The new information and communications technologies (NTIC according to abbreviationfinder) refer to all the new media that, in recent years, have facilitated the flow of information (Internet, digital video discs [DVD], laptops and all technological devices used to produce, develop and carry out communication).

With regard to the media, new technologies have made possible the existence of digital newspapers, advertising on the Internet, the broadcast of music and videos without the need for radios or sound equipment, as well as communication between people from different countries with a much lower economic cost than that implied by conventional telephone services. One notable effect that new technologies have had in the field of media has been to make the use of handwritten means of communication (that is, the letters and messages that were sent back and forth via the service postcard) has greatly diminished.

Depending on its characteristics

Definition of new technologies based on their characteristics:

• They must arise from new knowledge, or the innovative application of existing knowledge.
• They must lead to the rapid development of new capabilities.
• It is projected to have significant and long-term economic, social and political impacts.
• It must create new opportunities and challenges to address global problems.
• They must have the potential to disrupt or create industries.

examples

• Computers, their development, change and evolution, are one of the most important elements of new technologies. The ability to communicate, to reach unlimited points that they offer. Their increasingly reduced aesthetics, but their unlimited possibilities, make these very powerful machines that are already essential in anyone’s life.
• Computer development has given rise to an immense number of chips that have made possible the appearance of very powerful devices such as calculators, operating systems similar to those of computers or even artificial intelligence, machines that think like people.
• Video has been another of the most important new technologies of recent times. The possibility of recording images, listening to them and reproducing them through lenses and magnetic tapes has been one of the great advances in technological development.
• The development of fiber optics can be considered another of the special inventions of this era. The possibility of replacing metal cables that carry electrical signals with fiber cables that transmit light impulses is an impeccable development for improving communication.
• The new digital television on fine plasma screens are an advancement of technology that almost everyone can enjoy today in their homes. The possibility of enjoying better image quality as well as being able to enjoy channels from anywhere in the world.

In education

• The development of technologies has made the computerization of education possible: the possibility of online training (from anywhere and at any time), the appearance of electronic books, online material, etc. It has been an important advance for the culture of this era.

The social impact of NICTs touches schools and universities very closely, propitiating modifications in the traditional ways of teaching and learning. However, it is perfectly possible to distinguish three groups of educational institutions:

• Those that have the economic resources to acquire the technology and professional development of their teachers that allows them to carry out a true transformation in the way they teach.
• Those that still have the possibility of acquiring the technology; they lack a cloister prepared to give it a correct educational use.
• And finally, the vast majority of institutions that lack the financial resources to renew their technology park at the pace imposed by its development.

If we stick to the obvious fact that the incessant advance of technology does not seem to have a brake, the challenge of educational centers and in particular of universities lies in preparing themselves as an institution and in turn preparing their students in adapting to the changes. quickly and effectively with a minimum expenditure of human and material resources. Among the fundamental keys to success is making learning a natural and permanent process for students and teachers. It is necessary to learn to use new technologies and use new technologies to learn.

It is the task of educators to use NICTs as means to provide general education and preparation for future life for their students, contributing to the improvement in the broadest sense of their quality of life. Taking into account that the new technology does not guarantee pedagogical success by itself, it is necessary to carefully design the educational program where it will be used. It is therefore an inescapable duty of educators to define and contextualize NICTs in the educational sector.

One of the greatest difficulties to overcome for the introduction and efficient use of NICTs in education lies in the fact that the latter is, in general, resistant to change, as well as not very agile and effective when it comes to adapting and facing changes. new challenges.

This causes, on the one hand, that in most cases students are aware of the new technological potentialities outside the school environment and, on the other, that when the objective of NICTs lacks any meaning when referring to the technology in question; The first tests for the introduction into school activity are still being carried out in schools.

However, perhaps for the first time and because of its powerful social character; new technologies begin to be introduced in the school world, at least in developed countries, almost at the same time as they do so in other spheres of society. The foregoing is closely related to the urgent need for companies to draw up a strategy to achieve the permanent improvement of their personnel from their own workplace, which allows a rapid adaptation to the changes imposed by the new scientific-technical revolution to the process of production.

