An adult in employment - use of ICT.

GCSE ICT

Thomas Mann 11.0 27/02/04 Centre Number: - 44111

UNIT 3B

AN ADULT IN EMPLOYMENT

My Adult In Employment: - Mr. J.Wyles

Information:

Name: - Mr. J. Wyles

Place Of Work: - Longcroft School

Official Title: - Teacher/Key Skills Co-ordinator

WORK

Computer, used in Work:

Computers play a crucial part in the work life of Mr. Wyles; they are essential in his workplace, Longcroft School Beverley. The main programmes used at Longcroft School are as follows

MS Word – For Word Processing, Letters etc.
Excel – Calculating Finances
Database – Pupil Information and records
Outlook – E-mailing other Staff
Power Point – Producing Presentations
Corel Draw – Publicity Material for School, such a leaflets and booklets
Interactive Whiteboard – Used in some lessons, gives the ability to save work from each lesson, and present more information to the class, e.g. via the Internet.

Microsoft Word

This is mainly used as stated above, for processing letters. I think that this is one of the most essential uses of ICT in Mr. Wyles workplace. Without this function mass distribution of letters would be very hard, as letter after letter would have to be typed out. Also Mr. Wyles can use word for producing sheets with past exam questions on them, this is very useful as it is an easy way of testing a class on there knowledge, and also enables them to improve there exam experience and knowledge. Without the use of word then this would not be possible. Word is essential in the presentation of information in the school environment, without it teachers would find it a lot harder to manage, all work would be carried out on chalk boards, and messages could not be sent to every parent with children at the school (approximately 1600). This would mean that parents would miss-out on key information about the school, this would have catastrophic consequences for the school and its pupils.

Excel

I believe that excel is extremely important in the working life of Me. Wyles. He uses this program to calculate finances. Without it keeping track of finances would be practically impossible, and calculating them would be time consuming, e.g. paper and a calculator. Also with excel, calculations can be saved on to the network and too disc, without this information would have to be filed, with greater risk of damage or loss, maybe even theft.

Database Software

The school database is used to keep track of pupils; the information on this database gives information regarding all aspects of the pupil, and also keeps a record of the student’s timetable, e.g. enabling them to find where the pupil is at any specific time of the day. This is extremely useful, and enables Mr. Wyles to contact any pupil when necessary throughout the day. If Mr. Wyles for some reason needed to contact a pupils parents or legal guardian, this information would also be contained on the database.

Microsoft Outlook

Outlooks only use is in the communications department of ICT. It is an e-mail service, which enables Mr. Wyles to send electronic mail inside and outside of the school building. This is very important when it comes to communicating with other staff, and possibly arranging or being given information concerning meetings that he may have to attend. Without this function communication would be done via telephone, face-to-face or fax, the main advantage of e-mail is that you can send interactive footage, e.g. pictures and other possible attachments, e.g. database information or spreadsheet data. This is not possible ...

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Microsoft Outlook

PowerPoint

A few of Mr. Wyles colleagues use PowerPoint in lesson time to produce presentations to the class that help assist there learning. They are also used when it comes to meetings, maybe to present new ideas to a wider range of people. This is extremely helpful both in the classroom and in meetings. It is a very effective way of presenting information, with the ability to include pictures, and information in an interesting way. There are no other real methods of doing so. Also PowerPoint presentations can be used again and again, rather than having to write up the information over and over on a chalk or white board. This assists members of Longcroft School very effectively; it saves them time and effort, and gives them the opportunity to present information in a clear and effective manner, with relatively small cost.

