Types of ICT

Communication
Types of Information Communication Technology
• Forms of ICT have expanded in the most recent few
decades.
• Digital cellphones, including smart phones and traditional
feature phones, have become ubiquitous in many
countries.
• Internet modems and routers are found in offices and
homes around the world.
• Communications software from social networking tools to
encrypted messaging apps have exploded in popularity.
• As digital networking has gone from relatively slow
and expensive, and computers and phones have
gotten more reliable and easier to use, they've
gone from being the domain of hobbyists and early
tech adopters to everyday appliances.
The Growth of Cellphone Technology
• In recent years, billions of people around the world
have begun using cellphones.
• In some cases, the digital devices are even
cheaper and more reliable than their wired
counterparts, and newer devices come equipped
with the ability to speedily access the internet and
download a wide variety of apps.
• While the original cellphones were expensive to
use, bulky to carry and often given to losing signal,
modern day cellphones are reliable and easy to
transport.
• Society has also adapted to the point where it's
difficult for many people to maintain their business
career and social life without carrying a cellphone
of some kind.
• At the same time, cellphone plans have gotten
simpler, especially when it comes to delivering
basic communication services such as calling,
texting and voicemail.
• Many users no longer have to worry about
exceeding their minute allowances or waiting for
nights and weekends to make calls.
The Rise of the Internet
• The internet has gone from a limited
government and academic experiment of the
1960s to a near universal part of modern life.
• A modem, which stands for modulator-
demodulator, is used to transform digital
signals from a computer into other forms that
can be transmitted across a phone, cable or
other network.
• Examples of communication technology related to
the internet include the dial-up modems of the
1990s and the more modern wireless routers and
cable internet modems now found in many homes
and businesses.
• Modern cellphones and many computers can
connect with either built-in WiFi modems or cellular
modems that let them connect to phone carrier
networks.
• Wi-Fi routers let them connect to a locally
installed, usually hardwired modem and on to
a larger network.
• Many offices, universities and other
environments also have internal networks,
known as intranets, used for secure internal
communication.
A man sitting on his sofa looking at his smartphone
Types of Digital Communication
• We are living in the Information Age, and there has
never been as apt a name for a particular period of
human history.
• Digital technologies have revolutionized
communication in the modern world -- a revolution
so rapidly integrated into our lives that we can
scarcely remember how we used to make a phone
call or exchange messages back in the analog
days.
• The Internet and cell phones are two of the
most prominent examples of the influence of
the Information Age, but there are many other
types of digital communication technologies.
The Internet and Email
• In 1962, a researcher at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology described a "Galactic
Network" of interconnected computers that could
talk to one another. The idea of the Internet was
born.
• Relying on packet switching -- the digital transfer of
short bursts of data -- globally connected computer
networks quickly developed into sophisticated
digital communication technologies.
• Email over the network was introduced in the
1970s and has since grown into one of the most
widespread forms of digital communication, both on
the Internet and through private networks.
• Packet-switching protocols matured and speeds
increased.
• In 1980, the first widespread computer virus
crashed the global computer network.
• In the 1990s, digital communication over networked
computers emerged from limited use in the
academic, government and business worlds to
come into use by the public.
• The World Wide Web, the Internet on steroids, was
described in 1991, the White House website
appeared in 1993, and the first Internet advertising
came online in 1994.
• As transmission speeds increased, the
Internet evolved from principally one-way
communication to a social two-way system --
Web 2.0 -- at sites like Facebook and Twitter.
Cell Phones
• The earliest generation of handheld mobile telephones
relied on the analog communication technology of the
conventional phone network.
• The first phones using digital communication, known
as 2G phones, appeared in the early 1990s. Digital
phone technology developed rapidly after that.
• The first text message was sent in 1993, and the
transmission of other digital content, such as ringtones
and advertising, followed shortly after.
• In 2001, 3G digital phone communication
arrived, providing faster transmission and
making broadband communication practical
for multiple media such as voice, Internet and
GPS.
• The 4G phones appeared later that decade,
offering digital communication 10 times faster
than earlier technologies.
High-Definition Television
• Since 2009, the Federal Communications
Commission has required TV stations in the
U.S. to broadcast exclusively in digital format.
