1. Information and Communication Technologies
Foundations of Technology
Standard 17
Students will develop an understanding of and be able to select and use information and communication technologies.

2. Information and Communication Technologies
People often use the terms information and communication together.
These terms are related, but each means something different.
Two words you need to know to understand communication technology are data and information.
Data includes individual facts, statistics (numerical data), and ideas.
These facts and ideas are not sorted or arranged in any manner.

3. Information and Communication Technologies
Information is data that has been sorted and arranged.
It consists of organized facts and opinions people receive during daily life.
Changing data into information is called data processing or information processing.
It involves gathering, organizing, and reporting data so it is useful to people.
It is often done using information technology.

4. Information and Communication Technologies
The classic communication system is made up of an information source, an encoder, a transmitter, a receiver, a decoder, storage, retrieval, and an information destination.
Feedback may be included in this process as well.

5. Information and Communication Technologies
Noise, an unwanted signal that can interfere with the communication process, can interrupt the signal at any point in the process.
Data and information can be stored to be retrieved later.
Storage devices include, CD-ROMs or DVDs, hard drives, flash memory, and memory chips.

6. Information and Communication Technologies
There are many ways to communicate information, such as graphic and electronic means.
Graphic communication systems involve the design, development, and production of visual images.
Examples of graphic systems include printing and photochemical processes, while examples of electronic systems are computers, DVD players, digital audiotapes, and telephones.

7. Information and Communication Technologies
This information can be expressed in various forms: electrical information can be formatted as digital (discrete bit) or analog (continuously variable signals).
Multimedia combines information from a number of formats (audio, video, and data) and then transmits it.
Television studios and telephone companies exemplify businesses that deal with multimedia.

8. Information and Communication Technologies
Messages are influenced by many factors, such as timing, sequencing, and processing.
Because people today are bombarded daily with numerous messages, the usefulness of information depends on such factors as relevancy, timeliness, truth, completeness, and cultural value.

9. Information and Communication Technologies
The knowledge and information that is provided through information and communication systems can help to inform people, shape personal views and concepts of reality, and entertain.

10. Information and Communication Technologies
Information has become such a valued commodity in today’s society, many commercial companies are involved in information and communication technologies.
You need to evaluate the quality of information that is received from these companies by comparing and contrasting information sources and examining the relevancy of the message.

11. Information and Communication Technologies
Graphic communication systems involve visual messages, such as words and pictures — newspapers, magazines, and print media exemplify this type of communication.
Entertainment, including television, movies, videotape, music, and compact discs (CDs) is also a growing area of communication.

12. Information and Communication Technologies
Symbols, measurement, conventions, icons, and graphic images are recognized components in the language of technology that are used to communicate messages.
You should communicate to others using the language of technology.

13. Information and Communication Technologies
Information and communication technologies include the inputs, processes, and outputs associated with sending and receiving information.
All of the parts are necessary if information is to be shared and understood by the sender and receiver.

14. Information and Communication Technologies
Communication is designed to impact someone.
The communication can meet one or more of three basic goals:
Inform by providing information about people, events, or relationships.
We read books, magazines, and newspapers to obtain information.
Radio news programs, television news programs, and documentaries are designed to provide information.

15. Information and Communication Technologies
Persuade people to act in a certain way.
Examples include the “Say No to Drugs,” “Buckle Up” and “Give a Hoot, Don’t Pollute” campaigns.
Print and electronic advertisements, billboards, and signs are typical persuasive communication media.

16. Information and Communication Technologies
Entertain people as they participate in or observe events and performances.
Television programs, movies, and novels are common entertainment-type communication.

17. Information and Communication Technologies
The three goals may be merged.
Two new words in our language arise from this merging of goals.
The first is infotainment, which means providing information in an entertaining way.
You may learn as you watch a quiz show on television or play with video games and computer simulations.
Both of these are enjoyable ways of gaining new and useful information.

