ICT student textbook/Introduction

What is ICT

Have you ever seen anyone in your school or community or home use a phone? Have you ever withdrawn money from an ATM or seen someone get money from an ATM? You may perhaps have booked a train ticket or Tirumala darshan online. You may have seen a movie on your computer or chatted with a friend or recorded a video with your phone. Have you ever wondered how these things are done? There is one thing common that is common across all these things - the use of Information Communication Technologies ICT.

Before we understand what are ICT, look at the list below and identify all the words that you have heard of: File:Have you heard of ICT terms.mm (If you are using the printed book, please open the file "Have_you_heard_of_ICT_terms.mm" using Freeplane).

As students, you have been introduced to some or many of these terms in your school, in your family or in your neighbourhood. The cell phone tower, your nearest ATM, your mother's mobile phone, games, whatsapp chats, email, the selfie, internet, videos and songs on your computer - all these are examples of a new kind of technology. These technologies are called digital technologies and they are changing the way we talk to each other, work with each other, and the way we do things. The computer is becoming like a television, the phone is becoming like a computer, you can use the computer to make voice calls, you can record a video with your phone, you can read your newspaper on the phone, and you can even paint with your computer!

The technologies that make all these possible are collectively called ICT. ICT refers to those set of technologies that help us create information, access information, analyze information and communicate with each other. Human beings have always accessed information and communicated, but what makes these present technologies special is their digital nature. You can read more about how ICT developed in the chapter on Science, Technology and Society.

We live in information society

Look at the pictures below and discuss with your friends and teacher.

A Bonobo fishing for termites

What is this bonobo doing: can you guess? You are correct! It is "fishing" for termites from an ant hill. Did you think only human beings can fish? When it was first discovered in the 1920s that chimpanzees can make tools, all over the scientific community, people were amazed. This was because human beings were defined as the species which makes tools for use. Dr Louis Leakey, a famous noted primatologist said " We have to define what is a tool, or we have to define what is a human being or we have to accept that chimpanzees are human beings!".

style="width: 25%;" [[| Driver less car

What is special about this car? Did you guess? Yes, it has no driver. When you drive, you gather information about the road, other vehicles, people, animals and weather and you operate the controls. Gathering information, processing, analyzing and acting, has been a defining characteristic of the human species. If a car can now do this, do you feel like asking the same question as about the chimpanzee? What do you feel?

Today's society is called the information society. It is so called because we are now able to do many things based on information, how we analyze it, how we pAbility to gather information, methods of gathering information, processing it, analyzing it, communicating and making decisions to act on it are very important skills. All these technologies - mobile, television, computers, tablets - are together called Information Communication Technologies (ICT). ICT refers This current set of technologies are also called Digital Technologies.

See this pictute

Computers are no longer mere output devices but rather devices that can help us create, draw, compose music,communicate and do so much more; the idea of ICT has moved far beyond the mere computer. ICT and broadly digital technologies are changing the way we talk, we learn and we work.

This textbook will introduce you to the various possibilities of learning and doing and communicating that are possible now with ICT. As students, you are encouraged to explore this new area and make connections to your own daily life, the impact these ICT have on your life, how you would like to interact with this technology and how you can equip yourself to understand this new way of thinking, learning and communicating.

What can you expect to learn

In this new subject called ICT, we can expect to learn the following:

Information

1. What is ICT
2. How did ICT develop
3. Effect ICT has on family, neighbourhood, school and village
4. Use of ICT ethically, safely and responsibly

Performance

1. Use ICT to express your ideas, using available resources (using images, audio, text, videos)
2. Use ICT to learn school subjects and general knowledge
3. Use ICT to talk to your friends, to work together and to play together
4. Use ICT to help in the development of the local community, socio cultural activities and development.

How is this book organized

This book will present ideas and activities at three different levels to address the classes 6-8 and your teacher will determine the appropriate level of activity. We will be required to work on projects, individually or in groups, to explore a particular idea or a problem. We will use appropriate digital methods, tools and processes in this.

There will be hands-on projects for working with different applications and this will be combined with classroom discussion as well as individual readings for students. Different groups in the class will work on different examples for a given theme and share their analysis, findings and creations. It is expected that students will learn together and teach the other, as they explore the different possibilities with digital technologies.

There is a printed book which will be accompanied by a digital resource collection. This can be used for further exploration or reading or doing more activities. The textbook will indicate which resource will be used for which activity, alongwith an accompanying glossary.

overall suggestions

1. Add a glossary
2. Write a short para on how each unit is organized
3. Box of all resources used in a unit