2008/10/18
Activity 6
Activity 3
Access To Digital Technology·
"Name? – Edward Smith Age? – 71
What example of technology do you use in normal day? -In a normal day I use my sky plus to record TV, I also do my banking over the phone. Also I use a mobile phone to call a cab while we are out shopping to bring us home.·
What things would you like to be able to do more easily with the use of technology?- We often go to the cinema on Tuesday mornings, I would like if we could see the movie from home instead of having to travel. Also it would be good if we could get our shopping delivered home without having to use the Internet. That would mean we would not have to bring it back on the bus, which can be difficult.· Thank you
Who’s My Interviewee?My interviewee is my grandfather who is 71 years old, who has 6 children and 12 grandchildren. He lives in a cul-de-sac in Far Cotton, in a terrace house which is a two up two down. He has only recently upgraded to sky plus, which allows him to record live TV. Also by having this he doesn’t have to buy new tapes when they run out. Secondly Mr Smith has a mobile phone. He uses it to contact people when he is out in town with his wife, and have no way of making contact with anyone. This allows them to have more freedom when outside the house. Finally with the use of their over the phone banking they are to make transactions without having to go into town. This saves them time and money on having to travel on the bus."
Source from: http://jonny1441.blogspot.com/2008/10/activity-3-access-to-digital-technology.html
Activity 2
The overall opinion is that more boys are taking computer related subjects than girls. This is reflected all throughout the real world. For example, at Abbeyfields School (my school) there is one AS ICT class. In that class there is 4 girls and 10 boys. This information is shown as a pie chart below.
This is only where I live, in Northampton. From information provided by a family member she told me of the boy to girl ratio in her GCSE ICT class in central London. And the findings where the same. In her class there were 24 boys and only 6 girls. Again below is a piechart to show these results.
After seeing that these results in two different schools were similar I began to think. What effect would this have on the females later on in life and how this will affect society as a whole. Firstly, as jobs are now becoming more integrated with the use of computers these girls are being put to a disadvantage. This could potentially affect their chances of getting the jobs involving computers and IT. This will also have an affect on the wider society. By having a belief that girls don’t have particular interest in ICT, will mean that it is a cycle in which few girls go into jobs that use this technology.
Activity 1
The ability to get information on government grants to help homeless people. If someone has access to this information they will be able to apply for money that can be used to pay for housing and rent, this will lead to other things, such as the option of the homeless person to look and apply for, a job. A homeless person could also make use of the educational services online. This will greatly increase the homeless person’s chances of being able to get a job, which will helpthem get their life back on track. If a homeless person can access the Internet, they will be able to get onto social networking pages to attempt to get back in touch with family. If they succeed in getting in touch with family they can ask for help to get their life back on track and even request housing or a job. Another way that having access to the Internet can help a homeless is that they are able to get medical information. The person could go onto the NHS website, to get directions to the nearest help centre that they can discuss health problems with. Lastly, a way in which a homeless person can benefit from having access to the Internet is they can get information about homeless shelters they can go to for hygiene, food, healthcare, etc.
Having no internet access
By not having access to the Internet, many of the homeless lives will become more problematic, if anything. With each problem I have explained how it will affect them in the real world. One problem with not having internet access is that they will be unable to gain information about services available to them. For example where they can go to get a free hot meal or somewhere to have a wash and clean theirself up. When you are homeless these are things that can make your day much better if they are available to use. Also by not having access to the Internet someone will find it hard to keep up with news about mnew jobs that are vacant. This will cause the homeless person to struggle to get the information about the jobs and training. Finally, no
access to the Internet will mean people will be unable to get in contact with that person.
More Important Things Than The Internet
I have 5 things listed that I believe are more important to a homeless person than having access to the Internet, and reasons why. Firstly, their healthcare – If they had no healthcare they could get very ill and even to the point of death. Social– For people who live on the streets, who often have no family to turn to friends are the only ones who are there to help. Food – Again without this the homeless person will be dead within a few days. So like good health this is required to live. Housing – By having a roof over their head, the homeless person is able to apply for jobs and improve the way in which they live. Money – Without money they will find it hard to do anything. Some places offer free services but everywhere else money is the source to get what they need , such as most shelter, food and some healthcare.
