Living in the IT Era | Module 1 Introduction to Digital Age

At the end of this module, you are expected to:

1. Know when the digital age took place
2. Identify the different types of communication from early time up to the present
3. Know the role and importance of ICT

What does it mean when we say Digital Age?

It is a period in human history when computers were introduced in the 1970s. It is evident in the rapid shift from mechanical
industrialization to technological innovation.

The Digital Age is also termed as the Information Age, Computer Age, or New Media Age.

An important thing to note is that the meaning of the Digital Age will continue to change over time as new technologies or
devices will be developed through research and development that will ultimately impact how we as humans will interact.

ICT or Information and Communication Technology

ICT or Information and Communication Technology pertains to the unification and integration of telecommunication lines
(wireless or not), computers, software and systems that enable access, storage, transmittal, and manipulation of information.
It concentrates on advancing the way we communicate in this Information or Digital Age.

The Evolution of Communication

Cave Paintings and Carve Stones

Imaginative art or some forms of communication were discovered by archaeologists in the cave paintings and carved
stones done by Neanderthals or early homo sapiens that dates back to around 130,000 to 100,000 B.C.

Carrier Pigeons

Using of homing pigeons was another means of communication which dates back to no less than 2,900 BC, when
ships coming into Egyptian ports discharged pigeons to report imperative guests. The Egyptian army likewise
utilized bearer pigeons for military correspondence. Homing pigeons were additionally utilized for correspondence in
China, India, Persia, and numerous different parts of Asia.
Marathon Man

The story of Pheidippides is that which inspired the sporting spectacle of Marathon running. Pheidippides an
Athenian Herald or Courier was said to have run from Marathon to Athens to report that the Greeks won against the
Persians in the Battle of Marathon.

First Daily Newspaper

The first daily newspaper ever to be distributed was the Einkommende Zeitungen in July 1, 1650 in Leipzig,
Germany. The name of the newspaper means “approaching daily papers.”

Telegraph

The Telegraph was created in the 1840s by Samuel Morse (1791 - 1872) and different designers. It worked by
transmitting electrical flags over a wire laid between stations. Notwithstanding designing the broadcast, Samuel
Morse built up a code (bearing his name) which came to be known as the Morse Code.

The Telephone

Alexander Graham Bell (1847 - 1922), best known as the designer of the phone, worked at a school for the hard of
hearing while at the same time endeavouring to imagine a machine that would transmit sound by power. Bell was
awarded the principal official patent for his phone in March 7, 1876; however, he would later face a very long time of
lawful difficulties to his case that he was its sole creator, bringing about one of history’s longest patent fights.

Radio Signal

In 1901, Guglielmo Marconi, an Italian inventor pioneered long-distance radio transmission and transmitted the first
transatlantic radio signal from Cornwall to Newfoundland.

Television Broadcast

In April 7, 1927, AT&T (Bell Telephone Company) held the first public demonstration of long-distance television
transmission. Reporters watched as a TV image of Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover was sent from
Washington, D.C. to New York by phone lines.

Internet

Inter-networking began with when Packet switching networks which included the ARPANET project of the US
Protection Office joined multiple separate networks into a network of networks.

World Wide Web

The World Wide Web was developed from 1989 to 1994 at the European Council for Nuclear Research and as made
freely available to the world in 1994.

Instant Messaging

Instant Messaging basically began in the 70s and 80s but the new era of instant messaging can be credited to
America Online (AOL) AIM which gained popularity in May 1997.
 Blogging 1999

In 1999, the word blog sprung up and after five years, the term blog, was announced the expression of the year by
Merriam-Webster.

Facebook

Facebook, the world’s most mainstream interpersonal interaction site was launched in February 2004. It was
founded by Mark Zuckerberg.

Twitter

Twitter was created by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Business Stone, and Evan Williams in 2006. Rapidly gained
popularity as of 2017 has 100 million daily active users.

