JSS 1 First Term

Learning Objectives

• Define Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
• State the parts of ICT.
• List at least six uses of ICT at home, in school and in the community.
• Identify ICT devices found in the local community.
• Define information and explain how it differs from data.
• List the six information ages in order.
• Give one example of a tool or method from each information age.
• Explain the difference between digital and analogue technology.
• Classify digital devices by purpose.

Meaning of ICT

Information and Communication Technology is the use of computers, telecommunication devices and other digital equipment to collect, process, store, transmit and display information. The word ICT joins information and communication technology. It covers both the devices we use to work with information and the networks that move information from one place to another.

ICT is not limited to desktop computers. A mobile phone, a point of sale machine at a shop, an automated teller machine at a bank and a television set are all ICT devices because they all work with information in electronic form.

Parts of ICT

ICT has four main parts. Input devices collect data. Processing devices work on the data. Storage devices keep it. Output devices present it. The keyboard and mouse are input devices. The processor is the processing device. The hard disk is a storage device. The monitor and printer are output devices.

Communication devices and networks form the fourth part. A modem, a router and a fibre optic cable carry information from one computer to another. Together these four parts make up a working information system.

Uses of ICT in Our Environment

ICT is used in many places in Nigeria. In the classroom it supports learning through computers, projectors and online lessons. In the hospital it stores patient records and reports results of tests. In the bank it records deposits, transfers money and supports automated teller machines.

ICT is also used in the market, where a trader records sales and sends money. In the transport system it tracks buses and trains. In agriculture it gives farmers weather forecasts and market prices. In government offices it supports identity registration, tax collection and elections.

At home ICT is used to play games, watch videos, send messages and do homework on a tablet. Every use of ICT depends on the same parts working together: input, processing, storage, output and communication.

What is Information and the Information Ages

Information is facts, knowledge or data that tells us something. It reaches us as spoken words, written words, pictures, photographs, numbers and sounds. Whenever a message or a fact helps you understand something you did not know, you have received information.

Information is not the same as data. Data is a raw fact such as one mark, one price or one name, and it becomes information only when it is arranged so that it has meaning. A list of scores is data; the class average worked out from those scores is information.

Human history is divided into information ages, which are periods marked by a new way of creating, storing or sharing information. The six information ages are the Stone Age, the Iron Age, the Middle Age, the Industrial Age, the Electronic Age and the Information Age.

In the Stone Age, before 3000 BC, people used stone tools, drew pictures in caves and passed information from mouth to mouth. In the Iron Age, from about 1200 BC, stronger iron tools were made and early writing appeared on wood and clay. In the Middle Age, information was copied by hand by scribes and carried by messengers.

The Industrial Age began in Europe in the 1760s. The mechanical printing press allowed books and newspapers to be printed in large numbers, and the telegraph sent messages over wires using coded signals. The Electronic Age began in the early 1900s, when radio, television and the telephone carried information far and fast using electricity.

We live in the Information Age. Computers, the internet and digital devices such as smartphones let people create, store and share vast amounts of information instantly anywhere in the world, and information is kept as 0s and 1s on tiny devices.

Introduction to Digital Technology

Technology means the tools and machines that people make to help solve problems, and a device is any single machine or tool that does a particular job. Automation means machines doing tasks without a person controlling every step, as a washing machine does when it runs a whole cycle by itself.

Digital technology stores, processes and sends information using numbers, specifically only 0 and 1. When you take a photo with a phone, the phone turns the picture into a long string of 0s and 1s so it can be stored and sent. This is why a digital copy stays sharp even after it has been copied many times.

Digital technology is different from analogue technology, which uses continuous signals such as the moving hands of a clock or a liquid in a thermometer. A digital clock shows the time as numbers, while an analogue clock uses hands that move smoothly around a dial.

Examples of digital devices include computers, smartphones, tablets, digital cameras, smart televisions, ATMs and calculators. Devices can be classified by purpose into communication, education, entertainment, business, transportation and health.

Consider a market woman who wants to receive payment without carrying cash. She can use a POS terminal, which reads a customer's card, transfers the money digitally and prints a receipt. The terminal stores, processes and sends the payment as 0s and 1s, which shows how digital technology solves an everyday business problem.

Practical Work

1. Write down five ICT devices you have used today and where you used them.
2. Sort ten device names into input, output, storage and processing groups.
3. Draw a simple diagram of the four parts of ICT and label each part.
4. Interview an adult in your household about the ICT they use at work.
5. Write the six information ages in the correct order and give one example of a tool or method used in each.
6. Make a table with two columns, Digital and Analogue, and list five devices under each column.
7. Collect or draw three devices used in the home and write the purpose of each.

Scenario-Based Questions

1. Your mother receives money on her phone every time she sells goods at the market. Name two ICT devices she uses and explain what each one does.
2. A village has no electricity but has one public computer. Give two reasons the community still benefits from that computer.
3. Your uncle says a television set is not an ICT device. Give two arguments to show that it is.
4. A school wants to register all pupils for a free meal programme. Explain which ICT part would be used to store the names.
5. Name three ICT devices you have seen in a hospital and state what each one is used for.
6. Explain the difference between information and data using your class scores as an example.
7. A shop owner keeps all his records in a notebook. Give two problems this causes and two ICT solutions.
8. Your grandmother tells you that when she was young, news travelled by letter and radio. Explain two ways information travels today and why it is faster.
9. A pupil says a wall clock with hands is a digital device. Explain why the pupil is wrong.
10. Explain how the printing press changed the way people shared information during the Industrial Age.
11. A small shop wants to keep records of sales on a computer. List two advantages of using a digital device instead of a paper exercise book.
12. Give two differences between information and data using examples from your class register.
13. Name two devices used in a bank and state the job each one does.
14. Explain why the age we live in is called the Information Age.