Information and communications technology (ICT) is an extended term for information
technology (IT) which stresses the role of unified communications and the integration
of telecommunications(telephone lines and wireless signals), computers as well as
necessary enterprise software, middleware, storage, and audio-visual systems, which enable
users to access, store, transmit, and manipulate information.
The term ICT is also used to refer to the convergence of audio-visual and telephone
networks with computer networks through a single cabling or link system. There are large
economic incentives (huge cost savings due to elimination of the telephone network) to
merge the telephone network with the computer network system using a single unified system
of cabling, signal distribution and management.
However, ICT has no universal definition, as "the concepts, methods and applications
involved in ICT are constantly evolving on an almost daily basis." The broadness of ICT
covers any product that will store, retrieve, manipulate, transmit or receive information
electronically in a digital form, e.g. personal computers, digital television, email, robots. For
clarity, Zuppo provided an ICT hierarchy where all levels of the hierarchy "contain some
degree of commonality in that they are related to technologies that facilitate the transfer of
information and various types of electronically mediated communications.". Skills
Framework for the Information Age is one of many models for describing and managing
competencies for ICT professionals for the 21st century.
ICT in Education:
Information and Communication Technology can contribute to universal access to education,
equity in education, the delivery of quality learning and teaching, teachers’ professional
development and more efficient education management, governance and administration.
UNESCO takes a holistic and comprehensive approach to promoting ICT in education.
Access, inclusion and quality are among the main challenges they can address. The
Organization’s Intersectral Platform for ICT in education focuses on these issues through the
joint work of three of its sectors: Communication & Information, Education and Science.
ICT Today:
In modern society ICT is ever-present, with over three billion people having access to the
Internet. With approximately 8 out of 10 Internet users owning a smartphone, information
and data are increasing by leaps and bounds. This rapid growth, especially in developing
countries, has led ICT to become a keystone of everyday life, in which life without some
facet of technology renders most of clerical, work and routine tasks dysfunctional. The most
recent authoritative data, released in 2014, shows "that Internet use continues to grow
steadily, at 6.6% globally in 2014 (3.3% in developed countries, 8.7% in the developing
world); the number of Internet users in developing countries has doubled in five years (2009-
2014), with two thirds of all people online now living in the developing world."
However, hurdles are still at large. "Of the 4.3 billion people not yet using the Internet, 90%
live in developing countries. In the world’s 42 Least Connected Countries (LCCs), which are
home to 2.5 billion people, access to ICTs remains largely out of reach, particularly for these
countries’ large rural populations." ICT has yet to penetrate the remote areas of some
countries, with many developing countries dearth of any type of Internet. This also includes
the availability of telephone lines, particularly the availability of cellular coverage, and other
forms of electronic transmission of data. The latest "Measuring the Information Society
Report" cautiously stated that the increase in the aforementioned cellular data coverage is
ostensible, as "many users have multiple subscriptions, with global growth figures sometimes
translating into little real improvement in the level of connectivity of those at the very bottom
of the pyramid; an estimated 450 million people worldwide live in places which are still out
of reach of mobile cellular service."
Favorably, the gap between the access to the Internet and mobile coverage has decreased
substantially in the last fifteen years, in which "2015 is the deadline for achievements of the
UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which global leaders agreed upon in the year
2000, and the new data show ICT progress and highlight remaining gaps." ICT continues to
take on new form, with nanotechnology set to usher in a new wave of ICT electronics and
gadgets. ICT newest editions into the modern electronic world include smart watches, such as
the Apple Watch, smart wristbands such as the Nike+ FuelBand, and smart TVs such
as Google TV. With desktops soon becoming part of a bygone era, and laptops becoming the
preferred method of computing, ICT continues to insinuate and alter itself in the ever-
changing globe.
