National Teaching and Learning Change ProgrammeInformation and Communication Technology:
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• optical fibre
  Fibre optic cable, also known as optical fibre, is a very fine glass strand that allows rapid transmission of data, using modulated light beams. It is usual to put many strands together in a single cable, each one capable of carrying one or more data signals. Fibre optic cable provides interference-free, secure data transmission and, unlike metal wires, is not subject to corrosion.
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• optical mark recognition (OMR)
  Machine recognition of data recorded as simple marks on a document. The OMR reader detects marks made in the predetermined positions and software interprets this as data. The marks may be printed or put on the form by hand, e.g. on a national lottery ticket. The OMR software only detects marks, not characters such as letters or numbers. It is very reliable and suited to small quantities of multiple-choice data.
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• optimise
  A general term, meaning to make the best use of something. Program code, for example, can be optimised for speed.
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• options
  Often found on websites or menus, options are different items from which a user can choose. For example, accessibility options, display options.
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• OR
  In Boolean logic, OR produces a true result if any of the conditions are true.
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• OR gate
  The output of an OR gate is TRUE if any input is TRUE, otherwise the output is FALSE.
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• ordered list
  A list of data in some sort of order, e.g. alphabetical.
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• orientation
  The direction of a display, e.g. a monitor or a printed page, either horizontal (called 'landscape' orientation) or vertical (called 'portrait' orientation).
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• original equipment manufacturer (OEM)
  A firm which makes basic computer hardware for other manufacturers to build into their products. For example, a manufacturer assembles a washing machine using a microprocessor from an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) as a control device, or a computer manufacturer fits another manufacturer
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• outbox
  In an email program, the outbox is where outgoing email messages are stored.
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• outdent
  The opposite of indent, moving text to the left by a specified amount. This can create a hanging paragraph, where the first line of text is outdented - and so starts further to the left than subsequent lines.
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• outline view
  In word processing, software can be used to collapse a document so that the user sees only the main headings. This makes it easy to check consistency and reorganise sections of text in the document. There is a similar function in presentation software.
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• output
  To output something is to send it to an output device, e.g. a printer or monitor.
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• output device
  An output device is a peripheral unit that displays, in some way, the output from a computer, for example, a monitor.
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• overwrite
  This is to replace a file or text with another file or text. The original will be lost.