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What is Information and Communication Technologies?
The World Bank defines ICT as, "hardware, software, networks, and media for the collection,
storage, processing, transmission and presentation of information (voice, data, text, images), as
well as related services.” This e-source also includes the historic context from which current
ICT's have evolved, from hieroglyphics to the Gutenberg Press to the information age that we
presently live in. Each of the key words has a distinct meaning. We'll take a closer look at each
one of these terms starting with technology.
What is Technology?
Technology is one of the most used, yet most confused, words in modern society. Adding to the
confusion, there are myriad definitions of technology. The following definition, used by the
International Technology Educational Association, provides a good starting place.
"Broadly speaking, technology is how people modify the natural world to suit their own
purposes. From the Greek word techne, meaning art or artifice or craft, technology literally
means the act of making or crafting, but more generally it refers to the diverse collection of
processes and knowledge that people use to extend human abilities and to satisfy human
needs and wants." (International Technology Educational Association, 2000, p.2)
Benchmarks for Science Literacy (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1993
p. 43) explains technology in an even broader sense.
Technology is an overworked term. It once meant knowing how to do things-the practical
arts or the study of the practical arts. But it has also come to mean innovations such as
pencils, television, aspirin, microscopes, etc., that people use for specific purposes and refers
to human activities such as agriculture, manufacturing, and even to processes such as animal
breeding or voting or war that changes certain aspects of the world. Further, technology
sometimes refers to the industrial and military institutions dedicated to producing and using
inventions and know-how. In any of these senses, technology has economic, social, ethical
and aesthetic ramifications that depend on where it is used and on people’s attitudes toward
its use.
As we can see, technology can have very broad definitions. Hamel (2007) goes so far as to
describe management as a maturing technology. Technology has its foundations in many other
disciplines. One discipline that technology has the biggest overlap with is science.
Science is the study of nature and the physical world. Scientific work is motivated by theoretical
interest, uses the methods, tools, and skills characteristic of discovery, and produces theoretical
knowledge in the form of theories and laws.
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Technology is the study of the human built world. Technological work is motivated by a problem
or opportunity, uses methods, tools, and skills characteristic of invention, and produces
technological products, systems, and systematized rules.
Ways to View Technology
HUMAN BEING
Technological
Knowledge
Technological
Activities or
Process
Techn
Pr
Technological
Volition
Intention/Will
Making & Using
Ob
Mitcham,
Thinking through Technology: The path between engineering and philosophy (Mitcham,
1994) discusses technology from four different perspectives. We will begin looking at
technology as an artifact or object. If someone says the word technology, what is the first thing
that comes to your mind? For most of us, the first thing we visualize is some type of an object.
This object may be a computer, cell phone or something similar. When we look at the history of
technology we also typically look at things as artifacts or objects. In the beginning of the history
of technology, we study tools that were created for hunting or growing crops. The progression
remains quite similar, none of these would've came about if it was not for some kind of
technological activity or process. And these processes could not have taken place if it was not
for some human knowledge and volition.
In looking at Mitcham's model (see above) we can see that, even though we normally look at the
object first, the creation of the object normally would start with volition. Volition is the human
desire to solve a problem or create an opportunity. If the human does not have some type of
knowledge, even though they have the desire they will not normally be able to solve the
problem. The human, using their knowledge and volition, will create a process that will develop
the object.
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Ways to Work with Technology
Technology can also be discussed by the way we work with it. The ways that we enact with the
technology can be described as application, technique, understanding, and making or creating.
When we work with technology at the application level, we are the end-user. Using the auto
mobile as an example, the application level would be us as the driver. Although it may be
helpful to have an understanding of the automobile, and have the ability to repair the
automobile, those skills are not necessary to drive the car.
When we work with technology at the technique level, we serve as the technician. In the case of
the automobile, the mechanic who repairs your car does not necessarily have to have the ability
to drive a car, understand the scientific principles that make the car function or have designed a
car or any of its components. It is likely that the mechanic possesses some, if not all, of those
skills.
When we work with technology at the understanding or knowledge level, we are able to
comprehend and discuss the technology. In the case of the automobile, an author of a book on
cars may be able to write about the automobile but not be able to work with it on any of the
other levels.
The last level of technological activity that we will look at is the designing/creating level. With
the example of the automobile, this is the engineer that creates the mechanical components or
the designer who creates the appearance of the car.
To make sure that this does not imply an occupational hierarchy let’s look at the example of
working at the technician level. Both a carpenter and an orthopedic surgeon may work at the
technician level and share the same type of tools.
Technological Dynamics
The Dynamics of Technological Change, (Girifalco, 1991), discusses technological
advancement in three broad phases; invention, innovation and diffusion.
