Period of ICT Development
The Mechanical Period
Pre-mechanical Period
Can be traced back thousands of years ago, around 3 000 BCE to 1 450 CE. During this time, humans started communicating with one another using words and pictograms curved in rocks. Then they started to write symbols as substitutes for pictures to depict ideas, objects, and animals. They gave rise to modern-day alphabet. In the late stages of this period, humans started using the numerical system. The most popular device created in this period is said to have come from China---the Abacus, manually operated device similar to the modern calculator.
This period served as the bridge between our current period and the premechanical period. This period started around 1450-1840. The machines driven by mechanical means such as steam and gears dominated informations processing and calculation. The highlight of this period is the advent of the mechanical calculator called the Pascaline.The device inspired other inventors to automate counting and calculations. Charles Babbage invented the Analytical Engine, the first programmable mechanical computer.
The Electromechanical Period
Ushered in a new age in communications and information. This period started around 1840-1940. The need and urgency to share information with one another in a faster yet reliable manner over long distances aroused. This period saw the use of the telegraph to transmit information over long distances. The telephone was later invented, enabling voice transmission over long distances. An American inventor named Samuel Morse successfully introduced the first single-circuit telegraph, which gave rise to the Morse Code.
It started in the 1940s and the continues to the present. The highlights of this period is focused on the advent of solid state devices or electronic devices. The latter period of vacuum tube machines is the start of the electronic period. The dawn of the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), the first electronic and general purpose computer, marked a revolutionary period in computing.
The Electronic Period
The term Information and communication technology collectively refers to the technologies. both hardware and software, that enable, that enable humans to communicate with one another.
What is ICT?
The devices, technologies, and processes that humans enjoy today are products of centuries of improvements and innovations built on foundations prepared by the early humans.
BIG IDEA!
The four main periods: premechanical, mechanical, electromechanical, and electronic period. The beginning can be traced back when humans started to use objects to communicate with one another.