ict within education

Due to the growing interest and capabilities of ict, and the growing need for the younger generation to be taught how to make use of ict, the best possible way to take advantage of all this is to infact include the ict within the education.  There are many advantages of this such as first hand experience for the students with many of the hardware and software they’ll possibly be using in future employment, and it also means the students and there teachers wont be bogged down in cumbersome paperwork ect, as all the work will be saved on to a regularly saved backup system.

There are various elements of ict within education, but the key one of these would be the computer itself. A student having access to a computer opens up man y possibilities and opportunities, this can include things such as access to the internet for research or to in fact use the hardware to do their work. The computer then gives them the opportunity to safely save their work or print it off to hand in ect.

Another aspect that appears to be playing a lead role within education is the use of smart boards by teaching staff. These are large electronic screens that replace the need for a white or blackboard as they are much more capable. They enable the teacher to write whatever they desire on the screen aswell as the screen allowing the students to view whatever the teacher themselves is looking at, this means that the teacher can show the students his examples online and other resources such as web pages without the need of printing out paper to use on a projector. The disadvantages of using these however is they can be a great effort to install and will then require trained staff to maintain them in case of failure, they can also be expensive to purchase at first.

The software available to these students also provides great assistance to their education, enabling them to carry out more tasks successfully. For example the Microsoft office word program allows students to type fast and effectively abolishing the issues of handwriting and even providing a spell check and grammar check service,  to ensure no mistakes are made. Aswell as this program there are also many other elements of software that can be useful to students such as photo editing software for art students or spreadsheet and numerical based programs for business entrepreneurs or mathematicians. I myself come into great contact with the word processor, as my ict and business subjects both require that I write copious amounts of work with which my projects are based, but wit business a frequently must use the spreadsheets pf Microsoft excel and with media I have come in to contact with photo editing software. From my experiences with all this software I have a great belief that they enhance the learning opportunities of the students that use them as they enable them to do more work easily, quickly and efficiently.

A relatively new service that has been introduced to the education front is the VLE or virtual learning environment. It is essentially a hub of connection between student and teacher, as it allows the teachers to set work and then that said work can then be handed in by the student. These services also allow the student to access any work they have saved on the school files.

There are however disadvantages to using ict as the sole method of education as there are the initial cost problems to purchase the actually hardware and software, followed by further payments resulting from instillation and maintenance. There is also the problem that could arise if the ict hardware or software does malfunction then the students wont b able to access, or in fact loose all their work.

To conclude I believe that although ict is essential to the education of the younger generation it should not be used as the sole method, as there are still causes of concern with hardware/software crashes ect, and that a balance between more original paper based methods will also be necessary to the education service.

Online Entertainment

In the modern day and age the internet plays an almighty role in providing pleasure and entertainment for almost everyone with access to the internet. The usage of the internet for entertainment also spans across a variety of generations due to the wide range of content on the internet, and with the development of online channels such as iplayer, there is almost something for everyone readily accessible.

For many years an extremely popular use of the internet amongst particularly younger people and children  is to play online games. Due to the popularity of online gaming a wide abundance of games and gaming sites has been developed and this furthermore enables more of A variety in games thus attracting more users. It is a result of the large number of cookies online that make the gaming areas of the internet a great success, as they enable you to save and store data related to your games , so they can be continued anywhere as long as you have internet available to sign into your account. The online gaming phenomenon however does generally only remain within the younger generations and is not as appealing to older members of society, this means that although they  are very popular, they aren’t the most popular entertainment service amongst the whole internet.

A relatively new, yet highly successful service available on the internet provides you with the functionality to watch television programmes online, the two best known of these providers is the BBCs “iplayer” and channel4s “4od”. One of the key reasons for their success is that they enable their users to catch up on their favourite programmes if they miss them online. They also offer online shows , that hence the name, are only available to view online, this adds another dimension to their service, which will attract more customers willing to watch these programes in the only place they are available. I my self have had the experience of using these type of sites on countless occasions, especially “4od” as i frequently would watch some of their programmes which they saved on their site.

Another example of the internet dipping into another method of entertainment is the availability to listen to the radio online, with radio stations frequently having their own websites. The most notable of these i belive is the radio one website, probably due to the fact this radio station is aimed at younger people, and it is generally the younger generations who make up the majority of internets population. These sites however offer more than just simply a place to listen to the radio as they provide many things such as podcasts and online features such as charts and playlists, this is where the majority of radios entertainment online is discovered.

The main provider of entertainment on the internet however, i do believe is from googles website youtube. Its a site that allows user to upload videos of near enough anything for other users to watch. The genres of the videos on the site are what i belive to be the key to its success, as you have a range that includes music, to tv programes, clips saved off radio shows/podcasts and the users home videos that get uploaded. This means it has aspects from near enough every form of modern entertainment that it can utilize. The site however does come under scrutiny as a result of some of the videos that get uploaded, with the main issue being one of copyright, as many people will upload music videos ect that they do not have permission to do so. Youtube however does clearly state that if the content it is copyright they will do their best to remove it, but due to the large amount of videos on the actual site.

I believe that a large proportion of our generations entertainment is effected if not based upon the internet, which once again implies how much we are reliant upon the internet, but i do however believe that it will never be the sole provider of entertainment due to the large availability of things like television, as well as entertainment that does not require technology, such as sports ect. But despite this i do believe as power and knowledge if the internet grows and expands, the availability of entertainment online will increase.

ICT within employment

In the recent  years of the computer generation, which have seen widespread success and large numbers of people participating in the use of computers and the internet, the necessity and opportunity for employment within the computing area has risen dramatically. The internet is now frequently associated with the largest and most successful business’s and plays often the key role within the structure of a business thus expanding its global necessity.

As a result of the expansion and requirements of the computing and internet within employment, the very first occupational availability will be computer technicians and servicemen, as in the scenario of failures and malfunctions, someone will be required to repair the damage. The jobs available do not stop and are not always as obvious as this and a large percentage of jobs will now in fact use computer technology without even realising it.  I myself in my job have to essentially rely on the use of a computer as i work at the till in a well known retail store, this ensures that everything i do within the basis of a transaction is monitored and carried out by means of computer and i believe it to be extremely important and useful as not only does it make the given task quick and efficient, but the computer its self will not make any errors, the it will calculate using the data provided, and extensive steps have been carried out to ensure that no incorrect data is entered into the computer. The issue that has been raised with contention to jobs like this however is will the manpower behind them be replaced with the machines they were originally in fact working with, this have been proved in the case of various high street supermarkets, who now offer the ability to use “self checkouts” which is essentially the computer running the checkout instead of a person. The opposing theory to this however is that some will have to be employed to maintain these computers , but again this might not be one of the original workers  so there will still be redundancy made. There are some jobs however which keep on their human workforce to work such as factories, as the person will be better suited with quality control than the computer, by doing this the factory is ensuring that the 2 personas are working hand in hand to maximise their profit and success. This i believe is the role every business and company should participate in, as it wields many job opportunities and means that no one will have to be laid of and become unemployed.

As the workplace becomes more entwined with the presence and requirement of computers there will be more training required, this means that employers can choose to train their staff in order to keep them on, or many employers will look to they younger generation as due to the computer “boom” , they all not receive a copious amount of education within the computer world, so from school they are already more experienced and learnt than many of the already existing work force from older generations.

In the future however there is an increasing fear that the need for people within many work forces will no longer be there due to the increasing use of computers and artificial intelligence within the work place but i do believe however, that the education provided within schools and colleges of an ict basis will essentially act in ensuring that many jobs will remain available for people, such as maintenance, building and designing of the computers, which will thus ensure than people remain a necessity