What are some examples of input and output devices of a computer?

Input

• Keyboard
• Mouse
• Touch Screen
• Scanner
• Camera
• Microphone
• Light pen
• optical mark reader
• Barcode reader
• 
  

 

Output

• Printer
• Monitor
• Speakers
• Projector 
  

 

Input As Well As Output

• Disks
• CD
• DVD

Input/output

In computing, input/output, or I/O, refers to the communication between an information processing system (such as acomputer), and the outside world, possibly a human, or another information processing system. Inputs are the signals or data received by the system, and outputs are the signals or data sent from it. The term can also be used as part of an action; to "perform I/O" is to perform an input or output operation. I/O devices are used by a person (or other system) to communicate with a computer. For instance, a keyboard or a mouse may be an input device for a computer, while monitors and printers are considered output devices for a computer. Devices for communication between computers, such as modems and network cards, typically serve for both input and output.

Note that the designation of a device as either input or output depends on the perspective. Mouse and keyboards take as input physical movement that the human user outputs and convert it into signals that a computer can understand. The output from these devices is input for the computer. Similarly, printers and monitors take as input signals that a computer outputs. They then convert these signals into representations that human users can see or read. For a human user the process of reading or seeing these representations is receiving input. These interactions between computers and humans is studied in a field called human–computer interaction.

In computer architecture, the combination of the CPU and main memory (i.e. memory that the CPU can read and write to directly, with individual instructions) is considered the brain of a computer, and from that point of view any transfer of information from or to that combination, for example to or from a disk drive, is considered I/O. The CPU and its supporting circuitry provide memory-mapped I/O that is used in low-level computer programming, such as the implementation of device drivers. An I/O algorithm is one designed to exploit locality and perform efficiently when data reside on secondary storage, 

ICT Dalam Pendidikan

Kemajuan ICT atau teknologi maklumat dan komunikasi telah menjadi satu cabaran kepada negara dan sistem pendidikan khususnya untuk menyediakan sumber tenaga manusia yang berpengetahuan dan berkemahiran ICT.  Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia sebagai peneraju ICT dalam dunia pendidikan perlu menyediakan keperluan fizikal dan bukan fizikal untuk membolehkan penggunaan ICT sebagai alat pengupaya (enabling tool) pada semua peringkat organisasi pendidikan. Penggunaan ICT juga mampu membawa perubahan dan pembaharuan kepada sistem pendidikan ke arah memartabatkan pendidikan negara pada peringkat antarabangsa.

ICT mula diperkenalkan dalam dunia pendidikan pada awal tahun 1990-an. Sebelum itu, pendidikan berasaskan teknologi hanya menggunakan radio, televisyen dan overhead projector dalam proses membantu sesi pengajaran dan pembelajaran guru.  Rancangan Radio dan TV Pendidikan juga telah diperkenalkan pada tahun 2000 dengan menggunakan teknologi satelit supaya siaran tersebut dapat diperluaskan dan diterima oleh sekolah-sekolah luar bandar dan pendalaman. Bagi meningkatkan penggunaan ICT, pada tahun 1992, Kementerian Pendidikan telah membekalkan sebanyak 60 buah sekolah luar bandar dengan 20 set komputer untuk pelajar dan satu set komputer untuk guru bagi setiap buah sekolah.

Pada tahun1994, KPM telah melancarkan Projek Rintis Pengajaran Pembelajaran Berbantu Komputer bagi mata pelajaran Bahasa Inggeris dan Matematik di 15 buah sekolah rendah luar bandar di negeri Selangor.  Setiap sekolah dibekalkan dengan 21 set komputer dan perisian kursus pendidikan yang disediakan oleh Pusat Perkembangan Kurikulum (PPK).  Pada tahun1996 pula, penyediaan infrastruktur ICT diperluas kepada 209 buah sekolah menengah dan 20 buah sekolah rendah. Sekolah-sekolah menengah ini dibekalkan dengan 20 set komputer dengan satu pelayan (server) untuk Persekitaran Rangkaian Setempat (LAN) tanpa kemudahan internet sementara di sekolah rendah komputer yang dibekalkan tidak dirangkaikan.  Antara tahun 1999 hingga 2000 pula, sebanyak 222 buah sekolah rendah dan 110 buah sekolah menengah di seluruh negara telah dibekalkan sebanayak 10 set komputer bagi setiap buah sekolah.

