Why IT is it

Ishara Jayawardane

To do information and communication technology you need the background science. “For information the computer science was there, for communication the communication technology was there.

So the merger will give Information and Communication Technology. So now people are just talking about IT. Rather than saying ICT. Because the communication part of ICT is now hidden. So they are talking about information and information related technologies. But behind this Information Technology the communication is there, without communication you cannot talk about Information Technology you need computer and communication science,” Director, National Online Distance Education Service, S T Nandasara says.

The gadgets available in the industry are extremely attractive to the youth. The computer has general interest. “The mobile phone provides a wealth of information. Those days the mobile phone was only for telephone calls. Then SMS was introduced.

The SMS introduced by the mobile phone industry was very popular. But today the mobile phone is not just a mobile phone. It has become an information gadget, where you have everything on it. You can check email, browse, go on the internet, log on to websites and communicate by video conferencing, even Facebook, they are all there on the mobile phone.

However the importance is not merely restricted to communication; what they should do is to use these technological marvels for the development of the country. Use it for knowledge where you can grab knowledge.

You can use this for education. Browse and see what is happening in the world; which areas you can find out about your studies. This technology should be the gate for the youth to see the world. This is very important for the youth and the country. So that is the biggest advantage of IT,”.

The world our forefathers created is dying like a dying star, but like a phoenix that rises from the ashes, a new world will be created by the youth. The worlds of political and geographical boundaries created by our forefathers are starting to dissolve and the youth will create their own world with their ideas.

Information Technology (IT) is what will connect the youth, and IT is the tool that the youth will use to transform the world. It is an age of new ideas. Information Technology will overcome all bigotry and prejudice. As the world becomes connected by IT, the youth will come to accept each other and understand each other.

A big impact

“This term Information Technology is very popular. Information Technology came through computer science. It is a science subject, a science area. In the good old days 20 - 30 years back, the Information Technology term was not there. In the early 1980’s what happened was computer technology and communication technology merged.

And that merger made a big impact on society and the industry everywhere because the computer alone could not do many things. Because of the merger between computer and communication, the information flow rapidly developed. So you have the information in the computer which can be sent through the communication lines.

Information Communication Technology (ICT) was one of the biggest developments in the 80’s. The process of producing information, delivering information and retrieving information are all there in this term: Information Communication Technology. The computer is producing information, delivery is through communication,” said Nandasara.

A rapid progress

There has been a rapid progress happening over the years. It is the biggest industry in Sri Lanka. “Of course we have to compete with Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, and India which are far ahead of us. The youth of those countries are very bright.

The Outsourcing Business Partner Organisations is an area growing much faster along with the Education Industry. There are a lot of IT Educational Institutions, not only software developers but training institutes which are one of the biggest industries in Sri Lanka, not only the government but schools and the private sector.

Those are the challenges Sri Lanka is facing compared to the other countries. Software developers and development houses are faster growing industries. Therefore the youth has a good opportunity in Sri Lanka in IT. Even now the government has introduced a new technology stream in the Advanced Levels, aiming for the youth to be ready and there is a big demand for that technological stream as well. Parents are looking for schools to send their children with the technological stream in mind. Because of the demand, Universities are offering degree courses and diploma courses. The demand is there because the industry is needed. The fifth stream is the technological stream that has many technological subjects. IT is one. In three years time the University might also introduce a technological stream.”

We have a computer literacy of 30 - 35 percent in the country. If you go back 10 years it was about five percent. “Today a large number of people know how to browse the web. If you know what is the mouse and keyboard and how the computer works, that is general knowledge. Even grade 9 students are computer literate. If you have a mobile phone you can browse the web and send and read email. Even if you do not know English, you have the Sinhala and Tamil websites. By 2016 the government is planning to have a 70 percent computer literate society. It is not a dream. Communication technology is all over Sri Lanka. Almost 97 percent of the country is covered. Electricity and communication both are spread over the country. By 2015 the government is planning to make electricity available for all. The roads are constructed everywhere.”