Importance and Benefits of ICT to the Society and Individuals

For Health:

- Easy access to patient records

- Access to medical information
- Online appointment/s
- Database for medical inventory
- Organized information about individual patients

For Education:

- Research and resource over the internet

- New ways and style of learning
- Remote learning
- Skills for life

For the Solution of Crimes:

- Media and communication

- Storage and access of information
- Forensic, tracing, and fraud prevention
- Database and prevention of fraud
- Saves time

For Communication:

- Ways of communication using ICT

- Communication using E-mail, IM etc
- Easy communication system benefits

For Business:

- Changing ways of business

- Information technology
 - E-commerce (selling/buying)
- Online banking
- For work
- Work can be carried out easily
- Information about work can be accessed from anywhere
- Work can be taken to different location
- Efficient and organized way of storing life

By Using ICT Systems, We Are:

More productive as we are able to deal with transmit and receive vast amounts of information and process it quickly.
Living in the IT Era | Module 2 Digital Development
At the end of this module, you are expected to:
1. Define the principles of Digital Development
2. Identify the core tenets of each principle

9 Principles of Digital Development

1. Design with the User

This is different from designing for the user. Designing With the User can only be attained through conversation, observation,
and co-creation with the people, client, or target market who will be using the eventual digital product or tools.

Core Tenets:
- It should incorporate multiple user types and stakeholders in each phase of the project lifecycle to direct feature needs
and revise the design.
- It should have clear objectives and open to a process of repetition,
- It should improve users’ current processes.
- And aside from considering the needs of the underserved it should always be open to people opting out of the design
process.

2. Understand the Existing Ecosystem

The Ecosystem is the political, economic, social, technological, environmental, legal and other factor within the group or
geographical location where the final design product will be used.

Core Tenets:
- Hahaha

3. Design for Scale

Hahaha

Core Tenets:
- Hahaha

4. Build for Sustainability

Hahaha

Core Tenets:
- Hahaha

5. Be Data Driven

Hahaha
 Core Tenets:
- Hahaha

6. Use Open Standards, Open Data, Open Source, and Open Innovation

Hahaha

Core Tenets:
- Hahaha

7. Reuse and Improve

Hahaha

Core Tenets:
- Hahaha

8. Address Privacy and Security

Hahaha

Core Tenets:
- Hahaha

9. Be Collaborative

Hahaha

Core Tenets:
- Hahaha
Living in the IT Era | Module 3 Technological Change
At the end of this module, you are expected to:
1. Define the meaning of technology depending on its various use
2. Determine the factors affecting the evolution of Technology

What is Technology?
Depending on when and how the word is used, technology is defined as:
- Those devices and machines that assist us to tackle issues or do new things;
- It is also a term to portray the level of accomplishment in science, mathematics and designing of a gathering or culture.
- It is a branch of knowledge that deals with applied sciences or engineering.

How Does Technology Evolve?

According to Brian Arthur of the Santa Fe Institute and author of the book titled The Nature of Technology, “Technology
evolves over time” and that technological evolution happens because of the phenomenon that he calls as combinatorial
evolution.

The greater number of new technologies and the combinations or permutations that are and can be generated from them,
the faster will be the technological advancement or evolution over time.

Factors That Affect Technological Evolution

1. Systems Theory

Simply put, a successful system is one that is stable but is able to adapt over time.

2. Feedback between Technology and Society

Societal needs create the need for new and improved technologies, as new technologies spawn new needs of
society. Technologies that fail to meet or adjust to the needs of society will become extinct and be discontinued but
those that are able to answer and meet the needs of society will continue to thrive.

3. Maladaptive Features

Successful or stable tools, systems, or software in one platform may be unstable or unsuccessful in other platforms
thereby digital developers needed to improve the product or evolve the technology in order to adapt.

4. Niche Construction

Technological companies like that of Apple who are able to create demand for a technological product through their
marketing initiatives are able to create a niche market. The niche market on its own was able to create evolution of
technology for that niche market but at the same time able to change the landscape of the overall technological
environment.

5. Competition for the Same Niche

 Two technologies can co-exist if their overlap on a niche is minimal. Technology manufacturers today try to avoid
competing on one and the same niche they just try to build their own niche market.