18. Information and Communication Technologies
The second term, edutainment, takes communication one step beyond infotainment.
Edutainment is more than allowing the information to be available in an entertaining way.
It creates a situation in which people want to gain the information.
The television program Sesame Street is a good example of edutainment.

19. Information and Communication Technologies
Data and information are of little use, however, unless they are shared.
This is what communication does.
Communication is the act of exchanging ideas, information, and opinions.
It involves a message someone wants someone else or something to receive.
When we use technical equipment in communicating, it is called communication technology.

20. Information and Communication Technologies
People must process information before they can communicate.
You may know something.
The knowledge is in your mind.
It belongs to you.
No one has access to it.
There are a number of ways you can share your knowledge.
You can use your ability to speak and tell someone what you know, or you can write a paper containing the information you have.

21. Information and Communication Technologies
A person can read the paper to learn what you know.
You can draw a picture communicating the information.
The picture shows a person what you know.
You can take a photograph communicating what you know, use a symbol, or develop a sign representing the information.
The use of drawings, symbols, and measurements promotes clear communication by offering a general language with which to convey ideas.

22. Information and Communication Technologies
Technological knowledge and processes are communicated using symbols, measurement, conventions, icons, graphic images, and languages that incorporate a variety of visual, auditory, and tactile stimuli.

23. Information and Communication Technologies
For example, the international symbols developed for transportation systems have helped to communicate critical information to travelers:
a circle with a slash represents “No” or “Do not do.”
Emerging technologies often generate new symbols, measurement systems, and terminology.
For example, ;-) is a symbol used in and on-line chat rooms to represent a wink.

24. Information and Communication Technologies
The development of the personal computer has spurred new terminology, such as gigabyte (a unit of computer storage capacity equal to one billion bytes) and nanosecond (one billionth of a second).

25. Information and Communication Technologies
So far, we have discussed people directly communicating with other people.
This is face-to-face communication.
People show pictures and symbols, or they use formal language.
These are common types of communication, but they use little technology.
There are no technical means used.
Machines and equipment are not involved in the communication.
A communication system is not present.

26. Information and Communication Technologies
Communication technology uses equipment and systems to send and receive information.
This technology communicates information using graphic and wave systems.
Graphic comes from a word meaning “to draw or write, as on paper.”
Wave refers to radio waves, a kind of energy.

27. Information and Communication Technologies
Graphic communication may be communicated using drawings, pictures, graphs, photographs, or words on flat surfaces.
These kinds of messages are called graphic communication.
In graphic communication, paper or film carries the message.

28. Information and Communication Technologies
Wave communication systems depend on an energy source called electromagnetic radiation.
Electromagnetic radiation is energy moving through space in waves.
It travels at the speed of light — 186 thousand miles per second.

29. Information and Communication Technologies
Sound waves are much slower than electromagnetic waves.
They travel at different speeds in different media.
In air, they travel at about 750 mph at sea level.
They travel about four times faster in water.

30. Information and Communication Technologies
People can use light, sound, or electrical waves to send information.
The information is coded at the source.
It is then transmitted (sent) to the receiver.
There, the code must be changed back to information.
This type of communication is often called electronic communication.

31. Information and Communication Technologies
For example, suppose your favorite sports figures are interviewed.
They speak into microphones.
Speech is changed into pulses of electromagnetic energy.
This energy is transmitted from the radio station’s broadcast tower.
Your radio’s antenna picks up some of these impulses of energy.

32. Information and Communication Technologies
Various stages of the radio change the energy.
Finally, the radio speaker changes pulses back into audible sound.
You hear voices, but between the microphones and the speaker, no one can hear or see the message.

33. Information and Communication Technologies
Communication technology is used for four distinct types of communication:
Human-to-human communication
Human-to-machine communication
Machine-to-human communication
Machine-to-machine communication

34. Information and Communication Technologies
One way to look at communication is in terms of the sender and receiver.
We are familiar with people communicating with people.
This type of communicating is the most common.
It works through our electronic media and our printed products.
This type of communication is called human-to-human communication.

