Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
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. What Is Information Communication Technology Originally developed by Steve Schlough June, 2009 Page 1 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. What Is Information Communication Technology Originally developed by Steve Schlough June, 2009 Page 2 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, What Is Information Communication Technology Originally developed by Steve Schlough June, 2009 Page 3 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 What Is Information Communication Technology Originally developed by Steve Schlough June, 2009 Page 4 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. What Is Information Communication Technology Originally developed by Steve Schlough June, 2009 Page 5 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. What Is Information Communication Technology Originally developed by Steve Schlough June, 2009 Page 6