Dalam mengharungi kemajuan ICT, pihak Kementerian Pendidikan sendiri banyak menghadapi masalah atau cabarannya.  Namun begitu, cabaran-cabaran itu dianggap sebagai satu perintis kejayaan dan harus diselesaikan serta ditangani dengan bijak.  Strategi pelaksanaannya juga harus dirancang bagi melicinkan lagi usaha meningkatkan penggunaan ICT di sekolah. 

Di antara cabaran-cabaran dan strategi pelaksanaannya adalah seperti berikut,

Pembangunan Infrastruktur ICT

Sekolah yang masih tidak mempunyai bekalan elektrik menjejaskan pembekalan kemudahan ICT dalam pengurusan dan pentadbiran serta P & P.  Kebanyakan sekolah rendah hanya dibekalkan dengan elektrik satu fasa.  Untuk kegunaan makmal komputer, bekalan elektrik perlu dinaik taraf kepada tiga fasa.  Adalah menjadi cabaran kepada KPM untuk menyediakan bekalan elektrik tiga fasa kepada sekolah bagi membolehkan pelaksanaan ICT sepenuhnya.

Makmal komputer yang sedia ada tidak dapat menampung keperluan sebagai makmal komputer mata pelajaran elektif.  Sebuah makmal komputer hanya dapat menampung keperluan untuk lima kelas sahaja kerana setiap mata pelajaran berasaskan ICT memerlukan empat hingga lima waktu mengajar seminggu.  Adalah menjadi cabaran kepada KPM untuk menambah bilangan makmal komputer di semua sekolah menengah bagi menentukan mata pelajaran elektif ICT dapat ditawarkan.

Pembekalan komputer atau notebook kepada guru dan pensyarah untuk kegunaan P&P masih tidak mencukupi.  Hanya sebilangan kecil guru dan pensyarah yang memperoleh kemudahan tersebut melalui projek atau sumbangan tertentu.  Untuk meningkatkan mutu P&P, KPM akan membekalkan komputer kepada guru dengan nisbah 1 : 10 bagi tahun 2002 hingga 2003.  Nisbah ini akan meningkat kepada 1 : 5 pada tahun 2004 hingga 2005, manakala pada tahun 2006 hingga 2010, nisbah komputer berbanding guru adalah 1 : 1.

Walaupun perancangan telah dibuat, perkakasan komputer yang dibekalkan kepada Jabatan/Bahagian masih tidak mencukupi bagi memenuhi keperluan personel KPM disebabkan kekangan peruntukan kewangan.  Di samping itu, kebanyakan komputer yang dibekalkan adalah model berkapasiti rendah dan tidak dirangkaikan kepada kemudahan internet sedangkan keperluan untuk kemudahan ini semakin meningkat atas desakan tugas, keperluan komunikasi, dan memenuhi cabaran merealisasikan e-kerajaan.  Sebagai contoh, pada masa kini, pembekalan komputer dengan nisbah 1 : 1 bagi pegawai Kumpulan Pengurusan dan Profesional (Gred 3 dan ke atas) masih belum mencapai sasarannya.  Adalah menjadi cabaran kepada KPM untuk menyediakan perkakasan komputer yang terkini dan mencukupi kepada semua peringkat pengurusan KPM ke arah mengukuhkan infrastruktur ICT dalam pendidikan.

What Makes a Good ICT Professional?

Good technical skills are important for any ICT professional. However ICT professionals also work with clients and manage teams. The industry needs people who are flexible, creative and unafraid of change.

