Concerns

The previous four sections of this module expressed both explicitly and implicitly the benefits derived and the potential benefits to be derived from the digital revolution. This is especially so in terms of the accessibility of information. One segment of society that has been the biggest beneficiary of all is the education sector. Expanded powers of communication and information sharing, increased capabilities for existing technologies, and the advent of new technology brought with it many potential opportunities for exploitation in improving the quality of teaching and the richness of learning. From the viewpoint of civil societies, greater interconnectedness, easier communication, and the exposure of information that in the past was more easily suppressed by authoritarian regimes, is no longer the case - though there are mechanisms available to the state that could still suppress easy access. The economic impact of the digital revolution has been large. Without the World Wide Web (WWW), for example, globalisation and outsourcing would not be nearly as viable as they are today. The digital revolution radically changed the way individuals and companies interact. Small regional companies were suddenly given access to much larger markets. Concepts such as on-demand services and manufacturing, and rapidly dropping technology costs made possible new innovations in all aspects of industry and everyday life.

But like any other innovation, the ICT revolution has caused considerable concerns as well. These concerns cut across many aspects of civil liberties, social norms and behaviours, privacy and piracy issues as well as theft of data and material. In this section let us consider some of these issues which as practising teachers you need to be familiar with.

Broadly we can segregate the misuse of computers and communication technologies into the following categories:

1. Hacking: where an unauthorised person uses a network, Internet or modem connection to gain access to past security passwords or other security to see data stored on another computer. Hackers sometimes use software hacking tools and often target, for example, particular sites on the Internet.
2. Data misuse and unauthorised transfer or copying: The digital revolution, especially regarding privacy, copyright, censorship and information sharing, remains a controversial topic. As the digital revolution progresses, it remains unclear to what extent society has been impacted and will be altered in the future. In the meantime the ‘illegal' transfer of data is easily carried out with speed using online computers and large storage devices such as hard disks, memory sticks and DVDs. Copyright and trademark issues also found new life in the digital revolution. The widespread ability of consumers to produce and distribute exact reproductions of protected works dramatically changed the intellectual property landscape, especially in the music, film, and television industries. This is considered a gross misuse of both Internet and copyright regulations.
3. E-mail and chat room abuses: Internet services such as chat rooms and e-mail have been the subject of many well-publicised cases of impersonation and deception where people who are online pretend to have a different identity. Chat rooms have been used to spread rumours about well- known personalities. A growing area of abuse of the Internet is e-mail spam, where millions of e-mails are sent to advertise both legal and illegal products and services.
4. Pornography: A lot of indecent material and pornography is available through the Internet and can be stored in electronic form. Many governments, religious and parent groups have become increasingly worried about the free and easy availability of these materials to minors. Notwithstanding these concerns, there are also many who would claim that the barring of such materials goes against the ‘freedoms' that the Internet provides and democracy protects.
5. Identity and financial abuses: This topic includes identity theft, misuse of stolen or fictional credit card numbers to obtain goods or services on the Internet, and use of computers in financial frauds. These can range from complex, well-thought out deceptions to simple uses such as printing counterfeit money with colour printers.
6. Viruses: Viruses are relatively simple programmes written by people and designed to cause nuisance or damage to computers or their files.
7. The Internet and freedom of speech: The Internet is an enormous resource for all citizens to benefit from. The quality of the information that is available varies and so too does the value of those resources. While on the one hand, a You Tube video on the effects of climate change is valuable to ordinary people, teachers, government leaders, students, environmental scientists and activists, another video through the internet depicting child pornography would be upsetting and offensive to all of these people. Similarly many would find online shopping adds value to their lives but it is annoying when unwanted and unsolicited advertising, or spam, invades our lives. This is a dilemma for policy makers. To control with a heavy hand such as a government's edict to impose censorship on political discourse, contrary to its party or beliefs is clearly a denial of the rights of an individual to his/her freedom. On the other hand, total freedom to use the Internet to peddle pornography, to con people and spread offensive and false messages may not be in the interest of the wider public good.
8. Privacy issues: Privacy has become a serious concern with the storage of large volumes of personal data on the Internet. Such capacities make it possible to track individual activities and interests. Many civil rights activists fear the danger of authoritarian governments to monitor and manipulate freedom of movement, speech, political activism and social and personal behaviours. Similarly consumer-rights advocates fear that close monitoring of data of an individual's buying habits will allow businesses to share market information on spending preferences and capacities.
9. The Internet and crime: New technology brings with it new crimes. These crimes include the interception of credit card details and transactions, online hacking into personal private files with criminal intent, fraudulent websites taking credit card details from customers, the spreading of viruses via the Internet as well as Internet fraud like phishing scams, identity theft and denial of service attacks.
10. Health and safety: There are various health problems associated with the regular use of computers. While there is concern about the overuse of computers including potential dangers of addiction for some, hard medical evidence is not unambiguously forthcoming.

What next for ICT?

You know as well as I do that predicting the future is a hazard - who would have thought that within the span of thirty years from when Malaysians first experienced the computer, we would have come this far to be among the leading users of ICTs in almost every aspect of our lives. Even more mind-boggling is the speed at which the technologies themselves have changed and changed again. As you worked through this module you would have got a sense as to the amazing things that ICTs can do to make our lives richer, more meaningful and more productive. You would have also got a sense that like any other technologies ICT can be misused and abused.

In the twentieth century, rapid technological advances led to rising standards of living, literacy, health and life expectancy. They also made possible a century of more deadly warfare, the industrialisation of mass murder, global warming and ecocide. The promise of ICTs for the twenty-first century likewise presents both opportunities and challenges. ICTs, like all technologies, are tools. How they are used depends on the user and the context. So how will these tools of information and communication be used? In March 2009 the American Academy for the Arts and Sciences invited four pioneers of ICT innovations to a panel discussion in California. The four pioneering scientist were:

1. Vinton Cerf of Google Inc.
2. Irwin Jacobs, founder of Qualcomm Inc.
3. Butler Lampson of Microsoft Inc.
4. Stanford President John Hennessy