Factors Responsible For The Gap Between Computer Literate And Computer Illiterate Members Of CRUTECH Community.

A

 RESEARCH PAPER

ON

FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE GAP BETWEEN COMPUTER LITERATE AND COMPUTER ILLITERATE MEMBERS OF CRUTECH COMMUNITY.

WRITTEN BY

NAME:      OKOKON  GODSWILL EFFIONG

NAME:      OHWAHWA O. CHRISTABEL

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE

FACULTY OF SCIENCE.

SUBMITTED TO

DR. OYO. E. OYO

CENTER OF GENERAL STUDIES

OCTOBER, 2016.

BROAD TOPIC : COMPUTER KNOWLEDGE.

NARROW-DOWN: The gap between the computer literate and the

computer illiterate.

FURTHER NARROW-DOWN: Factors responsible for the gap between

computer literate and computer illiterate, members of CRUTECH

community.

THESIS STATEMENT

       Several factors overtime have affected the gap between the computer literate and the computer illiterate, using members of CRUTECH community as case study.

Working bibliography

Aniedi I.J, Franca A.I, Joseph E.O.(2010).ICT competence among academic staff in    

      Universities in Cross River State: Cross River, Calabar: Francis Group CRS Press.

Archibong I.A, Effiom D.O.(2009).ICT in University education. usage and challenges

      among academic staff. Ibadan: African Research Review.

Ashcroft L, Watts C.(2005).ICT skills for information professional in developing countries.

       New Jersey: Journal or research on computing in universities.

Banfi I.(2004). ICT and the emerging paradigm for a lifelong learning. Amsterdam:

     W.J.Pelgrus.

Furst J.(2005).An analysis of required computer competencies for University student

      Journal of research on Computing in education. Liverpool: University of Liverpool

      Publishing crew.

Gorretti E.M.(2013).Influence of computer literacy and subject background on use of

       electronic resources by undergraduate student in Universities in Nigeria.

       International Journal of library of science.  

TENTATIVE  OUTLINE

1.0               Introduction

1.1              Conceptual  definition of the term COMPUTER KNOWELEGE

1.1.1                   Computer literacy

1.1.2                   Computer illiteracy

1.1.3                   I.C.T

1.1.4                   I.C.T in Nigeria Universities

2.0              I.C.T in CRUTECH community

3.0              Functions of computer knowledge in CRUTECH

4.0              Impact of I.C.T in CRUTECH

4.1              Advantages of I.C.T in CRUTECH

4.2              Disadvantages of I.C.T in CRUTECH

5.0              Conclusion and Recommendation

       5.1       Summary

       5.2       Conclusion

       5.3        Recommendation

                     References

1.0   INTRODUCTION

                 The increase use of computer by students and academics alike is an important measure of technological development in academic environment by this measure, a gap is created between those students that know how to make use of the computer and those that barely or don’t know anything about computer knowledge. What I am taking about is that the use of computer is now dominant in all areas of human endeavors more especially in academic institutions. And yet, not all students are carried along, some are left behind due to one reason or the other.

                       Computer literacy is critical to student success in Universities. Its no less significant as reading, writing and calculus were in the 19^th and 20^th century. Like reading, computer literacy is increasingly widely addressed in research around the world as well as in CRUTECH. However, despite some significant research contributions in the area, so far little attention has been given to yhe impact of personally traits on the computer literacy and its level.

                            The lack of both empirical studies and theoretical works, which analyze computer literacy and psychological factors affecting its level at the higher institution, is evident.

                              The article deals with the gap between  the computer knowledge of the computer literate and computer illiterate in the CRUTECH community, comparing the both sides to find out their impact, differences, and great affecting factors.

1.1 Conceptual definition of the term: COMPUTER KNOWLEDGE

                         Computer  knowledge is the ability to use computer to perform a variety of task. It is also refer to the comfort level someone has with using computer programs and other applications associated with the computer system.

