Welcome to the series on Introduction to ICT. We will introduce ICT by looking at information and communication, then focus on ICT technologies. We will also discuss ICT standards and their importance. We will examine how ICTs are used in one sector of today's society, which is education. The primary goal of the series is to understand how ICT functions so you can see what role it plays in today's society.
The first section introduces ICTs with the focus on information and communication. Please take a moment to read the objectives for this video. If you are not familiar with the term ICT, it stands for Information and Communications Technology. ICT refers to technologies that provide access to information through telecommunications.
ICT is similar to IT but with the focus on communication. While IT primarily focuses on information, here the common technologies, as you can see, that telecommunications use are the internet, radio communication, and mobile phone networks. We cannot underestimate the amount of change and importance it plays in our world. Access to information brings change, which affects almost all aspects of our life.
Access to information changes each of us personally and transforms our societies. We use this information to make everyday decisions and we use it to make long-term plans. For example, where do I want to work or where will I study?
Think for a moment of this impact if cellular communications were shut off. How would this affect you? Perhaps initially the impact primarily affects your social life and your access to information.
What if the Internet was shut off? In August of 2017, Google made an error and the mistake turned off the Internet in Japan for almost 8 hours. The news report said that it affected East Japan Railway, which prevented its riders from buying tickets or boarding trains.
Transportation is crucial to our daily lives, so our societies require and depend on the consistent and constant flow of information. So the primary focus of ICT is on telecommunication, which is using technology to communicate information at the distance. One form of communication technology is the Internet, but the Internet is just one method of transmitting data. ICTs use a wide range of technologies. So information is the meaningful data that leads to knowledge.
The information has a meaning to either to the sender or to the receiver, or perhaps to both. Once the recipient has received the information and it becomes knowledge, it then affects in some manner and directs their actions. So communication is the transfer of information. We communicate every day.
We might speak something, type something, or we might even make a gesture or use body language unintentionally that sends a message, either positive or negative. We can communicate to a single party, one-to-one, or we can broadcast our message and communicate one-to-many. Technology provides many ways of communicating.
The primary methods are through text, voice, or video. There are two primary methods of communication synchronous and asynchronous. Let's break down the words to help you understand. A means negative or not.
Sine means equal or the same. Chronos means time. Therefore, synchronous means at the same time, during synchronous communication, someone or the device communicates something, and then they are waiting for the response.
For example, you are talking to someone on the phone. You are expecting a two-way dialogue. Asynchronous communication happens at the different times.
The sender sends a message, but the receiver does not have to reply immediately or even at all. Perhaps the information is an announcement that can wait several hours. So, the examples of synchronous ICT communications are phone conversations, instant messaging, and video and audio conferencing.
In each case, there is a dialogue, a two-way conversation, back and forth. These forms of communication might use a variety of media channels. For example, a typical phone call uses the cellular provider's network, but a VoIP call or the voice over IP uses the Internet. Alternatively, the VoIP caller could dial a phone number.
While synchronous communication expects an immediate response, asynchronous is used for situations where the sender isn't waiting for a quick response or it's not waiting for the response at all. An example is sending an email requesting information. This is the example of one-to-one asynchronous communication. Wikipedia and Google are examples of one-to-many asynchronous communication tools.
Usually, we are the recipients of the information, not the sender. We can search for and obtain information on Wikipedia that someone added. Similarly, Google is a communication medium that guides us to the information on a blog or news site that someone else added.
So, this chart shows the different communication technologies that can fit into the various quadrants of one-to-many, one-to-one, and synchronous and asynchronous. They don't all fit neatly in the box. For example, one can use email, which is asynchronous, as a personal message or to the group of recipients. Here is another example, which one of the asynchronous and which one is asynchronous. If you said the voice call is synchronous, you are correct.
In summary, ICT stands for Information and Communication Technology. It focuses on communication technologies. Information is meaningful data that leads to knowledge.
Communication is the transfer of information. Two types of communication are synchronous and asynchronous. Synchronous is communicating at the same time.
Asynchronous is communicating at different times.