Meaning Nature And Scope Of ICT Every Student Should Know

ICT stands for “Information and communication Technology. It means the technologies that provide access to information through telecommunications. And also can be defined as a diverse set of technological tools and resources used to communicate, create, disseminate, store, and manage information.” It is similar to Information Technology (IT) but focuses primarily on Communication Technologies. These technologies include the internet, computers, wireless networks, cell phones, and other communication mediums. 


Information and Communication Technology have provided the society with a vast array of new communication capabilities. For example, people can communicate in real-time with others in different countries using technologies such as instant messaging, voice over and video conferencing. Social networking websites like facebook allow users from all over the world to remain in contact and communicate on a regular basis.

            Modern Information and Communication Technologies have created a “global village,” in which people can communicate with others across the world as if they were living next door. For this reasons, ICT is often studied in the context of how modern communication technologies affect the society. In recent years, there has been an increase in happiness for the people over their interest in how computers and the internet can best be used to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Communication and education at all levels and both formal and non formal settings. But ICTs are more than just these technologies; older technologies such as the telephone, radio and television, although now given less attention, have a longer and richer history as instructional tools. For instance, radio and television have for over forty years been used for open and distance learning, although print remains the cheapest, most accessible and therefore most dominant delivery mechanism in both developed and developing countries. The use of computer and internet is still in its infancy in developing countries.

            The nature and scope of ICT capability is not fixed, but is responsive to ongoing technological developments. This is evident in the emergence of advanced internet technology over the past few years and the resulting changes in the ways that students construct with others. Student develop capability in using ICT for tasks associated with information access and management, information creation and presentation, problem solving, decision making, communication, creative expression, and empirical reasoning. This includes conducting research, creating multimedia information products, analyzing data, designing solution to problems, controlling processes and devices, and supporting computation while working independently and in collaboration with others.

            Students develop knowledge, skills and dispositions around ICT and its use, and the ability to transfer these across environments and applications. They learn to use ICT with confidence, care and consideration, understanding its possibilities, limitations and impact on individuals, groups and communities. Information and Communication Technology is often used as an extended synonym or as an umbrella term for Information Technology (IT), but it is a most specific term that stresses the role unified communications and the integration of telecommunications (telephone lines and wireless signals), computers as well as necessary enterprise software, middleware, storage, and audio-visual systems, which enable users to access, store, transmit, and manipulate information. The term ICT is also used to refer to the convergence of audio-visual and telephone networks with computer networks through a single cabling or link system. To some scholars, ICT has no universal definition, as “the concepts, methods and applications involved in ICT are constantly evolving on an almost daily basis.” The broadness of ICT covers any product that will store, retrieve, manipulate, transmit or receive information electronically in a digital form, e.g. personal computers, digital television, email, robots;” therefore, one can say that ICT is concerned with the storage, retrieval, manipulation, or receipt of digital data.” ICT delineates how these various forms of digital mediums interact with one another.

            Information and Communication Technology can contribute to universal access to education, equity in education, the delivery of quality learning and teaching, teacher’s professional development and more efficient education management, governance and administration. UNESCO helps a lot in promoting ICT in education.

            In the modern societies, ICT is ever-present, with over three billion people having access to the internet. With approximately 8 out of 10 internet users owing a smart phone, information and data are increasing by leap and bounds. This rapid growth, especially in developing countries, has lead ICT to become a keystone of everyday life, in which life without some facet of technology renders most of clerical work and routine tasks dysfunctional.      

HISTORY OF ICTs

Information Technology has been around for a very long time. Basically as long as people have been around, information technology has been around because there were always ways of communicating through technology available at that point in time. There are four main ages that divide up the History of information technology, only the latest age (electronic) and some of the electromechanical age really affects us today. But it is important to learn about how we got to the point we are with Technology today.

Premechanical

The premechanical age is the earliest stage of Information Technology. It can be defined as the time between 3000B.C and 1450A.D. we are talking about a long time ago. When human first started communicating, they would try to use language or simple picture drawings known as petroglyghs which were usually carved in rock. Early alphabets were developed such as the Phoenician alphabet. As alphabet became more popular and more people were writing information down, pens and paper began to be developed. It started off as just marks in wet clay, but latter paper was created out of papyrus plant. The most popular kind of paper made was probably by the Chinese who made paper from rags.

