The Impact of ICT on Computer Application

Kenneth S Nwizege1, Franklyn Chukwunonso

2

1. College of Engineering

Swansea University, UK

kennethsorle@yahoo.com

2. Department of IT

Federal University of Technology, Yola, Nigeria

franconicostelo@yahoo.com

Charity Kpabeb3, Shedrack Mmeah4

3. Mechanical Engineering

rityche@yahoo.co.uk

4. Computer Science

shedrackmmeah@yahoo.co.uk

School of Engineering

Rivers State Polytechnic

Bori, Nigeria.

Abstract - Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

is the study of the technology used in handling information and

its concepts that aids communication. It has been identified by

many international development institutions as a crucial

element in developing the worlds' poorest countries, by

integrating them into the global economy and by making

global markets more accessible. ICT covers any products that

will store, retrieve, manipulate, transmits or receives

information electronically in a digital form. For example,

personal computers, digital television. It is the basis of all fields

of computer applications. It also finds usefulness in

Management, Science and Engineering. ICT has created

innovative applications that have lead to making life easier in

many sectors. In this paper, we have analysis the impact of

ICT on computer applications and its essentials.

Keyword - ICT, technology, impact, communication.

I. INTRODUCTION

ICT is the study of the technology used in handling information that aids communication. These grant users to participate in a rapidly changing and dynamic world. With its tools, it can be used to analyze, explore and exchange recent information for present and future innovations. ICT has international interconnectedness and speed up the process of globalization. It allow users to participate in a rapidly changing world in which work and other activities are increasingly transformed by access to varied and developing technologies.

ICT tools can be used to find, explore, analyze, exchange and present information responsibly and without discrimination. It can be employed to give users quick access to ideas and experiences from a wide range of people, communities, cultures and political issues.

ICT covers product that will be able to store, manipulate, retrieve, transmit and can receive information transmitted electronically in digital form and also the different ways that these users can work together. Once you think of ICT, what reminds you should be digital technology. This technology has contribution and support in every sector of life, these include:

Education

Business sector political Organisations ( personal and public) The rest of the paper is organized as follows: background

of study is discussed in section II, section III explains the applications of IT, and in section IV we discussed on benefits of ICT, while section V concludes the topic.

II. BACKGROUND OF STUDY

When the first modern digital computers appeared in

the early 1940s [9] the instructions to make them operate

were wired into the machine. Practitioners quickly realized

that this design was not flexible and came up with the "stored program architecture" or von Neumann architecture.

Thus the first division between "hardware" and "software"

began with abstraction being used to deal with the

complexity of computing.

In the 1950s Programming languages started to appear

which was another major step in abstraction. Major

languages such as Fortran, ALGOL, and COBOL were

released in the late 1950s [1][2] to deal with scientific,

algorithmic, and business problems respectively. E.W.

Dijkstra in his seminar[10] in 1968 wrote his seminar

paper, "Go To Statement", and David Parnas introduced the key concept of modularity and information hiding in

1972[11] to help programmers deal with the ever increasing

complexity of software systems. A software system for

managing the hardware called an operating system was also

introduced, most notably by Unix in 1969. In 1967, the

similar language introduced the object-oriented

programming paradigm.

It was only in the 1980s that digital telephony

transmission networks became possible, such as Integrated

Services Digital Network (ISDN), assuring a minimum bit

rate (usually 128 kilobits/s) for compressed video and audio

transmission. During this time, there was also research into other forms of digital video and audio communication.

Many of these technologies, such as the Media space, are

not as widely used today as videoconferencing but were still

2011 UKSim 5th European Symposium on Computer Modeling and Simulation

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DOI 10.1109/EMS.2011.45

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an important area of research.[3-7]. The first dedicated

systems started to appear in the market as ISDN networks

were expanding throughout the world. One of the first

commercial Videoconferencing systems sold to companies

came from PictureTel Corp, which had an Initial Public

Offering in November, 1984. Videoconferencing systems throughout the 1990s

rapidly evolved from very expensive proprietary equipment,

software and network requirements to standards based

technology that is readily available to the general public at a

reasonable cost.

III. ICT AND ITS APPLICATIONS

A. Web design

It takes creativity to develop and design a good web

site(s). The web page can be regarded good if it meets the

demand and satisfies the people it was designed for. One must be very patient to sit down and bring these pages

together with the focus of what is acceptable by users. For

any web site to be rated good, it must be meet the basic

needs of users, and should be of quality to attract less

criticism. Some of the basic elements of a well developed

site include: easily navigable, attractive, and uncluttered.

Putting up web pages has great impact on the other

applications of computer. For instance, internet technology

which is a core technology to ICT operation cannot function

or make any meaning if web pages are not first of all put

down so that users can see what to access on the internet. In order to make users enjoy using any web page, the

developers must ensure that the download time is not

tolerable. For instance if someone wants to download a file

of 80 kilobytes (KB) file using a 80-Kbps modem. To

determine how time that can be used to download this file, a

simple calculation is shown below:

Since 1 byte = 8 bits

80KB = 80,000 * 8 = 640,000 bits

80Kbps = 80,000 bits per second (connection speed)

Download speed = File size (bits)/ connection speed (bits

per second) (3) = 640,000 /80,000

= 8 seconds.

The above figure is a good time for such a user to access the

file for such duration. This is one of the guides to

developers of web pages, so that their pages can be

attractive to users.

