Topics Covered
ICT Abbreviations
Bits and Bytes
Basics of the Internet
Intranet and Extranet
E-mail
Audio and Video Conferencing
Digital Initiatives in Higher Education
E-governance
Contents
Topic Overview — What & Why
Unit VIII asks what a teacher in a networked university should know about the tools they use. Its questions are short and factual: expand an abbreviation, tell two similar things apart (internet and intranet, CC and BCC, SMTP and IMAP), convert a unit (bits, bytes, binary), and name the platform that does a job in Indian higher education or government.
- ICT is information and communication technology: the hardware, software, networks and media used to create, store, share and use information.
- The internet is a public network of networks; an intranet is a private one inside an organisation.
- Higher education's platforms: SWAYAM for courses, NDLI for reading, Shodhganga for theses, DigiLocker and the Academic Bank of Credits for records and credits.
- E-governance: services delivered online, government to citizen (G2C), to business (G2B), to government (G2G) and to employee (G2E).
1. ICT: General Abbreviations and Terminology
| Abbreviation | Stands for | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| ICT | Information and Communication Technology | The tools for handling and sharing information |
| URL | Uniform Resource Locator | The address of a resource on the web |
| HTTP / HTTPS | HyperText Transfer Protocol (Secure) | The protocol for web pages; HTTPS encrypts the connection |
| HTML | HyperText Markup Language | The language web pages are written in |
| IP | Internet Protocol | The rules for addressing and routing data; an IP address identifies a device |
| TCP | Transmission Control Protocol | Delivers data reliably and in order, with IP (TCP/IP) |
| DNS | Domain Name System | Turns names (ugc.gov.in) into IP addresses |
| ISP | Internet Service Provider | The company that connects you to the internet |
| LAN / MAN / WAN | Local / Metropolitan / Wide Area Network | A building or campus; a city; a country or the world |
| Wi-Fi | A trade name for wireless local networking (IEEE 802.11) | Wireless LAN |
| SMTP | Simple Mail Transfer Protocol | Sends e-mail |
| POP3 / IMAP | Post Office Protocol 3 / Internet Message Access Protocol | Receive e-mail: POP3 downloads it, IMAP keeps it on the server in sync |
| FTP | File Transfer Protocol | Moves files between computers |
| VoIP | Voice over Internet Protocol | Telephone calls over the internet |
| IoT | Internet of Things | Everyday devices connected to the internet |
| Cloud computing | — | Computing resources rented over the internet: SaaS (software), PaaS (platform), IaaS (infrastructure) |
| PDF, JPEG, GIF, MP3, MP4 | Portable Document Format; Joint Photographic Experts Group; Graphics Interchange Format; MPEG audio layer 3; MPEG-4 | Common file formats |
| CPU, RAM, ROM | Central Processing Unit; Random Access Memory; Read-Only Memory | The processor; working memory, lost when power is off; permanent memory |
Bits and bytes
- A bit (binary digit) is 0 or 1; a byte is 8 bits.
- In computing usage, 1 KB = 1,024 bytes, 1 MB = 1,024 KB, 1 GB = 1,024 MB, 1 TB = 1,024 GB. (Strictly these are KiB, MiB and so on; the SI prefixes kilo and mega mean 1,000 and 1,000,000, and storage makers use those.) Questions in this paper usually take 1,024.
- Binary numbers use powers of 2: 1011 in binary is 1×8 + 0×4 + 1×2 + 1×1 = 11.
- Network speed is quoted in bits per second (Mbps), file sizes in bytes (MB): a 100 Mbps line moves at most 12.5 MB a second.
EXAMPLE 1
How many bits are in 2 KB? 2 × 1,024 bytes × 8 bits = 16,384 bits.
EXAMPLE 2
"https://www.ugc.gov.in/page.html": https is the protocol, www.ugc.gov.in the domain name (which DNS turns into an IP address), and page.html the file. Together they are a URL.
2. Basics of the Internet
- The internet is a worldwide network of networks that exchange data using TCP/IP. It grew from ARPANET, a United States defence research network first connected in 1969.
- The World Wide Web is one service that runs on the internet: pages linked by hypertext, proposed by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in 1989. E-mail, file transfer and video calls are other services; the web and the internet are not the same thing.
- A web browser (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari) displays web pages; a search engine (Google, Bing) finds them.
- Public internet access in India began on 15 August 1995, through VSNL.
- Ways to connect: broadband over fibre or cable, mobile data (4G, 5G), Wi-Fi, satellite.
- Cyber security: malware (viruses, worms, ransomware), phishing (fake messages that steal passwords), and the defences: strong passwords, two-factor authentication, updates, firewalls, antivirus.
EXAMPLE 1
A question asks which is a service of the internet rather than the internet itself. The World Wide Web.
EXAMPLE 2
An e-mail claiming to be from a bank asks you to "verify your account" by entering your password on a linked page. That is phishing; the bank's real site would not ask this by e-mail.
3. Intranet and Extranet
| Internet | Intranet | Extranet | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who can use it | Anyone | Only members of one organisation | The organisation and selected outsiders (suppliers, partner institutions) |
| Technology | TCP/IP and web protocols | The same protocols, on a private network | The same, with controlled outside access |
| Example | A public university website | A staff portal for leave and payslips | A portal where affiliated colleges upload results |
EXAMPLE 1
A university's library catalogue that opens only on campus computers is on its intranet.
EXAMPLE 2
A university gives its affiliated colleges logins to submit marks to its server. That is an extranet: private, but open to chosen outside users.
4. E-mail
- An address has a user name, the @ sign and a domain: registrar@university.ac.in.
- To: the main recipients. CC (carbon copy): others who should see it; everyone sees who was copied. BCC (blind carbon copy): recipients hidden from all the others.
