Chapter 1.

Introduction to Information and Communication Technologies

ICT - Information and Communication Technologies

 Is a study of computers as data processing tools.

 an umbrella term that includes any communication device or application encompassing

mobile phones, computer and network hardware, software, the Internet, satellite systems,
and so on.

 The use of technologies in information processing and communication. It deals with the use
of electronic computers and computer software to convert, store, protect, process, network,
transmit and retrieve information.

 “skills around computing and communications devices, software that operates them,
applications that run on them, and systems that built with them.” As well as knowledge of
computer systems (hardware, software, and networks).

 All the uses of digital technology that already exist to help individuals, businesses, and
organizations by using information.

ICT in the Philippines

 Philippines is dub as the ‘’ICT Hub of Asia” because of huge growth of ICT-related jobs, one
of which is BPO, Business Process Outsourcing, or call enters.

4 main categories of ICT:

1. Computing and information technology

2. Broadcasting
3. Telecommunications
4. Internet

What are ICT characteristics?

The main feature of the ICT development is the integration of several types of media and
technology, which then produce new forms that have multiple capabilities and create a variety of
complete and unique communication services, even unimaginable before.

What is the impact of ICT in human life?

ICT provides individuals with access to information, enables social interaction, facilitates access to
education and healthcare, and creates new business opportunities. Thus, ICTs can have both direct
and indirect effects on the quality of human life.
1.1 HISTORY OF COMPUTER

When we study the many aspects of computing and computers, it is important to know about the
history of computers. It helps us understand the growth and progress of technology through the
times.

What is a Computer?

A computer is an electronic machine that collects information, stores it, processes it according to
user instructions, and then returns the result.

A computer is a programmable electronic device that performs arithmetic and logical operations
automatically using a set of instructions provided by the user.

Early Computing Devices

People used sticks, stones, and bones as counting tools before computers were invented. More
computing devices were produced as technology advanced and the human intellect improved over
time. Let us look at a few of the early-age computing devices used by mankind.

1. Abacus
2. Difference Engine
3. Analytical Engine
4. Tabulating machine

The word ‘Computer’

- was first used in the 16th century for a person who used to compute, i.e. do calculations.

- Used in the 20th century to describe women were hired as human computers to carry out all
forms of calculations and computations.

- In the 19th century, the word was also used to describe machines that did calculations.

- The modern-day use of the word is generally to describe programmable digital devices that run on
electricity.

Early History of Computer

Since the evolution of humans, devices have been used for calculations for thousands of years.

 ABACUS - One of the earliest and most well-known devices was an abacus.
 MECHANICAL COMPUTER – In 1822, the father of computers, Charles Babbage began
developing what would be the first mechanical computer.
 ANALYTICAL ENGINE - In 1833 he actually designed an Analytical Engine which was a
general-purpose computer. It contained an ALU, some basic flow chart principles and the
concept of integrated memory.
  ENIAC - More than a century later in the history of computers, we got our first electronic
computer for general purpose. It was the ENIAC, which stands for Electronic Numerical
Integrator and Computer. The inventors of this computer were John W. Mauchly and
J.Presper Eckert.
 LAPTOP - With times the technology developed and the computers got smaller and the
processing got faster. We got our first laptop in 1981 and it was introduced by Adam
Osborne and EPSON.

1.2 GENERATIONS OF COMPUTERS

In the history of computers, we often refer to the advancements of modern computers as the
generation of computers. We are currently on the fifth generation of computers. So let us look at the
important features of these five generations of computers.

1st Generation:

 This was from the period of 1940 to 1955. This was when machine language was developed
for the use of computers. They used vacuum tubes for the circuitry. For the purpose of
memory, they used magnetic drums. These machines were complicated, large, and
expensive. They were mostly reliant on batch operating systems and punch cards. As output
and input devices, magnetic tape and paper tape were implemented. For example, ENIAC,
UNIVAC-1, EDVAC, and so on.

