NCEA L1 Hangarau key terms

The Māori term for technology, covering the design, development and use of digital and physical tools to meet a need or solve a problem.

Māori customary values and correct procedure. In technology practice it guides how a solution respects people, place and cultural knowledge throughout design and use.

Māori knowledge, including traditional and contemporary understanding passed through generations. It can inform technology design and must be used with permission and respect.

Taking or using another culture's knowledge, symbols or designs without permission or understanding. In technology this can cause harm and breach tikanga.

The intended result or change produced by a digital technology solution, such as improved access, safety, learning or efficiency for a particular group of users.

A short written statement defining the problem, the intended users, the constraints and what a successful outcome must achieve before design work begins.

Any person or group affected by or interested in a technology outcome, including users, whānau, community members and the people who will maintain the solution.

The specific person or group who will actually operate or experience the final digital technology outcome, as opposed to those who commission or fund it.

The limits within which a solution must be developed, such as budget, time, available equipment, skills, legal requirements or cultural obligations.

The measurable requirements a finished outcome must meet, describing what it must do and how well, so that success can be tested objectively.

How easily and effectively intended users can learn and operate a solution to achieve their goal, including clarity, consistency and error recovery.

Designing so people with diverse abilities, devices, languages or connection speeds can use a solution, for example through captions, contrast and keyboard navigation.

An approach that deliberately considers the widest range of users and situations from the start, rather than adapting a finished product afterwards.

Repeating the design cycle of planning, making and testing to improve a solution based on evidence gathered from each attempt.

An early, simplified version of a solution built to test ideas and gather feedback before committing time and resources to full development.

Gathering evidence by trialling a solution against specifications with real or representative users, then recording what worked and what failed.

Information from users or stakeholders about how well a solution meets their needs, used to decide the next improvement.

An ordered set of unambiguous steps that transforms an input into an output and always finishes, forming the logic behind a program.

A structured, plain-language way of writing an algorithm using keywords such as IF, WHILE and INPUT, independent of any programming language syntax.

A diagram using standard shapes and arrows to show the sequence, decisions and repetition in an algorithm or process.

A named storage location in a program whose value can be changed while the program runs, such as a score or a username.

The category of a value that determines what operations are valid, for example integer, float, string or Boolean.

A data type holding a sequence of characters, such as text or a name, which can be joined, compared or searched.

A data type with only two possible values, true or false, used to represent conditions and to control decisions in a program.

The operation that stores a value into a variable, replacing any previous value, often written with an equals sign in code.

A control structure in which instructions are carried out one after another in the order they are written.

A control structure that chooses between paths using a condition, such as an IF or IF-ELSE statement.

A control structure that repeats a block of instructions, either a set number of times or while a condition remains true.

A construct that determines the order in which instructions run: sequence, selection or iteration. These three combine to build any algorithm.

An expression that evaluates to true or false and is used by selection or iteration to decide which path or repetition to take.

Data supplied to a program from a user, sensor, file or another source, which the program then processes to produce output.

Information a program presents or sends after processing, such as displayed text, a saved file, a sound or a signal to a device.

The process of finding, diagnosing and fixing errors in a program by reading code, tracing values and testing with sample inputs.

A mistake in the grammar or spelling of code that stops a program running at all, such as a missing bracket or misspelled keyword.

A flaw in a program's reasoning that lets it run but produces the wrong result, such as using the wrong comparison operator.

A named, reusable block of code that performs a task, may take parameters and may return a value, reducing repetition.

A named value that a function or procedure accepts when it is called, allowing the same code to work with different data.

Breaking a large, complex problem into smaller manageable parts that can be solved and tested separately before being combined.