Information communication technologies play a role in facilitating accelerated
pluralism in new social movements today. The internet according to Bruce Bimber is
"accelerating the process of issue group formation and action" and coined the
term accelerated pluralism to explain this new phenomena. ICTs are tools for "enabling social
movement leaders and empowering dictators" in effect promoting societal change. ICTs can
be used to garner grassroots support for a cause due to the internet allowing for political
discourse and direct interventions with state policy as well as change the way complaints
from the populace are handled by governments.
What Is ICT Education and Why Is It Important?
Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) education is basically our
society’s efforts to teach its current and emerging citizens valuable knowledge and skills
around computing and communications devices, software that operates them,
applications that run on them and systems that are built with them.
What are these things? How do they work? How do you use them productively? How are
they deployed, assembled, managed and maintained to create productive systems? How
they are used in specific business and industry settings? What are the underlying science
and technologies behind them and how might those be developed to advance ICT fields?
ICT is complex and quickly changing, and it is confusing for many people. It is so
pervasive in the modern world that everyone has some understanding of it, but those
understandings are often wildly divergent.
There are many important dimensions to ICT education, including:
ICT/Digital Literacy – Today, everyone needs a basic understanding of ICT and
how to make productive use of it, just to be good students, workers and citizens.
Teaching people how to be competent basic users of ICT technologies is an
important role of ICT education, so they will be successful in their academic and
work careers, and so they can efficiently participate in modern technical society.
As part of its study validating U.S. Department of Labor IT Competency model
content in California, MPICT determined with 99% confidence California
employer agreement with the following statements regarding Digital Literacy:
o “Information and communication technologies (ICT) competencies are
increasingly important for most of our employers, regardless of role. If
there was an agreed-upon standard for "digital literacy", or ICT
competencies expected of all workers, regardless of workplace role, my
organization would value a credential based on that standard as a way of
validating ICT skills for non-ICT workers.” (70.5% agree or very much
agree)
o “In the 21st century, an ability to work with information and
communication technologies is becoming as essential to education, life
and workplace success as "reading, writing and arithmetic".” ICT Digital
Literacy should be considered a basic skill by educational systems,
something taught to and assessed for all students. (85.2% agree or very
much agree)
o This study details 49 competencies for ICT User level knowledge and
skills, as an actionable, teachable and assessable definition of what people
need to know and be able to do to be “digitally literate.”
ICT Infrastructure and Support Applied Technologists – Beyond a basic user
competency, our society also needs more knowledgeable and capable technical
people to deploy, manage and maintain ICT equipment, software and systems, so
they work well for users. In all industries, these people manage computer and
communications hardware, software and applications; networked systems; online
information sharing, communication and commerce systems; business processes
making use of these systems; and user support.
Specialized Business and Industry Uses of ICT – As enabling technologies,
ICT is used strategically in almost all businesses and industries. Many have
developed specialized systems and uses of ICT, and many have specialized legal
and regulatory requirements; quality control systems; integrations with
production and research equipment and systems; security requirements; and
software applications. For example:
o Bioscience industries rely on specialized ICT systems and applications to
conduct research, analyze organic materials, produce biotech products
and do required reporting;
o Financial services industries rely on ICT to maintain customer records, do
business, conduct trades, do financial reporting, secure proprietary
information and comply with regulations;
o Manufacturing industries use specialized computer controlled systems
and robotics to design, produce and test products.
o Property management operations use ICT to network and control heating
and cooling, lighting and building access systems.
o Electric utilities use ICT to monitor and manage electricity distribution,
customer billing and smart metering systems.
o Telecommunications, cable TV and other entertainment industries use
ICT to store content, manage customers and deliver their services.
We need to develop a competent workforce that understands not only relevant
technologies, but also specialized business and industry environments and
operations, to meet these specialized needs.
ICT Research and Development Scientists – ICT fields themselves are under
constant pressure to evolve and improve. We need people who deeply understand
the science and technologies underlying ICT and who can work to advance the
fields.
In virtually all modern businesses and industries, and in modern society in general, ICT
has key strategic roles. It is strategically important to develop citizens and workers who
can competently and efficiently operate and add value in these systems and
environments.