- Reply answers the sender; Reply all answers everyone in To and CC; Forward sends the message on to someone new.
- Attachments are files sent with a message. Spam is unwanted bulk mail.
- Mail is sent by SMTP and received by POP3 or IMAP. The first e-mail between computers on a network was sent by Ray Tomlinson in 1971, who chose the @ sign.
EXAMPLE 1
A teacher writes to 60 parents and does not want any parent to see the others' addresses. She puts them all in BCC.
EXAMPLE 2
A question asks which protocol keeps e-mail on the server and in step across a phone and a laptop. IMAP; POP3 usually downloads and removes it.
5. Audio and Video Conferencing
- Audio conferencing joins several people by voice (a telephone conference or VoIP call). Video conferencing adds live video, and usually screen-sharing and chat.
- It needs a camera and microphone, software or a browser, and enough bandwidth (data per second). Latency is the delay between speaking and being heard.
- A webinar is a seminar on the web, usually one or a few speakers to a large audience who listen and ask questions in chat.
- In teaching it serves live online classes, viva voce examinations, guest lectures from other cities, and research meetings.
EXAMPLE 1
A thesis viva in which the external examiner joins by video from another university is a use of video conferencing in higher education.
EXAMPLE 2
A lecture streamed live to 500 registered teachers, who can only send questions by chat, is a webinar rather than a meeting.
6. Digital Initiatives in Higher Education
| Initiative | What it does | Run by |
|---|---|---|
| NMEICT | National Mission on Education through ICT, begun in 2009; the umbrella for many of the platforms below | Ministry of Education |
| SWAYAM | MOOCs from school to postgraduate level, with credit transfer (see Unit I) | Ministry of Education, with national coordinators |
| SWAYAM Prabha | Educational DTH television channels | Ministry of Education |
| NPTEL | National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning: engineering and science courses | The IITs and IISc |
| NDLI | National Digital Library of India: one search across millions of learning resources | IIT Kharagpur |
| e-PG Pathshala | E-content for postgraduate subjects | UGC, through INFLIBNET |
| Shodhganga, Shodhgangotri | Repositories of PhD theses and of research synopses | INFLIBNET |
| e-ShodhSindhu | A consortium giving institutions access to e-journals and databases | INFLIBNET |
| NAD in DigiLocker | National Academic Depository: degrees and mark sheets kept and verified digitally | Ministry of Education, with DigiLocker |
| Academic Bank of Credits | Stores the credits a student earns, so they can be carried between institutions (2021) | UGC and the Ministry of Education |
| Virtual Labs | Laboratory experiments done online | IITs and other institutions, under NMEICT |
EXAMPLE 1
A student who has lost her degree certificate downloads a verified copy from DigiLocker, where her university has deposited it through NAD.
EXAMPLE 2
A college without a big library wants its students to read journals and e-books. NDLI for open resources, and e-ShodhSindhu for subscribed journals.
7. ICT and Governance
- E-governance is the use of ICT to deliver government services, exchange information and make administration transparent. Its models are G2C (government to citizen: certificates, pensions), G2B (to business: licences, tenders), G2G (between departments) and G2E (to employees: payroll, records).
- The National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), approved in 2006, set up mission-mode projects for services such as passports, income tax and land records.
- Digital India, launched on 1 July 2015, aims at digital infrastructure for every citizen, services on demand, and digital literacy.
- Platforms: DigiLocker (official documents in digital form), UMANG (one mobile app for many government services), Aadhaar (digital identity), UPI (instant payments, from the National Payments Corporation of India, 2016), and Common Service Centres (village-level access points for online services).
- Benefits: speed, transparency, less corruption, services at any hour. Challenges: the digital divide, privacy and data protection (the DPDP Act, 2023), and cyber security.
EXAMPLE 1
A farmer applies for a land-record copy online at a village Common Service Centre and receives it the same day. A G2C service.
EXAMPLE 2
A state government publishes all tenders online, and bids are submitted and opened on the portal. A G2B service that reduces discretion and so corruption.
Exam pointers for Unit VIII.
- 1 byte = 8 bits; 1 KB = 1,024 bytes in computing usage. Binary 1011 = 11.
- SMTP sends; POP3 and IMAP receive. BCC hides recipients.
- Internet: public. Intranet: one organisation. Extranet: the organisation and chosen outsiders.
- The web (Berners-Lee, 1989) is a service on the internet (from ARPANET, 1969).
- NDLI: IIT Kharagpur. Shodhganga, e-ShodhSindhu, e-PG Pathshala: INFLIBNET. NMEICT: 2009.
- Digital India: 1 July 2015. NeGP: 2006. G2C, G2B, G2G, G2E.
Final Revision Checklist
- The abbreviations in the table, and file, hardware and cloud terms.
- Bits, bytes, multiples, binary conversion, Mbps against MB.
- Internet, web, browser and search engine; the history; malware and phishing.
- Intranet and extranet; e-mail fields and protocols; conferencing and webinars.
- The digital initiatives in higher education and who runs each.
- E-governance models, NeGP, Digital India and its platforms.
Sources
- Ministry of Education: NMEICT, SWAYAM (swayam.gov.in), NDLI (ndl.iitkgp.ac.in), National Academic Depository: education.gov.in.
- INFLIBNET Centre: Shodhganga, e-ShodhSindhu, e-PG Pathshala: inflibnet.ac.in.
- University Grants Commission (Establishment and Operation of Academic Bank of Credits in Higher Education) Regulations, 2021: ugc.gov.in.
- Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology: the National e-Governance Plan, Digital India, DigiLocker, UMANG: meity.gov.in; digitalindia.gov.in.
- National Payments Corporation of India, on UPI: npci.org.in.