                           The concept of computer literacy or knowledge is best explained as the ability to make use of the computer system to word process documents, analyze data, develop computer programmes, browse the internet and install software (idown 2004). Mltra(2008) perceive computer knowledge as the amount of computer learned skills required and the length computer usage.

                               Computer knowledge covers a broad spectrum of both hardware and software solutions that enable organizations to gather organize and analyze data that will help achieve goals.

                                 Its  widely defined term that has several meanings across different sectors. Though, essentially it is used as an umbrella term to refers to the use of communication devices such as radio and cellular devices, satellite devices and channels, computers, amongst others. To manage information one needs to know or learn computer technologies.

1.1.1  Computer literacy

                        The term literacy can be defined as the ability to read or understanding of something, having knowledge in a particular thing or topic.

                            Computer literacy is the knowledge and ability to use computers and technology efficiently.

                               In Nigeria today, computer technology has become so important that students who do not have access to computers and internet are likely to get further behind their peers who did have such access. It must be noted that many Universities which examinations are conducted using the computer technology. The National open University which was opened to cater for those who could not get direct admission in the regular Universities now write their examinations using the computer, most Universities have also adopted the use of the computer  in conducting examination for  the post unified matriculation examination. For example, one of those Universities is CRUTECH , Cross River University of Technology.

                                   So, it becomes imperative that student should be computer literate with digital knowledge competencies to be able to function effectively in the changing world of today.

                                     That is to say that computer literacy is of essence for every CRUTECH STUDENT or any University student who wants to excel in almost all or every level of education in this 21th century.

1.1.2  Computer Illiteracy

           The concept of computer literacy can be said as the inability to properly make use of computer system or application or devices.

             Despite the fact that the world is fast becoming digital, they are yet still some people are still left behind in the fast movement of the world due to one or more factors affecting them.

            Increasingly some student fall under this group of person. According to the study, 10 percent of the sample which undergo some experiment was found to be computer literate while a swelling 90 percent were not literate in the use of computer many student lacked a functional computer literacy foundation upon which to build new technology and skills.

              Furthermore, the study revealed the gender, academic experience and secondary school had a significant relationship with familiarity to computer technology in CRUTECH community as case of study. More specifically, more male students than female students were found to be familiar with some types of computer technologies.

              This is more so because, in a study carried out by Hepworth(1999), students in some developing countries had been found to have limited skill in the area of information literacy and skill.

1.1.3    I.C.T

               

                          Information and communication technology (ICT) encompasses the effective use of equipment and program to access, retrieve, convert, store, organize, manipulate and present data and information. Thus, computer is one of the most predominant ICT tools that greatly perform these functions and plays critical role in the life of students.

                            Therefore, computer is an electronic device that can follow instructions to accept data as input process the data and produce information as output (Unagha, 2008). It’s also an electronic device that accepts data as input, process and manipulates data to produce meaningful result as an output. The most prominent among the information technologies is the computer which functions as an embracing mechanism and also an effective electronic device that is capable of accepting, storing retrieving and processing data based on predefined instructions (Owoyemi, 2001).

                                 Today, it performs manipulation of non-mathematical nature such as sorting, inter-filling searching, deleting, updating, designing, reproducing and printing. These non-mathematical operation of the computer are the ones most required by libraries and information centers (Imermba, 2005). The computer is the primary tool with which this change can be affected. Electronic mail, computer based testing, computer aided instruction, digital textbooks and images along with valuable resources on the internet are now essential  to learning and coping tools for students.

1.1.4I.C.T in Nigeria Universities

                     The extent to which electronic resources are utilized by undergraduate students will depend largely on some factors pertaining to the users, especially computer literacy and subject background. Therefore, the study investigated in the influence computer literacy and subject background on the use of electronic resources by undergraduate students in CRUTECH community

                     The survey research design was to look and investigate to know the gap between the computer literate and the computer illiterate and the factors behind it.

