DIGITAL

TEACHNOLOGY
AND SOCIAL
CHANGE
Objectives
At the end of this lesson, the students should be able to:

• Explain the role of ICT in social change.

• Identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and
imminent threats of the digital age.
• Articulate basic, but fundamental definitions of complex
issues and dynamics that humans encounter every day,
such as technology, social progress, development, and
digitalization.
Introduction to the Digital Age:

Digital age, also

known as Information
age, is a period when
the computer and
internet were
introduced.
The ICT and its role in Social Change
Information Communications Technology (ICT) has the
power to transform society.
◦ ICT is defined as a group of interrelated technologies (electronic
devices) for accessing, processing, and disseminating
information.
The ICT and its role in Social Change
The Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) greatly ease
the flow of information and knowledge offering the socially
marginalized community an extraordinary chance to attain their own
rights socially, economically, educationally, and politically.
The emergence of Internet, World Wide Web, mobile cell phones, digital
television, and several other new electronic devices pertaining information
and communication technologies (ICTs) are opening a fresh passageways
for transforming the way we live, work, learn, communicate and also
provides a strategic opportunities of diverse and significant social and
economic benefits to people across the globe.
The ICT and its role in Social Change
Social change refers to a transformation of culture and social
organizations/structures over time.
The social transformations that could result from the increasing
use of ICTs depend strangely on verdicts made by
organizations and individuals outside our household, many of
whom have great economic leverage, political power or
technical expertise.
The ICT and its role in Social Change:
Entertainment
Digital broadcasting has completely changed the way we experience television
and radio.
Cinema can now be found at the comfort of your home through application such
as Netflix, iFlix, etc.
Computer gaming has also been an important influence in the development of
graphical interfaces.
Technology has been at the forefront of changes in production and distribution of
music. We can now listen to music and podcast using Spotify.
The ICT and its role in Social Change:
Business
▪It empowers people to share knowledge and advice instantaneously and
set up an online shop or website at a low cost, dramatically lowering the
barriers to starting a business.
▪Businesses in today’s life have promoted
a lot with the coming of ICT.
▪The impact of ICT infrastructure on social
businesses cannot be understated.
The ICT and its role in Social Change:
Education
▪The impact of ICT on teachers, trainers, learners, researchers and the entire education society is
tremendous.

▪Modern ICT tools not only deliver the content but also replicate formal learning experience via
virtual learning.

▪Learners from remote areas, working people who want to learn further and update their
knowledge and differently abled students who find travelling an issue of concern - benefit from
the mobile learning mode.
The ICT and its role in Social Change:
Education
▪Digital resources in classrooms can help prepare students for a
digital society and economy.
The ICT and its role in Social
Change:
Jobs and earnings
The digital transformation has the potential to generate
substantial changes in the composition of the labor market as
jobs that require certain skillsets are replaced by a combination
of technology and higher skilled labor, or even completely
automated.
Digital technologies may destroy jobs at risk of automation
The ICT and its role in Social
Change:
Jobs and earnings
Teleworking (Work from Home) allows people to save time
and combine their work and personal lives
The ICT and its role in Social Change:
Health
Extreme use of digital technologies may have negative
mental health effects

What would be the effects of extreme internet use?

THEORIES IN TECHNOLOGY
Technological Determinism
• Technology shapes the culture, values,
social structures of a society.
• According to Winner, technology is not
the slave of the human being but
rather humans are slaves to
technology as they are forced to adapt
to the technological environment that
surrounds them.
Social Constructivism

Social Constructivism is the opposite of the

Technological Determinism.
Social Constructivism believes that humans play
a main role in shaping technology rather than
technology shaping society.
Technological Change
Technological change means the technical knowledge
used in the production of capital and machinery.
Technological progress comprises of creation of skill,
new means of production, new uses of raw materials
and the widespread use of machinery.
The technology is the most powerful means of wresting
power from nature in all possible ways. It strengthens
the facilities of man. Prof. Frankel assumes that the,
“Technological change is not a mere improvement in the
technical know-how.
Technological Change
Technology, according to J. P. Dewhurts, in fact, can be thought of as the
change in the production process of material and human skills.

Process of Technological Change

➢Formulation of scientific principles

➢Application of these principles to give technical problems

➢Development of technical inventions to the point of commercial

exploitation.