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Tech Terms
Brain Buffet Tech Terms
This page is in NO WAY exhaustive... and I don't have the time to keep it up-to-date. This will be used primarily to share technical vocabulary that I use in my classroom that the students don't know. It will range from career-specific terms to science fiction terms that are vital to know when speaking to a geek. I'll also cover new technologies that are gaining popularity and misunderstood.
Right now, the list is quite basic, but will increase as students ask about the same terms. Jump down to the lab terms by clicking here.
You can also check out the following sites for comprehensive help with tech terms and other geekspeak.
Here's my list of terminology used in the lab, broken down by project:
Communications
Audio Production
Channels- the path a signal comes in on to an audio device.
Tracks- seperate audio signals that can be manipulated within the one song. For example, this allows you to turn down just the guitar in a multi-track recorded song, or to turn off the vocals.
Video Production
Non-Linear- a type of editing that uses digital media and allows you to move parts of the video around without having to re-record the video.
Transition- A special effect that happens when you go from one scene to another (like fading in).
Promotional Graphics
Filters- special effects that can be applied to the image.
Layers- Different invisible layers of the graphic that can be manipulated individually, not affecting any other parts of the graphics
Desktop Publishing
Vector Art- Art that uses mathmatical calculations to build itself is vector-based. These can be resized without producing "jaggies."
Web Page Design
Links- images or text that can be clicked on to take you to another web page.
Tables- used to present data in a webpage, but can also be used to display the whole page and position text and images as you desire.
Directory- another name for a "folder" on a computer. It's a place where files are stored on a hard drive.
3D and Motion Graphics
Materials- Textures that can be applied to 3D objects are often called materials. They can have properties beyond a texture, like reflectivity, opacity, etc.
Camera- a virutal camera can be used to change the angle that a 3d object can be viewed from.
Scale- this means that the object has the same exact shape and porportions, but is simply smaller. All of the measurments are exactly the same fractional amount as the actual object would be in reality.