Meaning of Information technology

CONCEPT OF INFORMATION, COMMUNICATION AND EDUCATIONAL TECHONOLGY

OBJECTIVES

After reading this unit you will be able to :

• State the meaning of information communication and educational technology and instructional technology.
• Define the term EducationaTechonology 
• Explain the concept of Educational Technology 
• Justiy the need & Significance of ICT in Education
• Explain the historical perspective of Educational Technology. 
• State the emerging trends in Educational Technology. 

INTRODUCTION

Globalization and technological change processes that have accelerated in tandem over the past years have created a new global economy ―Powered by technology, fueled by information and driven by knowledge. The emergence of this new global economy has serious implications for the nature and purpose of educational institutions. As you know the half life of information continues to shrink and access to information continues to grow exponentially, schools can not remain mere venues for the transmission of a prescribed set of information from teacher to student over a fixed period of time. Rather Schools must promote ―Learning to Learn i.e. the acquisiton of knowledge and skills that make possible continous learning over the lifetime. 

In this connection, Information and communication technologies (ICTS) which include radio and television, and the Internet - have been touted as potentially and powerful enabling tools for educational change and reform. When used appropriately, different ICTS are said to help expand access to education, Strengthen the relevance of education to the increasingly digital workplace, and raise educational quality by, among others, helping make teaching and learning into an engaging, active process connected to reallife. However, the effective integration of ICTS into the educational system is a complex, on ultifaceted process.

CONCEPT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY :

Today‘s world is a world of information explosion. This information explosion is taking place in such a fast speed that even a literate person is feeling as if he or she is illiterate being not able to cope up with such an information explosion. Here the question arises how is one to cope up with it? The answer is, information technology (IT) that can help in coping with the information explosion. So, we can say that ―Information Technology is nothing but coping up with explosion of Information.

Information technology (IT) is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a micro-electronics - based combination of computing and telecommunication. The term in its modern sense first appeared in a 1958 article published in the Harvard Bussiness Review, in which authors Leavitt and whisler commented that ―the new technology does not yet have a single established name. we shall call it information technology

It spans a wide variety of areas that include but are not limited to things such as processes, computer software, computer hardware, Programming Languages and data constructs. In short, anything that renders data, information or perceived knowledge in any visual format whatsoever, via any multimedia distribution mechanism, is considered part of the domains space known as Information Technology.

Meaning of Information Techology (IT) :

Information Technology consists of two words Information and Technology. If you know the two words you can understand the word information technology together.

The term ―Information‖ refers to ―any communication or representation of knowledge such as facts, data or opinions in any medium or for, including textual, numerical, graphic Cartographic, narrative or audiovisual forms.‖

―Technology is the practical form of scientific knowledge or the science of application of knowledge to practical.‖

―Information Technology is any equipment or interconnected system or sub system of equipments that is used in the acquistion, storage manipulation, management transmission or reception of data or information.‖

Definition of Information Technology:

―Information Technology is a scientific, technological and engineerning discipline and management technique used in handing the information, it‘s application and association with social, economical and cultural matters.‖

- UNSECO

―Information technology is a systemic study of artifacts that can be used to give form to facts inorder to provide meaning for decision making, and artifacts that can be used for organization, processing, communication and application of information‖

- Darnton and Giacoletto

From the above discussion we can conclude that information technology refers to the information processing of the software application on operating systems or hardware applications that includes computers, videos, telephones and related equipments of telecommunications, tapes, CDs etc.

Characteristics of Information Technology :

Information Technology has the following Characteristics :

* Acquistion, Storage, manipulation, management, transmission or reception of data or information.

* Real time access to information.

 * Easy availability of updated data 

* Connecting Geographically dispersed regions 

* Wider range of communication media.

ICT