2013 A/L

USE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY FOR EDUCATION AND BUSINESS

SECTORS

A Project Report | Kavindu H. Perera Coll. Arts E1

USE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY FOR EDUCATION AND BUSINESS SECTORS

Index
Introduction Summary Objective Beneficiaries Resources used for the Project Data presentation Conclusion Attachments Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 13 Page 15

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Introduction
Information and Communication Technology is a large collection of technologies used in various areas, such as; computing, telecommunications, broadcasting, publishing, education, entertainment, industries, etc. The convergence of the latter areas have created windows of opportunity, that will help usher in the new age.

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Summary
ICT applied to education offer huge potential to stimulate and realize the human capital inherent in the enormous number of young People in Developing Countries. Yet, even in developed countries, it has proven difficult to measure precisely, and in a uniform way, the benefits of introducing ICTsjust as it was when books, radio, and even television were introduced. This is because the results are usually spread far beyond the specialized sector in which the Investments are made, and there is normally a long lag between investment and dividends. For example, modernizing a small community banking network by retraining cashiers and officials, introducing computers with specialized software, and interconnecting the branches to headquarters, will shift that institution into a modern financial environment and allow it to interact effectively and efficiently with similar institutions, as well as provide up-to-date services to its clients. Such modernization is not an option for financial institutions; it is a matter of economic survival in a highly competitive world. However, the knowledge and skills gained by newly trained staff often prove far more beneficial for them outside the workplace; they benefit their personal livesfurthering their careers, improving their access to health, government, business, news, and other information, and strengthening their support of their family and their community.

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Objective
Discussion about the use of Education in general, and its use for the betterment of the Commerce and Business Sector.

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Beneficiaries
Officials interested in the development of the Educational Sector. Companies which are willing to invest in the countrys educational facilities. People who are looking forward to invest in new companies which are proposed to start in the field of Computers or the field of IT.

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Resources used for the Project

Various articles found in the internet related to the subject Text books for published by the Educational Publications Department for the Information Communication Technology G.C.E. Ordinary Level Examinations

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Data Presentation Introduction to ICT

Nearly everyone worked in agriculture before the Industrial Revolution. People communicated by words or messages written on paper. Soon after the industrial revolution, life changed for everyone. Factories were started where a large number of people worked together. In order to administer them, there came a need for educated officers. With the development of trade, a lot of documentation was involved. As technology advanced, people wanted to find easy ways of completing paperwork. The present computer as we know it, is probably the latest tool available from a series of machines that were developed over the years, such as the typewriter, fax etc. The present age is defined as the Information Age, as most peoples lives depend in Information Technology. A lot of people work on computer related fields and computers affect everybody in one way or the other. Communication too is becoming an integral part of Information Technology, and it is the reason that Information Technology (IT) has now eventually become Information Communication Technology (ICT).

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Use of ICT in the Field of Education

Today, the computer has become the most important piece of equipment that is used in the field of education. The most important thing here is the ability to use the educative programs repetitively in classrooms. ICT in the education sector both ensures that schools have access to ICT and that education is enhanced with ICT. ICT can enhance education content, teacher training, and technological skills development and can reduce cost and locate barriers in providing these services. Students living in remote area can gain access to teachers anywhere in the world through e-learning modules, and through ICT tools, and can enhance the formal classroom by those. Online courses are available in most of the universities worldwide, accessible through their respective web-sites.

The contribution of ICT in Teaching Supporting teachers professional development through

computer-mediated networks that facilitate Tele-collaboration Using technology to break down entrenched rote-based teaching practices and to support educational reform towards more student-centered learning Using computers in classrooms for online access to the latest textbooks and reading materials. Integrating broadcasting technologies such as interactive radio instruction (IRI), TV and Video Programs, and digital technologies to improve delivery and the content of teaching and learning activities.

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The contribution if ICT for Learning Developing networks that promote student collaboration both within the country and with students abroad. Learning Management Systems (LMS)it is a software package, usually of a large scale that enables the management and delivery of learning content and resources to students. Most LMSs are web-based to facilitate Anything-Anytime-Anywhere access to learning content and administration. At a minimum, the LMS usually allows student registration, the delivery and tracking of e-learning courses and content, and testing, and may also allow for the management of instructor-led training classes. In the most comprehensive of LMSs, one may find tools such as competency management, skills-gap analysis, succession planning, certifications, virtual live classes, consultancy sessions and resource allocation.