2008/10/16
The International Digital Divide
In the past decades we have seen many major improvements and changes in ICT technology. These include educational, social, cultural and economic benefits. But in the less economically developed areas of the world, there has not been as much technological advances compared to other parts of the world. An example of this would be Africa, many of the countries in Africa are vastly less economically developed compared to Europe, or North America. Out of the 841,546,000 million people, a mere 1.6% are Internet users. In the UK, the figure is 69%.
Two different sides of the Digital Divide, the ones who are on the beneficial side of the divide. Such as the UK and North America. For we use technology for many everyday things, not just for work. We use them to communicate, educational purposes such as online learning sites and games. Using this technology we can keep up with the latest important news and reports, with the use of news sites. Then there is the other side of the divide, Continents such as Africa. A good example to study Digital Divide would be Afghanistan, where 580,000 people have access to Internet in the whole country. The population of Afghanistan 32,738,376, only 1.7% of those have internet access.
The countrys economy is a factor of the Digital Divide. Afghanistan has external debts of $8 billion. To make matters worse there is an unemployment rate of 40% ! 53% of the country live below the poverty line. This is likely that the people who live below the poverty line or will not have the resources for a computer or other technological objects.
You may ask, "what is being done to bridge the digital divide?". Well there are now organisations and projects being set up worldwide to help bridge the Digital Divide. The organisation ‘One Laptop Per Child’ is a U.S. non-profit organization set up to oversee the creation of a cheap, affordable educational devices for use in the undeveloped and developing countries. The company’s focus is on the development, construction and deployment of laptops to promote children's education in developing nations, who normally would not be able to afford even a moblie phone. This will aid these students and offer them increased knowledge for when the technology becomes available for home use to the whole population.
With all these many different organisations and projects in place some people ask, are they really making any difference? After doing some research I have come across a story of how the ‘One Laptop Per Child’ association has helped children in Brazil, below I have listed the link to the story, feel free to view.
Source: BBChttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7647114.stm
2008/09/25
VLE
-What is a VLE?
VLE stands for 'Virtual learning environment' it is a piece of software designed to improve learning progress. The components of a VLE package included dividing the curriculum into sections that can be reviewed, online support for both students and teachers, electronic communication (e-mails, threaded discussions, blogs), and Internet links to outside curriculum resources.
-What would be the advantages of having one in school?
It would be a good idea to have a VLE in school because it would provide more control and accessability to teachers because staff can monitor how often students have been accessing the VLE using the tracking tool. VLE's provide a learning experience so that the student doesn't have to change to get onto a different course, this consistency is simple for learners and especially for teachers who only have to learn one system. The students easily organise their online assessments, the lessons can also be planned and managed online making it an easier experience.
-What kind of things would you like to see on a VLE in school?
On a VLE in school i would like to see laptops for students and teachers and work that could be assigned online then marked online. Blogs would also be a good feature so that work could be discussed in a chatroom or other internet messaging service.
2008/09/23
Downloading
-Music tracks
-Video Files
-Ringtones to transfer to mobile phones
-Games
-Programs (Internet Security, Windows Movie Maker, etc)
Reasons to download files from the internet:
-It is simple to use
-It is usually cheaper
-You can download a variety of different files (e.g. mp3, jpg, 3gp files)
-You can download many files simultaneously
-It is usually fast to download, and can be downloaded from any location in the world
The drawbacks to downloading are:
-Slow connection speed can be a large inconvenience when you are downloading a file
-If the download file has a trojan or other malicious software attached it can cause lots of harm to your computer
-It may be illegal
-Copyrighted softwares
-You may have to register with a site and its affiliates before you can download a certain product
2008/09/22
5 Online Education Services
BBC Bitesize - Probably the most well known online education website. It has a variety of different subjects in which you can select to study and revise for exams, it has lots of information and learning games.
Sam Learning - Used in schools, you create a user account and teachers can set you homework online, you can also study for various subjects.
Making the Modern World - This website has large amounts of information about everyday life, and offer online tours in many areas of education.
Free Skills - This website informs people on the many different jobs, and has training, job search and an online tutorial.
Net Frog - This website is dedicated to disecting frogs for the good of scientific research, to find out how the human body works. Frogs and humans are both vertebrates and have very similar body systems and it allows scientists to delve further into the mysteries of the human body.