Infrastructure is ready. Most of the schools are having their computer labs. Some rural schools may not have them, but people have mobile phones. “Even the farmer has that capability. We do not have to worry about rural and urban disparity. You can get IT knowledge in Sinhala or English there is no question about it. The schools are teaching IT in English, Sinhala and Tamil. Text books are available in all three languages. In the Sri Lankan context, to get the basic knowledge of computer or IT, you do not have to worry about the language barrier. The problem comes when you go to the higher level of education, maybe after Advanced Levels when you go to the University, or go for higher degrees or diplomas, comparative certificates in other countries like the UK where you need to have English.”

Promoting IT

You have to learn in English because advanced technologies are not available in local language. “You are forced to read things in English. Therefore you have to learn English. However students who come to university without English knowledge can acquire English knowledge skills. Unlike the old days, Sri Lankan youth can communicate in English now; they are exposed to English on TV and Radio. Therefore they are at a level of understanding English. Things are changing. IT is a rapidly changing Industry. Most of the publications are in English. You should be able to read and understand them.”

The Education Ministry is taking on the biggest challenge of promoting IT in rural areas. The biggest problem the education ministry is facing is having good teachers in these schools. “Very recently they have given 100 IT teacher appointments. Out of 15 Universities in Sri Lanka I think most of these universities are offering IT degrees. Government is taking the maximum possible initiative to improve the IT education in Sri Lanka.”

Sixty years back in history in 1947, the first computer was introduced as a big machine which can digitally calculate 5000 arithmetic per second. It was 30 tons in weight, 30ft wide and 80ft in length. “Today unbelievably we are in a heaven! five billion arithmetic per second, that is the speed of today’s computer.

The size is getting small and smaller. Your palm top or smart phone is a computer. It can do millions of operations per second. I cannot forecast what might happen in 10 years! Even TV is becoming smart where you can browse and connect to the internet. Your TV has become an intelligent machine like a computer. Even your refrigerator is IT.

Google is growing faster than any technology; you can put your documents and photographs or anything there. You do not have to worry about losing them. Putting them in google.doc, it will be there forever. Google is not only a web engine anymore; it is beyond that.”

The proportion of IT students offering Computer Science and Information Technology in the Colombo campus is that, “The total student population in this building, undergraduates alone is about 1000.

We offer General degrees and special degrees in IT and Computer Science. Colombo is number one according to the number of students studying. And we have the Masters degrees - we have 300 students doing Master. We have Ph.D and M.Phil students here. We also have an external degree programme. There we have about 6000 students. No other University has that number.

Voice of the students

Daily News spoke to some IT students at the University of Colombo School of Computing who are flying with the Phoenix.

Tharindu Madhushanka, 22, Second Year IT student said: “I did A/Level Maths and came into this computer science course. My results were 3 B’s. Initially I did not have much knowledge of IT or how to use a computer when I came into this course.

The reason I chose this field of Information Technology is because I had a problem with obtaining this knowledge at home. Even at school there was no such facility, so I thought that I should come here and study IT because it is an area that is of great interest with the added advantage of getting a job. Normally there are jobs in this field. I was actually more inclined to the electronic side and I thought I should branch out into IT.

At my school during our O/Ls there were two computer labs. There were some problems here because of ineffective maintenance. So facilities were not up to the mark. During the A/Ls we got another two labs but we did not really get hands on experience. We did the (General Information Technology) GIT subject so I had some knowledge of IT during my A/Ls. But the practical side was lacking. Still the GIT exam results have not been released.

I did my A/Ls in 2010. It was not a compulsory subject and most people did not take much interest. However there were teachers at school to teach us. However we did not have an opportunity to delve into the practical side - there was a lot of theory but no lab experience. We had only book knowledge.

When we came from school we had fair knowledge of English. At first we thought that we need excellent English to do IT, but when we arrived here we found that that was not the case. You simply need to understand English. If there is any deficiency it can be rectified here.