35. Information and Communication Technologies
Other types of communication also exist, however.
Have you ever reacted to a traffic light, a warning light on the dashboard of your car, a railroad crossing signal, or the bell that indicates the end of a class period?
If so, you have participated in machine-to-human communication.
This type of communication system is widely used to display machine operating conditions.

36. Information and Communication Technologies
Have you keyed material into a computer or set the temperature on a thermostat?
If so, you have engaged in human-to-machine communication.
This type of communication system starts, changes, or ends a machine’s operations.

37. Information and Communication Technologies
Finally, computer-controlled operations use machine-to-machine communication.
Modern industry is becoming more computer based.
Humans enter programs and data into the computer, and then the computer directs and controls an apparatus.

38. Information and Communication Technologies
Examples of this type of communication include a computer controlling a printer and a thermostat controlling a heating or cooling system.
Typical examples of computer-controlled operations are computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM), and robotics.

39. Information and Communication Technologies
Much of communication technology was developed to satisfy the need for mass communication.
People wanted to tell their message to large numbers of other people through printed media.
One type of communication system is playing an increasing role in modern life.
This system is telecommunication, communication at a distance.

40. Information and Communication Technologies
Telecommunication includes a number of specific types of communication.
Probably the most widely used are radio, television, and the telephone — more specifically the cell phone.

41. Information and Communication Technologies
A new system of communication is rapidly changing how people gather and use information.
It is based on a key invention, the personal computer.
This new type of communication uses a network of computers to share information.
The network is called the Internet.
It allows people to gather information using the World Wide Web and exchange messages using electronic mail.

42. Information and Communication Technologies
Communication and information technologies are part of every person’s life.
We use graphic and electronic communication media daily.
This media allows us to send or receive information.

43. Information and Communication Technologies
Information technology allows us to access and use vast quantities of data.
Communication and information technologies inform us or cause us to take action.
Without communication and information technologies, we would know little about the world around us.
Our lives are affected daily through these systems.

44. Information and Communication Technologies summary
We are rapidly moving from the industrial age into the information age
This new age is characterized by the wide-scale availability of communication media
People receive and send a constant barrage of data and information every day
Each communication message is designed to inform, persuade, entertain, or achieve some combination of these goals

45. Information and Communication Technologies summary
Transfer of communication is done in terms of human-to-human, human-to-machine, machine-to-human, and machine-to-machine communication
Each of these systems has a transmitter that decodes and sends the message. The message then travels over a carrier to a receiver. The receiver collects and decodes the message

46. Information and Communication Technologies summary
The most common forms of communication systems are printed graphic, photographic, telecommunication, technical graphic, and computer and Internet communications
Communication technology uses technical means (equipment and systems) to exchange ideas, information, and opinions
Information technology is data that has been sorted and arranged

47. Information and Communication Technologies summary
Knowledge is information that humans can apply to situations
Interference is anything that impairs the accurate communication of a message
Human-to-human communication is one person directly providing data, information, or ideas to another person

48. Information and Communication Technologies summary
Machine-to-human communication is a device or system providing information and data to a person through mechanical means
Human-to-machine communication is a person providing information and data to control a machi9ne or system.
Machine-to-machine communication is a device or system providing information or data to another device or system

49. Information and Communication Technologies summary
Printed graphic communication is exchanging information and ideas using two-dimensional images reproduced on a substrate
Printing is the process of producing copies of text and images on a substrate
Photographic communication is using photographic images to communicate information or ideas

50. Information and Communication Technologies summary
Telecommunication is communication at a distance through electronic means
Internet (interconnected network of networks) is a network of computers that enables people to send and receive messages and share information
The World Wide Web is a system of interconnected computer files linked to one another on the Internet