ICT student textbook/What is the nature of ICT

Overview

We saw in the previous chapter about how ICT are part of many things we do; and how they have changed the way we are working, learning and even playing.
To understand how these things happen, let us consider two short stories below:

Ramulu was a farmer in a small village in a southern state. Agriculture was the main source of income from his 2 acre plot and he was growing vegetables and groundnuts. A few years ago he purchased a cell phone and enrolled his number in a market update service. He started receiving daily price information on various agricultural commodities. This helped him manage how much he harvested, how much he took to the market and what prices he sold at.

Objectives

In this unit you will be learning about:

1. The nature of ICT - how technology has grown in society, how ICT has developed and how it has changed the way society is organized today
2. How to use technology for self learning and collaborating with your friends
3. The various things you can do with ICT (like writing, painting, singing)
4. How to use ICT safely and also what are the principles to keep in mind when we use ICT to learn about legal aspects of technology, safety aspects of technology

How is the unit organized

In this unit, there are three levels of activities, to match roughly to classes 6-8. The activities will increase in difficulty - based on the ICT skills needed as well as subject knowledge that you will be building. As you work on the various activities for the different ICT areas in the each level, you will also get experienced with more ICT skills and this would help you with the subsequent level.

The levels of the unit have been defined based on the ICT skills that we expect to build as well as the overall understanding and subject levels expected. You can imagine this somewhat like a spiral staircase where you learn some topic at a basic level, you move along to the next class and you can come back to discuss the same topic at a more advanced level.

At each level you will be exploring different digital skills and you will also be required to create outputs that will explain your process of learning and demonstrate a particular digital skills. Some of the outputs will be such that you can keep adding to it in each unit.

The detailed description of objectives for each level are discussed here.

Level	Objectives	Digital Literacy Component	Looking at your learning
Level 1	Introduction to the idea of computing What makes the computer special Data is of different kinds and can be edited, processed, combined in multiple formats Different devices can be different for reading, representing data Data can be organized in files and folders	Understanding what makes the computer special Skills to handle ICT equipment safely Familiarity with an operating system, file organising Using input devices for entering data Introduction to multiple applications	Mindmaps representing your understanding of information and various formats Logs of lessons using applications for keyboard input
Level 2	Trace the history of technology and science Locating the history of ICT within this Understanding technology safety and ethical use	Understanding that ICT has evolved/ evolving We have what is now called digital and non digital ICT Understanding what makes the computer special Able to handle ICT equipment safely Familiar with an operating system, file organising Introduction to multiple applications	Demonstrated familiarity with input devices through lesson logs Concept maps to represent student conception of technology Text document with iimages to demonstrate student understanding of the evolution of technology
Level 3	Internet is becoming more prominent in our society Internet is a place for learning Safe use of internet Connecting is an important aspect of ICT Peer learning is enabled by ICT	Accessing the internet Downloading information Safety while accessing the internet Using emails to communicate Safety while using email Skills of communicating using email	Print to file copies of email conversations Text document with links to useful websites accessed alongwith a summary of the information on the site A short reflection on the role of technology and society and how students should interact with it - this can be in the form of a presentation or a text document with graphics