• The transition from conventional to digital
television technologies made high-definition
television possible and established the
television as more than a simple receiver of
transmitted signals.
• Many digital TVs are multimedia devices that
display television programming, games,
photographs and on-demand movies, stream
Internet content, play music and handle
recorded media like CDs and DVDs.
• As televisions become more interactive, they
are evolving into true two-way digital
communication devices.
Other Electronic Communication
• Digital communications have become ubiquitous
in modern society and encompass a wide variety
of technologies.
• Remote controls, keyless entry devices, walkie-
talkies, Bluetooth earpieces, GPS satellites,
cash registers and credit cards are among the
many technologies that communicate digitally
with people and with other devices.
• Futurists have coined the term "The Internet
of Things" to refer to the trend of enabling
thousands of types of devices, from light bulbs
to washing machines, with digital
communication capabilities.
Physical Digital Media
• Given the sophistication of the instantaneous
transmission of digital data, it can be easy to overlook
the more mundane communication activities.
• We store digital data on many types of physical media,
including CDs, DVDs, flash drives, tape and compact
memory chips.
• Every time you hand a friend or colleague a file, whether
you transfer it electronically or pass along a DVD, you
are engaged in a form of digital communication.
Comparison of 20th and 21st Century Education
• This post is the first in a series where changes in
education will be examined.
• Cultural context, characteristics of teachers,
educational strategies, and the role of technology
will be examined.
• Seventeen years into the new millennium and
educators continue to debate what makes an
educator in the 21st century effective.
• Some would say that the traditional ways of
teaching and managing a classroom have stood
the test of time and continue to be best practices.
• Others believe that this century brings with it a
paradigm shift in learning that requires new
approaches to teaching.
• Let us consider a few areas of teaching in this
discussion.
• 20th Century Education Twentieth century
education provided a teacher-centered
classroom with compartmentalized curriculum
and students working independently to
memorize facts.
• The teacher operated as the “sage on the
stage;” the giver of all knowledge.
• Students sat at desks in neat rows.
• In upper grades, students moved from
classroom to classroom at the sounding of a
bell.
• This form of education worked well for an
industrialized nation and a world that
depended on standardized products.
• Divergent thinkers and critical thinkers contribute to
our world of knowledge. Our world has become more
dependent on knowledge-workers who can solve
problems.
• These changes demand a change in the educational
process.
• Twenty-first century education promotes a student-
centered classroom with authentic, relevant,
collaborative project-based learning.
• The teacher serves as the “guide on the side;”
the facilitator of learning.
• Student seating is informal or in learning groups.
Classrooms are spaced around a learning center
where students freely move about to gather the
information needed to solve problems.
• This form of education is needed in a world that
changes continuously and is connected globally.
• Learning moved from a passive state to an active state in
the 21st century.
• Rather than focusing on content contained in a
specifically chosen textbook, students can now gather
content through their own research.
• Rather than working in isolation to find answers within the
pages of an assigned book, students can now work
collaboratively with classmates and even with others
around the world through the advances in educational
technology.
• In the past, too often, students did not
connect what they had learned in one subject
with another.
• Twenty-first century education curriculum is
integrated and interdisciplinary.
• Literature, math, science, and writing for
example can all be interwoven.
• Twentieth-century education focused on literacy in
reading, writing, and mathematics.
• Multiple literacies such as media, computer, digital,
information and technology are recognized in 21st
century learning.
• Assessments transitioned from the teacher judging
the accuracy of the work produced by students to
more authentic forms of assessments.
• These include self-assessments,
assessments by peers, and even
assessments by a public audience in some
cases.
• Rather than averaging numbers to determine
a grade, grades are based on what was
learned.
ICT Advantages
& Disadvantages
• ICTs stand for information and communication
technologies and are defined, for the purposes, as
a “diverse set of technological tools and resources
used to communicate, and to create, disseminate,
store, and manage information.”
• These technologies include computers, the
Internet, broad casting technologies (radio and
television), and telephony.