You might enjoy an ICT career if you:

• can understand industry or business needs
• have an analytical and creative mind
• pay attention to detail
• are comfortable working with people and clients
• have good communication skills
• like problem-solving
• are self-motivated and innovative
• enjoy working in teams and can successfully achieve goals with team members
• understand applications of computerised systems
• want to explore new technological possibilities.

Careers in ICT

The facts

The ICT industry is constantly growing and so are employment opportunities. The 2009 Job Outlook report by the Australian Government stated that the employment growth for ICT professions to 2012-2013 is expected to be strong and recent newspaper reports have also highlighted a growth in jobs in the sector and rising salaries. The IT category of Australia’s leading online job site, www.seek.com.au, consistently has more vacancies than any other category. The demand for qualified ICT professionals is both local and international.

Types of work

Software designer, hardware engineer, multimedia designer, enterprise architect, system security specialist, network analyst, games developer, IT consultant and web developer are just a few of the diverse career options that ICT offers. Employers increasingly seek ICT-trained people who possess a combination of business, problem-solving and interpersonal skills, who can communicate effectively and develop relationships with customers, suppliers, business partners and within teams. ICT skills are readily transferable from one employer to another and ICT is ever-evolving with jobs being developed to meet needs created in a wide range of new areas. Some of these aren’t even identified as yet, so the industry needs people who are flexible, creative and unafraid of change.

Where UQ ICT graduates are now

• Mandy Ross studied Information Technology and is now the chief information officer at Wotif.com
• Emily Pearce studied Multimedia Design and is now an Interaction Designer for Flight Centre
• Ben Appleton studied Software Engineering and now works as a technical lead/manager for Google Australia
• John Ngui studied Information Technology and now works as a business analyst for Suncorp
• Anthony Massingham studied Multimedia Design and is now Actionscript Programmer at BlueDog Training
• Mark Wakabayashi studied Information Technology and now works as a software engineering researcher at UQ

Use of ICT in Education :: Five Lessons from International Experience

The mere presence of computers and other new technologies in the classroom is not sufficient; ICT interventions need to be designed and implemented strategically in order to be effective and live up to their full potential

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have great potential to develop access, quality and equity in education at all levels – early childhood, primary, secondary and tertiary. For example:

• radio/audio can be used in place of a teacher to deliver highly structured lessons with pauses for learners to respond, or as a supplement with a teacher present;
• television provides visual effects which can illustrate complex or abstract concepts; it can be supplemented by workbooks or other materials;
• computers/internet can be used as teaching tools (simulations, online learning communities, professional development of teachers), content delivery tools (online libraries, journals, books), and management tools (assessment, record keeping); can also be used to form community telecentres and virtual schools.
• multi-media integrates radio, television and or computers.

Already widespread in the schools and colleges of developed countries, ICTs are now being used increasingly in developing countries for "e-learning" applications. At the same time there is some scepticism towards ICTs in education because the impact on student achievement and the cost effectiveness of what are often expensive applications are unclear. What is certain is that the mere presence of computers and other new technologies in the classroom is not sufficient; ICT interventions need to be designed and implemented strategically in order to be effective and live up to their full potential. While the impact of ICT on learning outcomes is still debatable, there seems to be a consensus that ICTs in education can be useful for increasing access to information as well as motivation in the classroom and efficiency throughout the education system.

The following are five "lessons" that have been drawn from international experience with ICTs in education over the last decade or so. There are undoubtedly other lessons that can be drawn from the international experience but these five strike me as being the most important for educators in India.

Lesson number one is that those who seek to introduce ICTs into education should be firstly and primarily concerned with the kind of education they are trying to deliver. In particular, they should start by clarifying education goals and curriculum objectives and not begin by asking what (and how much) technology should be introduced to the schooling system. For example, is the educational aim to reach more learners or to help students learn more and better? Is the aim to help teachers to improve their practice or to help make work in the school easier and more productive? Or perhaps the aim is simply to introduce teachers and students to 21st century technology.

