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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Information and Communication
Technologies
• Communication is designed to impact
someone.
• The communication can meet one or more of
three basic goals:
1. 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.
Information and Communication
Technologies
2. 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.
Information and Communication
Technologies
3. Entertain people as they participate in or
observe events and performances.
 Television programs, movies, and novels are
common entertainment-type communication.
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.
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.
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.
Information and Communication
Technologies
• People must process information before they
can communicate.
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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.
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.
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.
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 email and online chat rooms to represent a wink.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Information and Communication
Technologies
• Communication technology is used for four
distinct types of communication:
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Human-to-human communication
Human-to-machine communication
Machine-to-human communication
Machine-to-machine communication
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 humanto-human communication.
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.
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-tomachine communication.
• This type of communication system starts,
changes, or ends a machine’s operations.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Information and Communication
Technologies
summary
• We are rapidly moving from the industrial
age into the information age
• This new age is characterized by the widescale 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
Information and Communication
Technologies
summary
• Transfer of communication is done in terms
of human-to-human, human-to-machine,
machine-to-human, and machine-tomachine 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
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
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
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
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
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