Technology, Educational Media, and E-Resources

Abstract

Digital computers have been around for some 50 years. Their influence has been felt in fits and starts. Early significant applications were in science, engineering and mathematics. In the last 20 years, we have seen computing become relatively universal with stand-alone PCs and workstations commonplace in homes, offices and factories. Both computational power and data storage capacity have become relatively cheap. Powerful application packages for word-processing, numerical processing and graphical work are readily available. Data of all kinds can now be represented and manipulated digitally, including photographs, video and audio tracks. Increasingly all of this is possible not just on stand-alone computers but also over networks and in particular the Internet. (Ryan, Scott, Freeman, & Patel, 2001, p. 9)