2nd Generation:

 The years 1957-1963 were referred to as the “second generation of computers” at the time.
In second-generation computers, COBOL and FORTRAN are employed as assembly languages
and programming languages. Here they advanced from vacuum tubes to transistors. This
made the computers smaller, faster and more energy-efficient. And they advanced from
binary to assembly languages. For instance, IBM 1620, IBM 7094, CDC 1604, CDC 3600, and
so forth.

3rd Generation:

 These computers were quicker, smaller, more reliable, and less expensive than their
predecessors. High-level programming languages such as FORTRON-II to IV, COBOL, and
PASCAL PL/1 were utilized. For example, the IBM-360 series, the Honeywell-6000 series, and
the IBM-370/168.

4th Generation:

 The invention of the microprocessors brought along the fourth generation of computers.
The years 1971-1980 were dominated by fourth generation computers. C, C++ and Java were
the programming languages utilized in this generation of computers. For instance, the STAR
1000, PDP 11, CRAY-1, CRAY-X-MP, and Apple II. This was when we started producing
computers for home use.
5th Generation:

 These computers have been utilized since 1980 and continue to be used now. This is the
present and the future of the computer world. The defining aspect of this generation is
artificial intelligence. The use of parallel processing and superconductors are making this a
reality and provide a lot of scope for the future. Fifth-generation computers use ULSI (Ultra
Large Scale Integration) technology. These are the most recent and sophisticated computers.
C, C++, Java,.Net, and more programming languages are used. For instance, IBM, Pentium,
Desktop, Laptop, Notebook, Ultrabook, and so on.

1.3 (4) BASIC COMPUTER PERIODS

1. 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 petroglyphs
which were usually carved in rock. Early alphabets were developed such as the Phoenician alphabet.
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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. Electronic

The electronic age is wha 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.
1.4 CLASSIFICATION OF COMPUTERS

The computer systems can be classified on the following basis:

1. On the basis of size.

2. On the basis of functionality.
3. On the basis of data handling.

Classification on the basis of size

1. Super computers :

 The super computers are the most high performing system. A supercomputer is a computer
with a high level of performance compared to a general-purpose computer.
 Plays an important role in the field of computation, and are used for intensive computation
tasks in various fields, including quantum mechanics, weather forecasting, climate research,
oil and gas exploration, molecular modeling, physical simulation and cryptanalysis.
 Example: PARAM, jaguar, roadrunner.

2. Mainframe computers :

 These are commonly called as big iron, they are usually used by big organisations for bulk
data processing such as statistics, census data processing, transaction processing and are
widely used as the servers as these systems has a higher processing capability as compared
to the other classes of computers.
 Example: IBM z Series, System z9 and System z10 servers.

3. Mini computers:

 These computers came into the market in mid 1960s and were sold at a much cheaper price
than the main frames
 Designed for control, instrumentation, human interaction, and communication switching as
distinct from calculation and record keeping, later they became very popular for personal
uses with evolution.
 They usually took up one or a few inch rack cabinets, compared with the large mainframes
that could fill a room, there was a new term “MINICOMPUTERS” coined.
 Example: Personal Laptop, PC etc.

4. Micro computers :

 A microcomputer is a small, relatively inexpensive computer with a microprocessor as its

CPU.
 They actually formed the foundation for present day microcomputers and smart gadgets
that we use in day to day life.
 Examples: Tablets, Smartwatches.
Classification on the basis of functionality

1. Servers : Servers are nothing but dedicated computers which are set-up to offer some
services to the clients. They are named depending on the type of service they offered. Eg:
security server, database server.

2. Workstation : Those are the computers designed to primarily to be used by single user at a
time. They run multi-user operating systems. They are the ones which we use for our day to
day personal / commercial work.