In developing web pages, tools, like Front Page,

Macromedia Dreamweaver, PhP , Adobe, JavaScript can be

used depending on what expectation needed by the designer.

B. E-learning

E-learning comprises all forms of electronically supported

learning and teaching. The information and communication

systems, whether networked learning or not, serve as

specific media to implement the learning process [1]. E-

learning will still likely to be utilized to reference out-of-

classroom and in-classroom educational experiences via

technology, even as advances continue in regard to devices

and curriculum.

E-learning is essentially the computer and network-enabled

transfer of skills and knowledge. E-learning applications and processes include Web-based learning, computer-based

learning, virtual education opportunities and digital

collaboration. Content is delivered via the Internet,

intranet/extranet, audio or video tape, satellite TV, and CD-

ROM. It can be self-paced or instructor-led and includes

media in the form of text, image, animation, streaming

video and audio.

C. E-commerce

Eletronic –commerce involves having business transactions

electronically, it refers to the buying and selling of products

or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. This is one of the means that IT

technology has demostrated its usefullness, such that you

may not need to travell inroder to transact business with a

customer. It also entails the entire online process of

developing, marketing, selling. On the other hand easier and

faster and add more confidentialliy in business operation

and transactions.Some of which include: banking,online

sales/ purchase,telephony(skype), payments, adverts,

learning etc.

D. Video conferencing

Videoconferencing is a highly useful technology for real-

time telemedicine and telenursing applications, such as

diagnosis, consulting, transmission of medical images, etc.

Videoconferencing systems throughout the 1990s rapidly

evolved from very expensive proprietary equipment,

software and network requirements to standards based

technology that is readily available to the general public at a

reasonable cost.

Figure 1.Setup for video conferencing.

Videoconferencing can enable individuals in distant

locations to participate in meetings on short notice, with

time and money savings. Technology such as VoIP can be

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used in conjunction with desktop videoconferencing to

enable low-cost face-to-face business meetings without

leaving the desk, especially for businesses with widespread

offices. The technology is also used for telecommuting, in

which employees work from home. One research report

based on a sampling of 1,800 corporate employees showed that, as of June 2010, 54% of the respondents with access to

video conferencing used it “all of the time” or

“frequently”[11-20].

Videoconferencing is also currently being introduced

on online networking websites, in order to help businesses

form profitable relationships quickly and efficiently without

leaving their place of work. This has been leveraged by

banks to connect busy banking professionals with customers

in various locations using video banking technology.

Videoconferencing on hand-held mobile devices

(mobile collaboration technology) is being used in

industries such as manufacturing, energy, healthcare, insurance, government and public safety. Live, visual

interaction removes traditional restrictions of distance and

time, often in locations previously unreachable, such as a

manufacturing plant floor a continent away [20].

Figure 2. Participation in video conferencing.

E. Software Engineering

Software engineering involves the Creation, operation and

maintenance of software systems. I.t is the application of a

systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the

development, operation, and maintenance of software, and

the study of these approaches; that is, the application of

engineering to software. The most part of this engineering

act is the development aspect of it followed by its application .Lots of programming skills are involved in

software development. The application of developed

softwares has great impact in management, sciences and

engineering. It is the basis of all simulation works in science

and engineering.

The network simulator (NS) is a tool for simulating

network and analysing network metrics such as delay, jitter,

throughput, loss rate etc. The simulation environment looks

like this:

Figure 3. Simulation in NS2 showing packet flow.

Optimized Network Evaluation Tool (OPNET) was first

introduced in 1986 by Massachusetts Institute of

Technology (MIT) graduate at MIT, and is the industry

leading network development software. It was first

commercialized in 1987.It allows one to design and study

communication networks, devices, protocols, and application., has advantage in time management, because,

much can be achieved in simulation in a short period of time

.It can simulate almost every type of LAN as well as WAN.

Figure 4. OPNET setup.

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Figure 5. OPNET result.

Different network metrics can be analysed and results

are clearly displayed in the modeller, it is a very good tool

for network configuration and modelling. Simple to

configure and user friendly since is a Graphical user

interface (GUI). The simulation software provides users

with the ability to modify network parameters and see the

effect of these changes immediately. Some of the results

displayed by OPNET setups are shown below:

Figure 6 Simulation result with OPNET.

Figure 7. OPNET Simulation result.

Figure 8. Plot with OPNET.

IV. BENEFITS OF ICT

The benefits of ICT in this technological era cannot be

over emphasised. Infact, there is no sector of the economy

that can do without it. Its application has spread rapidly

withing some few years of evolution of this technolgy and

the time people started realising the great usefullness of it.It saves time and money,.It has made life easier in many

perspectives, and this makes people embrase this

technology so much and wanting to more on how it works.

Convience and mobility are some it impacts which is

obtainable from Wireless area network(WLAN).

This technology has also created what is known as

hotspot, this is made posible visa WLAN as internet surfing

is made available at airports, restaurants , campuses etc,

making life easier for users as they wait to be served or

relaxing. The facinating thing about ICT is that is spans

through all times of econmic operations

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V. CONCLUSION

Despite the international spread of ICT applications, the

economic impacts have been geographically uneven creating what is known as digital divide. They have

exacerbated pre-existing disparities between developed

countries, which can afford to produce and consume the

latest technologies, and developing countries, cannot. But in

no distant time, every location in the world will participate

and enjoy the fascinating thing about ICT. Since the

technology is already embraced by all race, it is will be

easier to take over the world in no distant time with the

innovative technologies that results for ICT.

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