2014

JKUAT SODeL

JOMO KENYATTA UNIVERSITY

OF
AGRICULTURE & TECHNOLOGY

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SCHOOL OF OPEN, DISTANCE AND eLEARNING

P.O. Box 62000, 00200
Nairobi, Kenya
E-mail: elearning@jkuat.ac.ke
HRD 2101 Communication Skills

LAST REVISION ON March 24, 2014

2014

JKUAT SODeL

HRD 2101 Communication Skills

This presentation is intended to covered within one week.
The notes, examples and exercises should be supplemented with a good textbook. Most of the exercises have
solutions/answers appearing elsewhere and accessible by
clicking the green Exercise tag. To move back to the same
page click the same tag appearing at the end of the solution/answer.
Errors and omissions in these notes are entirely the responsibility of the author who should only be contacted
through the Department of Curricula & Delivery
(SODeL) and suggested corrections may be e-mailed to
elearning@jkuat.ac.ke.

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JKUAT: Setting trends in higher Education, Research and Innovation

HRD 2101 Communication Skills

LESSON 10
Technology in Communication

Upon completion of this topic you should be able to explain the

role of technology in communication
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JKUAT SODeL

10.1. Learning Outcome

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JKUAT: Setting trends in higher Education, Research and Innovation

2014

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HRD 2101 Communication Skills

10.2. Introduction

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Communication is as old as mankind. Over the years man has

always had some method of communicating his intentions, feelings and ideas.
In the early days man did not only use words to communicate
but also signals like smoke, light (from fire), sounds like drums,
trumpets etc. Over long distances messages had to be relayed
by word of mouth from one individual to another moving in the
direction to which the message was intended. This was slow and
very cumbersome.
Through the decades man has invented better methods of
communication. Technological inventions and advances have
seen communication undergo a series of evolutionary phasessimple telephone technology to the modern highly computerized
JKUAT: Setting trends in higher Education, Research and Innovation

HRD 2101 Communication Skills

communication. These developments include such things as :

2. Telegraphic written messages- telegraphs, facsimile (fax)

to e-mails, facebook & twitter.
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JKUAT SODeL

1. The telephone- fixed landlines, pages, radios, public address systems to mobile phones commonly used today.

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Objects like phones, fax machine computers, satellites dishes,

just to mention a few, have greatly facilitated exchanges and
sharing ideas through what is commonly known as Information
and Communication Technology (ICT). The
Role of Technology in Communication
Technology therefore has played a significant role in communication. It has enabled people from different parts of the world
share info easily and quickly. It has produced both highly posiJKUAT: Setting trends in higher Education, Research and Innovation

HRD 2101 Communication Skills

tive and negative effects on communication in the process.
Positive Effects

2. Increased speed of sending and receiving information.

3. Information has become of better quality.
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JKUAT SODeL

1. Increased accessibility to information.

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4. Large volumes of information can be condensed and stored

in electronic forms thus occupying very little space.
5. Improved the quality of knowledge and capacity of information users.
6. Easier sharing of information by different people at different locations at the same time eg several people can
connect to the same website at the same time.
JKUAT: Setting trends in higher Education, Research and Innovation

8. Increased competition among business organization has led

to better quality products.

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HRD 2101 Communication Skills

7. Access to information has led to shorter and quicker decision making process thus leading to higher productivity
by business.

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9. Use of facilities like televisions and videos enhance quicker

understanding and learning as one can easily combine both
verbal and non-verbal aspects of communication
10. It has led to faster social and economic development as
new knowledge can be easily transferred to different parts
of the world Negative Effects
Despite the many good roles technology plays in communication,
there are nonetheless some adverse effects:
JKUAT: Setting trends in higher Education, Research and Innovation

HRD 2101 Communication Skills

1. Electronic fraud e.g. in the case of banks where financial
fraud occurs.

3. Plagiarism- people use other peoples knowledge as though

it is theirs (in academics)
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JKUAT SODeL

2. Moral decadence like in the addiction to pornographic materials in the internet

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4. Computer hacking where people illegally access information not meant for them.
5. Unemployment especially among the youth one computer can replace several people at the work place.
6. Laziness among the youth they would prefer watching
tvs, chatting with friends on facebook or twitter to working.
JKUAT: Setting trends in higher Education, Research and Innovation

HRD 2101 Communication Skills

Revision Questions

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JKUAT SODeL

Exercise 1.  Explain how the negative effects of technolgy

in communication can be counteracted.
Example . Discuss and highlight the merits and demerits of
the following channels of communication (20 marks)
i) Oral communication
ii) Written communication
iii) Nonverbal communication
Solution: for revision

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JKUAT: Setting trends in higher Education, Research and Innovation