Introduction of ICT

Introduction Of ICT

We are in a digital era. It is difficult to think of any event in our daily life that is not using Information and Communication Technology. Our schools and classrooms are no exceptions. This course is meant for introducing us with these technologies with the intention that we meaningfully integrate technology in our practices related to teaching and learning.

 ICT IN EVERYDAY LIFE

The widespread use of ICT in Education is not just a coincidence. It is observed in all aspects our life. Let us take a look at the extent to which ICT has permeated our life.

ICT in Business

Today a lot of business transactions happen through internet and hence called e-

commerce. ICT facilitates marketing, customer visit, product browsing, shopping basket checkout, tax and shopping, receipt and process order. Through e-commerce one can also offer services pertaining to processing transactions, documentation, presentations, inventory management and gathering product information. In other words, every business activity can be done being at home. 

ICT in Financial Services

Every service a traditional bank provides is available these days through online service. Starting from transferring money from one account to other up to running the day-today transactions of the bank are provided through internet. Through the networking of banks, this has become a reality. Capital market transactions, financial analysis and related services are available on the online platforms.

ICT in Entertainment

Internet is a major source of entertainment. Internet is a hub of movies, games, books, and social networking. Due to digital broadcasting, the television experience itself is changing. We can easily record the television programs and view it. Digital broadcasting has changed the way we experience television, with more interactive programming and participation. Digital cameras, printers and scanners have enabled more people to experiment with image production.

ICT in Public Service

Both Central and State Governments are actively encouraging e-governance practices. Digital India initiative of Government of India and e-governance initiative of Government of Karnataka are best examples of this. With these, and even before many government services are available online. We can enroll ourselves in the electoral roll of the local assembly constituency through the State Election Commission portal. We can book an LPG cylinder through the website of the gas supplier, pay electricity bills online through an online bill desk. Land related RTC can be viewed through internet being at home. ICT is also providing a platform for a conversation between the public and the government through various social networking services.

ICT in Education

Education is one major sector which has undergone the influence of innovations in ICT. Starting from providing online content service, platform for organizing learning experiences to managing learning and assessment has been changed greatly by ICT developments. Students, teachers and educational administrators and every stakeholder in education have been benefitted by the integration of ICT in education. Rest of the Units in this course are going to deal with these issues at a greater length.

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The concept map given here illustrates how ICTs have the potential to be used in various practices of education, including teaching and learning, assessment, administration and teacher professional development. For example, the teaching and learning dimension of education can integrate ICTs in content creation, content delivery and collaboration. Let us see one of them in detail, content development for example. ICT provides us with many tools, including hardware and content. The hardware encompasses computing devices as well as display devises. The content sources can be Open Education Resources (OER), and Reusable Learning Objects (RLO). Similar detailed exploration of ICT use can be taken up for other aspects of educational practice. Professional development of teachers is another such example. ICT tools provide various opportunities in the form of Webinars, online courses, online collaborative projects, online tutorials, social networking, and so on. Look at other components presented in the graphic and see how ICTs contribute for educational practice. Rest of the Units in this course is going to deal with these topics at a greater length.

 EVOLUTION OF ICT

ICT is evolving in a very fast pace. Our grandparents   grew up in a society with no telephone; our parents in a society in which the radio was the first and television was the last source of information. We live in a world of internet. And the new generation in in the wireless world. As a result the world around us also has changed dramatically over the years. This dramatic change in the field of ICT is a result of innovations in the field of science, defense and business. These innovations have reduced the sizes of the technological tools and increased the speed in which they operate to process data and communicate information.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is a term used to describe technologies in manipulating and communicating information. As telecommunication systems have evolved, they have increasingly used computing technology in switching nodes and then in non-switching nodes supporting services. With mobile telecommunications, the amount of information processing required to manage mobility and services has increased enormously and this has resulted in a tremendous increase in computer communications within the telecommunications environment.