The Effectiveness of ICTs in Education
• ICTs are a potentially powerful tool for extending
educational opportunities, both formal and non-for
mal, to previously underserved constituencies—
scattered and rural populations, groups traditionally
excluded from education due to cultural or social
reasons such as ethnic minorities, girls and
women, persons with disabilities, and the elderly,
as well as all others who for reasons of cost or
because of time constraints are unable to enroll on
campus.
Anytime, anywhere
• One defining feature of ICTs is their ability to
transcend time and space.
• ICTs make possible asynchronous learning, or
learning characterized by a time lag between the
delivery of instruction and its reception by learners.
• Online course materials, for example, may be
accessed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• ICT-based educational delivery (e.g., educational
programming broadcast over radio or television)
also dispenses with the need for all learners and
the instructor to be in one physical location.
• Additionally, certain types of ICTs, such as
teleconferencing technologies, enable instruction to
be received simultaneously by multiple,
geographically dispersed learners (i.e.,
synchronous learning).
Access to remote learning resources
• Teachers and learners no longer have to rely solely
on printed books and other materials in physical
media housed in libraries (and available in limited
quantities) for their educational needs.
• With the Internet and the World Wide Web, a
wealth of learning materials in almost every subject
and in a variety of media can now be accessed
from anywhere at anytime of the day and by an
unlimited number of people.
• This is particularly significant for many schools in
developing countries, and even some in developed
countries, that have limited and outdated library
resources. ICTs also facilitate access to resource
persons, mentors, experts, researchers,
professionals, business leaders, and peers—all
over the world.
ICTs help prepare individuals for the workplace
• One of the most commonly cited reasons for using
ICTs in the classroom has been to better prepare the
current generation of students for a workplace where
ICTs, particularly computers, the Internet and related
technologies, are becoming more and more
ubiquitous.
• Technological literacy, or the ability to use ICTs
effectively and efficiently, is thus seen as representing
a competitive edge in an increasingly globalizing job
market.
 Benefits/Advantages of
ICT in Education

Here are some of the benefits

which ICT brings to education according
to recent research findings.
General benefits
• Greater efficiency throughout the school.
• Communication channels are increased
through email, discussion groups and chat
rooms.
• Regular use of ICT across different curriculum
subjects can have a beneficial motivational
influence on students’ learning.
Benefits for teachers
• ICT facilitates sharing of resources, expertise and
advice.
• Greater flexibility in when and where tasks are carried
out
• Gains in ICT literacy skills, confidence and
enthusiasm.
• Easier planning and preparation of lessons and
designing materials
• Access to up-to-date pupil and school data, any time
and anywhere.
• Enhancement of professional image projected to
colleagues.
• Students are generally more ‘on task’ and
express more positive feelings when they use
computers than when they are given other tasks
to do.
• Computer use during lessons motivated students
to continue using learning outside school hours.
Benefits for students
• Higher quality lessons through greater collaboration
between teachers in planning and preparing resources .
• More focused teaching, tailored to students’ strengths and
weaknesses, through better analysis of attainment data
• Improved pastoral care and behaviour management
through better tracking of students
• Gains in understanding and analytical skills, including
improvements in reading
• Comprehension.
• Development of writing skills (including spelling,
grammar, punctuation, editing and re-drafting), also
fluency, originality and elaboration.
• Encouragement of independent and active
learning, and self-responsibility for learning.
• Flexibility of ‘anytime, anywhere’ access (Jacobsen
and Kremer, 2000)
• Development of higher level learning styles.
• Students who used educational technology in school felt
more successful in school, were more motivated to
learn and have increased self-confidence and self-
esteem
• Students found learning in a technology-enhanced
setting more stimulating and student-centred than in a
traditional classroom
• Broadband technology supports the reliable and
uninterrupted downloading of web-hosted educational
multimedia resources.
• Opportunities to address their work to an
external audience.
• Opportunities to collaborate on
assignments with people outside or inside
school.
Benefits for parents
• Easier communication with teachers
• Higher quality student reports – more legible,
more detailed, better presented
• Greater access to more accurate attendance
and attainment information
• Increased involvement in education for parents
and, in some cases, improved self-esteem.
• Increased knowledge of children’s
learning and capabilities, owing to
increase in learning activity being situated
in the home
• Parents are more likely to be engaged in
the school community