ICT Basics
Primary 4 · Science and Elementary Technology
ICT Basics
Lesson 3 of 5
13 min
Let's begin
Ishimwe knocks on the laptop's screen. "It's hard!" he says. Then he opens a drawing program. "But I can't touch this program. Is it part of the computer too?"
Yes. A computer has two kinds of parts: the ones you can touch, and the ones you cannot.
Hardware means the physical parts of a computer. We can group them by their job:
Software is a set of instructions that tells the computer what to do. There are two main kinds:
Hardware needs software to tell it what to do. Software needs hardware to run on. A laptop with no software cannot do anything, and a program with no computer has nowhere to run.
Tip
Hardware is hard; software is soft
If you can knock on it, it is hardware. If it is a program you run, it is software.
Try each one first, then tap Show answer to check.
Is a mouse hardware or software?
Answer: Hardware. You can touch it. It is an input device.
Sort these into input and output devices: printer, microphone, speakers, keyboard.
Answer: Input: microphone, keyboard. Output: printer, speakers.
Name one application and one operating system.
Answer: Application: for example a drawing program, a game or a web browser. Operating system: for example Sugar, Windows or Android.
Why can't a laptop with no software do any work?
Answer: Hardware needs software to tell it what to do.
What you learned today
Sources and credits
The exercises (Try it yourself and the practice questions) are written by Ganzaa.
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Quick check
Match each part of a computer to its job.
Tap one on the left, then its partner on the right.