The parallel emergence of computer communications in science and business, the enormous increase in the capabilities and numbers of personal computers and the extraordinary changes brought about by the Internet have driven a merging of computing technology and telecommunications as the two areas have moved from analog to digital and then to packet technologies, and as the Internet has emerged to become the dominant data communications system in use today, whether as the “public Internet” or “managed Internet.”

What started as a circuit-switched voice network has evolved to a packet switched data network. Initially, data was handled by making it look like voice (modems.) Now voice is handled by making it look like data (Voice over IP or VoIP.) While voice remains the dominant revenue generator, the shift to VoIP brings major challenges to telecommunications operators as they manage the enormous shifts taking place in the nature and volume of traffic they carry on their networks.

ICT capabilities vary widely. In developed countries, they are widespread and sophisticated, while in developing countries, they may be less available and offer less capacity. Developing countries are catching up quickly by leapfrogging older generations of technology as well as creating solutions that suit the needs of their user communities. In some cases, the lack of a legacy infrastructure makes rapid modernization easier.

Components of an ICT system

·        PEOPLE

·        PROCEDURE

·        SOFTWARE

·        HARDWARE     

·        DATA       

CONNECTIVITY          

People

Today it’s becoming difficult to find an activity that doesn’t involve computers, technology, and sharing information. It would be advantageous to learn all you can about computers and become comfortable with application programs, the Internet, and the World Wide Web. People are needed to stream the data to the ict system and also to make decisions from the output provided.

Procedure:

Procedures determine what needs to be done and when. It also covers and passing of data or information between different people. Administrative procedures are also needed to deal with such as customers not paying bills, problems with deliveries and so on.

Software

Software is a generic term used to describe computer programs. Scripts, applications, programs and a set of instructions are all terms often used to describe software. Software is often divided into three categories:

• System software serves as a base for application software. System software includes device drivers, operating systems (OSs), compilers, disk formatters, text editors and utilities helping the computer to operate more efficiently. It is also responsible for managing hardware components and providing basic non-task-specific functions. The system software is usually written in C programming language.
• Programming software is a set of tools to aid developers in writing programs. The various tools available are compilers, linkers, debuggers, interpreters and text editors.
• Application software is intended to perform certain tasks. Examples of application software include office suites, gaming applications, database systems and educational software. Application software can be a single program or a collection of small programs. This type of software is what consumers most typically think of as "software."

Hardware

This is a physical components that make up the ICT system. This includes keyboards, mouses and printers. Computer hardware is a collective term used to describe any of the physical components of an analog or digital computer. Computer hardware can be categorized as having either internal or external components. Internal components include items such as the motherboard, central processing unit (CPU), random access memory (RAM), hard drive, optical drive, heat sink, power supply, transistors, chips, graphics processing unit (GPU), and network interface card (NIC). External components, also called peripheral components, are those items that are often connected to the computer in order to control either its input or output. Common input components include a mouse, keyboard, microphone, camera, touch pad, stylus, joystick, scanner, USB flash drive or memory card.  Monitors, printers, speakers, headphones and earphones/ear buds are all examples of output computer hardware components.

Data

Data is the raw material of any ict system and this processed by the system to provide the information which is the output produced by the system. The concept of data in the context of computing has its roots in the work of Claude Shannon, an American mathematician known as the father of information theory.  He ushered in binary digital concepts based on applying two-value Boolean logic to electronic circuits. Binary digit formats underlie the CPUs, semiconductor memories and disk drives, as well as many of the peripheral devices common in computing today. Early computer input for both control and data took the form of punch cards, followed by magnetic tape the hard disk. 

Connectivity

Connectivity is a term which refers to capability of being connected. Specially the ability to or interconnect with another workstation or computer system. It’s also called the capacity of the public media to enlarge commercial center from the users’ influences and actions.  That is also the essential characterization of "IP" (Internet Protocol). A network is a set of two or more computer systems interconnected together to exchange documentations and share properties, including affluent peripherals. Through the use of networked computers, societies and industries are capable to interconnect and cooperate in traditions that were not probable before.