memory

VIDEOS

Dane Hartman on Bits, Bytes, Kilobytes, Megabytes, Gigabytes, Terabytes
TED-Ed on How Computer Memory Works
Crash Course on Memory & Storage

Additional Resources for you to Explore

HDD vs SSD - What is the difference?

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