The contribution of ICT for Educational Management Developing education management information systems (EMIS) to improve the administration of the education setting Learning Management Systems (LMS) Online examinations

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Use of ICT in the Economy and Society

Today, computers have become a very important part in our day-to-day life. Most human activities take place with ICT and with the aid of ICT. It gives more effective and speedy solutions to real-life problems. People lead complex lifestyles that need most suitable solutions within shortest time, therefore creating many business opportunities to find solutions to those problems. Information Communication Technology satisfies these requirements in a very comprehensive manner. Home- Hobbies, Entertainment, Household expenses,
Accounting and various other tasks which create business opportunities can be performed easily with the aid if ICT. Everyday Life- Marketing, Banking, Medicine, Security and defense are also great business opportunities with the use of ICT to find solutions applicable.

Engineering- Chemical Plants, Manufacturing of Cars etc are major businesses aided by ICT Education- Simulations of laboratory experiments, Computer
Aided Learning etc. are good opportunities for businesses.

Business opportunities of ICT in day-to-day life Home Appliances- computers are very common in homes nowadays.
Most of the time, computers at home are used for writing letters, sending and receiving e-mail, playing games, browsing the internet, chatting via facebook, video-calling friend or relatives, watching movies, and just about anything else a computer can be used, creating great business opportunities and chances of creating a new business item.

Supermarkets- the computer has a record of each item in the supermarket

respectively, with information such as the item number, item name, description, price, quantity in stock etc, and helps to keep an orderly manner in businesses today. ICT is also used to automate the time-eating process of manual accounting systems such as General Ledger, Sales, Purchases, and Stock Control, which sometimes can be directly and instantaneously be created at the point of sales.

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Banking- Today, all transactions are entered then and there by the teller so
that work does not get accumulated in any branches. Each transaction as it is entered is updated in the master file as the central computer, minimizing the paperwork required formerly. Another popular use at banks is the Automatic Teller Machine (ATM), which gives around-the-clock service to subscribed customers without hesitation. Eg:- ATM Transactions, Tele Banking, Credit Cards, Card Payments etc.

Engineering- Engineers around the world use ICT to prepare drawings,

control of manufacturing & its quality, and to test the products they create, to help make businesses efficient and smoothly running. Eg:- Computer Aided Designing, Computer Aided Manufacturing, Stock Control Systems, Production Efficiency, Quality Control etc.

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Conclusion
Advantages of Using ICT for Education
The ability to increase the efficiency of both the Learning and Teaching Process. Students find a vast reading material environment Teachers being able to re-refer to all teaching material for a long time. Educational administration getting the ability to monitor efficiency and level of education without having to visit schools physically. The ability to find more reliable, recreational and interesting ways of studying and teaching. The ability to share everyones knowledge with anyone around the world. Parents being able to get to know the progress and presence of their children

Disadvantages of Using ICT for Education

Students being more attracted or addicted to computers and the internet Viewing of inappropriate content without restrictions in public networks Teachers being dependant on only the reading material available, instead of doing personal research and activities Serious monitoring making students and teachers hate their respective administration

Therefore, close monitoring and added limitations can make ICT very valuable for Education, if used correctly.

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Advantages of Using ICT for Businesses Convenience in data storage Easy access to data and information via the internet Ability to sort accordingly Uses less space and manpower to maintain records Working efficiency can be optimized, depending on data
input accuracy Online real-time updating in stock status up-to-date information availability of Profit/Loss records and Income-Expenditure records

Disadvantages of Using ICT High level of dependence on technology and electronic

appliances such as computers and Servers Incorrect data input can cause major misunderstandings and miscalculations in various figures of output Very high investment and cost requirement at initiation of Computer Systems Lack of Technological knowledge of untrained personnel and requirement of training procedures at such circumstances.
Using information Communication Technology (ICT), is crucial to most businesses, regardless of size. It is important to a company aiming to expand and to improve efficiency. The use of good ICT also improves customer services and customer demand. Many customers nowadays tend to rate businesses by their level of ICT usage before selecting the products for consuming. For example, the maintaining of a Web-Site is very crucial to reach the intended customers, who at almost every occasion tend to search for the interested product information and specification details; including previous customers ratings and feedback. Therefore, it is very important to be a user of ICT to improve the market range of all businesses.

