CIT701

FOUNDATION OF INFORMATION
AND COMMUNICATION
TECHNOLOGY

FACILITATOR: DR IGWE JOSEPH

SUNDAY
 Module 1: INTRODUCTION TO INFORMATION
COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

Unit 1: Principles, Practices and Opportunities of

ICT
Unit 2: Essentials of Computing
Unit 3: System Unit and Central Processing Unit
Unit 4: Input Devices
Unit 5:Output Devices
Unit 6: Storage Devices and Memory
 Unit 1: Principles, Practices and Opportunities of
ICT
CIT 701 OVERVIEW

Information and Communication Technology course

attempts to provide you with the basic tools, a wide
variety of items and abilities used in the creation, storage
and dispersal of data and information as well as the
creation of knowledge. This course explores the role of
ICT in today’s world. Today whether you sell, buy, invent,
build, manage, or finance companies, products, or
services, you will find that a working knowledge of ICT is
essential with no exceptions. Using ICT capabilities
effectively and creatively can be a key to your success,
whether you are focusing on a professional, healthcare,
entrepreneurial, manufacturing, or service career.
 Need of Information
Information is the life wire of today’s
business organizations, institutions and
industries.
Every organization, regardless of its size
and purpose, is concerned with processing
data in order to provide current and accurate
information.
Employees at every level within most
organizations use various devices or tools in
the performance of their everyday duties.
 Data
Data refers to facts, events, activities and
transactions which have been recorded.
Data is the raw material from which information
is produced.
When you were admitted into school your school
you gave the school information about yourself.
You probably wrote it on a form that must have
been supplied to you. The information that you
gave is a set of facts about yourself. The school
now has some data on you.
 Information
“It will be sunny tomorrow;” “There are
some men in the field”. “The turkey gave
birth to a lion day before yesterday.” These
statements convey to you something. It does
not matter whether they are true or false,
each is telling a story. The story being
passed to you is what is known as
information. Therefore Information is news
passed to you either orally or in written. If
the information given is true no matter who
is giving it or when it is given it is said to be
 Classification of Information
Information could be classified based on the forms in
which information can exist, the time of occurrence,
and the frequency of occurrence.
• Information classified based on form of existence
include, written, oral, visual, and sensory
• Information classified based on time of occurrence
could be historical, present, and future.
• While information based on frequency of occurrence
are those that are continuously, hourly, daily, weekly,
monthly, and annually.
 Transmission
After receiving information the
question of how to disseminate it
now arises. Ideally for an item to be
a piece of information, it has to be
passed from one person to another
and from one place to another.
Information could be passed
through an ancient or a modern
Old Method New Method
Oral  Writing
 • Typing
• Town crier
 • Printing
• Beating drums  • Telephone

• Lighting fire  • Telex

 • Radio
• Drawing diagrams  • Television
representations  • Fax
/symbols  • Satellite
 • Computer
 • E-mail
STAGES OF INFORMATION REVOLUTION

 The oldest evidence of writing by man so far consists of clay

tablets discovered at Sumer in Mesopotamia about 3000BC.
These tablets contain records of grains received from, or issued
to, individuals at a temple store. Since then the society has seen
five distinct stages of information revolution. These stages are:
 • Invention of language
 • Invention of printing
 • Invention of mass media particularly radio and television
 • Invention of computer
 • Link-up of computers with communications devices and the
development of the
 Internet.
 Evolution of Information Age
Agricultural Age: The period up to the 1800s, when
the majority of workers were farmers whose lives
revolved around agriculture.
• Industrial Age: The period from the 1800s to 1957,
when work processes were simplified through
mechanisation and automation.
• Information Age: The period that began in 1957, in
which the majority of workers are involved in the
creation, distribution, and application of information.
Knowledge Workers involved in the creation,
distribution, and application of information.
 Characteristics of Information Age
 An information-based society in which more people work at handling
information than at agriculture and manufacturing combined.
 • Businesses depend on information technology to get their work done.
 • Work processes are being transformed to increase productivity.
 – Work Processes: The combination of activities that workers perform, the way
 they perform those activities, and the tools they use.
 – Productivity: The relationship between the results of an activity (output) and
 the resources used to create those results (inputs).
 – Effectiveness: The extent to which desirable results are achieved.
 • Information technology provides the means to rethink / recreate / reengineer
 conventional business processes.
 – Reengineering: The reshaping of business processes to remove barriers that
prohibit an organization from providing better products and services and to
help the organization capitalize on its strengths.
Business Processes: Collections of activities, often
spanning several departments that take one or more
kinds of input and create a result that is of value to a
company’s customers.
 ICT
Information and communication technologies (ICT) is
an umbrella term that covers all advanced technologies
in manipulating and communicating Information.
The term is sometimes used in preference to
Information Technology (IT) or "InfoTech". It is
sometimes said to have been coined by Jim Domsic of
Michigan in November 1981, to modernize the
outdated phrase "data processing".
Information Technology means the processing and
distribution of data using computer hardware and
software, telecommunications, and digital electronics.
 ICT three main components

