Wednesday, 25 May 2011

Legal and ethical

Copyright is exclusive rights given to an author or a creator of original work. This means no one can copy your work for example videos, music and book and then sell them off as their own. If you get caught copyrighting then you will be given a prison sentence or a fine.

The data protection act 1998 is a law which was designed to protect computer data and paper files. Data needs to be protected as these days there are a lot of hackers that can hack computers and access files and folders that they shouldn’t. Also your data needs protecting because if anyone finds out your bank details then they can take as much money as they like from your bank account even emptying it leaving you with nothing. So protecting your personal data is vital because if it falls into the wrong hands then who knows what could happen.

The plagiarism is taking someone else's work or ideas and passing it off as one's own for example school or college coursework. It is cheating and if you are caught you could fail your whole course or have to re-do all the work.

Privacy of information is when you pick who you want to see your personal information such as age, address and work or school place and who you don’t. An example of this is facebook which is widely used around the world today. You can change your privacy settings so only your friends can see your page or set it to everyone so no matter who it is can see your page. I recommend changing the privacy setting so only people you know can see your information as you don’t know who can be out there looking at your information if they are not a friend.


Thursday, 5 May 2011

How I.C.T has changed working practices



Teleworking means employment at home. It involves work that has to be done with a computer. You have to communicate with the workplace by phone, fax or modem. The advantages of Teleworking are that it reduces travel time and cost, you can work flexible hours and also have a much better balance of work and family life. So you can have a more relaxed life style and do work in a better environment. Working from home will mean that you can spend a lot more time with your family and choose the times that you want to work. Also working at home means that you won’t have to spend time and money get to work meaning you will save money which is a benefit.

 


Communities are a group of people living in a particular local area. These communities with internet access can shop around, bank and buy things online without having to leave their home this means that the local shops and businesses that are based near them are losing money and business forcing them to close down which is unfortunate for the people that don’t have internet. This is unequal access because the people that don’t have the access to internet resources cannot do the same meaning that if shops and business’s close down they will have to travel much further to get the essential things they need in an everyday life.



Sustainability is when you are able to do something for a length of time without damaging the environment. It is so we can save the environment we live in. A lot of companies these days are doing this to show that they are responsible. They tell us about how they are doing this by putting it on their websites to show that they are reliable. You can see this in the BT link provided below.

 

Thursday, 14 April 2011

Impacts of ICT on Communities

ICT has changed a lot of things over the years such as shopping, banking, education, medical and manufacturing. Communities can do a lot more things now with the use of ICT. They can pick what time is best for them to do things like shopping. Shopping with the use of ICT has changed a lot as you can shop at a wide range of places with the use of the internet. You can compare prices in seconds and look at reviews of the shops to see if you trust them to buy anything off them. The downside to internet shopping is that small shops all over the place are shutting down as they are not getting enough business to make money because of everyone shopping online. As more shops close, more jobs get lost making it hard for people to find work. The way we educate and bank has also changed. In the old days you would have had to walk to your bank to check your bank statement or if you was off sick from school you wouldn’t of been able to do your work so you would fall behind but because of the development of ICT you can now check your bank statement online which is more convenient for busy people because they don’t have the time to go down to the bank and people that be off sick from school can now do work at home with the use of VLE (Virtual learning environments). VLE’s are virtual classroom that allow teachers and students to communicate with each other online. The sort of information that there is in a VLE is class information, learning materials, and assignments. The students can log into the website to view this information and may also download assignments to their computers. Some VLE’s even allow assignments and tests to be completed online. The downside to internet banking and VLE’s is that if the servers go down then you won’t be able to access your information online until it is back up and running. This would be an inconvenience as you won’t know how long the server will be down for so you will be waiting around and having to try again.  ICT has changed the way we live for ever. It has made things so much easier for us as we can do things when they are suitable for us.
 

Wednesday, 13 April 2011

How ICT has helped an individual (Social)

ICT today has had a huge impact on our society and how it allows people to do every day things. People who are unable to leave their homes because of illnesses are now able to communicate with the outside world with the use of social networking sites such as facebook, msn, skype and twitter. When using skype you can communicate with people across the world. You can use a webcam while talking to them so you can see the person that you are talking to. They are also able to record, pause and rewind live TV with the use of sky plus. So they can watch there TV programs when it suits them. Also they can shop online for food which will be delivered to their home. They can check there bank statements online to see how much money they have with out going out to the bank. All these things can be done by sitting at home but not all elderly people will use these things as they will not trust it and it would take them along time to get to know how to use the technology.

Introduction

Hello my name is Dominic. I am a student at Halesowen College and this Blog is all about the impact of ICT on society. I am going to be talking to you about how ICT has changed people’s lives today.