The development of communication technology

Communication between people was revolutionized by the innovations of late 19th and early 20th century such as the telegraph, telephone, radio, and television. The foundation for these innovations was provided by scientific results in the area of magnetic science and electricity.

Computers with the Neumann-principles (1940-1955)

The principles of the logical structure of electronic computer appliances by János Neumann (1903–1957), Goldstein and Burks was published in 1946. The first stored program-controlled computer – the UNIVAC (1951) – was built according to their ideas, and was created for market sale, not a specific need.

Second and third generation computers (1960-1980)

The first transistor was invented at Bell Laboratories in 1947. With the application of transistors and ferric rings the so called second generation computers were created with a much smaller size and remarkably less heating problems as their predecessors, while at the same time being much faster and with a storage capacity improved by magnitudes.
The spread of high performance personal computers and the appearance of laptops (from 1980 until the present)
In 1958, the integrated circuit (IC) was invented and with it a new age – the age of microelectronics. This is the age of third generation computers which were built using integrated circuits. This supported execution speeds of millions of operations per second. Mass application of computers began by the end of the 1960s, but much more miniaturization was still to happen – evolving by leaps and bounds.

The fourth generation computer system was made possible by the application of VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration). In 1971, INTEL created the first micro-processor: a few thousand active circuit units executing all the essential functions in one chip. In 1981 IBM presented the PC (Personal Computer) based on the Intel 8088.

The improvement of storage capacity

While the speed of computers was increasing storage capacity proved to be more and more of a limiting factor. When von Neumann-principle computers were introduced imagnetic information storage was known and and used as a solution for saving data and programs. Introduced through magnetic drums, and, from 1951 magnetic tape units for third generation systems, we eventually arrived at fourth generation large capacity optical stores.

The development of input and output peripheries

In the 90s the mouse appeared as an input tool. It seems to be insignificant but in fact, when considering the everyday work done by computers, it was a very significant change. The first impact printers were followed by high-speed laser printers and multi-function office equipments. Cathode ray monochrome monitors were replaced by low TFT monitors.

Computer networks

The immense ‘info-communication leap’ was the development of computer networks in the 70s.
This allowed the wider implementation of Internet applications, such as email and the World Wide Web, from 1990 till the present, and the increase of data transfer speeds and the basic capacity of the Internet. The amazing improvement of Internet technology underpins what is called ‘globalization’ today.
Globalization means world-wide standardization (making universal) of processes and the consequences of this in different areas of everyday life. Economic, financial and cultural (lingual) globalization determines our everyday lives. (globalizacio.lap.hu/).

Multimedia

The hardware support that makes it possible to send, read, listen to digitized multimedia information (images, video, audio) to/from any part of the world quickly and with high quality relies on multimedia technologies.

Nowadays we live in a new communication age with its enabling technology being wireless technology. Mobile phones have become universally adopted at a speed never experienced before. A new concept has become possible for the next generation of e-learning – ‘m-learning’ or ‘mobile learning’. This is education delivered through mobile technology. [3]

The information society is a world model of ‘globally’ based knowledge. It accesses the whole the history of human civilization and culture. It came into being, and expanded from, the end of the 20th century [2]. Its development, however, started in the 60s and 70s. The information society sits on an economy based on know-how, where information has become an asset. High quality technical investments and constantly upgraded information technology requires “lifelong learning” for the citizens of this society and so the problem of renewing our educational systems comes sharply into focus.