Education and the Information Age

ICT has affected education in a number of ways, whether you are a teacher or student, it has affected both, as years pass more and more changes and upgrades are being made within the ICT sector. The interrogation of ICT within schools today has been purposely done to prepare students for the working environment in the future, when they are old enough to go out and get a job. This has now become necessary because so many jobs today have a computer involved somehow; therefore the employees in any business need to be trained to operate various programmes and software on a computer system. With this in mind it is important that students learn the basic functions of a computer and how to operate them systematically.

Not so long ago this would have been unnecessary knowledge to have but with computerisation being so advanced today, affecting the job market in several ways, the use of computers has to be taken seriously, a student’s ability to operate one has to be decent. If a student today decided to not bother having anything to do with a computer this would no doubt have repercussions later on in life and subsequent employment.

How has computerisation and ICT affected our education today?

Within a classroom there are multiple types of equipment and apparatus having something to do with technology. That today probably has a limited level of importance to most people; this is because it is considered normal to the generation of students in school. However, there are drastic changes from previous years as to how children are taught today, compared to say ten years ago. Years ago people would have to find out all their needed information from books; these would be taken out from a library, whereas today students simply log onto their computer and browse the internet in no time at all.

Smart Boards

The sole purpose of Smart boards is to allow for a teacher to interact with students by using an oversized computer screen through a touch sensitive pad. Resulting in the lesson becoming a truly collaborative experience for the students. All intended information can be conducted and explained using the screen, written notes that are made during lesson, if any, can also be saved just like on an ordinary computer, therefore the notes can be using for future lessons.

Smart Boards are connected to a main projector; this projector is what projects the image on the smart board, the image or information shown is what the computer (that is also connected to the projector) is browsing or the software they are using. This has become increasingly easier for students to interact with their lessons, resulting in a better learning environment. The use of the old whiteboard is considered to be outdated as people consider their standard and quality very low.

PowerPoint

As students work their way up higher in education, confidence is slowly going to build; teachers see a good way of helping students to do this is by setting a presentation on a certain subject. The use of PowerPoint when creating presentations today is extremely useful, each slide revealing information about a certain topic. Teachers find this an ever increasingly easier way to cover topics and retain the attention of students, pictures animations can easily be included, which draws in the audience more. The use of PowerPoint today within education I believe is a crucial factor in delivering a detailed explanation and extensive presentation.

PowerPoint works effectively and is one of the easiest programmes to do so. The use of a smart board and projector is essential when presenting anything, these allowing for display of the on screen work to a wider audience. The smart boards themselves have largely enhanced the learning experience of any student, using a projector allows for all within a class to see clearly the work being explained and the teachings displayed during lessons, this gives off a greater educational knowledge and a better understanding.

Computers

The computer itself is the most important feature that is present within the classroom or learning environment. The log in of each staff member and the data and software the computer hold is vital to every teacher in order to continue with their planned out lessons. This results in an increased teaching experience, and when the teacher plans out lessons and know what they are doing then the attitude of the students is going to be far more concentrated. The software run throughout the computer itself has allowed for teachers to plan, and carry out lessons in a more efficient and interesting manner.

Virtual Learning Environment

The most important piece of software by far throughout schools today allows for the students to track their personal progress and stay in constant contact with their teachers allowing for a more personal learning experience never before seen with teachers and learners.

Computers themselves offer an array of software alone that can be used to increase the learning experience. Word processors are the main type of programme used throughout the school. Microsoft office series have allowed for adaptations and extension of student learning.. The increased ability of this are the array of printing methods, that allow staff to print off the slides within their presentation with lines, in turn allowing students to annotate the slides as the teacher progresses with the presentation on display.

My Own Experience

Personally the use of ICT in school has been extremely useful throughout each year; it makes finding information a lot easier. When I was revising for my exams I used educational programmes such as My Maths and BBC Bitesize. If I did not have the use of a computer then I would have never been able to complete over half of my assigned work, I think having ICT available in schools for students is more than useful, it is now labelled as a necessity.

The use of the Sims system software within several schools was introduced to improve the efficiency within the running of a school. St Gregory’s has access to the Sims system which allows all teachers to see a full list of their students within each of their classes; this is also use as a digital register. Communication with other staff members can all be done via Sims, meaning discussions about only students is available is necessary, this is all done privately and for the students benefits. It is designed for the staff alone, this allowing them to view personal information about any student if needed, this is very important to have today as many children have health problems; therefore it is better if the teacher is aware of these matters.

Each student who attends St Gregory’s today is given a unique user name and password. From here they are able to access all networked computers within the school, giving them access to a large selection programmes such as Microsoft applications, the internet and the schools personal email. Considering all students today have such access to such advanced software and internet, this gives them the opportunity to explore and expand on their own knowledge. However the actions of the student is constantly being monitored, each computer is networked to a main server, this being an ICT technician, who has the ability to view all the work being done by a student, this is purely for the students best interests, making sure they are keeping on task and not misusing what time they are given. Blocking websites or even being blocked from the internet altogether is possible if deemed to be appropriate, the decision will be made by any teacher if needed and will be inflicted by the main ICT technician.

Advantages of using ICT in education today:

·         Expansion upon technology within the classroom has led to learning styles of fashions being catered for.

·         Different uses of technology within the classroom have allowed teachers to provide variations in the way in which they teach, therefore engaging the students through the change.

·         The use of the Sims system is a leap in school organization; it allows for increased communications between staff, therefore ensuing students are always within lessons.

·         The use of Projectors and smart boards has encouraged staff to bring multimedia elements into the classroom, this has allowed educational videos and extra curriculum games to be enjoyed by all students.

Disadvantages of using ICT in education today:

·         Students may sometimes go off topic due to the introduction of multimedia within the classroom.

