ABSTRACT
The phrase ICT is unique to education. Other than in schools and colleges people simply talk about IT, information technology. It is in learning that there has been an additional emphasis added, that of the capacity of these machines to both provide information and communicate it. Even then, people in education may still distinguish between IT and ICT, the former being the tools and skills for the job, the latter being what you do with them. So computers, cables, the internet, wireless connections, handheld devices, digital cameras and even mobile phones can be one thing, while word-processing, emailing, videoconferencing and searching on the internet will be the other. Some people also talk of IT as being the skills for using the tools, while ICT is then the use that those skills are put to. Rather like the relationship between using a saw properly and creating a bird table. While these might sometimes be useful distinctions, for the purposes of this book the whole range of equipment and activities will be taken to be part of the one thing: Information and Communication Technology – ICT.