6. Niche Differentiation

Two important kinds of differentiation are morphological and conditional. Morphological differentiation is when two
competing products or technologies evolve and move into distinct niches. Conditional differentiation on the other
hand is when two competing technologies or products differ in their abilities or features to be used by consumers in
different situations. Product differentiation (morphologically or conditionally) is the key to be able to coexist with
other technologies competing in the same market, a very good example of morphological differentiation to be
competitive is the dual-use Ultrabook with detachable tablet screen.

7. Selection Pressure

The evolution or development of the smartphone is a concrete example of selection pressure, also known as
environmental or market pressure. That pressure exerted by the end users of a technological product.

8. Evolutionary vs. Revolutionary Products

The development of evolutionary products requires an understanding of customer needs, while the development of
revolutionary products depends on a visionary approach. Tech companies that want to be successful need to work
on both evolutionary and revolutionary products in order to be profitable and sustainable in the long term.
Diversification can be a good strategy to survive the unstable moments, but these costs of production will have to be
taken into consideration.

9. Cultural Variations

Basically, points out that differences in culture, beliefs, attitudes, skills, customs, and even financial capabilities also
affect how technological advances and evolves in a particular geographical area or culture.
Living in the IT Era | Module 4 Social Evolution
At the end of this module, you are expected to:
1. Know where, when, and who started social evolution
2. Know the long waves of social evolution
3. Determine the impacts of global information explosion

Social Evolution
Proposed in the 19th century, social advancement, which is infrequently alluded to as Unilineal Evolution, was the main
hypothesis produced for human sciences specifically for anthropology. This hypothesis asserts that social evolution occurs
based on a single universal order, meaning evolution of societies follow one singular path but differences in societies are
present because social evolution happens at various rates. This is why there were/are distinctive kinds of societies existing on
the planet.

Proponents of Social Evolution, who by the way mainly relied on secondary-data, classified societies into universal
evolutionary stages with technology or technological advancements being the primary basis.

Social development is the thing that researchers term an expansive arrangement of hypothesis that endeavour to clarify how
and why present-day societies are not quite the same as those before.

Social Development has a wide assortment of opposing and clashing elucidations among researchers – actually, Herbert
Spencer (1820 - 1903) as indicated by Perrin (1976), one planner of present-day social evolution had four working
definitions that he modified throughout his career. According to Perrin, Spencerian social evolution studies a mixture of all of
the following:

1. Social Progress: Society always moves toward an ideal setting, where though there exists individuality and
specialization based on different achieved qualities, there is voluntary cooperation among individuals who have
high discipline.
2. Social Requirements: Society is shaped by its set of functional requirements like sexual reproduction and food
sustenance, environmental aspects like climate, and social existence aspects, the behaviours that makes living
together possible.
3. Increasing Division of Labour: The evolution of society happens by intensifying the functioning of each glass,
group, or individual.
4. Origin of Social Species: It is believed that society’s development like an embryo echoes the stages and change
that has been experienced by its ancestors, albeit the final direction of those changes may and can still be
altered by outside forces.

Where Did This Notion Come From?

In the mid-19th century, the physical evolution theories of Charles Darwin influenced social evolution but lo and behold social
evolution did not come from the theories or writings of Charles Darwin. The 19th-Century anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan
is credited to be the first to apply the principles of evolution to social phenomena.

Morgan pointed out that society moved relentlessly through stages that he coined as savagery, barbarism, and civilization.

To be continued…
Living in the IT Era | Module 6 Social Evolution: Perspectives on Social Change
At the end of this module, you are expected to:
1. Define Social Evolution
2. Define Social Change
3. Identify the factors affecting social change
4. Discover different perspectives on social change
5. Identify the issue surrounding social changes affected and/or influenced by technology

Social Evolution Social Change

Social Evolution is a constant and steady reality that humankind is deemed to face as society grows and cultural beliefs are
influenced by controlled and uncontrolled forces.

Social Evolution is evident because of Social Changes.