It is necessary that in the educational field, awareness be gained that the use of these new media will impose marked transformations in the configuration of the pedagogical process, with changes in the roles that students and teachers have been playing. New tasks and responsibilities await them, among others; the former will have to be more prepared to make decisions and regulate their learning and the latter to design new learning environments and serve as a tutor for students by moving from a unidirectional model of training, where he is the fundamental bearer of knowledge, to a more open and flexible one where the information is found in large databases shared by all.

most recent

• Li-Fi: It refers to the term Light Fidelity in English, or what would be the same in Spanish Fidelidad de la Luz, is communication through visible light, yes, visible light. What this light does is transmit ultra-fast light data that is received by an optical router. It is a wireless communication system like Wi-Fi but using visible light as a medium instead of electromagnetic waves.
• Internet of things: An intelligent object or thing is one that can communicate with us. This is why the internet of things is sometimes called the internet of things. The Internet Of Things is a scenario where animals, people or objects are all connected provided or have unique identifiers. A unique identifier, UID for its acronym in English (Unique Identifier) ​​is a string of numerical or alphanumeric data that is associated with a single thing, with a single entity (be it an animal, be it an object, be it a person) and whose data is stored in a system. In this way that object, animal or person has a unique identifier thanks to which we can access the data associated with that entity and interact with them.
• BITCOIN: It is a new payment system with a completely digital money. It is the first decentralized currency that allows us to pay for objects or services without there being a central authority (such as a bank) or intermediaries. In short, for users, Bitcoin is the money to buy online par excellence via P2P (Peer-to-peer).
• Nanobots: They are nanoscopic robots or what is the same a robot the approximate size of an atom. Nanotechnology studies matter from a nanometer resolution level. 1 nanometer (unit of length) corresponds to one billionth of a meter. You have to know that an atom measures less than 1 nanometer, that’s why we say that the size of a nanobot should be similar to that of an atom. Nano means dwarf and is even smaller than micro.
• Lamps or Bulbs with LED diodes: They give a pleasant white light, consume little and last for many years, they are called to make the incandescent light bulb disappear. Conventional wisdom says that light bulbs burn out because no manufacturer would be interested in selling an eternal light bulb. I would only sell it once, of course. However, lamps are emerging that provide clear light, do not heat up, consume twenty times less than an incandescent light bulb and last for years.
• Bluetooth LE: This is the new Bluetooth 4.0 system that has been incorporated into smartphones since 2013. It emits a 2.4Ghz signal with a range of up to 100 meters, with the great advantage that it consumes very little energy and allows the signal to be transmitted for months and even years without having to recharge the battery. LE stands for Low Energy Consumption in English. Like any Bluetooth system, it is a wireless system used to connect various electronic devices and exchange information between them via Bluetooth, but this time with low consumption. It allows broadcasting for months without changing the transmitter or receiver battery. Most use normal batteries, not even batteries.

Impact

The consequences of the so-called “computerization of society” have been manifest for more than a decade in the endemic and growing structural unemployment of industrialized countries, the global deployment of large corporations, in unequal commercial exchange, the acceleration of financial operations and stock prices, the sharp fluctuation of bank interest rates. In fact, all these technological changes become one of the aggravating elements of the unpayable foreign debt that overwhelms underdeveloped countries.

Information technology will not eliminate social inequalities, class struggles or ideological conflicts. On the contrary, due to its socioeconomic impact on countries with a market structure, it will accentuate disparities, force confrontations and promote radical changes and alternatives.

Advances in automated telecommunications, microelectronic technologies and, as a result, computer science, applicable to any type of sequence or logical process, make traditional systems obsolete, erode acquired skills and synthesize or eliminate functions. It is in this sense that states and governments are obliged to consider a review of their development strategies, including the reorganization of their educational systems and the reevaluation of their goals and objectives from primary to postgraduate level.

Computerization of Cuban society

A national science policy is made up of a doctrine, that is, a set of principles and objectives. When analyzing how this policy could manifest itself in Cuba, it is necessary to take into account what Marx stated in the prologue to Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy:

“Humanity always proposes only the objectives that it can achieve, because, looking at things well, we always see that these objectives only emerge when the material conditions for their realization are already given or at least are being developed.” In this sense, the objectives of scientific policy in Cuba are aimed at supporting the basic objectives of the economic and social development of the country”

Karl Marx

When those who study the development of science and technology in Cuba look at the deployment process since 1959, one of the issues that they immediately notice, and that amazes them, is the clear perception that, from the first moments, the senior management had of the revolution of the role of science and technology in economic development, the early recognition of adopting rapid measures to promote what we today call scientific-technical progress.

As a previous and essential step for this scientific-technical development, it was necessary to produce profound changes in the educational systems and structures: carry out a true cultural revolution initiated with the literacy campaign. Higher education was the object of necessary transformations, to provide educational services throughout the country and try to offer answers to the national socio-economic development, this happened in 1962.