Chapter 7- Recent trends in Technology

 E-learning: E-learning is the process of learning through the electronic media like computers. The concept of Distant Learning has become possible through the e-learning. One can get degree of a university through the e-learning. The CAL (Computer Assisted/Aided Learning) is an example of E-learning. Internet, Intranet, Extranet, Virtual Class room and Multimedia CD/DVD ROM are the tools used in E-learning.

Advantages of E-learning

·       Very flexible and cheaper

·       Time saving

·       Can be read any time and any where

·       Course moves faster than traditional method

·       Uniformity of content

·       Interactive online session

 

E-commerce: The commerce through the use of electronic media is called E-commerce. It is the most popular and highly used advantage of IT. Replacing the traditional method of account controlling, quality and quantity controlling, money transaction, official and industrial management, etc. by the computers and electronic machines are some popular concepts of E-commerce.  

Types of E-commerce:

i. Business-to-Business

ii. Business-to-Customer

iii. Customer -to-Customer

 

E-Business: The process of performing business activities through the electronic media, especially Internet is called E-Business. It includes selling, buying and servicing customers and collaborating with the business partners, too. It uses web-based technology for the advertisements and for the improved business performance. Some examples of this system are ebay, amazon, Alibaba etc

 

E-Governance: The process of governing through the use of Electronic media is called E-Governance. The traditional governing system cannot reach to the remote or rural area and it cannot address the actual problem of them. It is centered in the urban area. So, the E-Governance has become a popular concept of governing. It uses electronic media like Internet, Intranet, Wireless Phone, E-voting, E-commerce, E-health service and E-education, etc to address the problem of the people. It increases the speed of working of Government.

 E-Governance models:

i. Government to Citizens (G2C)

ii. Government to Employees (G2E)

iii. Government to Government (G2G)

iv. Government to Business (G2B)

 

Challenges of E-government:

a. IT literacy

b. Lack of coordination

c. Training

d. IT Policy

 

Importance of E-government.

a. Promote awareness and dramatically improves the efficiency of the civil services.

b. It will encourage public participation.

c. It will create healthy business environment.

d. It increases accountability, transparency, efficiency and which helps to reduce corruption.

e. It allows to share knowledge and information between organization easily.

 

Virtual Reality: It is an artificial environment created by using the computers, which tries to give natural environment of the presentation. It creates an illusion of the real world. Head Mounted Display (HMD), Binocular Omni Oriented Monitor (BOOM) and Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE) are some common devices used for Virtual Reality. It is very popular in the fields of entertainment, space and civil aviation. 

 

Robotics: It is the term used for the designing, constructing and using robots in various purposes. The term ‘robot’ was first used by Karel Capek in his play Rossum’s Universal Robots, published in 1920. Scientists are trying to give the human-like intelligence to the robots, so that they understand the natural languages and they can be able to interact with the humans to assist them. Transportation, exploration, surgery, bomb diffusion, etc. are some popular application of robots. They are especially used in the areas, which are full of risk.

 

AI

AI stands for Artificial Intelligence. It is a concept of giving human-like intelligence to the machines. Though the computers do their work faster and better than the human beings, the intelligence of them is zero because they just follow the set of instructions given by the user. In case of wrong instruction, they do wrong processing. It is because they do not have intelligence of their own. So, the scientists are in research of giving them artificial intelligence, so that they can understand the natural languages of the human beings and interact. They can express their feelings and many more.

 

These are some common uses of AI:

i. Game Playing

ii. Diseases Diagnosis & Operations

iii. Robotics

iv. Problem Solving

v. Speech and pattern Recognition

vi. Expert System

vii. Theorem Proving

viii. Machine Learning

 

The ethical aspect of AI

In accordance of AI, the machines get the human-like intelligence. Till now, the difference between the human beings and the machines is that they do not have intelligence of their own. They depend upon the human instructions. But after they get their intelligence, they can interact with the human and the question has been raised, do they follow the human-instruction? If not, what to do? Do they work under human control? What happens, if they did not follow the human instructions? What, if they go out of control from the human race? What happens in the society? These are some ethical aspect of AI. Similarly, the machine replacement in place of the human can cause the frustration and moral down to the human race.