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Attachments
attachment retrieved from the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka
http://www.icta.lk/en/e-sri-lanka.html

E-Sri Lanka: Transforming a Nation through Information Communication Technology

Call 1919 from a telephone anywhere in Sri Lanka and you can access information from 77 Government organizations in any of the countrys three main languages - Sinhala, Tamil or English. Meanwhile, Sri Lankas over 100,000 hearing and vision impaired, stand to benefit from an Impaired Aid Project that has introduced Digital talking Books using a new suite of local language accessibility applications. 1919, the online Government Information Centre, and the Impaired Aid project won awards at the 2009 World Summit Awards (WSA), a global initiative for selecting and promoting the world's best econtents and applications. Both projects are part of e-Sri Lanka, one of the first World Bank projects designed to bring Information Communication Technology (ICT) to every village, citizen, and business, and transform the way the government thinks and works . The vision expressed at the launch of the project in 2004 was that e-Sri Lanka aspires to the ideal of making Sri Lanka the most connected government to its people, and raising the quality of life of all its citizens with access to better public services, learning opportunities, and information. Sri Lanka is now on course to realizing this vision. The E- Sri Lanka Development Project was developed collaboratively between the World Bank South Asia Regions Finance and Private Sector Development Unit and the Global ICT Unit. It pioneered integrating a comprehensive ICT vision and planning into the development process. Initially, we felt unprepared to take on the challenges and risks of the new e-Development paradigm, says Simon Bell, Sector Manager for Finance and Private Sector. But this project has demonstrated that ICT can have an enormous impact in terms of improving government services, creating jobs, and enhancing skills of young people, especially in rural areas. The project has created a vast eco system of ICT-based resources in the rural sector, resulting in the ICT literacy rate increasing from 9.7 percent in 2004 to 22 percent in 2008. This is a field of high potential development impact about what all countries are learning. Sri Lanka is ahead of the learning curve with this pioneering program, says Philippe Dongier, Sector Manager for the ICT Sector. The projects main goal is to bring the benefits of the global knowledge economy to both urban centers and rural areas of Sri Lanka. This was to be achieved through a series of programs that included

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strategic policy and regulatory reforms, expansion of the broadband network throughout the country, providing government services online, establishing nenasalas (telecenters) in remote areas. It also aims to enhance the competitiveness of the countrys ICT private sector and opening up opportunities for investment in outsourced IT-Enabled services, and implementing several rural ICT initiatives through grants. The Information Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) was established by the Government to define, catalyze, and lead implementation of the countrys ICT policy. ICTA has a very effective institutional model that draws on Singapores and Koreas unique e-Development experience. It has been granted independence to implement a multi-pronged program of activities that it calls Actioning ideas.

E-Society and Reaching the Rural Poor through Tele/Knowledge Centers Nenasala One of the ideas actioned was to create an e-society where communities of farmers, students and small entrepreneurs are linked to information, learning and trading facilities. The actioning was via tele/knowledge centers called Nenaselas (Nena=knowledge+ selas=shops), that spawned across the country bringing within easy reach computer technology, the Internet, and IT skills training to many people who had never even seen a computer. For example, in a remote village in the Southeast, Mr. Janaka Srimal founded the Lak Aruna Nenasala seven years ago. With only one computer, he started teaching basic computer skills to the village children. Today the Nenasala has more than 100 members. In addition to running our two websites, I keep telling the children here to improve their English through the use of internet, says Srimal. They are logged on to their Skype and Google accounts. These children have lots of friends all over the world with which they chat to improve their English. The Nenasalas are also the base for citizen access to: Local radio broadcasts of market prices and crop/agricultural information to farmers, E-health/telemedicine facilities to rural patients, Availability of digital talking books (audio books) for the visually impaired and Visual hearing aids for the hearing impaired. Private entrepreneurs, community groups, and even religious establishments of all denominations established Nenasalas using project funds, says Reshan Dewapura, Chief Operating Officer of ICTA. These Nenasalas, totaling 587 spread across the country, have served as rural outposts for internet cafs, computer literacy centers, and bases for rural outsourcing businesses that create jobs in rural areas The momentum and pace for creating an e-society did not leave behind the disabled. The most disadvantaged sections of Sri Lankan society has benefitted from the most advanced ICT technologies. Visually impaired Biso Menike Grero graduated 31 years ago and is now employed as a Braille

