Module # 5 The development of Information Age

Intended Learning Outcomes:

The students will be able to:

1. Describe the development of communication and information technology from

ancient time up to present;
2. Depict the impact of the development of information technology to society;
3. Describe how social media have impacted our lives.

Introduction:

The Sumerian was the first civilization that invented the first writing system called
cuneiform. It is a set of word pictures depicted in symbols made of triangular marks
around 3100 BC. Pictograms or drawings representing actual things were the basis for
cuneiform writing.

Sumerian clay tablet was used as a writing medium, especially

for writing in cuneiform. They use a wooden stylus to place simple
shapes, lines and wedge-shaped markings into moist clay, which
were then baked until hard. It contains the Sumerian historical
information and culture. It began as record keeping for trade and
evolved into the use of symbols for writing down laws and stories.
The Sumerians had enormous libraries of clay tablets containing their laws, business
transactions, and literature.

Egyptian writing wrote with ink and brushes on paper made of papyrus reeds;
their writing was in the form of pictorial symbols known as hieroglyphics.

The oldest known printing press was invented in China during the Tang dynasty
(618-906AD). The Diamond Sutra, a Buddhist book from Dunhuang, China from around
868 A.D. is said to be the oldest known printed book. Chinese printing relied on blocks
cut from wood, used to print textiles and reproduce Buddhist text. By 10 th century book
printing seems to have become established and was carried in many parts of China.
This technique of woodblock printing was also used in Japan and Korea at the time and
spread throughout Asia. Then later on, a moveable type, which replaced panels of
printing blocks with moveable individual letters that could be reused, was developed by
Bi Sheng from Hubei, China.

Content:

During Renaissance time, the most important technological innovation was the
invention of the printing press by Johann Gutenberg. The printing press is a device
that allows for the mass production of constant printed matter, mainly text in the form of
books, pamphlets and newspapers. By 1400s, movable type was being used in Europe
as began printing the Bible in everyday language. Soon millions of books were in
circulation.

This invention led to a higher literacy rate among people,

and helped with the spreading of Renaissance ideas. The
inventions of mechanical printing press made possible the
dissemination of knowledge to wider population that lead
to a gradually more egalitarian society and able to
dominate other cultures. The worldwide spread of the
printing press meant a greater distribution of ideas among members of the community
and throughout the world.

In the early 20th century, the electronics industry was

advanced to the point where a complex device, such as a
computer was invented. The electronic computer has
become one of the key tools of modern industry.
Electronics has also been fundamental in developing new
communications devices such as radio, television, cellphones, laptop and other devices.

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 A computer is an electronic machine that accepts information, stores, and
processes it according to the instructions provided by a user and then returns the result.
Today, computers have become part of our everyday activities. Computers become
quickly more powerful. By 1970 it became possible to squeeze all the integrated circuits
that are part of a single computer on a single chip called a microprocessor. Personal
computer was introduced in 1975. The term Wi-Fi becomes part of the computing
language and users begin connecting to the Internet without wires in 1999. YouTube, a
video sharing service, is founded. Google acquires Android, a Linux-based mobile
phone operating system in 2005. Facebook gains 1 billion users on October 4, 2012.

The Internet was the work of dozens of pioneering scientists, programmers and
engineers who each developed new features and technologies that eventually merged
to become the “information superhighway” we know today. It started in early 1900 when
Nikola Tesla toyed with the idea of a “world wireless system”. Tim Berners-Lee invented
the World Wide Web in 1990. The web served as the most common means of
accessing data online in the form of websites and hyperlinks. The web helped
popularize the Internet among the public, and served as a crucial step in developing the
vast supply of information that most of us now access on a daily basis. This technology
paved way to the emergence of social media.
Social media is a modern communication tool started with computers and
internet. It is interactive and collection of online communications channels or platforms
that facilitate the creation, sharing and collaboration of information, ideas, interests and
other forms of expression.
The users engage with their electronic or mobile devices as they create highly
interactive platforms through which individuals, communities, and organizations can
share, co-create, discuss, participate and modify content posted online via virtual
communities and networks. In business, social media is used to market products,
promote brands, connect to current customers and foster new business. It is also often
used for crowdsourcing. Customers can use social networking sites to offer ideas for
future products or tweaks to current ones.

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 Some of the prominent examples of social media platforms are:
Facebook/Messenger, YouTube, WeChat, Instagram, QQ, Weibo, Twitter, Tumblr,
LinkedIn, LINE, Snapchat, Pinterest, Viber, Wikipedia, Tiktok etc. Facebook is a free
social media networking website that allows registered users to create profiles, upload
photos and video, send messages and keep in touch with friends, family and
colleagues. Wikipedia which is the most used platforms especially in research is a free,
open content online encyclopedia. While Youtube allows users to upload, view, rate,
share, add to playlists, report, comment on videos, and subscribe to other users.

Social media sites have grown in numbers by leaps and bounds. TikTok which is
the recent sites is a short-form, video-sharing app that allows users to create and share
short videos, on any sounds and song snippets, along with the option to add special
effects and filters.

One of the advantage of social media is that It provides a free of charge avenue
for learning through conversing with experts, teachers or professionals online and helps
as an effective communication tool for staying in touch with friends and family, however
if there are pros there are also disadvantages like it can serve as a platform for
misleading information and inappropriate actions. People might do or say things they
wouldn’t in real life because there are minimal rules for communication in social media.

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References:

Book: “Alan Turing: The Enigma” (Andrew Hodges and Douglas Hofstadter)

TEDTalk: Julian Assange on “Why the World Needs Wikileaks”

Information: The new language of science (Hans Christian von Baeyer)
Germ Catcher (David J. Ecker, Scientific American, 2014)

Physics of the Future: How science will shape human destiny and our daily lives by the
year 2100 (Michio Kaku, Doubleday, 2011)
Aldea K., Caronan H., & Candido B. Science, technology and Society, 2018
https://www.compukol.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media
https://buffer.com/library/social-media-sites/
https://smallbiztrends.com/2016/05/popular-social-media-sites.html
https://www.tiktok.com/en/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing_in_East_Asia
https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/printing-press