Lesson 1: Information and Communication Technology

History of ICT
ICT, or information and communications technology (or technologies), is the infrastructure and
components that enable modern computing.

Uses of ICT In Our Daily Lives

Communication - We all know that ICT take a major role for us by means of communicating,
way back in the past our parents use to make letter and send it via post mail.
Job Opportunities - In the employment sector, ICT enables organizations to operate more
efficiently, so employing staff with ICT skills is vital to the smooth running of any business.
Education - Information and Communications Technology (ICT) can impact student learning
when teachers are digitally literate and understand how to integrate it into curriculum.
Socializing -Social media has changed the world. The rapid and vast adoption of these
technologies is changing how we find partners, how we access information from the news, and
how we organize to demand political change.

Impact of ICT in The Society

Positive impacts of Information and Communication Technology
Access to information - Increase in access to information and services that has accompanied
the growth of the Internet. Some of the positive aspects of this increased access are better, and
often cheaper, communications, such as VoIP phone and Instant Messaging.
Improved access to education, e.g. distance learning and online tutorials - New ways of
learning,e.g. interactive multi-media and virtual reality.
Communication - Cost savings by using e.g. VoIP instead of normal telephone, email /
messaging instead of post, video conferencing instead of traveling to meetings, e-commerce
web sites instead of sales catalogues - Access to larger, even worldwide, markets.
Information management - Data mining of customer information to produce lists for targeted
Advertising - Improved stock control, resulting in less wastage, better cash flow, etc.
Security - ICT solves or reduces some security problems, e.g. Encryption methods can keep
data safe from unauthorized people, both while it is being stored or while it is being sent
electronically. ICT allows people to participate in a wider, even worldwide, society.
Distance learning - students can access teaching materials from all over the world.
ICT facilitates the ability to perform ‘impossible’ experiments’ by using simulations.
Creation of new more interesting jobs - Examples would be systems analysts, programmers
and software engineers, as well as help desk operators and trainers.

Negative impacts of Information and Communication Technology

Job loss - Manual operations being replaced by automation. e.g. robots replacing people on an
assembly line. Job export. e.g. Data processing work being sent to other countries where
operating
costs are lower - Multiple workers being replaced by a smaller number who are able to do the
same
amount of work - e.g. A worker on a supermarket checkout can serve more customers per
hour if a bar-code scanner linked to a computerized till is used to detect goods instead of the
worker having to enter the item and price manually
Reduced personal interaction - Most people need some form of social interaction in their daily
lives and if they do not get the chance to meet and talk with other people they may feel isolated
and unhappy.
Reduced physical activity - This can lead to health problems such as obesity, heart disease,
and diabetes.
Cost - A lot of ICT hardware and software is expensive, both to purchase and to maintain. An
ICT system usually requires specialist staff to run it and there is also the challenge of keeping
up with ever-changing technology.
Competition - this is usually thought of as being a good thing, but for some organizations being
exposed to greater competition can be a problem. If the organization is competing for
customers, donations, or other means of funding nationally or even internationally, they may
lose out to other organizations that can offer the same service for less money.

MODULE 2: HISTORY OF COMPUTER: BASIC COMPUTING PERIODS

Definition of Computer
Computer is a programmable machine.
Computer is an electronic device that manipulates information, or data. It has the ability to store,
retrieve,
and process data.
Computer is a machine that manipulates data according to a list of instructions (program).
Computer is any device which aids humans in performing various kinds of computations or
calculations.

Three principal characteristics of computer:

It responds to a specific set of instructions in a well-defined manner.
It responds to a specific set of instructions in a well-defined manner.
It can quickly store and retrieve large amounts of data.

Applications of ICT (Computers) in Our Daily Lives

1.Business - Almost every business uses computers nowadays. They can be employed to
store and maintain accounts,personnel records, manage projects, track inventory, create
presentations and reports.

2.Education -Computers can be used to give learners audio-visual packages, interactive

exercises, and remote learning,including tutoring over the internet.
3.Healthcare - Healthcare continues to be revolutionized by computers. As well as digitized
medical information making iteasier to store and access patient data, complex information can
also CES GEED 20133 – Living in the IT Era can be analyzed by software to aid discovery of
diagnoses, as well as search for risks of diseases.