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transcriber. Recalling the difficulties she encountered throughout her school and university days she is fully appreciative of the new technology. The visually disabled can now make a success of their lives, study about many new subjects and topics as a result of this new technology. The e-society Development initiative also provides grants of $5,000 for specific projects from communities or organizations with relevant experience in a Community Assistance Program. These grants cover many areas including indigenous content, educational content, ICT-based competitions to promote ICT literacy and support for setting up income generating websites. Some of the Highlights include: Obtaining satellite information on fish movements over the Internet and sending longitudinal and latitude co-ordinates via SMS to fishermen; Training for SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) open source accounting packages; Creating digital content related to indigenous medicine; English language learning via Satellite; Documenting violence against women using ICT. E-Government -- Bringing Government Services Closer to the People From birth to death, and practically everything in between, sums up all the services available through a clear A-Z index at the online Government Information Centre. For example, it shows the steps needed to get the birth of a child registered, even if the birth happened in a remote village in Sri Lanka. The e-Government program is aimed at making access to government services much more efficient through streamlined ICT-enabled processes. When the Indian Ocean tsunami hit Sri Lanka in 2004, hundreds of thousands of lives and homes were washed away along with their birth, marriage, death certificates and identity cards. Rebuilding lives necessitated speedy access to getting replacement for the valuable documents lost. ICTA responded by developing low-cost applications in several provisional administrative offices that allowed survivors to easily search a central digitized data repository to retrieve birth certificates within 10-30 minutes without having to travel to the capital Colombo. E-Government software applications now include e-population (for birth, marriage and death registrations), e-foreign employment bureau (a data base for jobs postings, immigration and emigration), e-pensions etc.

E-Knowledge and Job Creation Other elements of the project are e-Knowledge and ICT for private sector development and Jobs. EKnowledge focuses on building the countrys human capacity in ICT. Specialized training modules on network administration, advanced technical skills and IT management are now incorporated into university curricula, certification programs, distance learning, and MBA programs. In terms of job creation, over 45,000 new jobs have been created in Sri Lankas Information Technology (IT) and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector since 2005. IT Enabled Service exports have already become the 5th largest foreign exchange earner in the country with US$250 million in 2008. By 2015, it is expected that the IT/BPO industry will be the countrys number one export revenue earner

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with exports of $2 billion and 103,025 jobs. Sri Lanka is also being recognized as an emerging center of excellence for Financial and Accounting Outsourcing. Today Colombo ranks 5th in the world in this area of expertise, and, most recently, AT Kearney (2009) reported that Sri Lanka moved 13 points on the off-shoring index, the biggest improvement amongst 50 countries. In a recent message to celebrate the launch of a joint rural development initiative with Microsoft, Bill Gates commended the Governments ICT strategy. The Future of ICT in Sri Lankas Development Over the years, e-Sri Lanka has endured and overcome many implementation challenges and has been both resilient and responsive to the demands of multiple stake-holders in a challenging implementation environment. By successfully adapting to changes to implement e-Sri Lanka in what can be called a turbulent environment, ICTA is demonstrating a replicable true multi-stakeholder model, Going forward, the project is expected to focus on inclusive growth by taking the dividends of ICT to northern and eastern areas of the country. We need broadband Internet services that will enable us to lead on new developments and research in the medical field, said Ramanathan Archchuna, an undergraduate medical student at the University of Jaffna, located in the conflict-affected Northern part of the country. The focus will be on replicating ICT successes in those areas and deploying several quick-win low cost e-Government solutions to improve efficiency of service delivery in previously conflict affected areas. The follow-up efforts are likely to focus on the areas of devolution, governance, and innovation for inclusive growth. Ideas are thus being actioned, local and global Knowledge harnessed, dividends distributed to citizens, services being re-engineered. Post conflict Sri Lanka is well poised on the electronic bridge to make the leap that will take it to a middle income country in peace. ICT can impact lives provided there is a big enough vision behind it and genuine intentions to realize that vision - http://icta.lk/
Thyra Riley and Chulie de Silva wrote this article with input from the current Task Team Leaders, Tatiana Nenova and Sandra Sargent, Manju Haththotuwa, (Founding Managing Director of ICTA, now Senior ICT Policy Specialist, World Bank), Nagy Hanna ( Sr. Consultant and Author on e-Development strategies), Ismail Radwan, (Senior PSD Specialist), Asya Alhaque (Senior PSD Specialist), Simon Bell, Sector Manager, Finance and Private Sector Development, and Philippe Dongier, Sector Manager, Policy Division, Global ICT

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