Invention is a new idea or concept and if we have a unique invention we can get it patented. It
is often thought that coming up with an invention is a great way to become rich, but the process
is more complex than that. First, not every idea that you come up with is patentable. Many ideas
that you may think are unique have possibly already been patented. If you want to search an
idea and see if there's a patent on a go to http://www.google.com/patents . It takes more than
just a great idea to create wealth.
The next phase is innovation. Innovation is the stage where the invention is brought into use,
typically through the marketplace. In addition to having a unique idea, the innovation process
consists of many other activities. These activities include such things as refining the design,
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building prototypes, having a market plan and the distribution system. In the innovation stage
the product is typically sold for early adopters. This can be the most profitable stage, as early
adopters are usually willing to pay a higher price for new technology.
When the technology reaches the mass-market it is called diffusion. When the product or
service reaches the diffusion stage it is sometimes considered a commodity and typically brings
a lower profit margin. In the past many innovative companies, such as 3M, did not want to
continue to market a product once it reached the diffusion stage. With the high cost of
development, many organizations have decided to continue to market products when they reach
the diffusion stage. The lower profit margins can be offset by high-volume sales and lower cost
of production.
An example of technological dynamics would be the case of the graphical user interface (GUI).
The GUI is the only way that many of us know how to interact with the computer. It is the
process of using icons and menus to operate your computer. With the PCs that were first
marketed, everything you did had to be done at the command line. A command line interface is
still used for some specialized applications. The concept of the graphical user interface was
invented at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) http://www.parc.com/. Most of us do not
know this as Xerox never brought the graphical user interface to the marketplace. At the time of
its development Xerox could not see a reason for using the graphical user interface with copy
machines and that was their main product. The innovation stage of the GUI was undertaken by
Apple Computer. Apple spent much time perfecting the graphical user interface and in 1984
introduced the Macintosh computer. The Macintosh was widely accepted by early adopters but
still was not used by the majority of PC users. It took several years after the introduction of the
Macintosh for Microsoft to bring the Windows interface to the masses. Windows would be the
diffusion stage of the process.
There are many other ways to study technology, but this gives us a brief overview.
Information
The words data, information and knowledge are often times used interchangeably, but they all
have very specific meanings when looked at in a more in-depth examination. There are many
different models on the data-information-knowledge continuum. One of the most in-depth
definitions is as follows:
This progression starts in chaos where there is no discernible pattern or organization, and
where the bytes of information are fragmented, and unable to be processed readily by
human or machine. Data occurs where the symbols have been processed in such a way
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that they conform to the requirements of a transmission channel, such as a modem. Data is
a quantity rather than the quality. Information, on the other hand refers to data organized
into meaningful chunks-specifically, chunks that have meaning to humans rather than
machine applications. Information becomes knowledge when it has been successfully
communicated to and understood by, the now more knowledgeable recipient. Knowledge
is the product of information plus thought and ideas used to inform communication and
action. It implies a value judgment because knowledge marks the processing by a human
of useful and relevant information. Wisdom is the final stage of the continuum. Here there
are two sets of value judgments: first in terms of the transition from information to
knowledge; the second in terms of the knowledge being used in making sound judgments.
(Green, 2001 p. 82)
Communication
Communication is a process that can be viewed from both a scientific and humanistic viewpoint.
Although both approaches are somewhat similar, the scientific approach states that
communication is a transmission and reception process. The scientific approach to looking at
communications was developed by Claude Shannon (see module on models). The humanistic
looks at communication from the point of creating meaning. In either case, communication is an
essential activity that manages messages to create meaning (Griffin, 1997). To create true
understanding through communication, there has to be a dialogue (Senge, 1990). Although many
times we discuss communication as a one-way process, to have a true dialogue implies there has
to be a two-way process. We also need to clarify the difference between the words
communication and communications. The definitions above refer to “communication” which is
the transfer of information between two entities, in comparison to “communications” which
typically refers to a system such as a telephone system (Tanenbaum, 1999). In the module on
models, we will look at several communication models.
Works Cited
American Association for the Advancement of Science. (1993). Benchmarks for science literacy.
New York: Oxford University Press, Inc.
Green, L. (2001). Communication, Technology and Society. London: SAGE Publications Ltd.
Girifalco, L. (1991). Dynamics of Technological Change. New York: Van Norstrand Reinhold.
Griffin, E. (1997). A First Look at Communication Theory. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Hamel, G. (2007). the future of management. Boston: Harbor Business School Press.
International Technology Educational Association. (2000). Standards for technological literacy.
(M. Smith, Ed.) Reston, Virginia: International Technology Education.
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Mitcham, C. (1994). Thinking through technology. Chicago: the University of Chicago Press.
Senge, P. M. (1990). The Fifth Discipline. New York: Doubleday.
Tanenbaum, R. S. (1999). Theoretical Foundations of Multimedia. New York: WH Freeman &
Co.
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