                         The survey research design was also to examine ICT competence and challenges to ICT usage among academic students in CRUTECH community but here, I am going to broaden the topic  more by including  Nigeria universities in general the results show that majority at public cyber cafe are own by students which implies that a number of student have laptops access to internet was mainly at public cyber café majority (53.3%) rated their ICT competence as low. Inadequate ICT facilities, excess work load and funding were identified as major challenges to ICT usage among academic students in the Nigerian universities.

                                  Integrating ICT culture into educational institution is a change which ringle and updegrove (1998) advised that the approach should be carried out by incorporating the socio-economic and pragmatic or technical dimension. This is so because studies in the management of change and innovation (fullam1993) have shown that the process of change is a complex one.

                                   If ICT can be more greatly accepted and taught well to impact all Nigerian universities, Nigeria will definitely be a changed nation and rich through ICT economic impartation.

2.0  I.C.T in CRUTECH community

                    ICT in Cross River university of technology community is a needed tool for modern-day educational institutions especially at the tertiary educational level.

                    ICT development programme among students in CRUTECH is faced by numbers of obstacles. prominent among them is the lack of training opportunities for students. Acquiring ICT  technical know-how is just the first level, beyond which many training programmes . gulbahor (2008) in his study found that although per-service teacher are willing to use technology but this rarely occurred because of the inadequacy of lesson to facilitate them with necessary skills to be technology competent.

                  For a successful implementation of ICT programmes in CRUTECH

·        Provision of training on baseline technical skill for students.

·        Provision of good technology infrastructure including computer access and network connectivity for students.

·        Challenging teacher education institution to integrate ICT into their teacher education programmes.

·        Establishment of centers for learning technology in student education institutions to support the system integration of ICT for education purpose.

·        Stimulation, socialization and funding of projects on ICT for education purpose.

3.0  Functions of computer knowledge in CRUTECH 

·        It is generally believed that ICT can be empower teachers and learners, promote change and learner, promote change and foster the development of 21^st century skills, but data to support these beliefs are still limited.

·        ICTs are very rarely seen as central to the overall learning process.

·        An enduring problem: putting technology before education is one of the enduring difficulties of technology use in education is that educational planners and technology advocates think of the technology first and then investing the educational applications of this technology only later.

4.0   Impacts of ICT in CRUTECH

1. The positive impact of ICT use in education has not been proven in general and despite thousands of impact studies, the impact of ICT use on student achievement remains difficult to measure and open to much reasonable debate.
2. Positive impact more likely when linked to pedagogy: it is believed that specific uses of ICT can have positive effects on student achievement when ICTs are used appropriately to complement a teacher’s existing pedagogical philosophies
3.  Computer aided instruction has been seen to slightly improve student performance on multiple choice, standardized testing in some areas.
4.   Need for great goals: ICTs are seen to be less effective (or ineffective) when the goals for their use are not clear
5. There is an important tension between traditional versus ‘new’ pedagogies and standardized testing.
6. ICTs are used differently in different subjects
7. Access outside of school affects impact
8. CRUTECH students if asked, believe that ICTs make a positive difference
9.  ICTs can promote learner autonomy.

      Overall, the report concluded that ICTs could improve the situation, reinforcing positive effects in the environment or there could worsen the situation. This suggests that environmental policies have to be designed to ensure that ICT applications make a beneficial contribution to environmental  rebound effects.

4.1  Advantages of ICT in CRUTECH

1. Improve business performance, productivity and profitability through improved system performance, availability and security.
2.   Reduce administrative and back-office operational cost though the convergence of voice, data and video over IP
3.   Enable and improve the quality, quantity and access services from any location by allowing remote access, monitoring and management of systems and applications.
4.   Improve customer satisfaction, loyalty and service through the safe and secure deployment of customer facing solutions.
5.   Enhance collaboration and networking among employees, customers and partners by removing the barriers to real-time communication and effective information sharing.
6.  Ensure enterprise security and compliance more efficient at less cost.
7.   Enable the mobile workforce.
8. Improve work/life balance for students.

