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.