Advantages :
- It is more straightforward, faster and specific then just opening a book and searching for the information you need
- You have access to interactive videos and games to make it a more enjoyable and detailed experience
- You have access to thousands of websites cost free
- You can access the web pages anywhere in the world
- You can copy, paste, and save information onto a computer or memory stick
Disadvantages :
- A computer and internet access is required
- Popups and spam can hinder your learning progress
- Computer can crash and all unsaved work can be lost
- Fraud - people can hack your computer and steal passwords and other important information
- Not all learning courses are avaliable online
Sources from :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/
2008/09/15
Plan a journey
To travel to Tottenham Court Road from Northampton I decided to choose the option closest to the 10 am start.I started the journey departs 10:09 and arrives 11:11. This is Northampton to London Euston. Then I would walk just under a mile to Tottenham Court Road. In total this would take 1 hour 12 mins.
Plan a journey
1. Head north on Drapery toward George Row -115 ft
2. Slight right at Mercer's Row -354 ft
3. Turn right at Wood Hill -151 ft
4. Turn right at George Row -430 ft
5. Turn left at Bridge St -0.1 mi
6. Turn left at St Johns St -184 ft
7. St Johns St turns slightly right and becomes
8. Continue on A508/Cattle Market Rd -0.2 mi
9. Turn left at A508/Cotton End Continue to follow A508 -1.2 mi
10. At the roundabout, take the 4th exit onto the A45/London Rd ramp -0.4 mi
11. Merge onto A45/London Rd Continue to follow A45 -1.7 mi
12. Slight left at A508 -164 ft
13. Merge onto M1 via the ramp to London/M. Keynes -55.0 mi
14. Take the exit toward A40/M4/Wembley -0.3 mi
15. At the roundabout, take the 3rd exit onto N Circular Rd -0.4 mi
16. At the roundabout, take the 1st exit onto the A5/Edgware Rd ramp -0.2 mi
17. Slight right at A5/Edgware Rd Continue to follow A5 -4.2 mi
18. Turn left to merge onto A40/Marylebone Rd Continue to follow Marylebone Rd -1.2 mi
19. Continue on A501/Euston Rd -0.1 mi
20. Take the ramp to Euston Rd -0.1 mi
21. Slight left at Euston Rd -33 ft
22. Turn right at A400 -167 ft
23. Turn left at A400/Tottenham Court Rd -0.3 mi
2008/09/09
Southeast Asian Tsunami
During the Asian Tsunami, the US monitoring station in Honolulu sent email warnings out, but many did not have contacts in the less developed parts of Asia to inform them about the inpending disaster.
There are many advantages of using email. Such as:
- It's fast to send and receive messages
- It can be sent anywhere in the world
- You can send attachment pictures, videos and more
There are also some disadvantages to using email to warn people in Asia. Such as:
- People in undeveloped area's usually wont have access to email
- People need to be logged onto a computer to access the email
Mobile phones proved useful also in the Tsunami, as almost all fixed-line local communications systems failed or were overwhelmed. People were able to send text messages saying they were OK.
Even sattelite television helped. Sky TV set up a ticker on its TV channel to relay messages sent by text and email by survivors of the disaster. BBC News website received 30,000 emails related to the disaster the day after it happened.
Source from: Edexcel GCSE in Applied ICT, AS Single Award book
2008/09/04
Email Explanation
Email (electronic mail) is a method of sending various types of file from one email address to another. It first sends the email to a central server, and when the receiver opens the inbox, the mail is then downloaded from the central server to their computer. An email can contain simple text, website links, image files, and many more. It can, also contain spam, which is an email with a fake address in the ‘From’ field of an email, leading the receiver to believe it’s from a trusted source There is also Viruses, Worms and Trojans, which can be attached to emails. A virus is a harmful piece of code that can replicate if the file location is opened. A Worm is a piece of code that can replicate itself in great volumes once installed, regardless if any files have been opened, and can ‘burrow’ into a system by itself, and allow their creator to take control of computer systems remotely. A Trojan is a piece of code made to look like an attractive attachment/download, and once installed it can do damage to a user’s system and take control of the user’s machine. 