4.Retail and Trade - Computers can be used to buy and sell products online - this enables
sellers to reach a wider market with low overheads, and buyers to compare prices, read
reviews, and choose delivery preferences.

5.Government - Various government departments use computers to improve the quality and
efficiency of their services. Examples include city planning, law enforcement, traffic, and
tourism.

6.Marketing - Computers enable marketing campaigns to be more precise through the analysis
and manipulation of data. They facilitate the creation of websites and promotional materials.

7.Science - Scientists were one of the first groups to adopt computers as a work tool. In
science, computers can be used for research, sharing information with other specialists both
locally and internationally, as well as collecting, categorizing, analyzing, and storing data.

8.Publishing -Computers can be used to design pretty much any type of publication. These
might include newsletters, marketing materials, fashion magazines, novels, or newspapers.

9. Arts and Entertainment - Computers are now used in virtually every branch of the arts, as
well as in the wider entertainment industry. Computers can be used to create drawings, graphic
designs, and paintings.

10. Arts and Entertainment - Computers are now used in virtually every branch of the arts, as
well as in the wider entertainment industry. Computers can be used to create drawings, graphic
designs, and paintings.

11. Banking and Finance - Most banking in advanced countries now takes place online. You
can use computers to check your account balance, transfer money, or pay off credit cards.

12.Transport - Road vehicles, trains, planes, and boats are increasingly automated with
computers being used to maintain safety and navigation systems, and increasingly to drive, fly,
or steer.

13.Navigation - Navigation has become increasingly computerized, especially since computer

technology has been combined with GPS technology.

14. Working From Home - Computers have made working from home and other forms of
remote working increasingly common.
15.Military - Computers are used extensively by the military. They are use for training
purposes. They are used for analyzing intelligence data. They are used to control smart
technology, such as guided missiles and drones, as well as for tracking incoming missiles and
destroying them.

16. Social and Romance - Computers have opened up many ways of socializing that
didn't previously exist. Social media enables people to chat in text or audio in real time
across large distances, as well as exchange photographs, videos, and memes.

17. Booking Vacations - Computers can be used by travelers to study timetables, examine
route options, and buy plane, train, or bus tickets.

18. Security and Surveillance - Computers are increasingly being combined with other
technologies to monitor people and goods. Computers combined with biometric passports make
it harder for people to fraudulently enter a country or gain access to a passenger airplane.

19. Weather Forecasting - The world's weather is complex and depends upon a multitude
of factors that are constantly changing.

20.Robotics is an expanding area of technology which combines computers with science and
engineering toproduce machines that can either replace humans, or do specific jobs that
humans are unable to do.

a) Tally sticks

A tally stick was an ancient memory aid device to record and document numbers, quantities, or even
messages.
b)Abacus

NCES GEED 20133 – Living in the IT Era PAGE | 9 9 An abacus is a mechanical device used to aid an
individual in performing mathematical calculations.

e) Pascaline

● Invented by Blaise Pascal in 1642.

● It was its limitation to addition and subtraction.

● It is too expensive.

f) Stepped Reckoner

● Invented by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in 1672.

● The machine that can add, subtract, multiply and divide automatically.
g) Jacquard Loom

● The Jacquard loom is a mechanical loom, invented by Joseph-Marie Jacquard in 1881.

● It is an automatic loom controlled by punched cards.

h) Arithmometer

● A mechanical calculator invented by Thomas de Colmar in 1820,

● The first reliable, useful and commercially successful calculating machine.

● The machine could perform the four basic mathematic functions.

● The first mass-produced calculating machine.

i) Difference Engine and Analytical Engine

● It an automatic, mechanical calculator designed to tabulate polynomial functions.

● Invented by Charles Babbage in 1822 and 1834

● It is the first mechanical computer.

j. First Computer Programmer

● In 1840, Augusta Ada Byron suggests to Babbage that he use the binary system.

● She writes programs for the Analytical Engine.

k. Scheutzian Calculation Engine

● Invented by Per Georg Scheutz in 1843.