3. Information Appliances : They are the portable devices which are designed to perform a
limited set of tasks like basic calculations, playing multimedia, browsing internet etc. They
are generally referred as the mobile devices. They have very limited memory and flexibility
and generally run on “as-is” basis.

4. Embedded computers : They are the computing devices which are used in other machines to
serve limited set of requirements. They follow instructions from the non-volatile memory
and they are not required to execute reboot or reset. The processing units used in such
device work to those basic requirements only and are different from the ones that are used
in personal computers- better known as workstations.

Classification on the basis of data handling

1. Analog : An analog computer is a form of computer that uses the continuously-changeable

aspects of physical fact such as electrical, mechanical, or hydraulic quantities to model the
problem being solved. Any thing that is variable with respect to time and continuous can be
claimed as analog just like an analog clock measures time by means of the distance traveled
for the spokes of the clock around the circular dial.

2. Digital : A computer that performs calculations and logical operations with quantities
represented as digits, usually in the binary number system of “0” and “1”, “Computer
capable of solving problems by processing information expressed in discrete form. from
manipulation of the combinations of the binary digits, it can perform mathematical
calculations, organize and analyze data, control industrial and other processes, and simulate
dynamic systems such as global weather patterns.

3. Hybrid : A computer that processes both analog and digital data, Hybrid computer is a digital
computer that accepts analog signals, converts them to digital and processes them in digital
form.
1.5 EVOLUTION OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Information Technology Evolution

Information Technology (IT) refers to a spectrum of technologies, including software, hardware,

communications technologies, and related services, used to create, process, store, secure, and
exchange data. Modern IT is the result of nearly six decades of consistent and impactful innovation.

There are broadly five key stages in the evolution of information technology infrastructure – the
centralized mainframe, personal computing, the client/server era, enterprise computing, and the
cloud. There is currently a new computing revolution underway with advances in quantum
computing opening up new possibilities for the progression of IT.

1. MAINFRAME
- mainframes are high-performance computers with large amounts of memory and
processors that process billions of simple calculations and transactions in real time.
- Launched in 1964, the IBM 360 is widely recognized as the world’s first modern
mainframe.

2. PERSONAL COMPUTER
- In 1975, the first genuinely affordable personal computer emerged in the form of
the Altair 8800. It was the launch of the IBM PC in 1981 , which is often seen as the
beginning of the PC era.
- The company’s first personal computer, called the PC, used the operating system
from a then little-known company called Microsoft and went on to democratize
computing and launch many of the standards that have since come to define
desktop computing.

3. CLIENT SERVER
- By the 80s, there was an increasing need for businesses to connect all their
standalone PCs so that employees could collaborate and share resources. The client-
server model afforded a way to enable truly distributed computing with PCs.
- In this model, every standalone PC is networked via a Local Area Network (LAN) to a
powerful server computer that would enable access to a range of services and
capabilities. Today, the client-server model continues to be one of the central ideas
of network computing.

4. CLOUD

- In 1999, Salesforce launched an enterprise-level customer relationship management

(CRM) application over the internet as an alternative for traditional desktop
 software. The term cloud computing was yet to enter the technological lexicon,
though its coinage has since been tracked to late 1996 when executives at Compaq
were envisioning a future where all business software would move to the web in the
form of “cloud computing-enabled applications.”
- Cloud computing gives enterprise information technology on-demand access to
computing resources, including networks, servers, storage, applications, and
services, without the cost or hassle of managing and maintaining all that hardware.

5. QUANTUM COMPUTING
- Quantum computing, the next significant evolutionary milestone in the development
of information technology, utilizes the properties of quantum physics to store data
and perform computations.

1.6 EVOLUTION OF MEDIA

What is Media?

Communication channels through which news, entertainment, education, data, or promotional

messages are disseminated. Media includes every broadcasting and narrow casting medium such as
newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, billboards, direct mail, telephone, fax, and internet. Media is the
plural of medium and can take a plural or singular verb, depending on the sense intended.

