ICT has had an impact on locations and patterns of work including:
- Changes in places of work
People can now work from home, logging on to their work server through the phone lines. Using software like “dameware” people can remotely use another computer just as easy as using their own.
- Changes in working hours.
As more and more people are setting up their own Internet business they have more flexible hours. The Internet is a 24hr market place so you can basically work when you want.
ICT work skills are now in demand. Keyboard skills, programming, and the internet are all compulsory skills and that’s just for starters.
- Other Social Aspects Include
- Changes in motivation for those no longer supervised directly
- Risk of job loss due to changes in work skills required and number of staff needed
- Security of work due to changing contractual arrangements between employers and employees
- Reduced social interaction at work, but increased interaction with family and neighbours
- Changes in amounts and timing of leisure time
- The stress caused by the fast changing pace of ICT developments
THE IMPACT OF THE INTRODUCTION OF ROBOTICS ON PRODUCTION
- The speed of the Production Process
Totally Automated Production lines whipping out thousand of massed produced products a day
- The cost of the production Process
Fewer mistakes (human Errors), less waste and more efficient use of materials and less staff to be paid
No more heavy lifting, everything can be remotely operated from a safe distance.
- The quality of the final product
The products can be tested as they are being made this means fewer returns and refunds from unhappy custumers
THE IMPACT OF THE INTERNET AND DIGITAL TELEVISION ON SOCIETY
- The range of information available
Thousands of channels on digital television and radio and almost infinite pages of information on the Internet on just about any subject you wish to research
- The ease and difficulty of finding the information you want
Finding information on Internet is easy if you know where to look. Search engines and indexing services are making the Internet easier every day.
- The advantages/disadvantages of the availability of this information
Great advantages are to had by the availability of all this information. But there are always people who take advantage and abuse this. Things like Internet child pornography and viruses put other peoples right to use the Internet at risk, more and more new laws and regulations are being thought up to prevent this. Here are a few of the advantages and disadvantages of the Internet:
- The lack of control over who places material, and accesses information, on the Internet
- The availability of offensive, illegal or unethical material on the Internet
- The development of home shopping and electronic commerce (e-commerce) systems
- The use of the Internet for marketing through website design
- The security of information, for example if buying goods on the Internet Using Credit cards.
- Organised production of viruses
- Stealing information buy hacking into businesses
- Sharing copyrighted material
THE EFFECTS OF ICT ON THE ENVIRONMENT
Make recommendations as to how communications can be made without paper
Suggest working methods that would reduce the amount of paper used or kept. This includes:
- Changes in transportation needs, for example just-in-time (JIT) ordering systems
- Use of scarce resources, for example lower wastage through more accurate prediction of needs
- Increased pollution and better control of pollution
ICT LEGISLATION
- Data Protection Act (1998):
This is the protection of people original data and material on the Internet you can find out the UK legislation for this at this website:
Also Included at this website is the Health and Safety at Work Act (1974), Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (1988), Health and Safety Regulations (1992).
THE FUTURE USE OF ICT
Explore possible developments in ICT, for example will all consumers shop from home in the future, will ALL teachers be redundant because we will have Virtual Reality Classrooms etc etc.
CONCLUSION
Here you sum up all that you have written, you could give a personal opinion as to the advantages of progress in ICT and perhaps mention some of the disadvantages.
EVALUATION
Here you say how well you feel you planned for this Unit, how you might have improved it, what you may have done differently etc.