·         The hardware itself is expensive to replace if damaged, with the projector bulbs only lasting 250 hours, their replacements are expansive £200.

·         People must be employed to maintain the new hardware and software.

Printing

The printer and photocopier within a school are essential tools for both the teacher and student. Having a printer available for everyone within a school is an absolute necessity; teachers need to print out worksheets which can then be photocopied. Whereas students need to print of work to hand into teachers, this may have been work set for homework which required use of the internet. Also students print out worksheets from school drives all the time, this may be done for revision aspects or just they just wanted to increase their knowledge further on a certain topic.

The photocopier allows for documents to be copied multiply times, then being distributed throughout a class for personal use increasing concentration. These two essential pieces of hardware can be found in any school today throughout England and in combination with that of other hardware and software have all had a contributing factor to play in the expansion and extension of a heightened learning environment and experience.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism within all schools today is a problem. As all students now have full access to most documents online at home and during school, this means they can view other peoples work whenever they desire. Making it easy to simply copy and paste either from the internet of from a previous students work. They may think it a good idea at the time but when their work comes round to being moderated and checked, it will soon be discovered that their work has been copied. This can sometimes result is disqualification from you school courses so you have to be careful.

The Effect Computerisation Has On Employment

ICT has radically changed the way in which numerous jobs operate today. Computerisation has advanced across all jobs throughout the United Kingdom; it has allowed processes of all kinds to be carried out and completed in a more efficient process and manor. In addition, computerisation has introduced masses of new jobs globally but in return has also removed them.

Job Opportunities Involving Computing

Over recent years there has been a huge amount of new employment opportunities, this is due to the introduction of computer usage. Technology has become so far advanced today that it is being used everywhere, especially within a work force and company; they are used on a regular basis.

Engineers, programmers, system analysts and skilled technicians are just a few of the jobs available within the job market due to these advances of technology. These jobs have all been provided due to the demand of computerisation throughout major businesses and other areas of employment.

This now means that computerisation has caused multiply types of machinery to now be removed as the need for employment within an individual task is absolute, this could occur in the printing industry for example. So many people today are using there tablets or smartphones or even the TV to keep updated with the news of the world, therefore meaning newspapers and some magazines are becoming less and less popular. However, the application of the new equipment has made new jobs available for the maintenance of the machinery, and various other areas of its application.

How Has the Use Of Computers Changed?

Life today has changed rapidly due to the introduction of computerised software and new equipment. It has altered in a way that any business can now operate it making it more accessible for all to use.

In the past employees of offices and businesses where required to manually sort their files and documents in to cabinets that took up a large amount of space within the office. This took up an astonishing amount of time that they should have been spending doing additional work, it is also easy to mess up where you put your files and accidently misplace them causing this method of handling data to be inefficient.

Today, this system of manually handing data has been replaced by the use of multiple computers being able to access the same data through signing into a programme. However the introduction of computerisation within business has led to numerous job cuts allowing for many large businesses to reduce the amount their employees, cutting costs spent or salaries. This causes higher rates of unemployment and causes many people financial problems.

 

Advantages of using technology within a business:

·        The efficiency that computerisation offers allows for tasks to be carried out at a faster rate as opposed to that of an employee.

·        The costs for maintaining a computerised system is relatively cheap compared to that of paying an employee’s wage.

·        Using ICT within stores eliminates the chances of simple mistakes within areas such as product costs and sales prices.

Disadvantages of using technology within a business:

·        Within widespread computerisation companies can rapidly reduce their employment levels, this can be devastating for the employee, and due to the widespread economic depression unemployment is a key factor that needs to be addressed and corrected. Due to this the negative effect of being replaced by a computerised   system is something companies must take very seriously and can be seen today in widespread self-service  machines in supermarkets and is the reason for many postal strikes seen today.

·        The costs to repair a damaged machine can be catastrophic for small business and massively effect the overall profit for large. Machines maybe cheap to maintain but are notoriously expensive to replace when a fault   occurs.

·        For those who are not familiar with ICT the idea of having to use it may not appeal to some as they consider it daunting and complicated.

·        Simple tasks such as refunding items may require higher supervision this makes the ease of purchase a lot harder and the customers time extended further.

How Will Computerisation Change In the future?

Our current generation as a culture within the UK have grown up knowing of the advances within ICT and have been educated thoroughly to use it. However people of an older generation are not entirely aware of the complexity of a computer and do not know how to operate most of the functions and programmes provided with a computer. But now as the generations go on and computers continue to advance at a rapid speed, the use of computers in the future will become simple to everyone, they will also most likely become out of date. This is because today we now have laptops or IMac’s. Additionally the introduction of tablets has now been made, therefore instead of schools having computers for students to use, tablets will become an easier and more efficient option as technology is advancing all the time.

Teleworking

Teleworking usually means working from home and using ICT to communicate with your workplace.  A computer is essential to every teleworker as they are required to complete and transfer all their work through E-mail to their workplace, consequently meaning the employee requires an E-mail address. They need internet access at all times as thorough research is always a must; this internet access needs to be of a decent speed to get work done efficiently and on time. A fax machine is sometimes needed depending on the type of job the employee has, most of the time documents can be sent using the computer software. Videoconferencing is often used to communicate with people therefore the appropriate equipment such as a microphone, speakers and a video camera is needed, this is also useful to have during any meeting they may need to attend. Videoconferencing means any person can use computers to provide a video-link between two or more people, this allows you to see them as well instead of just talking via the telephone.

The teleworker does not physically have to be based at home, for example; a  journalist or writer could be anywhere in the world and still get their article or photographs prepared in no time at all ready for the next day’s newspapers, this is only possible if they had Internet access to transfer their files.



This is a picture of a typical office today, it is using several types of advanced technology