4.2  Disadvantages of ICT in CRUTECH

1.  Insufficient of ICT equipment and high cost maintance of ICT equipment.
3.  Can remote the attention from the main goal of the learning process to develop ICT skills, which may be a secondary goal in this process.
4. ICT create a partition digital gap within the classroom where students are move familiar with ICT and will have more benefit will learn faster than others who are unfamiliar to the technology.
5.  Reduces communication with student in CRUTECH  who have difficulties in using ICT.

5.0                SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

5.1                Summary

As written above, the gap caused by ICT between the computer literate and the computer illiterate is quite vast by with recent advancement in technology and digital age is silently closing that gap, especially in the CRUTECH community.

5.2             Conclusion

          The influence of computer literacy in education promotes students performance in CRUTECH  community.

            In CRUTECH, many students consider ICT tools very helpful in that it helps them to do many of their academic work. Even though the computer illiterate tend to partake from some of these activities.

              From the findings of this research, it was concluded that ICT skill development undertaken by academic staff was mainly self-funded. Majority of the academic staff in this study rated ICT competence as low.

5.3              Recommendation

                     Based on the findings and the conclusions drawn this study, its hereby recommended that the university management should fund the ICT training of students of CRUTECH community. Furthermore, provision should be made for continuous retraining of staff on ICT since development in technology is dynamic and the staff need to keep abreast with current trends.

                Again, CRUTECH management should make training in ICT mandatory for all academic staff as this will propel the uninterested or unwilling ones to undertake the training.

A RESEARCH PAPER ON NEW MODELS OF COMPUTATION

A

 RESEARCH PAPER

ON

NEW MODELS OF COMPUTATION

WRITTEN BY

NAME:  EGBO, EGBO THANKGOD      
    

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE

FACULTY OF SCIENCE.

SUBMITTED TO

DR. OYO. E. OYO

CENTER OF GENERAL STUDIES

OCTOBER, 2016.

CONTENT

1.0  INTRODUCTION

1.1  DEFINIION OF TERMS

1.1.1MODELS

1.1.2 COMPUTATION

1.1.3 EVOLUTION OF COMPUTATION

2.0 BRIEF HISTORY OF COMPUTERS

3.0 NEW MODELS OF COMUTATION

          3.1 CLOUD COMPUTING

          3.2 QUANTUM COMPUTING

4.0 WHAT DO WE SEE COMPUTERS DOING IN YEARS TO COME?

5.0 SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMENDATIOS.

          5.1 SUMMARY

          5.2 CONCLUSION

          5.3 RECOMMENDATIONS

REFFERENCES

THESIS STATEMENT

COMPUTERS HAVE A LOT EFFECT IN THE WORLD TODAY BUT CLOSER EXAMINTION SHOWS THAT THERE ARE NEW MODELS OF COMPUTATION THAT ARE ABOUT TO CHANGE THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT.

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Computers have been identified in today’s world as any electronic device which makes work easier and faster, (lay man’s definition). Computers can be defined as any electronic device that receives data (raw information), processes the data, and gives out information (processed data).

The history of computers dates back to the ancient Roman Empire, where the abacus was used to do simple calculations. Over the years, computers have evolved from one machine to another. It is undeniable that we are in a computer age moreover; about 75% of things today can’t be done without the aid of computers. Over the years, computers have evolved from one type to another also with great changes in its abilities. Today we have computers doing most of humans work which range from computers in industries, computers in education, computers in business sectors etc. The evolution of computers is my major interest and also the purpose of this study.

The aim of this study is to bring readers up to date about the new models of computing and also to enlighten people about the usefulness of computers in today’s world. Some of the problems facing the world today include the lack of accepting new discoveries reasons being that religion does not agree with them or otherwise.

1.1                                    DEFINITION OF TERMS

This is where some certain technical terms used in the research study, are defined. These include;

COMPUTATION: This means the act or process of computing Samuel (2003).

MODELS: A simplified representation used to explain the workings of real world system or event, John (2006).

