Information and Communication Technology

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY
ICT is an acronym for Information and Communication Technology. ICT skills are those related to the use of computers and then the ability to transmit stored information through fixed line networks or through wireless phone networks. Thus it involves three steps of receiving digital information, storing it and after reshaping the information resending it. Digital information can be any communication whether in written form or in an audio and video format. It is basically information technology but with communications added on to the package.


ICT IS ALL AROUND US
This is a vast field and includes all the modern communication tools that we use casually in our day to day personal operations.  These tools have an immense network of internet browsers, cable and wireless operators using an infrastructure of transmission towers and data storage devices.  It includes computers, radios, television, cell phones, broadcasting networks and the unseen satellites orbiting above us constantly sending signals from one place to another. This is a technology which is constantly growing and improving and thus cannot be truly defined for it is changing and growing every second. It is this technology which is bringing people in far corners of the globe closer to each other.


COMPUTER SKILLS NECESSARY FOR ICT
The simplest examples of ICT are emails, text messages and social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. The mode of communication here is in the form of digital data. Thus ICT skills involve first of all the ability to receive digital data and then it involves the storage of the data on a computer device. Then the next step involves having the skill to retrieve the data. Let us take the example of a simple email. Receiving the email is the first step in our ICT skills. The email is stored on our computer so we have the second skill required in ICT. The third is accessing the email when we need it. We have this skill too. If we copy the letter inside the email and transfer it to a word processing program we can alter the words in the email and then add some to it. This is the manipulation of digital data. Having completed our additions to the letter we send it on its way to someone through email. Thus we have exhibited the last skill required by ICT, which is the transmission of digital data. So we can define ICT as the reception of digital data, its storage, retrieval, conversion or manipulation and then the transmission of it. This completes the cycle of Information Communications Technology.

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