            When people began to write information’s down, they needed ways to keep it all in permanent storage. This is where the first books and libraries were developed. During this period were the first numbering system around 100A.D. was when the first 1-9 system was created by people from India. However, it wasn’t until 875A.D (775 years later) that the number 0 was invented. And yes now that numbers were created. People wanted stuff to do with them so they created calculators. A calculator was a very first sign of an information processor. The popular model of that time was the abacus.

Mechanical

The mechanical age is when we start to see our current technology and its ancestors. The mechanical age can be defined as a time between 1450 and 1840. A lot of new technologies are developed in this era as there is a large explosion in interest with this area. Technologies like the slide rule (analog computer used for multiplying and dividing) were invented. Blaise Pascal the pascaline which was a very popular mechanical computer. Charles Babbage developed the different engine which tabulated polynomial equations using the method of finite differences. There were lots of different machines created during this era and why we have not yet gotten to a machine that can do more than one calculation in one,  like our modern day calculators, we are still learning about how all of our all-in-one machine started. Also, if you look the size of machines invented in this time compared to the power behind them, it seems absolutely ridiculous to understand why anybody would use them, but to the people living in that time, all of these inventions were huge.

Electromechanical

Now we are finally getting close to the technologies that resemble our modern-day technology. The electromechanical age can be defined as the time between 1840 and 1940. These are the beginnings of telecommunication. The telegraph was created in the early 1800s. More code was created by Samuel morse in 1835. The telephone (one of the most popular forms of communication ever) was created by Elexander Graham Bell in 1876. The radio developed by Guglielmo Marconi in 1894. All of these were extremely crucial emerging technologies that led to big advances in the Information Technologies field. The first large scale automatic digital computer in the United State was the mark 1 created by Harvard university around 1940. This computer was 8ft high, 50ft long, 2ft wide, and weighed 5 tons – HUGE. It was programmed using punch cards. How does your PC march up to this hunk of metal? It was from huge machines like this that people began to look at downsizing all the parts to first make them usable by businesses and eventually in your own home.

Electronic

The electronic age is the one we currently live in. it can be defined as the time between 1940 and right now. The ENIAC was the first high-speed, digital computer capable of being reprogrammed to solve a full range of computing problems. This computer was design to be used in the U.S. army for artillery firing tables. This machine was even bigger than the mark 1 taking up 680 square feet and weighing 30 tons HUGE. It mainly use vacuum tubes to do its calculations.

            There are 4 main section of digital computing. The first was the era of vacuum tube and punch cards like the ENIAC and mark 1. Rotating magnetic drums were used for internal storage. The second generation replaced vacuum tubes with transistors, punch card were replaced with magnetic tape, and rotating magnetic drums were replaced by magnetic cores for internal storage. Also during this time, high-level programming languages were created such as FORTRAN AND COBOL. The third generation replaced transistors with integrated circuits, magnetic tape was used throughout the computers, and magnetic core turned into metal oxide semiconductors. An actual operating system showed up around this time along with the advanced programming language BASIC. The fourth and latest generation brought in CPUs (central processing units) which contained memory, logic, and control circuit all on a single chip. The personal computer was developed and the graphical user interface (GUI) was also developed in those times.

COMPONENT OF ICT

THERE ARE 6 MAIN COMPONENT OF ICT SYSTEM, THEY ARE:-

1.      Data: raw facts and figures

2.      Hardware: physical component

3.      Software: the name given to computer programmes

4.      Information: data that is converted to give it a meaning

5.      Procedures: a series of actions conducted in a certain order to make sure the system runs smoothly

6.      People: data is entered by humans, for example, a keyboard. People are the sources of the data

ISSUES OF ICT

There are 4 broad issues which must be addressed when considering the overall impact of the use of ICT in education, they are: - Effectiveness, Cost, Equity and Sustainability.

Effectiveness: effectiveness of ICT depends on how they are used and for what purpose. ICTs do not work for everyone, everywhere in the same way. It also helps to enhances access to basic education since most of the interventions for this purpose have been small-scale and under-reported. Assessments of the use of computers, the internet and related technologies for distance learning have been equivocal. A research claim that that there is “no significant difference” between the test scores of learners taking ICT-based distance learning courses an those receiving face-to-face instruction. Others claim that such generalizations are inconclusive; pointing out that the large number of articles on ICT-based distance learning does not include original experimental research or case studies. Other critics argue that dropout rate is much higher when instruction is delivered at a distance via ICTs.