EVOLUTION: Gradual direction change especially one leading to a more advanced or complex form, growth development, Marcel (2002).

QUANTUM: A very small quantity of ELECTROMAGNETIC energy, oxford (2016).

CLOUD COMPUTING: Is a computing paradigm, where a large pool of computer systems are connected in private or public networks, to provide dynamically scalable infrastructure for application, data and file storage, Wikipedia(2016).

EVOLUTION OF COMPUTATION: Gradual directional change in the advancement of computers.

2.0            BRIEF HISTORY OF COMPUTERS

Computers, the wonders of science, have an integral role in our present day lives. The majority of us use these machines daily. Although computers have become common for modern world, the origins of computing are relatively unknown to the average user. This chapter presents a brief discussion of the evolutional developments in computing.

ABACUS

A primary example of computing is counting. Humans learn to do this at an early age, using our fingers. The automation of counting occurred with the invention of the abacus. The abacus was designed in the 13^th century China, and assisted in the mathematical manipulation of numbers. The Japanese form of the abacus was the soroban, which works relatively in the same manner. The abacus was a handy little invention but there had to be better way of doing calculations.

Traditionally the Chinese abacus has 2 beads in the top section over the horizontal bar and 5 beads in the lower section, for each “column”. The upper row beads could each represent one hand. The lower columns could represent the 10 fingers.

CALCULATING MACHINES

Wilhelm Schickard (1592 - 1635) had this very thought, so he composed drawings of a calculator. His drawings may have been revolutionary, but the calculator he designed was not built. Rather, it was Blasé Pascal (1623 - 1662) who built the first “calculator”. Pascal’s calculating machine was completed in 1642, and was called pascaline. Over fifty years later, in 1694, Gottfried Leibniz (1646 - 1716) had designed the Leibniz wheel. This wheel was important for mechanical calculators, for machines containing it could add, subtract, multiply, and divide. Pascal’s calculator was no longer efficient.

Around 1820, Charles Xavier Thomas created the first successful, mass-produced mechanical calculator, the Thomas Arithmometer, which could add, subtract, multiply, and divide. It was mainly based on Leibniz work.

 THE FATHER OF THE COMPUTER

The title, “father of the computer”, has been given to Charles Babbage (1792 - 1871) for the role he played in the early conceptualizations of computers. Babbage was a British mathematician working in London when he came up with the idea of his “Difference Engine” in 1821. He desired to calculate table of mathematical functions with greater accuracy. In 1822, he wrote a paper titled “Observations of mathematical tables”, which detailed his plans for a calculation machine. Ada Lovelace, Lord Byron’s daughter, translated and added notes to the “Sketch of the Analytical Engine” by Federico Luigi, Conte Mona Brea.

COLOSSUS

Over seventy years later, a British man named Alan Turing (1912 - 1954) was working on a top secret project. The end of 1943, Turing completed “Colossus”, a fully operational electromagnetic computer. The Colossus was used to crack German codes during World War II, and by doing so, helped defeat the Nazis. Turing is credited with laying down the fundamental principles of computing his colossus machine is considered one of the first real computers, along with the ENIAC.

3.0            NEW MODELS OF COMPUTATION

Following the evolution of computers over the years, there are several thousands of new models of computation, but for the sake of this study we focus on just two which include Cloud computing and Quantum computing.

3.1            CLOUD COMPUTING

As defined earlier in the course of this study, Cloud computing is a computing paradigm, where a large pool of computer systems are connected in private or public networks to provide dynamically scalable infrastructure for application, data and file storage. With the advent of this technology, the cost of computation, application hosting (a type of hosting that uses an application server provider (ASP) mode, which is sometimes referred to as “on-demand software”) content storage and delivery is significantly reduced.

Cloud computing is a practical approach to experience direct cost benefits and it has the potential to transform data centre form a capital-intensive setup to a variable priced environment.