Corel Draw

This is used by Mr. Wyles and by the school, mainly for publicity purposes, e.g. producing booklets or leaflets. This is a very valuable method of publicising necessary information. E.g. when a pupil wishes to enter 6th form they can ascertain booklets about many of the given subjects, the front covers of these are produced using Corel draw. Using this package makes it easier for the producer to make the front covers more interesting and attractive, which should catch a pupils eye and encourage them to look through the booklet. If these front covers were hand drawn they would not look as presentable and there would only be a few booklets whereas with Corel draw they can be printed as many times as the producer requires, hence more availability. Using Corel draw, gives a better first impression of the subject or even the school, and hence makes it a more attractive prospect. Without Corel draw and such programs, publicity material would need to be hand drawn many times, with Corel the amount of pages required can be printed. Corel draw enables the user to produce neat and attractive designs, which will all look the same the same consistency of presentation could simply not occur with hand drawn materials.

Interactive Whiteboard

This is a relatively new piece of technology both for Mr. Wyles and in Longcroft School, and hence is not widely used. However, interactive whiteboards are the next big step in technology for schools. They are basically a large screen on the wall, the image on the screen is that of the computer to which it is linked to. The user can control the ‘screen’ either on the computer itself or by an interactive pen, the pen can act as a cursor, but can also be used to ‘draw’ images onto the screen when in the writing program. These are very beneficial piece of technology, e.g. they can display all the programs that come with the computer on them such as PowerPoint. Also all information ‘written’ onto the board can be saved and used again, this means that a previous lessons work can be ‘brought up’ onto the screen for reference in the future. Also interactive whiteboards can display information from the Internet, so teachers can show the pupils information such as mpeg clips maybe from another website. These are extremely useful as they can provide teachers with a new and more interesting way of educating students and also provide teachers with other recourses to educate with. Another advantage is the fact that work does not have to be repeated, e.g. a teacher could take one lesson, then use the same information for another class that may require it, this is not possible with a white or chalk board as information is ‘wiped’ from them at the end of each lesson.

Evaluation of Computers

Without Computers in Longcroft School, Mr. Wyles day would be made practically impossible. He would not be able to mass-produce worksheets, all lessons would be taught without any sheet resources. If a pupil were injured, with the use of the school database it would take a couple of minutes to find the necessary information to contact their parents, at home or at work. Without computers, it could take half an hour to find a paper file containing the pupils’ information. The only major disadvantage with this excess of ICT use is that in the unlikely event of any major damage to the system or environmental damage such as fire then the system would be ruined and a lot of information lost, however with paper files there is a 0% chance of it being affected by such things as a virus or by a ‘system crash’

ICT in Communication

The main forms of communication in Mr. Wyles workplace are Fax, Telephone, E-Mail and face-to-face communication, 3 of these use ICT, hence without it, it would be a lot harder to communicate. As the school has a large split site, communication would be very difficult without these uses; also contact with external personal would prove a lot harder without this ICT. If all communication had to be face-to-face it would prove a lot more time consuming, time that Mr. Wyles simply does not have. By using fax and e-mail the same letter can be sent to more than one person, face-to-face communication would require a lot of travelling and finding separate personnel, again this is not an option as there are numerous time-constraints. Without ICT in the communication side of work it would simply not be possible to communicate effectively. The size of the workplace and the numerous contacts that need to be made throughout the day. 20 years ago Fax and E-mail were simply not available, this made it impossible to transfer data at a fast speed, the only other method being post or handing it over. With E-mail, Mr. Wyles can send different types of data from databases to word documents to practically any other member of staff during the day, or even to people working in a different school or any other building with the internet. 20 years ago this was not possible, the technological advance over the past 20 years has enabled Mr. Wyles to speed up links with other people and decreased the time required to partake in such matters.

SOCIAL

E-Mail

This is a relatively new form of communication, having only been around for 10 or so years. Mr. Wyles uses this form of communication to keep in touch with his daughter who is currently in France. Without this recent form of communication he would have had to contact her via telephone, which would prove extremely costly. However now you can easily get an e-mail account for free with providers such as hotmail, and subsequently send and receive them for free. This is possibly the cheapest form of current communication to other countries, apart from the small fee charged to connect to the Internet for a month, as little as around 15 pounds, he can send as receive e-mails as plentifully as he would like. 20 years ago it would not have been possible for Mr. Wyles to keep in touch with his daughter without incurring huge phone bills, but now he can use e-mail to communicate for relatively nothing. Also with E-mail Mr. Wyles would be able to send pictures to his daughter in France, he could not do this over the phone, and if the pictures were sent in a letter, it could take as much as 2 weeks to be delivered.

