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COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY

Section 4

Programs

Sections 1 to 3 covered the hardware. This section is about the software that runs on it — what a program is, how one gets onto a computer, and the kinds of work people use them for.

Programming and programs

Slides 2–3

Getting software onto a computer

Slides 4–7

Kinds of program

Slide 8

AI, safety, and why programs exist

Slides 9–11

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Programming

You’ve learned that all of the information that travels through your computer is stored on bits as either an on or off signal.

Programming means writing instructions that tell a computer what to do. Those instructions are turned into the bit and byte combinations the machine actually runs.

Computer programmers are people who write these codes to create programs using programming languages that are easier than remembering all the bit or byte combinations.

Programming allows people and computers to communicate more easily.

source code — instructions a person can read

Languages you may meet

Python and JavaScript are the common ones now. Scratch uses blocks instead of typing, and does the same job.

Nobody writes in binary

A programmer writes readable instructions and other software translates them into the on and off signals.

It is mostly reading

Real programming is more about finding out why something does not work than typing new lines.

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Computer Programs

A program is a set of instructions that tells the computer how to perform a specific task.

For example, your favorite computer game is a program.

a code editor — itself a program, open on screen

One job each

A program is written to do a particular kind of work. A browser shows web pages; a spreadsheet calculates; a game runs a world.

Program, app, software

Three words for the same thing. "App" arrived with phones and stuck; older material says program, and both are correct.

It needs the hardware

A program is only instructions. It does nothing until a processor reads it and memory holds it — which is Sections 2 and 3.

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Installing a Program

In order for your computer to know how to play that game, you must first install the program from the game software - usually a download or an app store.

Installing the program means that you are copying the program or instructions onto your computer’s drive.

Programs can also be downloaded from the internet directly to your hard drive.

Once it is installed, the program runs from your own drive and does not need the original download again.

a setup wizard — the first screen of an installer

What installing does

It copies files onto the drive, and tells the operating system the program exists so it can appear in the menu.

Where it goes

Into a folder on the drive, usually Program Files on Windows. You almost never need to look in there.

Uninstalling

Deleting the folder is not enough. Use Settings, Apps, then Uninstall, so the entries the installer made are removed too.

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Where Programs Come From

Software used to arrive on a disc in a box. Today almost all of it arrives over the internet, and where you get it from matters as much as what it is.

An app store checks programs before listing them and handles updates for you. A download straight from a company’s own website is fine too. Anywhere else is a gamble.

how software used to arrive

App stores

Microsoft Store, the Apple App Store, Google Play, Steam for games. Programs are checked, and updates arrive automatically.

The maker’s own site

Downloading Chrome from google.com is safe. Downloading it from a site offering "free downloads" is how people get malware.

Updates matter

Programs are patched constantly to close security holes. An out-of-date program is the usual way a machine gets attacked.

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Programs That Never Install

Not every program has to be copied onto your computer. A web app runs inside the browser, on someone else’s computer, and only the result is sent to your screen.

Google Docs, Gmail and Canva work this way. There is nothing to install, nothing to update, and the same work is there on any machine you sign in from.

Google Docs — a word processor with nothing installed

Nothing to install

It runs in the browser you already have. That is why school and library computers can offer them without installing anything.

It needs a connection

No internet, no program. An installed program keeps working on a train; a web app usually does not.

AI assistants too

Most run on someone else’s computers, which is why they need a connection. Your files still save to their servers, as with any web app.

New slide. A genuine gap in the original: students use Google Docs daily and have no framework for what it is. Useful question — is Google Docs a program? Yes, it just runs somewhere else. Ties directly to the cloud slide in Section 3. The screenshot shows Google Docs with the toolbar and menus of an ordinary word processor — that is the point worth making: it looks and behaves like Word, but nothing was installed to get it. Note the picture is cropped to the document itself; if you want students to see the browser tabs and address bar around it, take the screenshot without cropping. On the third column: the picture is mixed and moving. ChatGPT and Gemini run remotely, Copilot is built into Windows, and small models are starting to run on the machine itself — so the wording says most rather than all.