The idea of cloud computing is based on a very fundamental principal reusability of IT capabilities. The difference that cloud computing brings compared to traditional excepts of “grid computing”, “distributed computing”, “utility computing”, or “automatic computing” is to broaden horizons across organization boundaries.

According to an American independent technology and market research company – Forester defines cloud computing as “A pool of abstraction, highly scalable, and managing infrastructure capable of hosting end customer applications and billed by consumption”.

CLOUD COMPUTING MODELS

Cloud computing providers offer services that can be grouped into three categories, which includes;

1.     SOFTWARE as a SERVICE (SaaS): In this model, a complete application is referred to the customer as a service on demand. A single instance of the service runs on the cloud and multiple end users are serviced. On the customers side there is no need for upfront investments in servers or software licences while for the provider, the costs are lowered, since only a simple application needs to be hosted and maintained. Today SaaS is offered by companies such as Google, Sales force, Microsoft, Zoho, etc.

2.     PLATFORM as a SERVICE (PaaS): Here, a layer of software, or development environment in encapsulated and offered as a service, upon which other higher lends of service can be built. The customer has the freedom to build his own applications, which run on the provider’s infrastructure. To meet manageability and scalability requirements of the applications, PaaS providers offer a predefined combination of OS and application servers such as LAMP platform (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP), restricted J2EE, Ruby, etc. Google’s App Engine, Force com etc. are some of the popular PaaS examples.

3.     INFRASTRUCTURE as a SERVICE (IaaS): IaaS provides basic storage and computing capabilities as standardized services over the network servers, storage systems, networking equipment, data centre space etc. are poles and made available to handle workloads. The customers would typically deploy his software on the infrastructure. Some common examples are Amazon, GoGrid, 3Tera etc.

BENEFITS OF CLOUD COMPUTING

     Enterprises would need to align their application so as to exploit the architecture models that cloud computing offers. Some of the typical benefits are listed as follows;

1.     REDUCED COSTS: there are a number of reasons to attribute cloud computing technology with lower costs. The billing model is pay per usage; the infrastructure is not purchased thus lowering maintenance. Initial expense and recurring expense are much lower than traditional computing.

2.     INCREASED STORAGE: with the massive infrastructure that is offered by cloud providers today, storage and maintenance of large volumes of data is a reality. Sudden workload spikes are also managed effectively & efficiently, since cloud can scale dynamically.

3.     FLEXIBILITY: this is an extremely important characteristic. With enterprises having to adapt even more rapidly to changing business conditions speed to deliver is critical. Cloud computing stresses on getting applications to market very quickly by using the most appropriate building blocks necessary for deployment.

CLOUD COMPUTING CHALLENGES

Despite its growing influence, concerns regarding cloud computing still remain. In our opinion, the benefits outweighing the drawbacks and the model are worth exploring some common challenges are;

1.     DATA PROTECTION: data security is a crucial element that warrants security. Enterprises are reluctant to buy an assurance of business data security from vendors. They fear losing data to competition and the data confidentiality of customers. In many instances, the actual storage location is not disclosed, adding onto the security concerns of enterprises data centres (owned by enterprises) protect this sensitive information. Whereas, in the cloud model, service providers are responsible for maintaining data security and enterprises would have to rely on them.

2.     DATA RECOVERY AND AVAILABILTY: all business applications have service level agreements that are stringently followed. Operational terms play a key role in management of service level agreements and runtime governance of application. In production environments, operational terms supports:

•  Appropriate clustering and fall over.
• Data replication.
• System monitoring (transactions monitoring, logs monitoring and others).
• Maintenance (runtime governance).
•  Disaster recovery.

Ø Capacity and performance management

If any of the above mentioned services is under-served by a cloud provider, the damage and impact could be severe.

3.     MANAGEMENT CAPABILITIES: despite there being multiple cloud providers, the management of platform and infrastructure is still in its infancy. Features like ‘Auto-Scaling’ for example, area a crucial requirement for many enterprises. There is huge potential to improve on the scalability and load balancing features provided today.