               There have also been also been many studies that seem to support the claim that the use of computers enhances and amplifies existing curricula, as measured through standardized testing. With the use of ICTs, students learn more quickly, demonstrate greater retention, and are better motivated to learn when they work with computers.

               Research likewise suggests that the use of computers, the internet, and related technologies, given adequate teacher training and support, can indeed facilitate the transformation of the learning environment into a learner-centered one. But these studies are criticized for been mostly exploratory and descriptive in nature and lacking in empirical rigor. This is as yet no strong evidence that this new learning environment fosters improved learning outcomes. What does exist are qualitative data based on observations and analysis of student and teacher perceptions that suggest a positive impact on learning.

               One of the most critical problems in trying the access the effectiveness of computers and the internet as transformational tools that standardize test cannot capture the kinds of benefit that are expected to be gained in a learner centered environment. Moreover, since technology use is fully integrated into the larger learning system, it is very difficult to isolate the technology variable and determine whether any observed gains are due to technology use or to some other factor or combination of factors

Cost: Broadly speaking, television broadcasts and computer-based and online learning are more expensive than radio broadcasts. There is a disagreement whether television broadcasts are cheaper than computer-based and online learning. Categorically, assessments of cost-effectiveness are difficult to make because of lack of data, differences in programs, problems of generalization, and problems of quantification of educational outcomes and opportunity costs.

            A common mistake in estimating the cost of a particular ICT educational qualification is to focus too much on initial fixed costs, purchase of equipment, construction, initial materials production, and the like. But studies of the use of computer in classroom shows that installation of hardware and retrofitting of physical facilities account for between 40% to 60% of the full cost of using the computers over their lifetime, Or its total cost of ownership. At times, it may seem that the initial purchase of hardware and software is the costliest part of the process.

            Another dimension of cost is location, or who will pay for what. In projects that involve computers connected to the internet, either student beer the variable cost related to operations such as maintenance, internet service charges. And telephone in line charges. With radio programming the learner has to pay only for a radio and a set of batteries.

Equity: ideally, one wishes for equal opportunity to participate. But access for different actors-both as users and producers is weighted by their resources. Hence initial differences are often reproducing. Reinforced, and even magnified a formidable challenge, therefore continue to face planners of international education: how t defines a problem and provides assistance for development. Women have less access to ICTs and fewer opportunities for ICT-related training compared to men because illiteracy and lack of education, lack of time, lack of mobility, and poverty. Boys are more likely than girls to have access to computers everywhere. Boys tend to enjoys working with computers more than girls. As the American association university report, “girls have narrowed some significant gender gaps, but technology is now the new ‘boys’ club’ in our nations public schools. While boys program and problem solve with computers, girls use computers for work processing.” Despite the effort to make the program gender neutral, gender inequalities in access persist in Uganda and Ghana. “High students -to- computer ratios and first come first serve policies do not favor girls, girls have earlier curfew hours and domestic chore responsibilities which limits their access time, and local patriarchal beliefs tend to allow boy to dominate the computer lab environment.” Measure propose to address this gender bias include encouraging schools to develop “fair use” policies in computer labs. Girls also need to have female role models to inspire them to participate in technology related activities.

Sustainable: one aspect of development that is often neglected is sustainability. The long history of development aid has shown that too many project and program start with a bang but all too soon fade out with a whimper, to be quickly forgotten.in many instances, these project are initiated by third party donors such as international aid agencies or cooperations and not enough attention is paid to esterblishing a mechanism by which educational institution or community involved can pursue the project on its own or in partnership with other stakeholders after the initiating donor exits. But cost and financing are not the only barriers to sustainability. According to Cisler, the sustainability of ICT has four components: social, political, technological and economic.

Economic sustainability refers to the ability of a school or community to finance an ICT-enabled programme over a long time. Technology investments typically run high and in many cases divert funds from other equally pressing needs.

Social sustainability is a function of a function of community environment. For an ICT enabled project to succeed the buy in of parents, political, business leaders and other stakeholders is essential. Innovation can happen only when all those who will be affected by it, whether directly or indirectly, know exactly why such an innovation is being introduced, what the implications are on their lives, and what part they can play in ensuring its success. ICT enabled programs must ultimately serve the needs of the community

Political sustainability refers to issues of policy and leadership. One of the biggest threats to ICT-enabled project