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Paying for Software

Programs are sold in several different ways, and the difference is worth understanding before you agree to anything.

Some are bought once. Some are rented by the month. Some are free because someone gives them away, and some are free because you are paying in a way that is less obvious.

a subscription page — every price is per month

Buy once

Pay a single price and keep that version. Less common than it was, but still how most games and some software are sold.

Subscription

A monthly or yearly fee, as with Microsoft 365 or Adobe. Stop paying and the program usually stops working.

Free

Some is genuinely free and open source, such as Firefox or LibreOffice. Some is free because it shows adverts or collects data.

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Types of Programs

There are many different types of programs for the computer. They are grouped according to the tasks that they perform. Here are a few:

Word processing – (Microsoft Word/Google Docs) letters, essays, writing stories

Spreadsheets (Microsoft Excel/Google Sheets) - storing financial information

Database - (Airtable/Google Forms) address books, mailing lists

Research - search engines, encyclopedias

AI assistants – writing help, summarising, answering questions

Entertainment - games, music/video programs

Education – typing, skill practice games, tutorials, how-to programs

Desktop Publishing – (Canva/Google Slides) flyers, brochures, newsletters, etc.

Two more worth adding

Browsers, where most people spend their day, and creative software for photo, video and music editing.

The lines are blurring

A spreadsheet can make a chart, a word processor can lay out a newsletter. Most programs now overlap at the edges.

Named examples date fast

The categories last; the brand names do not. Microsoft Publisher, listed in the original, is being retired.

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Using an AI Assistant

An AI assistant is a program like any other, but it works differently from the ones on the last few slides. A spreadsheet follows rules exactly. An AI assistant predicts what words are likely to come next, based on patterns in an enormous amount of text it was trained on.

That is why it can write a paragraph on almost anything, and also why it can state something completely wrong in the same confident tone as something correct.

an AI assistant in a browser panel, beside the page it can read

It predicts, it does not look up

Unless it is searching the web, it produces likely-sounding text rather than checked facts. Names, dates and numbers go wrong most.

Confidence is not accuracy

Wrong answers arrive in exactly the same tone as right ones. There is no wobble in the voice to warn you.

Check before you use it

Treat it as a first draft from someone who has not read the source. Verify anything that matters, and know your school’s rules.

This slide will need revisiting as the tools change, more than anything else in the course — but the underlying point is stable: these systems generate plausible text rather than retrieve verified facts, and that is worth knowing whatever the product is called. Two things worth doing live if you can. Ask it something you know well and watch for the error. And ask it the same question twice, in a new conversation each time, to show the answer is generated rather than looked up. Also worth stating plainly where your school stands on using it for work that is handed in. The screenshot shows the assistant sitting beside a web page, offering to summarise it. That is a useful distinction to draw: when it reads a page or searches, it is working from something real and is far more reliable than when answering from memory alone. The first column is about the second case.

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Downloading Safely

Most of the trouble people have with computers arrives as a program they installed themselves. It is rarely dramatic — usually a free download that came with something extra attached.

The habits that prevent it are simple, and they are worth having before you need them.

Chrome blocking a .exe from an insecure site

Check where it came from

The maker’s own website or an app store. If a search result offers a free version of paid software, it is not the real thing.

Read the installer

Installers often tick extra software on by default. Slow down, untick it, and do not click Next without looking.

Keep things updated

Most attacks use holes that were fixed months ago. Updating is the single most effective thing you can do.

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Programs

Programs do much of the work for us, when we perform tasks on the computer. The program instructs the computer in a language that it understands.

Think of how hard it would be to dictate a story for someone else to type if that other person spoke a foreign language! You could learn that person’s language, but that could take years.

The easiest way would be to have a translator.

Programs are like translators that allow people to work with computers without learning the computer’s language.

Why the analogy works

You do not tell a computer to save a file in binary. You click Save, and the program turns that into instructions the machine follows.

Layers of translation

The program translates for you, the operating system translates for the program, and the hardware does the work.

What is left to you

Deciding what you want. Everything between the decision and the electricity is what software is for.