● Based on Charles Babbage's difference engine.

l. Tabulating Machine

● Invented by Herman Hollerith in 1890.

 ● To assist in summarizing information and accounting.

m. Harvard Mark 1

● Also known as IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC).

● Invented by Howard H. Aiken in 1943

● The first electro-mechanical computer.

n. Z1

● The first programmable computer.

● Created by Konrad Zuse in Germany from 1936 to 1938.

● To program the Z1 required that the user insert punch tape into a punch tape reader
and all output was also generated through punch tape.
 o. Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC)

● It was the first electronic digital computing device.

● Invented by Professor John Atanasoff and graduate student Clifford Berry at Iowa State
University between 1939 and 1942.

p. ENIAC

● ENIAC stands for Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer.

● It was the first electronic general-purpose computer.

● Completed in 1946.

● Developed by John Presper Eckert and John Mauchly.

q. UNIVAC 1

● The UNIVAC I (UNIVersal Automatic Computer 1) was the first commercial computer.

● Designed by John Presper Eckert and John Mauchly.

r. EDVAC

● EDVAC stands for Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer

● The First Stored Program Computer

● Designed by Von Neumann in 1952.

● It has a memory to hold both a stored program as well as data.

s. The First Portable Computer

● Osborne 1 – the first portable computer.

● Released in 1981 by the Osborne Computer Corporation.

t. The First Computer Company

● The first computer company was the Electronic Controls Company.

● Founded in 1949 by John Presper Eckert and John Mauchly.

Basic Computing Periods - Ages

a. Premechanical
The premechanical age is the earliest age of information technology. It can be defined as the
time between 3000B.C. and 1450A.D. We are talking about a long time ago. When humans first
started communicating they would try to use language or simple picture drawings known as
petroglyths which were usually carved in rock. Early alphabets were developed such as the
Phoenician alphabet.

Figure 2.1 Pe
troglyph

As alphabets became more popular and more people were writing information down, pens and
paper began to be developed. It started off as just marks in wet clay, but later paper was created
out of papyrus plant. The most popular kind of paper made was probably by the Chinese who
made paper from rags.

Now that people were writing a lot of information down, they needed ways to keep it all in
permanent storage. This is where the first books and libraries are developed. You’ve probably
 heard of Egyptian scrolls which were popular ways of writing down information to save. Some
groups of people were actually binding paper together into a book-like form.

Also, during this period were the first numbering systems. Around 100A.D. was when the first 1-9
system was created by people from India. However, it wasn’t until 875A.D. (775 years later) that the
number 0 was invented. And yes, now that numbers were created, people wanted stuff to do with them,
so they created calculators. A calculator was the very first sign of an information processor. The popular
model of that time was the abacus.

b. Mechanical
The mechanical age is when we first start to see connections between our current technology
and its ancestors. The mechanical age can be defined as the time between 1450 and 1840. A lot
of new technologies are developed in this era as there is a large explosion in interest with this
area. Technologies like the slide rule (an analog computer used for multiplying and dividing)
were invented. Blaise Pascal invented the Pascaline which was a very popular mechanical
computer. Charles Babbage developed the difference engine which tabulated polynomial
equations using the method of finite differences.

Figure 2.2 Difference Engine

There were lots of different machines created during this era and while we have not yet gotten
to a machine that can do more than one type of calculation in one, like our modern-day
calculators, we are still learning about how all of our all-in-one machines started. Also, if you
look at the size of the machines invented in this time compared to the power behind them it
seems (to us) absolutely ridiculous to understand why anybody would want to use them, but to
the people living in that time ALL of these inventions were HUGE.
c. Electromechanical
Now we are finally getting close to some technologies that resemble our modern-day
technology. The electromechanical age can be defined as the time between 1840 and 1940.
These are the beginnings of telecommunication. The telegraph was created in the early 1800s.
Morse code was created by Samuel Morse in 1835. The telephone (one of the most popular
forms of communication ever) was created by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876. The first radio
developed by Guglielmo Marconi in 1894. All of these were extremely crucial emerging
technologies that led to big advances in the information technology field.