Telephone

This form of communication has been around for a long time now. Mr Wyles uses this for basic contact, when E-mail is not appropriate or he requires instant contact, (there is no guarantee that a person will receive an e-mail instantly, e.g. they may not log-on to there e-mail account for a few days or so) The fact that contact is instant is probably the only advantage of telephone over e-mail, apart from the fact that telephone is a more personal form of contact, and hence is preferable if you are talking to someone who is close to you.

ICT IN THE HOME

The Internet

Mr. Wyles uses the Internet at home mainly for information purposes, whether it may be information about music, rugby or train times, he is practically guaranteed to find that information on the world wide web. 20 years ago before the internet this would simply not have been possible, he would have had to go down to a library or ask around for the information he required, this would be extremely time consuming and not as effective as the internet. Mr. Wyles also uses the internet for purchasing CDs, and maybe booking holidays, this is a cheaper method than going down to shops, and presents a wider range of choices. Without the Internet 20 years ago, if Mr. Wyles wished to purchase a specific CD he may have had to travel a long way to get it, now it is ‘only a click away’ on the internet. This is useful as if Mr. Wyles is busy with work and does not have time to go to the local CD shop for example he would be able to do it on the Internet, and save vast amounts of time. It is not possible for Mr. Wyles to get into town on the weekdays as he has work commitments, so the Internet enables him to do this in a shorter space of time, whenever he has the time, unlike shops which only open from about 9-5. Before the times of the Internet Mr. Wyles would not be able to purchase products this easily, all holidays would have to have been booked at the shop, the only time Mr. Wyles could have done this was on a Saturday, now with the Internet, Mr. Wyles can order items whenever he wishes. The only disadvantage of ordering products off the internet I believe, is the fact that they are not guaranteed to arrive the next day, however when purchasing items in a shop, you receive them as soon as you pay.

CD Player and Vinyl LP

Both these technologies are used obviously for listening to music. CD’s which are more recent than Vinyl. 20 years ago Vinyl would have been the only option to listen to recorded music on, as well as maybe the tape player. CD’s are a lot more effective than Vinyl as they can hold more information and generally have a higher sound quality than the standard Vinyl LP. Before the times of the CD, all information was on the Vinyl records, however now CDs hold more information had have better sound quality thus meeting Mr. Wyles need for good quality music to listen to, at a reasonable price.

Television

Mr. Wyles does not currently have Sky or a cable television service. However he does have a VCR and DVD player. 20 Years ago he had neither. With this new technology Mr. Wyles has the ability to watch high quality pictures and first-rate sound, these effectively meet his needs as when he wishes to watch a film or television program he can do so in a high quality fashion, rather than the lower standard he could watch at 20 years ago.

Kitchen Appliances

Obviously used for the purpose of cooking food. Without the modern day kitchen appliances the hygiene of food would not be higher than it was 20 years ago. Such items as the newer microwave provide a more effective method of cooking than ovens or hobs. This use of ICT is essential for Mr. Wyles as without it he would simply not be able to eat healthily cooked hot food.

Conclusion, the use of ICT in the life of Mr. Wyles

Without ICT Mr. Wyles life would be extremely dissimilar to what it is now. He would have a lot more challenging work environment, which would not be as efficient or as easy to cope with due to the time constraints that must be met. Outside of the workplace he would find it difficult to buy items he requires when he wants them, having to restrict all shopping to the weekend. Socially he would not be able to communicate with other members of his family as effectively without incurring huge phone bills. The ICT in Mr. Wyles life proves invaluable, without it his life would be unimaginably different, and more difficult.