CMP 222: INTRODUCTION TO INFORMATION

TECHNOLOGY
PART I

Federal University Dutsin-Ma 2020/2021 Academic Session

 OUTLINE

 History of InformationTechnology
 Trends in Information technology
 Human impact on Information Technology
 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

 Information Technology (IT) can be defined as a combination of computing and telecommunications for the
acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numeric information
AGES OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

 Pre-mechanical age
 Mechanical age
 Electro-mechanical age
 Electronic age
 AGES OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
PRE-MECHANICAL AGE
 This is the earliest age of technology between 3000 B.C. and 1450 A.D.
 People used petroglyphs to tell stories, map terrains and keep accounts. The later moved on to use rags, papyrus
and eventually paper.
 The abacus was also invented during this period.
 AGES OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
MECHANICAL AGE
 Period between 1450 and 1840 saw an increase in computation and information.
 The Slide Rule (for multiplication and division) and the Pascaline (for addition, subtraction, multiplication and
division) were invented during this period.

 Pascaline Slide Rule

 AGES OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
ELECTRO-MECHANICAL AGE
 Period between 1840 and 1940 heralded the beginning of telecommunications.
 Important technologies like Morse code, telephone and radio were invented during this period.
 The fist large-scale automatic computer, the Harvard Mark 1, was created by IBM in 1944. It measured 2.4m x
15m x 0.6m and weighed almost 5,000kg.
 AGES OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
ELECTRONIC AGE
 Period between 1940 - present
 ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was the first electronic general-purpose computer. It could solve
a large class of numerical problems through reprogramming.
 First Generation (1951 – 1956) – Used vacuum tubes, magnetic drums and punched cards
 Second Generation (1956 – 1963) – Used transistors, magnetic tapes and punched cards
 Third Generation (1964 – 1971) – Used Integrated Circuits (ICs), magnetic tapes/disks, keyboards, monitors, printers, etc.
 Fourth Generation (1971 – present) – Use of microprocessors (Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI)), RAM, ROM, etc.
 Firth Generation (present and future) – Artificial Intelligence, Ultra Large-Scale Integration(ULSI) and parallel processing;
Natural Language Processing, etc.
 TECHNOLOGY TIMELINE

1835 Morse Code invented by Samuel Morse

1835 Electric Telegraph invented by Charles Wheatstone and Samuel Morse

1843 Typewriter invented by Charles Thurber

1893 Wireless communication invented by Nikola Tesla

1937 Alan Turing concepualises the computing machine

1948 First programmable computer Manchester Mark 1 designed by Frederic C. Williams, Tom Kilburn & Geoff Tootill
 TECHNOLOGY TIMELINE
1956 Hard disk invented by IBM

1961 Optical disk invented by David Paul Gregg

1963 Computer mouse invented by Douglas Engelbart

- E-mail invented by Ray Tomlinson

1971
- Floppy Disk invented by David Noble

1973 Personal computer developed by Xerox

1989 World Wide Web invented by Sir Tim-Berners Lee

 TECHNOLOGY TIMELINE
1990 First search engine named Archie developed

1996 Nokia 9000 Communicator released in Finland as the first internet enabled mobile device

1998 Google established

Microsoft developed the first tablet computer

2000

- Emergence of Web 2.0

2004
- Facebook established
 TRENDS IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

 Over the years, the focus on Research and Development (R&D) has increased across all industries which ahas in
turn led to accelerated evolving of technology.
 The outbreak of COVID-19 has increased the acceleration a great deal.
 TRENDS IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Trends in IT include:
 Analytics
 Automation
 Artificial intelligence
 Cloud computing
 Communications
 Cybersecurity
 Internet of things
 Machine learning
 Extended Reality – Virtual Reality, Augumented Reality, Mixed Reality
 ADVANCES IN TECHNOLOGIES

 Storage: High density storage devices have the capacity to deal with large volumes of data and high rates of
transmission
 Encryption: Systems have improved to provide protections of copyright, privacy and data integrity
 Packet asynchronous transfer mode communications: There is improved support for high-speed, flexible
transmission of video and images
 Sensors: There is an increase in the types of sensors available, their precision and calibration effort needed to
make them work.
 Processors: High-performance computer processors provide enhanced capability for computationally intensive
activities.
 Language processing: Machines using natural language processing techniques enhance collaboration for speakers
of different languages across the world.
 IMPACT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

 Information Technology has had great impact on different areas of life including Education, health, businesses,
among many others.
 HEALTH

 Information Technology has helped to promote patient-centered healthcare at a low cost. Healthcare providers
are able to focus more on their job of caring for patients with improved workflow between departments.
 There is better information sharing and closer relationships between patients and their health care providers.
With electronic healthcare systems, patients are able to connect with doctors from their homes at any time of
the day for non-emergency consultations.
 Faster and more accurate access to patient records – Electronic health records systems make patient records
accessible from patient portals seamlessly. This eliminates the need to keep physical records.
 Improved diagnostics – Technology has brought about accuracy, speed and accessibility to diagnostics of common
and rare health issues.
 BUSINESS MODELS, COMMERCE & MARKET STRUCTURE

IT has influenced businesses in the following ways:

 Reducing the significance of distance – People can work from anywhere in the world, and companies can
outsource certain actives to countries where there’s cheaper labour.
 Disintermediation – businesses can offer 24-hour access to their product and services at low cost without
intermediaries.This in turn reduces cost in the production and distribution value chain.
 Electronic commerce – Products and services are available online with increasing diverse modes of payment. E-
commerce stores are also easier to scale up and cater to a larger number of customers unlike physical stores.
 Refocusing on activities with higher added value – Real-time monitoring helps businesses to observe trends and
they are able to pay more attention to activities that add more value to their brand and bottom-line.
 Globalization – More local businesses are gaining access to foreign markets, which has affected existing market
structures. It is becoming increasingly difficult for a single business to maintain dominance over the global market.
 WORKPLACE AND LABOUR MARKET

 Improved collaboration – Vertical (Superior-subordinate) and horizontal (perr-to-peer) relations are improved
with information sharing, computerized systems and communication technologies. Email and centralized
information systems lower barriers to communication across different status levels resulting in improved, faster
and effective collaboration.
 Standardised processes – Information systems help to enforce standardized processes in a business operations,
They are then able to conform with international best practices in their industries and better organize their
operations.
 Development of collective intelligence – different teams can work on different aspects of a project at them same
time. Every team and member has access to the necessary information and progress of the project which
eliminates monopoly of knowledge.
 Job gain/loss – Jobs are both lost and created by technology and organizational change. There is a higher demand
for high-skilled IT workers to set-up and maintain systems which replace low-skilled workers.
 EDUCATION

 On-line learning – The use of video conferencing, recorded videos and e-text instruction methods is increasing to
complement traditional classroom instruction. Students have access to instruction materials which they can use to
study at their own time.
 Improved collaborations – Students can easily communicate among themselves and even collaborate with other
students across the world.
 Research – There is better access to data and materials for well-rounded research activities.
 SOCIAL

 Communication technologies have improved social interaction across different cultures.

 The proliferation of social media platforms make is easier to connect with new people, join circles of interest and
maintain relationships.
 On the other hand, it can be argued that while technology has made communication easier and faster, people are
becoming increasingly distant from each other with less physical connections.