Life In The Information Age

I am going to write about how ICT has changed the way people live over the years. I am going to write about the difference it has made using different sections such as:

Education: you can now learn online. For example the University of Phoenix offers an online service where you can obtain a degree qualification while learning online.

Entertainment: you can view the latest video content or listen to any type of music on the net.

Banking and shopping: you can now shop online without moving from your home.

Decision making: Websites on the internet have influenced some decisions people make. This may also include discussions on the internet.

Crime and Crime prevention: Computers have databases that contain loads of information about people and present or past convictions they have had.

I am going to write about how ICT has changed education amongst students

Education

I am going to write about how the use of ICT has changed the way people educate themselves. There are many websites where people of all age groups can access information and revision notes about subjects they are studying. A very popular site that boasts many revision notes and features many quizzes to test your knowledge of the subjects you are studying is the BBC website. www.BBC.com.

The internet is not the only tool people use to educate themselves since ICT has been around. People also use the generic tools of the computer such as spreadsheets, word processors and many other generic tools. People use these tools to create essays and databases. These are basic skills to be learnt by all students in education. This is why ICT has taken such a huge part in the education of most students. Most jobs now require people with basic ICT skills. ICT has not only affected education but has become a way of life for some people.

There are now interactive whiteboards that are used in school. In stead of the old classic whiteboards these are connected to a laptop or pc and the screen displayed on the pc is then displayed on a huge whiteboard. You can then use the white board and pc along with other installed applications and write on it how you would on a normal white board. The new interactive white boards are like the normal white boards but with a touch screen type of technology that lets you write on it and edit it in any way you want. I think the interactive whiteboards have helped teachers educate children and have gone a long way when considering ICT amongst education.

When it comes to using ICT in education there can be many advantages and disadvantages. Whether the advantages outweigh the disadvantages you can decide for yourself after reading some of the information below.

The advantages of using ICT within education:

You can learn new skills

You can access unlimited amount of research

Increases confidence as use of ICT gets better

Regular use and experience of ICT outside the classroom

Easier to control a class room

Easier to help with planning lessons and assisting children

Could possibly make lessons more fun

Enhances future career opportunities

The disadvantages of using ICT within education:

Difficulties in using hardware

Difficulties in using the basic computer

Needs lots of technical support

Very expensive

Expensive to use regularly

Could possibly make lessons less fun

Can take a very long time to load and use which reduces lesson time

This is a graph of the most frequently used type of ICT in a secondary school.

This is a pie chart showing where ICT is used most in schools. As you can see secondary schools use ICT more than anyone else. This pie chart was created in 1999 so it may be slightly different as it is not up to date. I personally think a lot more people now use a higher rate of ICT in sixth form.

This pie chart and the graph above came from the website: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/00001304.htm

Interview on how ICT has affected education

How long have you been teaching ICT and to what age group do you teach it?

Have you found that ICT has made teaching easier?

Could you imagine teaching without the use of ICT?

How do you think ICT will progress within the next ten years?

Do you feel that providing internet to students in schools could be potentially dangerous?

In conclusion I think ICT has had a very high impact on education within any age group and has helped most teachers educate children. It does have its disadvantages but overall I feel that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages and ICT has had a very high impact on education amongst most students.

Now I am going to write about how ICT has changed the entertainment industry

Entertainment

I am going to write about how ICT has changed the entertainment industry. You can now access an unlimited amount of videos or music files along with many other types of entertainment on the internet.

The internet allows you to download files but the tools on the actual computer such as the windows media player is what actually allows you to play the files.

Nearly every search engine on the internet (yahoo, AltaVista) now has a section titled video. Clicking on this section allows you to watch many types of videos on the internet. All you have to do is enter a few keywords about the types of video you would like to watch.

Below is a screenshot of Yahoo video.

Video is not the only type of entertainment online. On the web you now also have access to an unlimited amount of mp3 or music files. There are many sites where you can listen to music and there are many sites where you can download mp3 files off the internet. A site where you can listen to any type of music is www.singingfish.com.

A very popular site where you can download any type of song you want is www.napster.com

Napster offers customers a huge variety of old and new songs at a fixed monthly price. Once you have subscribed and paid you can then just download the music files to your own computer and use them any way you like.

ICT has not only affected entertainment in the form of mp3 files and videos. You can now view some of the most recent television programmes on the internet. You can even catch the first episode of a new and upcoming series on the internet before it is even shown on national television.