1. The Tribal Age – Acoustic Era

o The primary medium was oral communication
o Dependent on auditory senses
o Ear was the key organ
o Spoken word was more emotionally laden than the written
o Spoken word is immediate and alive
o Hearing is more valuable than seeing
o Hearing and smelling was a crucial ability in the tribal age

2. The Age of Literacy – Visual Era

o Words are created with dualism between sight and sound
o Both writer and reader could be detached from the text
o Eyes were the key organ
o Words were no longer immediate and alive
o Put people into “civilized” private attachment
o Required a single focus; proximity became less important
o Phonetic alphabet freed people from tribes
o People became independent learners

Visual literacy is the ability to interpret, negotiate, and make meaning from information presented
in the form of an image, extending the meaning of literacy, which commonly signifies interpretation
of a written or printed text. Visual literacy is based on the idea that pictures can be “read” and that
meaning can be through a process of reading

3. The Print Age – Visual Era

o Prototype of Industrial revolution
o Print age was dated to the invention of the movable type mechanical printing press by
Johannes Gutenberg
o Printing press made visual dependence widespread
o Printing press was the ultimate extension of phonetic literacy
o Mass-produced books ushered in the industrial revolution and nationalism, yet individuals
were isolated
o Men could gain knowledge even without being in the center of society

Print culture is the conglomeration of effects on human society that is created by making printed
forms of communication. Print culture encompasses many stages as it has evolved in response to
technological advances. Print culture can first be studied from the period of time involving the
gradual movement from oration to script as it is the basis for print culture.

4. The Electronic Age – Era of Instant Communication

The electronic age began when electronic equipment, including computers came into use.

o Instant communication has returned men to a pre-alphabetic oral tradition

o People became a single tribe – a global village
o Constant contact with the world became a daily reality
o All-at-once-ness was people’s state being
o What we feel was more important than what we think
o The electronic media have kept people informed about events across the globe without
having to leave the comfort of their own homes

1.7 MEDIA IN THE DIGITAL AGE

MEDIA

The word “media” applies to many things in the 21st century, from mass media to news media, and
traditional media to the many emerging forms of digital media.

It comes from the Latin medius or medium, which means “the middle layer.”

Media is an expression that brings some type of information or entertainment from one body to
another.

Before the advent of the digital age, the most popular forms of media were what we now call analog
or traditional media: radio, newspapers, magazines, billboards, journals, and the like.
Unlike traditional media, digital media is transmitted as digital data, which at its simplest involves
digital cables or satellites sending binary signals –– 0s and 1s –– to devices that translate them into
audio, video, graphics, text, and more.

Digital media might come in the form of videos, articles, advertisements, music, podcasts,
audiobooks, virtual reality, or digital art.

The digital age began to unfold in the second half of the 20th century, as computer technology
slowly infiltrated different industries and then moved into the public sphere.

Types of Digital Media

The Digital era, however, meant a whole new set of media transmission methods and devices, with
more developed every year. These days, most types of digital media fit into one of these main
subgroups:

 Audio: Audio forms of digital media include digital radio stations, podcasts, and audiobooks.
 Video: Many digital media outlets are visual, from streaming movie and television services
such as Netflix to virtual reality surgical simulators used in medical institutions. One of the
biggest players in visual digital media is YouTube, which hosts billions of videos.
 Social media: Social media includes sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and
Snapchat, which enable their users to interact with one another through text posts,
photographs, and videos, leaving “likes” and comments to create conversations around pop
culture, sports, news, politics, and the daily events of users’ lives.
 Advertising: Advertisers have made their way into the digital media landscape, taking
advantage of marketing partnerships and advertising space wherever possible.
 News, literature, and more: Research from the Pew Research Center indicates that 38% of
adults in the U.S. read news online. The proliferation of literary websites, the popularity of
resources like Wikipedia, and the rise of e-readers like the Kindle all further underline the
continued importance of written work in digital media.