– Computers; used to process data into information,

– Communications networks; transmission of
information,
– Know-how; the technology used for the transmission
 Computers

A computer is an electronic system that can be

instructed to accept, process, store, and present data
and information. It is made up of two component parts:
hardware and software.
– Hardware: The computer and its associated
equipment.
– Software: The general term for a set of instructions
that controls a computer or a communications network.
Program: A set of instructions that directs a computer
to perform certain tasks and produce certain results.
– System: A set of components that interact to
accomplish a purpose.
– Data: Raw facts, figures, and details.
– Information: An organized, meaningful, and useful
interpretation of data.
– Knowledge: An awareness and understanding of a set
of information and how that information can be put to
the best use.
– Information System: A business information system
designed to produce the
Classification of computer
Size: Microcomputer( Desktop, Laptop, Notebook,
palmtop), Minicomputer, Mainframe
Data Types: Analogue, Digital and Hybrid
Origin: Ist, 2nd,3rd, 4th and 5th Generation
Purpose: Special and general
COMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS

Communications Network can be defined as a set of

locations, or nodes, consisting of hardware, programs,
and information linked together as a system that
transmits and receives data and information.
– Communication: The sending and receiving of data
and information over a communications network.
– Data Communication: The transmission of data and
information through a communications medium.
 KNOW-HOW

Know-how is the capability to do something well.

Information technology know-how consists of:
– Familiarity with the tools of IT; including the
Internet
– Possession of the skills needed to use these tools
– An understanding of when to use IT to solve a
problem or create an opportunity
Principles of ICT
A principle is a fundamental rule, guideline, or
motivating idea that, when applied to a situation,
produces a desired result. ICT’s great usefulness is an
aid in solving problems,
unlocking creativity, and making people more effective
than they would be if they did not apply ICT to their
activities.
THE FUNCTIONS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Information Technology is made up of nine (9) major functions, namely; Capture,

Verifying,
Processing/Manipulation, Storage, Retrieval, Data Update, Reproducing,
Transmit/Communication, and Generation.
 • Capture: The process of compiling detailed records of activities. This could be by
recording of data from an event or occurrence, in some form such as sales slips,
personnel
forms, purchase orders, meters, course registration forms, etc.
 • Verifying: Is the operation for checking or validating of data to ensure it was
captured
and recorded correctly.
 • Processing/Manipulation: The process of converting, analysing, computing, and
synthesizing all forms of data or information.
 – Classifying: Is the operation for placing data
Storage: This entails placing data onto some storage
media such as magnetic disk, etc where it can be
retrieved when needed.
• Retrieval this entails searching out and gaining
access to specific data elements from the medium
where it was stored for further processing or for
transmission to another user.
 Data Update: This involves making changes to the stored data. Such changes may be to
insert new records or modify some data items of the existing record. However, this is
usually the exclusive preserve of a class of authorized data users.
 • Reproducing: This entails duplicating data from one medium to another or into another
 position in the same medium. Example a file of data stored on a magnetic disk may be
 reproduced onto another disk or onto a magnetic tape for further processing or for
 security reasons.
 • Transmission/Communication: The computer process of distributing information over a
 communications network. This entails transfer of data from one place to another e.g. data
 can be transferred from a device to a user in form of a report or a display on the screen of
 a computer controlled terminal.
 – Electronic Mail, or E-Mail
 – Voice Messaging, or Voice Mail
 • Generation: The process of organising information into a useful form, whether as
 numbers, text, sound, or visual image.
 Data Update: This involves making changes to the stored data. Such changes
may be to insert new records or modify some data items of the existing record.
However, this is usually the exclusive preserve of a class of authorised data
users
 • Reproducing: This entails duplicating data from one medium to another or
into another position in the same medium. Example a file of data stored on a
magnetic disk may be reproduced onto another disk or onto a magnetic tape for
further processing or for security reasons.
 • Transmission/Communication: The computer process of distributing
information over a communications network. This entails transfer of data from
one place to another e.g. data can be transferred from a device to a user in form
of a report or a display on the screen of a computer controlled terminal.
 – Electronic Mail, or E-Mail – Voice Messaging, or Voice Mail
 • Generation: The process of organising information into a useful form, whether
as numbers, text, sound, or visual image.