Definition: To convert (plain text) into code.

Alright class, settle down and let’s take a look! You’ve got the dictionary definition – “to convert plain text into code” – that’s a good start, indeed! But let's dig a little deeper, shall we? Think of it like this: imagine you have a secret message. You don't want anyone to read it unless they know your special key. Encoding is exactly that - it’s the process of taking ordinary words and letters and turning them into something else entirely, a different form! It's like transforming a simple song into a complicated puzzle. The code itself might be numbers, symbols, or even a completely new set of characters. Here are some ways we might do it: ASCII: We could translate each letter to a number – A is 65, B is 66… you get the idea! Encryption: This is more complex - we'd use an algorithm and a key to scramble the message, making it unreadable without the key. So, essentially, encoding is all about taking information that’s easy for us to understand – plain text – and turning it into something else, often for security or transmission. Does that make sense? Do you have any questions about how we might use encoding, or perhaps different types of encoding methods?