Impact of ICT on Society - The advantages and disadvantages of teleworking.

Task 2: Evaluation of email and laptop technology.

2.1 Evaluate the use of email as a means of communication

Email has become a very popular and effective means of communication. Millions of people across the world have access to the internet and the majority of these people all have an email account. Email accounts are very easy to set up, they take minutes and almost all of them are free. Examples of these are  and .

The advantages of email as a means of communication are that it is fairly fast. By using email, the delivery of a message can take a few seconds to a day or so and this depends on the network transmission and the delay in the recipient’s reading. Email is asynchronous communication, which means communication that does not occur at the same time. So when someone sends a message, which can be read by the recipient at any time, which is convenient for him or her. This is a very useful factor for communicating between long distances and different world time zones. Another advantage of email is as I have said before it is a cheap service. So email allows us to have a large number of correspondents worldwide, for example you can send an email from the U.K. to New Zealand and this will only cost the Internet connection.

The disadvantages of email as a means of communication are that there can be a low level of security and privacy. Also occasionally some messages can be delivered to individuals other than the intended recipient. This can happen because of simple mistakes such as typing letters in the email address incorrectly etc.

2.2 Evaluate the use of laptop and portable printing for use of quotations

The use of laptops and portable printing for use of quotations is very good for building installation businesses. For example a kitchen installation company can go to a client’s house, with laptop and printer and sort out everything that the customer needs. So they can sort out the measurements of the kitchen, the materials needed, the design of the kitchen etc and then simply print out a quotation via the portable printer. This saves time and money for both the company and the customer because the company do not have to keep going back and forth between the office and the customer’s house and this is also the same for the customer. The customer does not need to go back and forth between office and house.

 

2.3 Innovations in laptop technology

There have been many innovations in laptop technology. These include:

Plasma and TFT screens

Miniturisation

Blue tooth technology- Wireless technology, Internet access at any time.

Low power processes- centrino

2.4 Developments in communication technology

There have been many developments in communications technology over the years. You can now communicate with people around the world with whoever you are in the world.

The main form of communication that has become very popular is the mobile phone. Mobile phones used to only be able to pick up local area signals. For example you could only use your mobile phone if you were in certain areas of the country you live in. Mobile phones have now developed from this so that you can pick up a signal wherever you are in the world. You can now also connect to the internet from your phone using GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), so you can go online and communicate that way wherever and whenever because mobile phones are so convenient you are able to take them anywhere.    

Task: The effects of automation.

3.1 The advantages and disadvantages of automation for employees

The advantages of he effects of automation on employees are that it creates some new jobs. For example people have to design the robots and people have to service them. Automation creates more technical jobs.

The disadvantages of automation for employees are hat it can take away jobs. For example the use of robotics can involve the replacement of human labour because humans are no longer needed for factory operations and robots can do this work

3.2 The advantages and disadvantages of automation for employers

The advantages to the employer of the effects of automation are that they would not have to have as many workers as automated processes can do that work. This would mean that they would not have to pay as many workers. Another advantage to the employee is that although jobs are lost, population increases and consumer demand for the products of automation has compensated for these losses.