Social Change
“Change is constant.”

In a general sense, social change pertains to any change in interrelationships or relationships of people in a society. Change
as they say is inevitable phenomenon, it may be individual in nature, relating to people in a small group or affect an entire
society as a whole.

In defining the meaning of social change, one should consider the following:
- Number of affected people (individual, group, society)
- Length of time “change” is measured

Perspectives on Social Change

1. Determination Theory

As man progresses, there is a tendency to move from happiness to discontent or dissatisfaction. As Plato mentioned
in “The Republic” that man is an insatiable animal and his insatiability created a feeling of determination because of
the ever-increasing need or hunger for more.

2. Cyclical Theory

Several scholars have offered explanation to this theory:

- Oswald Spengler | He mentioned that society undergoes stages of birth, maturity, decline and eventually – death. An
example of which is the Roman Empire which rose to power but eventually collapsed. Social Change may signal progress
to decline or decay but the only consistent things is that no society is permanent.

- Vilfredo Pareto | He posits the cyclic movement of the elites in society. He perceived a society to belong a whole but
consists of interdependent and in interrelated parts. Any movement of in any part will have a ripple effect on the other
parts.

- Arnold J. Toynbee | He is a British Philosopher who also supports the idea that society will undergo a cycle of growth,
halt and eventually a decline of civilizations.
3. Theory of Auguste Comte

Posits that society will undergo three stages of change religious, philosophic, and positive.

o Religious Stage – society’s action is dictated by a belief in a supernatural power.

o Philosophic Stage – society’s behaviour is influenced by a belief in the supernatural power thus man came to
abstraction.
o Positive Stage – all things are studied empirically.

All these stages will be moving in a cyclic manner.

4. Theory of Herbert Spencer

Compared Social Change as to that of a microorganism. As per Spencer, society is innately militant and struggled for
survival. To each his own – every individual struggled to exist. This type of militant society moved to industrialism to
differentiate itself and eventually moved to integration.

5. Theory of Social Change by Karl Marx

Marx posits that Economic Factor is the one and ONLY factor that is solely responsible for Social Change. He called
this theory “Deterministic” or the “single factor theory” of change in society. This economic factor is the reason for
the continuous class struggle in society.

6. Technological Change

We may be living in the Digital age that is why for many people “technology” is often associated with gadgets and
the internet. But when we say “technology” it may be defined as applying our knowledge in creating tools and the
use of natural resources (Schaefer and Lamm, 1992). It may include machines or instruments that facilitates human
interaction.

Karl Marx also contributed to this and focused on the importance of technology in terms of production. According to
him, technological developments have an effect on production and human relations and institutions that make up the
economic scheme.

Additional Proponents of Changes in Technology and how it affects society:

W.F. Ogbum, in his article, ‘How Technology Changes Society’ (1947) states that
“Technology changes by changing our environment to which we, in turn, adapt. This change is usually in
the material environment, and the adjustment we make to the changes often modifies customs and social
institutions.”

Anthropologist Leslie White (Science and Culture, 1949) held that

“Technology, particularly the amount of energy harnessed and the way in which it is used, determines the
forms and content of culture and society.”

Some social changes are brought about because of the automaton such as in labour which in turn caused increase
in unemployment. Other innovation has also contributed to social change: Radio, wheel, printing press, compass,
telephone, TV, planes, Internet, cars, etc. Production of basic commodities and necessities also contributed to social
change. Means of transportation and communication is continuously evolving, progressing and ever-changing.
 The advancement of technology has seen a radical improvement in the past decades. The most important gadget
that many of us use today is the cellular phone or cell phone. It’s uses is not only limited to communication but it
has become man’s universal remote because it now allowed us to turn on some appliances and monitor our homes
remotely.

The Flip Side of the Coin

Technology, although it comes with many benefits has also created problems. The questions one dare to ask are:

1. Has humanity’s happiness and quality of life improved with these technological advancements?

2. Has these technological improvements and processes helped in maintaining clean air, brought drinkable water to us or in
the overall protection and conversation of the environment? Or

3. Have these advancements in technology hastened the degradation of our environment, the people and the individuals of
society.

