Information Technology: An Introduction for Today's Digital World

This revised edition has more breadth and depth of coverage than the first edition. Information Technology: An Introduction for Today's Digital World introduces undergraduate students to a wide variety of concepts that they will encounter throughout their IT studies and careers.

The features of this edition include:

• Introductory system administration coverage of Windows 10 and Linux (Red Hat 7), both as general concepts and with specific hands-on instruction
• Coverage of programming and shell scripting, demonstrated through example code in several popular languages
• Updated information on modern IT careers
• Computer networks, including more content on cloud computing
• Improved coverage of computer security
• Ancillary material that includes a lab manual for hands-on exercises

Suitable for any introductory IT course, this classroom-tested text presents many of the topics recommended by the ACM Special Interest Group on IT Education (SIGITE). It offers a far more detailed examination of the computer and IT fields than computer literacy texts, focusing on concepts essential to all IT professionals - from system administration to scripting to computer organization. Four chapters are dedicated to the Windows and Linux operating systems so that students can gain hands-on experience with operating systems that they will deal with in the real world.

Richard Fox is a professor of computer science at Northern Kentucky University (NKU). He regularly teaches courses in both computer science (Artificial Intelligence, Computer Systems, Computer Architecture, Concepts of Programming Languages, Object-Oriented Programming I and II) and computer information technology (IT Fundamentals, Unix/Linux). Dr. Fox, who has been at NKU since 2001, is the current chair of NKU's University Curriculum Committee. Prior to NKU, Dr. Fox taught for 9 years at the University of Texas - Pan American (now known as University of Texas - Rio Grande Valley). Richard has received teaching awards from UTPA and from NKU, and a service award from NKU. Dr. Fox received a Ph.D. in Computer and Information Sciences from The Ohio State University in 1992. He also has an M.S. in Computer and Information Sciences from Ohio State (1988) and a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Missouri Rolla (now Missouri University of Science and Technology) in 1986. Dr. Fox has written two other textbooks published by Taylor & Francis/CSC Press in the IT field (Linux and Operating System Concepts, 2015, and Internet Infrastructure: Networking, Web Services and Cloud Computing, with Dr. Wei Hao, 2018). Dr. Fox has also authored or co-authored of over 50 peer reviewed research articles primarily in the area of Artificial Intelligence. Richard Fox grew up in St. Louis, Missouri and now lives in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is a big science fiction fan and progressive rock fan. As you will see in reading this text, his favorite composer is Frank Zappa.