The second lesson is to know when a technology-based solution to the education problem you have identified is the right solution. This is not always so. To understand what the right solution to their education problem is, education managers need firstly to know their needs and the resources available at present or can mobilise in the future. In thinking these issues through education managers should ask themselves: how and to what extent can technology help me achieve my goals and objectives given my current state? It is important to note that different types of technologies offer different advantages – as well as challenges – depending on how these technologies are deployed.

The third lesson is to understand that training of teachers is the means, not the end. The experience is that training teachers does not always make a difference in terms of changed practice in the classrooms. Teachers need time and an enabling environment to develop technological pedagogical content knowledge. By this I mean the teacher's knowledge of how to represent concepts using technologies; strategies to teach content using technologies in a constructive way; knowing how to use technologies to address learning difficulties; how technologies can be used to build on existing knowledge; and how to use technologies to develop new ways of knowing and learning or to strengthen existing ones. Managers of education systems should ask themselves whether they provide teachers with the necessary support – institutional, administrative, technical and financial – after a training event to ensure effective change in teaching practice. How well are teachers' performances and progress with new techniques, methodologies and approaches monitored by the education systems? How does an education manager know when an innovation is working? To what extent are new ways of teaching being assessed in terms of the impact they have on student learning?

The fourth lesson is that the sustainability of innovations in respect of ICT and education, and, of course, other educational innovations, depends on establishing a critical mass of innovators that reinforce and enrich each others' changed practice within schools and across schools. The keys to success are for the managers of education systems to firstly know where the pockets of experimentation, innovation and creativity are in their education community, secondly, to know how to build on the existing strengths of teachers and, thirdly, to know how to use technology to create, animate and sustain an education community. In addition, sustainability of any innovation regarding ICT and education will only succeed if there is sufficient financial resource to meet the total cost of the technology introduced, particularly the maintenance of machinery, replacement parts, availability of technical support and the updating of software. There are also issues regarding the extent to which the community is involved and the acceptance of ICT by the end users, namely the teachers and learners. Experience shows us that political and technical leadership is also important for the necessary policy support and the effectiveness of change management.

The fifth and perhaps most important lesson of all is that planning for ICT should be part of and not separate from general education and school planning. The biggest mistake is to think of ICT and its use as an 'add on', an extra aspect of the curriculum. The people involved in planning for ICT must be fully integrated into broader education and school reform efforts. Ultimately, the managers of education systems and schools must ask themselves how ICTs support and enable school activities, particularly the teaching and learning process.

All of these lessons have been learned by developed and developing countries over the last twenty years or so, often at great cost, and it is clear that some countries have been better able to apply ICT in education than others. In the developing world, for example, the Philippines appears to have done well in terms of technology planning for schools and Laos has demonstrated some good practice of developing an approach to ICT in education in a rural context. In all cases it has been found that the transformative power of ICT in education is more likely to be realised when technology is introduced within the context of radical institution-wide reform.

ICT in Education/The Uses of ICTs in Education

ICT in Education/The Uses of ICTs in Education== The Uses of ICTs in Education ==

Education policymakers and planners must first of all be clear about what educational outcomes (as discussed above) are being targeted.These broad goals should guide the choice of technologies to be used and their modalities of use.

The potential of each technology varies according to how it is used. Haddad and Draxler identify at least five levels of technology use in education: presentation, demonstration, drill and practice, interaction, and collaboration. ^[20]

Each of the different ICTs—print, audio/video cassettes, radio and TV broadcasts, computers or the Internet—may be used for presentation and demonstration, the most basic of the five levels. Except for video technologies, drill and practice may likewise be performed using the whole range of technologies. On the other hand, networked computers and the Internet are the ICTs that enable interactive and collaborative learning best; their full potential as educational tools will remain unrealized if they are used merely for presentation or demonstration. ICTs stand for information and communication technologies and are defined, for the purposes of this primer, as a “diverse set of technological tools and resources used to communicate, and to create, disseminate, store, and manage information.” [4] These technologies include computers, the Internet, broadcasting technologies (radio and television), and telephony.