It is important to study technological advancements and how these changes have shaped and moulded society and has
contributed to some social changes albeit directly or indirectly.
Living in the IT Era | Module 7 Digitalization and Its Effects
At the end of this module, you are expected to:
1. Know the different effects or influence of digitalization to the industry and to the society.
2. Know how digital footprints works both on passive and active.
3. Know the use of digitalization to the society and to media.

Introduction to Digitalization
Digitization has influenced relatively every industry amid the previous decade. In Spite of the fact that the effect of digitization
isn’t new, the uncommon pace at which computerized innovations spread and enter society, customer life, and organizations
is significantly changing business sector exchanges and is imperilling existing plans of action. Digitization separates industry
hindrances and makes open doors for new plans of action, which thus offer ascent to a new and possibly troublesome
markets participants.

Digitization influences the whole esteem chain and underscores the significance of business environments, inciting critical
changes in the ways organizations construct their upper hand.

While computerized advancements have opened new business openings, they have offered ascend to challenges, which has
set off the computerized change of organizations. The computerized move is convincing built-up associations to choose
whether or not they need to have the capacity to utilize computerized advances as an empowering agent and initiator inside
the improvement and change of existing and new organizations.

Along these lines, the objective of this task is to examine how computerized change shows itself in a set up worldwide
organization whose centre item is principally physical and to which degree digitalization impacts its predominant plan of
action.

The initial segment characterizes the terms digitization and digitalization in a business setting and clarifies how advanced
innovations are affecting shopper conduct and reshaping the market structure of interest and supply. At that point, the idea
of digitalization and advanced business is depicted. The conclusion condenses the key learning’s from this contextual
analysis.

Characterizing Digitization Versus Digitalization in the Business Setting

While data and correspondence advancements (ICT) have enormously enhanced in the course of the last decade and have
diffused in numerous parts of our lives, they are regularly acclimatized to advanced advancements.

Digital Footprint
Proposed

Economies of Scale
Proposed
Media Richness Selection
Proposed

Media Concentration
Proposed

The Different Commonly Accepted Meanings of “Concentration”

Proposed

Mass-Customization
Proposed

The Customization Strategy

Proposed
Living in the IT Era | Module 8-9 Big Data and E-Science
At the end of this module, you are expected to:
1. Know the meaning of big data and dangers of using big data and how to avoid it.
2. Know where E-science started and uses of computational science.

Introduction to Big Data

Big Data is a sweeping term for the non-customary techniques and advancements expected to assemble, sort out, process,
and accumulate bits of knowledge from huge datasets. While the issue of working with information that surpasses the
registering force or capacity of a solitary PC isn’t new, the inescapability, scale, and estimation of this kind of figuring has
enormously extended as of late.

What is Big Data?

A correct meaning of “big data” is hard to nail down on the grounds that undertakings, sellers, experts, and business experts
utilize it in an unexpected way. Because of that, as a rule, huge information is:
o large datasets
o the category of computing strategies and technologies that are used to handle large datasets

In this specific situation, “large dataset” implies a dataset too extensive to sensibly process or store with customary tooling
or on a solitary PC. This implies the regular size of enormous datasets is continually moving and may differ fundamentally
from association to association.

Dangers in Big Data

1. Noise in DATA – In spite of being the speediest, Big Data has neglected to give the best outcomes in numerous
associations. This is because of the nearness of the insignificant information in their gathering. This unessential
information not just prompts expanding the measure of information to be broke down, yet in addition builds the cost of
expanding the stockpiling abuse and nearness of obsolete information in your vault.

2. Lack of SECURITY – There have been times when even the examiners with huge information confirmation have neglected
to check for the security-based issues. Cybercrime being the robbery ruler influences individuals to shudder in regards to
the security of their information. Absence of security can prompt abuse and revelation of your own data. Indeed, even
the most harming information robberies of the sum total of what time have been completed on some all-around
rumoured associations like EBay, Evernote and Adobe.

