Learning Resources
Lesson
Humans have always needed to communicate. Survival required people to make their needs and wants known to each other. To communicate effectively, we must be sure that what we are saying is understood by the other person, We must be sure that our words have the same meaning to that person as they do to us.
What is Communication?
Communication is the sending and receiving of information or messages. This web page is a message. If you read and understand what is being said, you have received the message, and communication has occurred. If you were distracted and this message was not understood it would be possible for the message to be sent but not understood and communication would not occur. The basic communications systems model is shown below. It is an application of the systems model to communication.
Figure Communications Systems Model
For one-way communication to be undertaken the message must be:
- Sent by a sender (a person, for example)
- Carried over a transmission channel (a telephone, for example)
- Received by a receiver (another person, for example)
Feedback is just a response that indicates the message was received. It can also be used to indicate if the message was understood. People, when listening to another talk on the phone, occasionally indicate understanding by saying 'yeah', 'ok', 'uh-huh', and other socially acceptable sounds. Modems, upon receiving information send an acknowledgement that indicates if the information was ok.
Communications Processes
The processes required to engage in communication activities are
- Encoding and decoding information.
Encoding is putting the information into a form that can be transmitted or stored. Writing encodes information using an alphabet. A telephone microphone encodes the sound waves from the spoken word into an electrical signal. A temperature sensor encodes air temperature into an electrical value (a voltage).
Decoding is converting the encoded information back into form that the receiver can use. A person reads the text. A telephone speaker converts the electrical signal back into sound waves, reproducing the spoken word.
- Storing and retrieving information.
Storing information is a means of putting the encoded information aside for later use. Written text can be filed in a cabinet or on a shelf. Telephone conversations can be recorded (another form of encoding) on magnetic tape and stored. Temperature readouts can be recorded on a chart.
Retrieving the information gets it back from the storage location and delivers it to the place where it is to be used. A book is taken off the shelf. A recording is placed in a CD player.
- Sending and receiving information.
Sending is the process of moving the information from one location to another. Sending requires a sending device and a transmission medium. A transmitter (a radio wave generator, an amplifier, and an antenna) are sending devices for television. Radio (electromagnetic) waves are the the transmission media for television sent this way.
Receiving information requires a receiving device. A television set with an antenna is required to receive broadcast television signals.
What is Communications Technology?
Communications technology is knowledge, resources (tools, equipment, time, money) and processes used to communicate. This can involve many devices and methods of communication. Cave paintings, flags (semaphore), telephone, email and television are communication technologies. Traffic signals (lights or traffic cops), furnace thermostats and factory robots are also examples of communication technologies.
Types of Communication
- Person-to-person. The most common form of communication is one person talking to another person. This is person-to-person communication. Humans can communicate in various ways. The most common is speech but we can also use gestures, facial expression and body language. Humans often use hearing and sight to communicate but we can also communicate through the sense of touch and smell.
- Animal-to-animal and human-to-animal communication. Animals can communicate with humans and with other animals. The most powerful animal communication is between animals of the same species.
- Animal-to-animal communication. Animals use sounds, some of which are above (bats) or below (elephants) the human hearing range. They also use body positions, gestures and the like. Scent plays a major role in animal communications, particularly to identify friend or foe, food sources and places to avoid. Ants, for example, secrete a releaser pheromone to guide other ants to food by leaving a marked trail behind them.
- Animal-to-human communication. Effective human-to-animal communications requires people to understand and replicate essential components of the animal communications system, including setting ones status in the animal social hierarchy.
- Machine-to-machine and human-to-machine communication. One can argue that there has always been communications between people and their tools and equipment. No, I don't meant the string of expletives that generally results when something goes wrong, such as when you hit your finger with a hammer. More generally, I am referring to the visual, tactile, aural, and aroma feedback one gets when working with tools and how one makes decisions about how to proceed based on that feedback. The swish of a finely tuned handplane as it removes a thin shaving of wood tells the skilled carpenter that things are going as they should. Modern machine communications has come to mean much more than that.
- Machine-to-machine communications. Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, people have looked for every better and more effective ways to make machines talk to each other. It is this very communications that allows automation of processes. Every time human intervention is required in a manufacturing process, for example, the process is slowed. Enabling one machine to tell another that it has finished the task and it needs new material to perform the task again is much faster that having to wait for a person to do the task. Early machine communications systems were mechanical, then hydraulic, pneumatic, electrical, and finally electronic. Modern machine communications is digital electronics, or fully computerized. It relies on control technologies that can sense when an event has occurred, monitor continuously changing conditions, and switch (turn on and off) and regulate (continuously modify) events and processes.
- Human-to-machine communications occurs in a mind-boggling variety of ways. Audible sounds, visual displays, and assorted input devices are commonplace. Think about how you use your microwave oven, dishwasher, telephone, television, computer, car, and so on.
Activity
Assigned activities
This activity is a precursor to the unit project and provides introductory skills for the project
Introduce Yourself to the Class
Compose a short bio of yourself to introduce yourself to the rest of the class. Sample information to include
- name
- hometown
- school
- interests (sports, movies, ...)
- hobbies
- photo of yourself, the school, hometown, etc
- ...
Test Yourself
There is no self test for this lesson.