Data collection and analysis by means of using ICTs

Introduction
Education is one of the main keys to economic development and improvements in human welfare. As global economic competition grows sharper, education becomes an important source of competitive advantage, closely linked to economic growth, and a way for countries to attract jobs and investment. In addition, education appears to be one of the key determinants of lifetime earnings. Countries therefore frequently see raising educational attainment as a way of tackling poverty and deprivation. In developing countries, education is also linked to a whole batch of indicators of human development. In richer countries, education is seen as important not just in the early years, but also in later life. As the pace of technological change quickens and as the workforce in many rich countries grows older, education offers a way to improve and update the skills and capabilities of the workforce. ICT can be defined as "the study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information system, particularly software applications and computer hardware." A good way to think about ICT is to consider all the uses of digital technology that already exist to help individuals, businesses and organizations use information. ICT covers any product that will store, retrieve, manipulate, transmit or receive information electronically in a digital form. For example, personal computers, digital television, email, robots. So ICT is concerned with the storage, retrieval, manipulation, transmission or receipt of digital data. Importantly, it is also concerned with the way these different uses can work with each other.

Problem Statement
ICT has a major role in influencing how the way we live, work, and learn. Life skills are the modern term for the basic skills; the skills required of society in order not to lag behind in their social and economic life. ICT can play a vital role in increasing access to education as well as providing better quality education. A person who does not have ICT skill will have difficulty to obtain a job, get a promotion or even retain their jobs. In social life, they will not feel the benefits of simplicity in all fields that use the technology. The new generations are naturally assimilated the new culture that is shaped and often brings us extensive retraining, adaptation and unlearn many things that now "do differently" or simply not serve

Literature review
Types of ICT used in data processing and analysis includes: Word Processing - Microsoft Word: Write letters, reports etc. Spreadsheets - Microsoft Excel; Analyse information; calculations; create forecasting models etc Desktop Publishing - Adobe Indesign, Quark Express, Microsoft Publisher; produce newsletters, magazines and other complex documents Graphic Software - Adobe Photoshop and Autocad create and edit images such as logos, drawings or pictures for use in design, mapping and structural detailing Computer Aided Design (CAD) - to assist the design process. Specialised CAD programs exist for many types of design: architectural, engineering, electronics, roadways. Presentation Software - Microsoft PowerPoint; make presentations, either directly using a computer screen or data projector. Publish in digital format via email or over the Internet

Starr, 2001 quoted that there have been a number of factors impeding the wholesale uptake of ICT in education across all sectors. These have included such factors as a lack of funding to support the purchase of the technology, a lack of training among established teaching practitioners, a lack of motivation and need among teachers to adopt ICT as teaching tools. But in recent times, factors have emerged which have strengthened and encouraged moves to adopt ICTs into classrooms and learning settings. These have included a growing need to explore efficiencies in terms of program delivery, the opportunities for flexible delivery provided by ICTs (Oliver & Short, 1997); the capacity of technology to provide support for customized educational programs to meet the needs of individual learners (Kennedy & McNaught, 1997); and the growing use of the Internet and World Wide Web as tools for information access and communication (Oliver & Towers, 1999).

Methodology
ICT nowadays becomes an absolute demand for application in educational institute. The "information society" in general and in particular new technologies has a significant impact at all levels of the educational world. For example, ICT is used to model engineering and scientific concepts and systems in order to develop and encourage an understanding of science and engineering. For example, engineering students use AUTOCAD, Electronics Workbench, Microsim, PSPICE and Matlab to model and analyse engineering systems. Besides that, ICT are also used to capture and explore experimental data. In this regard, data-loggers are used to collect data and use charting tools in Ms Excel, Matlab, and SPSS, graphs are plotted to display distributions and patterns; and compare various performance scenarios of Scientific and Engineering systems. For example, dataloggers are used to collect data on crop science related courses and research while data loggers are used for energy audit and management projects. ICT is used in data manipulation and in physics and mathematical modelling. Furthermore, personal computers coupled with appropriate transducers and actuators are used as measuring instruments such as oscilloscope, voltmeter, spectrum analyser, and function generator. To calculate and solve engineering and scientific mathematical problems, ICT are implemented by using, computer packages such as MS Excel, Maple, Mathematica and MathCAD are used. In some cases, special programs are written in C/C++, PASCAL, and Basic to solve Scientific and Engineering problems. At higher education level, ICT is used to develop software both as part of a course or for use at institutional level. ICT is also used to simulate scientific and engineering systems and consequently experiment with the simulation models. The models are used for research as well as teaching and learning activities. With the usage of softwares like CAD (Computer Aided Design), a lot of improvement can be seen where it can create the work environment faster and reduce the chance of coordination error. It provides prospective civil engineers, designers, surveyors and drafters with package for design, drafting and management of wide range of civil engineering project types including site development and road design by just keying in the input data. The advance and intelligent of this CAD system is the capability of the software to exploit data with different type of data, files, and compatible to many data collectors such as Leica, Trimble and Carlson. The software also can access and read the various types of files and also can integrate with many data format Lastly, ICT is used to support teaching of science and engineering. In this regard, practical sessions, demonstrations or field trips are recorded on videotapes and then played back to students. In addition, some of the lessons are on videotapes and DVDs. Using the audio/video rooms mainly in college libraries; students can watch the tapes at their convenient time.