3. Privacy Control – There is a major contrast amongst security and protection. Where security manages the reality reboot
if your information is shielded or not from the outside robberies or theft, protection fundamentally concerns you about
the abuse of your information. There is no assurance that even the examiners with Big Data affirmation won’t alter you
information or abuse it to their own assent. Every single individual data of yours is being shared and some place put
away which can be effortlessly abused.

4. Cost – Cost analysis is a major factor and as the information measure is expanding the cost has been expanding
exponentially. There are different components which cost you amid the entire method, including from capacity cost to
breaking down cost. That, as well as contracting an expert with an absence of Big Data accreditation can prompt a
seriously dissected cost of the entire information administration which thus prompts costing you more.

5. Bad Analytic Reports – a bad analysis report implies a foul or wrong aftereffect of you information translation. This by
and large happens when you incline toward going for an uncertified expert as opposed to an examiner with a Big Data
 confirmation. For ex-any association which offers an eatable thing with different flavours, it gets a foibly examined report
may bear on delivering a flavour being opened by the general population. One of the Google’s tasks Flu Trends which
was intended to precisely stamp the episode of this season’s cold virus in light of query items neglected to demonstrate
the results because of awful breaking down of the undertaking.

Big Data has never failed itself in giving the most ideal approaches to oversee and handle that immense measure of
information. With amazing outcomes for examining the given information, Big Data has driven us to incredible
progressions. However, with awesome information coming incredible duties and extraordinary dangers. With the
progression of time, we have seen that Big Data has separated from a few digital assaults and a few associations and
individuals have been experiencing the absence of security and responsibility.

Avoiding the Dangers of Big Data

1. Foundation of some very much shaped digital security associations.
2. Influencing legitimate implementations to make Big Data to stand the information insurance laws.
3. Employing experts with some appropriate Big Data confirmation.
4. Disposition to the information required for the breaking down and capacity.
5. A pre-appraisal of the exceptions and information, causing Simpson’s Paradox.
6. Utilizing basic and not too bad calculation for the investigating of the information.
7. Legitimate laws for the responsibility of the calculations utilized for dissecting.
8. Lean toward on making our BDT focuses instead of utilizing an outsider supplier for it.
9. Legitimate keep an eye on the out of line elucidation and segregation finished with any distinct individual or association.

Introduction to E-Science
Calculation has turned into a third mainstay of science nearby hypothesis and investigation. Numerous regions of science are
winding up progressively collective, multidisciplinary, calculation concentrated. Research on numerous fronts is winding up
increasingly reliant on calculation.

E-Science (or eScience) is computationally concentrated science or science that utilizations amazing measure of informational
index. It goes back to 1950s when specialists and researchers initially utilized PCs as a feature of their exploration
procedure. The term ‘e-science’ was authorized in 1999 by John Taylor, the Director General of the UK Office of Science,
which utilizes massive informational collections require matrix. The expression “informational index” is utilized to allude to any
type of information, for example, records, table, and accumulations. The lattice advances sharing, overseeing, and controlling
dispersed processing assets. Some see e-science as a contemporary data wonder. It has influenced significant ramifications
for the idea of logical to rehearse.

E-science refers to the kind of logical research that utilizations expansive scale registering framework to process substantial
measure of information. It is an interdisciplinary branch of science that investigates and executes data innovation stages,
which incorporate PC systems, PC data innovation, media transmission, and computational strategies.

Computational Science
Computational social science is the coordinated, interdisciplinary quest for social request with accentuation on data preparing
and through the medium of cutting-edge calculation. The principle computational sociology zones are computerized data extraction
frameworks, interpersonal organization examination, social geographic information system (GIS), multifaceted nature demonstrating,
and social reproduction models. Much the same as Galileo abused the telescope as the key instrument for watching and picking up a
more profound and experimentally honest comprehension of the physical universe, computational social researchers are figuring out
how to misuse the progressed and progressively great instruments of calculation to see past the unmistakable range of more
conventional disciplinary investigations.