If you can understand what is being said that is more than adequate. There is no reason to fear. It should not be a huge problem after coming here. There is also a new subject called Information Systems that is open to pupils from other streams.

I am of course doing Computer Science that is open only to the Maths stream. In our faculty there are students doing CS (Computer Science) and IS (Information Systems). In the beginning there were two: Computer Science and Information Technology. IT is open to anyone but they are selected after an exam. CS can only be done by those who have done Maths. From last year this was changed because of the change in syllabus. Computer Science remained as it was, but ICT was changed to IS, which is open to any stream and determined by Z score marks. So we get the Bachelor of Computer Science Degree.

Initially I thought it would be very difficult but everything has proceeded fairly well. The teachers here are very good. There is a compulsory third year second semester industrial training for us. For that you receive eight credits. So the campus directs us to an organisation or internally in the campus - software development. So we get industrial experience. So the job possibility is very much there.

Prasad Madhanayake, 22, Second Year, IT student: “During my A/Ls I did not do IT. Of course I took a great interest in Maths. So when it comes to the practical side of IT, that helps. More than the subject matter in the engineering field the subject matter in IT interested me more.

IT is a well respected field here in Sri Lanka and abroad. However I must say that the facilities for IT at my school were adequate. But at that time we did not really appreciate what we had! We did not really have an enthusiasm at that point in our lives. After my A/Ls I evaluated my options before applying for campus. Then I discovered that IT involved the areas that I found interesting in Maths. That was when I started to seriously consider IT. It was only when I came here that I began to really apply myself.

Until that time I had really no comprehensive knowledge of IT. When you think of whether English language is necessary, you cannot say that English is the sun and the moon. I know that there are so many students here whose English knowledge is nothing great.

Language does not become a problem here as knowledge of the key words in Computing can be easily learnt. Of course to understand the lectures you need basic knowledge of English. In the IT field I like programming and Algorithms. In other words, the language side. There is a lot of diversity.

The facilities here are of excellent quality. More than the educational qualification you benefit from the practice and experience that also comes with internship from Industrial training. So finding a job is not difficult. So I am in a field I feel comfortable in, because no matter how good you are in a field, if you are not happy in it, it does not make sense. So you have to be happy. Even at school I was not too keen on Social Studies but I was very interested in History.

Thilini Edirisinghe , 22, Second Year, IT student: “Before I came into the IT field here I had a bit of help from home. Even my sister did this. I have a zest for this subject. I also have a desire to go abroad and do my higher studies. This field actually assists us in whatever path we may choose locally and abroad. My Z score at the A/Ls meant that I could not go to the engineering field because my marks were low, but could follow the IT field or in Architecture. So I thought this path would be more suitable for me.

There were enough and more facilities with good labs and teachers in my school. So we had hands on experience. IT was there as an A/L subject. From school we received a basic knowledge of IT. However you cannot give programming knowledge to an A/L student, for that you need to do it privately. Word, Power Point and Slideshow are the basic knowledge we received at school.

I did Maths for my A/L’s. Where IT is concerned, yes, I think you need English. If you take the University you cannot give sole responsibility to the lecturer. They provide us with the necessary knowledge and beyond that it is up to us. The lecturers instruct us as to which sites we have to go to, and then it is up to us to do the work.

As a student of my age, even if you miss the lecture you must be resourceful enough to study on your own. We cannot learn everything about the Industry at University. We are given the necessary knowledge and to learn more we can go on YouTube and read up on documentaries. Self study is vital. To learn languages we did it alone, and for that English is important. Coming here you do not need English knowledge but to continue from here you do.

IT is a broad field and very valuable. Here group studies come in handy. Sometimes there may be one student who understands something the others do not. So that information is shared. All the facilities are available here with lecturers. When we go for a job they look at our qualifications. But they also look for practical knowledge so learning by heart is no use.

There are some individuals who have no A/L’s or University experience but have great knowledge, and that is what people in the industry are looking for. But I assure you that there is no cut- throat competition among our university students here. The team work is more important in life.”