Result/discussion
The usage of ICT in processing input data provides high efficiency and good productivity. By using ICT, data can be processed repetitively where the computers can carry out the same or similar over and over very quickly and with a high level of accuracy. The computer system can also process raw data very quickly to produce information. Traditionally, lecture notes would be stored on paper in filing cabinets which takes up expensive storage space. A computer system can store the same amount of data in a fraction of the space. All the datas recorded is stored in the electronic form which is kept it in a proper form.. By comparing to document in paper form, the document in electrical form will show a better performance Other advantages include the ability to backup data easily and increase security by password protection or encryption. Another big advantage of a computerized data storage system over a paper based system is that searches are virtually instantaneous. Data can be sent from one side of the world to the other in a matter of seconds via the internet (e-mail) compared to days using traditional post (snail mail). Devices using ICT have the ability to produce different output formats where Information can be output from a computer system, either on-screen or printed, in the form of graphs, charts, reports, pictures, sound etc. The growing use of ICTs as tools of everyday life have seen the pool of generic skills expanded in recent years to include information literacy and it is highly probable that future developments and technology applications will see this set of skills growing even more. Students and lecturers use ICT in teaching, learning and research activities. For example, students use packages such as Matlab, MathCAD, SPSS, AutoCAD, VISIO and programming languages such as C, C++, PASCAL, JAVA, VISUAL BASIC in their education activities. Common packages such as Microsoft Office are used to prepare teaching and learning materials, reports and presentations. ICT uses electronic processes to allow the use of resources at a lower cost and in a shorter period of time. Therefore, engineers, technicians, administrative staff and any related type of staff in the construction field has to face this fast change in construction management. For example, changes can involve the internal communications, the data bases to control the productivity, the administrative procedures and the qualification of the staff in terms of abilities and capacities.

Conclusion
Nowadays, Universities recognizes and exploits the symbiotic relationship between higher education institutions and ICT. To this end, the Universities use ICT to enhance the institution activities and processes. On the other hand, the University is being used to increase awareness, skills and expertise in ICT sector. In particular, ICT in Science and Engineering is used to model and analyse systems, simulate systems, calculate and solve engineering and scientific problems, and capture and explore experimental data. One of the most commonly cited reasons for using ICTs in the classroom has been to better prepare the current generation of students for a workplace where ICTs, particularly computers, the Internet and related technologies, are becoming more and more ubiquitous. Technological literacy, or the ability to use ICTs effectively and efficiently, is thus seen as representing a competitive edge in an increasingly globalizing job market. Technological literacy, however, is not the only skill well-paying jobs in the new global economy will require.

Based on the findings and discussions presented here, the several recommendations are offered for practitioners. Future research is needed to verify the effectiveness of the following recommendations and to identify other important ones: 1. Every classroom should have at least one computer with Internet access and an LCD projector. 2. Course content should be redesigned to acquire more benefit from ICTs. 3. More ICT-related courses for prospective lecturers/tutors should be offered and every course should be based on practice-oriented.

4. A new ICT-related course, which must include both ICTs and a field of study (e.g., math, language, chemistry), should be integrated in the curriculum after the method courses. It is important to understand that the use of ICT will impose a paradigm shift from the dominant educational philosophy that is essentially teacher-centred to a learner-centred focus. There is a new role for teachers that must become less a talking head and more a facilitator of learning. In addition, they must be designers of learning experiences, processes, and environments in order to cope with the needs of preparing future engineers to solve open-ended problems with no unique approach and solution. This can be done by using collaborative work supported by ICT. Also, as civil engineering is a profession strongly linked to other professions like architecture or environmental engineering, the use of collaborative, team-based (desirably with students from different courses like architecture/structural/construction/environmental engineering) and project oriented learning with easy access to domain knowledge courseware will better prepare students to face real-life problems.

References
Engineering education in India the role of ICT-Bani Bhattacharya The role of ICT in higher education for the 21st century: ICT as a change agent for education-Ron Oliver BUILDING MANAGEMENT AND ICT LEARNING IN CIVIL ENGINEERING EDUCATION-Per Christiansson