The first large-scale automatic digital computer in the United States was the Mark 1 created by
Harvard University around 1940. This computer was 8ft high, 50ft long, 2ft wide, and weighed 5
tons - HUGE. It was programmed using punch cards. How does your PC match up to this hunk of
metal? It was from huge machines like this that people began to look at downsizing all the parts
to first make them usable by businesses and eventually in your own home.

Figure 2.3 Harvard Mark 1

d. Electronic
The electronic age is what we currently live in. It can be defined as the time between 1940 and
right now. The ENIAC was the first high-speed, digital computer capable of being reprogrammed
to solve a full range of computing problems. This computer was designed to be used by the U.S.
Army for artillery firing tables. This machine was even bigger than the Mark 1 taking up 680
square feet and weighing 30 tons - HUGE. It mainly used vacuum tubes to do its calculations.
 There are 4 main sections of digital computing. The first was the era of vacuum tubes and punch
cards like the ENIAC and Mark 1. Rotating magnetic drums were used for internal storage. The
second generation replaced vacuum tubes with transistors, punch cards were replaced with
magnetic tape, and rotating magnetic drums were replaced by magnetic cores for internal
storage. Also during this time high-level programming languages were created such as FORTRAN
and COBOL. The third generation replaced transistors with integrated circuits, magnetic tape
was used throughout all computers, and magnetic core turned into metal oxide semiconductors.
An actual operating system showed up around this time along with the advanced programming
language BASIC. The fourth and latest generation brought in CPUs (central processing units)
which contained memory, logic, and control circuits all on a single chip. The personal computer
was developed (Apple II). The graphical user interface (GUI) was developed.

Figure 2.4 Apple 2

History of Computer: Generations of Computer

There are five generations of computer:

• First generation – 1946 to 1958
• Second generation – 1959 to 1964
• Third generation – 1965 to 1970
 • Fourth generation – 1971 to Today
• Fifth generation – Today to
future

a. The First Generation

The first computers used vacuum tubes for circuitry and magnetic drums for memory, and were
often enormous, taking up entire rooms. They were very expensive to operate and in addition to
using a great deal of electricity, generated a lot of heat, which was often the cause of
malfunctions. First generation computers relied on machine language, the lowest-level
programming language understood by computers, to perform operations, and they could only
solve one problem at a time. Input was based on punched cards and paper tape, and output was
displayed on printouts.

Examples: – ENIAC – EDSAC – UNIVAC I, UNIVAC II, UNIVAC 1101

b. The Second Generation

Transistors replaced vacuum tubes and ushered in the second generation of computers. One
transistor replaced the equivalent of 40 vacuum tubes. Allowing computers to become smaller,
faster, cheaper, more energy-efficient and more reliable. Still generated a great deal of heat that
can damage the computer.

Second-generation computers moved from cryptic binary machine language to symbolic, or

assembly, languages, which allowed programmers to specify instructions in words.
Secondgeneration computers still relied on punched cards for input and printouts for output. These
were also the first computers that stored their instructions in their memory, which moved from a
magnetic drum to magnetic core technology.

Examples: UNIVAC III, RCA 501, Philco Transact S-2000, NCR 300 series, IBM 7030 Stretch, IBM
7070, 7080, 7090 series

c. The Third Generation

The development of the integrated circuit was the hallmark of the third generation of computers.
Transistors were miniaturized and placed on silicon chips, called semiconductors, which drastically
increased the speed and efficiency of computers. It could carry out instructions in billionths of a
second. Much smaller and cheaper compare to the second-generation computers.
 d. The Fourth Generation

The microprocessor brought the fourth generation of computers, as thousands of integrated circuits
were built onto a single silicon chip. As these small computers became more powerful, they could
be linked together to form networks, which eventually led to the development of the Internet.

Fourth generation computers also saw the development of GUIs, the mouse and handheld devices.

e. The Fifth Generation

Based on Artificial Intelligence (AI). Still in development. The use of parallel processing and
superconductors is helping to make artificial intelligence a reality. The goal is to develop devices that
respond to natural language input and are capable of learning and self-organization. There are some
applications, such as voice recognition, that are being used today.