ICT has affected the way people entertain themselves in both positive and negative ways. You can now download search engines on to your computer such as kazaa or lime wire which allows you to illegally download files which you do not have to pay for. These sites are causing a huge problem to other sites such as Napster because they offer music downloads completely free but they are illegal. People that are caught downloading from these search engines can be prosecuted severely.

This is what causes ICT to become a huge disadvantage when it comes to entertainment in the form of downloading media off the internet. You can use kazaa and lime wire to download files straight to your main CPU and save them and use them in any way you like. This will also put the IPOD companies out of business because instead off paying to download files to transfer them onto your IPOD you can just simply download them files for free off lime wire.

As a whole ICT has changed the way people entertain themselves dramatically. Years ago if a person wanted to read a book they would attend the library and get a book from there. If you would like to read a book now you can simply read an e-book of the internet which is like a type of electrical book that you can read off the internet.

This has also caused a disadvantage as there is now a huge decline in the use of library facilities. The guardian online has recorded that form the year 2001 to 2003 they have lost 10,000 users of the Dunbar library. Their main losses are students that have now turned to ICT to research about their subjects instead of using the library like they use to. Libraries have tried to counteract against this by placing computers within the libraries.

Over all ICT has advantages and disadvantages when being used for entertainment. IT plays a huge factor in many peoples social life as they now use the computer for many tasks such as listening to music or watching videos. This can be thought of as a positive way of using ICT but for the companies out there trying to sell music and videos or the libraries out there trying to pull in students so they can research there, ICT has affected them in a negative way.

Now I am going to write about how ICT has affected shopping and banking.

Shopping and Banking

ICT has severely affected how people shop and use their banks. You can now literally buy everything and anything online. All the huge supermarkets such as Tesco and ASDA all now have an online site where you can purchase all of their products.

Below is a screenshot of the homepage of ASDA online shopping

When you are surfing the ASDA website you will find that there are a whole range of products similar to the ones you will actually find in the actual ASDA supermarket. There are also special offers available to the customer when shopping online which are not normally offered when

Not only has ICT has affected the way you shop it has also affected the way you handle your money within banks. You can now check your bank details on the internet.

Below is the Barclays website

You have a number of different options to choose from. You can check your bank account balance or even create a portfolio with all your personal banking details. So instead of attending the bank like you would normally you can now do nearly everything from the comfort of your own home.

Online banking and shopping is to be done at your own risk. There are various risks you are taking when making these transactions online. www.BBC.com explains how there is a new virus that can capture peoples details when they are making a transaction online.

“The Bugbear computer virus – which has left transactions and passwords potentially open to hacking – is the latest scandal to hit the internet.” This was taken from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2299853.stm

Online banking and shopping has many advantages and disadvantages.

The advantages of shopping online are:

You do not have to move from the comfort of your own home

Shopping is delivered and is hassle free

You can shop at on any day and at any time you like

There are sometimes special offers that are only available on the internet site and not the actual shop.

The disadvantages of shopping online are:

Items ordered may not be correct

Items might not be delivered on time

Incorrect fee may be charged for the product

Fraudulent people or companies can capture your details and misuse them

The advantages of banking online are:

You do not have to move from the comfort of your own home

You can use the service anytime you like

There are special offers available such as a higher interest rate when opening a new account online

The disadvantages of banking online are:

Fraudulent people or companies can capture your details and misuse them

Your privacy may be disrupted and people may be able to read your bank details

Over all shopping and banking online does have its advantages and disadvantages, whether people choose to use this service is up to them. I personally feel that shopping and banking online are too much hassle for me and the disadvantages outweigh the advantages.

Now I am going to write about the way ICT has changed crime and helped prevent crime

Crime and crime prevention

This is another topic where ICT has helped in a huge way. The government now have many systems up and running that allow them to constantly see what is going on around them. Most of these systems are controlled and operated using ICT. The most popular type of security system that the government use is called CCTV. CCTV stands for close circuit television.

There are many uses for CCTV:

Monitoring traffic from a bridge

A temporary system to carry out a traffic survey in a town centre

Hidden in buses to control vandalism

Hidden in shops to prevent theft or violence

Hidden within banks to stop fraud or theft

Personal security within your own home

The list is almost endless but as you can see has a huge impact on nearly everything in everyday life. The camera records the footage while the monitor displays it. Some systems can record what has happened previously and play it back for future reference.