4.     REGULATORY AND COMPLIANCE RESTRICTONS: in some of the European countries, government do not allow customer’s personal info and other sensitive information to be physically located outside the state or country. In order to meet such requirements, cloud providers need to setup a data centre or a storage site exclusively within the country to comply with regulations. Having such an infrastructure may not always be feasible and is a big challenge for cloud providers.

Generally with cloud computing, the action moves to the interface that is to the interface between service supplies and multiple groups of service consumers. Cloud service will demand expertise in distributed services procurement, risk assessment and service negotiation – areas that many enterprises are only modestly equipped to handle.

3.2            QUANTUM COMPUTING

Quantum computing studies theoretical computations systems make use of quantum-mechanical phenomena, such as superposition and enlargement, to perform operations on data. Quantum computers are different from digital electronic computer based on transistors. Whereas common digital computing requires that the data are encoded in binary digits (bits), each of which is always one or two definite states (0 or 1). A quantum Turing machine is a machine theoretical model of such a computer. Hey also share similarities with non-deterministic and probabilistic computers. The field of quantum computing was initiated by the work of Paul Benioff and Yuri Marun in 1980.

A COMPARISON OF CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM COMPUTING 

          Classical computing relies, at its ultimate level, on principles expressed by Boolean algebra, operating with a (usually) 7-mode logic gate principle, though it is possible to exist with only three modes (which are NOT and COPY). Data must be expressed in an exclusive binary state at any point in time what is either 0 (off/false) or 1 (on/true) these values are binary digits, or bits. The millions of transistors and capacitors at the heart of computers can only be in one state at a point. While the time that each transistor or capacitor need be either in 0 or 1 before switching states is now measurable in billionths of a second, there is still a limit as to how quickly these devices can be made to switch states.

          The Quantum computer, by contrast can work with a two mode logic gate XOR and a mode we all call QOI (the ability to change 0 into a superposition of 0 and 1, a logic gate which cannot exist in classical computing. In quantum computers, a number of elemental particles such as electrons or photons can be used (in practice, success has also been achieved with ions)) with either their charge or polarization acting as a representation 0 and 1 or 1.

          Each of these particles is known as quantum bit, or qubit, the nature and behaviour of these particles from the basics of quantum computing.

                  

                             QUANTUM PROGRAMMING

Perhaps even more intriguing than the sheer power of quantum computing is the ability that it offers to write programs in a completely new way. For example, a quantum computer could incorporate a programming sequence that would be along the lines of “take all the superposition of the prior computations” something which is meaningless with a classical computer which would permit extremely fast ways of solving certain mathematical problem, such as factorization of large numbers example of which we discuss below. There have been two notable successes thus far with quantum programming. The first occurred in 1994 by Peter Shor; he developed a quantum algorithm that could efficiently factorize large numbers. It centres on a system that uses numbers theory to estimate the periodicity of a large number sequence. The major breakthrough happened with IOU Grover of Bell labs in 1996, with a very fast algorithm that is proven to be the fastest possible for searching through unstructured databases. The algorithm is so efficient that it requires only, on average roughly N square root (where N is the total of elements), as opposed to a search in classical computing which on average needs N/2 searches.

                PREHISTORY OF QUANTUM COMPUTING

Since 1945 we have been witnessing a rapid growth of the raw performance of computers with respect to their speed and memory size. An important step in this development was the invention of transistors, which already use some quantum effects in their operation. However, it is clear that if such an increase in performance of computers continues then after 50 years, our chips will have to contain 10¹⁶ gates and operate at a 10¹⁴ Hz clock rate (thus delivering 10³⁰ logic operations per second). It seems that the only way to achieve that is to learn to build computers directly out of the laws of quantum physics.

In order to come up seriously with the idea of quantum information processing, and to develop it so far and so fast, it has been necessary to overcome several intellectual barriers.

The most basic one concerned an important feature of quantum physics reversibility. None of the known models of universal computers was reversible. This barrier was overcome first by Bennett (1973), who showed the existence of universal reversible Turing machines, and then by Toffoli (1980, 1981) and Fredkin and Toffoli (1982), who showed the existence of universal classical reversible gates.

