信息和通信技术在学术上的研究

Introduction介绍

 

信息技术与通信技术相结合，可以看作是一个组合词。随着技术的发展，这2个分离的部分开始与彼此紧密相连。信息技术是信息技术基础上的延伸。然而，与信息技术、通信技术是更具体的因为它强调通信和数字设备的集成，从而为用户提供了一个接近的机会，存储和传递信息（皇家社会，2012）。目前，随着信息和通信一体化，以及新的技术设备的崛起和减少的信息和通信技术设备的价格（赫尔曼，2008），信息和通信技术在今天的发展中起着重要的作用，在不同领域，如教育。毫无疑问，教育是国家发展的一个非常重要的方面，在每一个国家，特别是在发展中国家，作为合格的教育是一个国家的未来的综合基金会。因此，如何低成本的信息和通信技术设备已被用于教育和教育发展所造成的信息和通信技术以及解决问题的建议，将在以下几个部分讨论。Information and communication technology (ICT) firstly used since the 1980s by academic researchers and it became widely known after being utilised in a report to the U.K. government in 1997 and in the modified National Curriculum in England, Wales and North Ireland in 2000 (Murray, 2015). It can be regarded as a combination term with information technology and communication technology. With the development of technology, these two separated parts began to be linked with each other tightly. It is an extension on the basis of information technology. However, compared with informationtechnology, ICT is more specific since it puts emphasis on communication and the integration of digital devices, which provides a chance for users toapproach to, store and conveyinformation(The Royal Society, 2012). Nowadays, with the information and communication integration, as well as rising of new technology devices and decreasing of ICT devices price (Hermann, 2008), ICT plays a significant role in today’s development in different areas, such as education. There is no doubt that education is a highly crucial aspect for a country’s development which should be paid attention to in every state, especially in those developing countries as qualified education is consolidated foundation for a country’s future. Thus, how low cost ICT devices have been used in education and what impacts on education development caused by ICT as well as recommendations for tackling problems will be discussed in the following parts.  

 

1. The reasons for utilizing low cost ICT devices ineducation 利用低成本教育技术手段的原因

 

1.1 Knowledge-based economy requires quality education First, it is reported that people has entered into a knowledge-based economy era. And such an era highly requires qualified education with information and communication technology which can be approached through broad. All things cannot be implemented without computers and the Internet (Warschaure, 2012). Since ICT has become popular in 2000, an increasing number of countries began investing in information and communication technology because they believe that ICT will improve and renew their younger generationeducation. Developed countries, such as the U.K., the U.S. and Canada, have introduced ICT to education area earlier than developing countries and even at present, they are tending to research new ICT with more and more new functions which can be used widely by learners (Hepp K. et.al, 2004). Developing countries are putting effort as well on combining ICT with national educations. However, poor financial condition and limited funds impose a restriction on education based on ICT. The main solution for these nations is to largely use low cost ICT devices. Low cost ICT devices are cheaper and they can satisfy the demands for the education development in impoverished areas. 

 

1.2 Digital divide and digital literacy Researching on ICT devices, a computer and the Internet is a helpful example to analyse. Definitely the number of computers used by people is climbing up; however,two things cannot be neglected ---digital divide and digital literacy. Digital divide is a term describing an inequality socially and economically of a group of people in their access toinformation and communication technology (U.S. Department of Commerce, 1995). It demonstrates that the gap between individuals who can be accessible to informationand communication technologies and have skills touse these technologies, and those who cannot approach to ICTs and do not have abilities to use them (Hilbert, 2011). The two following charts show global digital divide in 2006 and 2013 which illustratedby computers per 100people and percentageof Internet users respectively. As we can see from the charts, both computer usage and Internet access conditions were different in different countries. All in all, compared to developed countries, developing stateswere still in abackward position. Another termshould not be ignoredis digital literacy which is related todigital divide. Digital literacy was firstly presented by Paul Gilster in 1997. He pointed out that digital literacy was an ability to learn computers in different forms and to use a wide range of computer resources. In the twenty-first century, with the development of technology, digital literacy has been endowed with new content. In the light of Secker’s (2007) analysis, digital literacy is a framework to integrate different literacies and skill-sets. These skill-sets not only include computer and ICT skills, but also basic skills to understand information gathered from digital devices as well as communicationcompetence;moreover,emotionalandsocialelementsalso involved in digital literacy, such as social awareness (Bawden, 2008). These skills tend to have a positive influence oneducationdevelopment.  

Increasing number of computers made use of in the world shows the huge attraction of technological advantages of computers which affect people’s life in every aspect. Schools are no exception. But what about the data of computers utilised in education field? It is reported that since ICT has become popular in twenty-first century, computers have been employed as mediums for learning in more and more schools. In developed countries, USA and Australia for instance, these two countries were the leaders worldwide in the number of students’ computer, with a quotient of five to one in 2003 (Gulek & Demirtas, 2005). In the light of a piece of news in 2014, there were nearly 70% British schools using tablets in the teaching process, and in these schools, almost one student owned one personal tablet (Cnbeta.com, 2014). However, the condition in developing countries is totally different. As the table shown above, obviously the number of computers per 100 people was very low in most developing countries. Taking India as an example, Ftchinese.com noted in 2013 that India was toughly on its way to promote education based on ICTs. Apparent evidence in a primary school named Lady Irwin in New Delhi could illustrate such a comment. In this school, 1400 students used only 14 desktop computers to learn ICT skills and gain knowledge via using those devices. Even though India is regarded as a country which is famous for its IT industry, there are still a small percentage of students can get access to ICT devices. Government was putting effort on turning the situation around; however whether students could access to learning through computers, still depended onstudents’ economic positions and financial conditions in schools.  

The comparison above between developed countries and developing ones on learning via computers is not optimistic. The distance between these two parts of the world still remains great. Undeveloped countries have a long way to go. Thus eliminating digital divide, enhancing digital literacy is an essential task all over the world, especially for those undeveloped places. They are still on the way struggling with the poor financial conditions in local context. Low cost ICT devices seem like timely rain for developing countries, providing them a chance to approach to digital devices and improve digital literacies. That is why low cost devices are used in most developing countries.