The second intellectual barrier was overcome by Benioff (1980, 1982, 1982a) who showed that quantum mechanical computational processes can be at least as powerful as classical computational processes. He did that by showing how a quantum system can simulate actions of the classical reversible Turing machines. However, his “quantum computer” was not fully quantum yet and could not outperform classical ones.

4.0 WHAT DO WE SEE COMPUTERS DOING IN YEARS TO COME

It has been predicted that if the aviation industry had experienced the same rate of growth as the computer industry, we would be able to cross the Atlantic Ocean supersonically for a small fare. The industry shows no evidence of slowing. We have been bitten by the “technology bug” and will not stop making computers smaller and faster. The development of technology is really due to the human desire to control nature and to overcome the constraints nature places on us. Through the use of computers, we can attempt to control the world around us. By the means of input and output, we can attempt to computerize our lives. There is still a lot more to learn though. The computer industry has proven this repeatedly. As Isaac Newton once noted, “what we know is a drop of what we don’t know in an ocean”.

      Although computers are now able to “intellectual” things due to advancement of artificial Intelligence (AI), they are still not able to reason like human beings. Some believe that they never will. Christopher Evans, in his 1979 book, the mighty micro, calculated that the mental power of the world’s most advanced computer was equal to that of an earwig, which has a lower intelligence than a fish. There have been considerable advances in AI, as demonstrated by IBM’s “Big Blue”. This machine was extremely advanced in the game of chess, and as such, was able to beat the best human chess player in the world.

The computer was becoming increasingly important for businesses, which could “hire” robots to do work previously done by expensive humans. This trend is still alive today automotive plants utilize the efficiency and accuracy that a computer robot provides. “Smart vehicles” are being produced that can detect certain conditions. For example, there are many cars that can detect if a door is ajar and notifies the driver of this problem by “speaking” to him/her. These robots can do physical functions that a human can do, but they are in no way even remotely humanoid. This notion is brought into society by science fiction books, comics and films. George Lucas is renowned for his film “Star wars”, where humanistic robots help Luke Skywalker save thousands of lives. Although the movies are exciting, they are unrealistic according to modern times. Movie makers, like Lukas, do use computer technology to make these robots realistic enough for moviegoers to believe them.

5.0 SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 SUMMARY

This study was carried out to inform the general public on how computers have evolved over the years. To give the work good footing, theoretical and empirical literatures relevant to this study were reviewed. Of course there have been significant evolution of computers over the years and the world should still expect more and more technologies. Finally it brings readers up to date with cloud and quantum computing.

5.2  CONCLUSION

The study examined the new models of computation. The study reveals the new models of computation such as cloud and quantum computing. It also reveals how the evolution of computers has affected humans and the world at large.

          New models of computation have affected the world both positively and negatively. Not so far off in the near future we may see computers depicting most of our human activities ranging from education to industries to entertainment and many more.

5.3 RECOMMENDATIONS

This study is recommended to the general public to bring people up to speed with the fast growing rate of computers. Students also preparing for tertiary

Institutions to study any discipline under computers are recommended to read this research.

 

REFERENCES

Gruska, J. (2015). Quantum computing Cambridge: University press.

Julius N. (2009). Computer science beginner’s handbook for undergraduate Cross-       River: Uncial printing press.

Wenger P. and Eugene E (2003). New models of computation. The computer journal, 47(1)  pp 1-9. Toronto: first printers press.

Wichard M.L and Stephen G.S (2011). Models for computer based testing. New York: New day press.

Yatchi E. (2014). Application of modern technology in the world today. Nigerian library an information science review 2 (1 &2)3. Ibadan: kelvin Frank.

Zara P.H (2004). The science of computing: shaping a discipline Lagos: Taylor and Francis group CRS press

THIS WORK WAS DONE BY EGBO, EGBO THANKGOD