Games Consoles
I have a Playstation 2 and a wide variety of games for it some games are about a year or 2 old and when compared to new games on the same console the graphics that once would be amazing pale in comparison to newer games showing that the gaming industry is growing fast and improving with every new incarnation of its self. I enjoy using these as these for entertainment with others or on my own. I recently brought a PS3 which incorporates new blue ray disks with far more storage than previous CDs, enabling HD gaming, it also has a 60 GB hard drive; this meets my need for entertainment.
Ipod’s-MP3
I pod’s: are often seen as the top of the range mp3’s with more memory space and a large screen for viewing pictures and videos the sound quality is also sometimes considered better. Brand apple-Ipod is a huge world wide industry.
MP3 Players: MP3 players are often quite cheap now and have a decent amount of storage space for songs and other files space varies by model from 500Mb to 2-3Gb these are useful as they can be used to store information and small files like Word documents or data bases this is useful for me because if I have unfinished work at school I can take it home and finish it there.
I have a Ipod nano with 2 GB storage witch I use regularly however it dose take a while to charge if the battery is low. I also use a 2 GB Memory stick which meets my need to transfer homework files and video/music files which can be played via a PC. Both MP3s and Ipods allow for files to be taken around easily with a person there is still a limit to how much data can be carried by them and the batteries are a limiting factor although they have improved recently. Unfortunately these devices are often targeted by thieves, and are easy to lose. These devices meet my need for entertainment as I can listen to music on the move.
Alarms
Fire Alarms: Fire alarms are a safety device that every building must legally have they detect smoke from fires and set off an alarm to warn those in the building of the danger.
Burglar alarms: they detect motion when set; if they find anything then they will go off warning the owners or security of the building that there is an intruder.
Car alarms: Work in the same way as a Burglar alarm but in a car, warning the owners of the car that it has been broken into.
We have all of these alarms at home and everyone really should have them as most are for your own safety. Alarms are a very useful form of technology but are unfortunately ignored by most people for example car alarms they are so commonly set off by accident that they are often ignored. Fire alarms and Burglar alarms as well as most other alarms are made to meet my need to security.
In conclusion, ICT in the home is becoming more and more common and it’s hard to imagine a world without these devices in just a couple of years we have developed so much technology and there’s little sign of slowing down.
ICT in School
ICT within the school allows the school to function far more smoothly and far more effectively than it did in the past ICT means that PC’s can be used far easier than before, also shared work can be accessed by anyone allowing teachers and students to access lesson material whenever they want. Technologies used in schools include, Pc’s, The Network, Photocopiers, Wireless Printers and Projectors.
Network: The network at school allows students to access there work from all the computers in the school not just from one this is helpful as if we could only access our accounts from one computer then if we had to do work then often we would not be able to get on the computer we need as it would be being used by someone in ICT however if the network crashes then no one would be able to access their work from anywhere however this is unlikely also if the internet cord used to run the network was damaged then the network would be un-useable however this is also unlikely and the benefits of the network easily out way the unlikely problems that may occur. The network meets my need to be able to access my work from any computer in the school. This means that I can work on any part computer in any part of the school not just one computer in one room.
Photocopiers: Photocopiers are used to take one sheet of paper like a poster and make multiple copies of it for mass distribution. In schools they are mostly used to copy worksheets or newsletters it has an advantage over printers as it is much faster at printing lots of copies of something however the quality of the print is often lower than that of a normal printer and only comes in black and white also it often misses off the edges of the page. However this does meet my need for a fast basic printer for production of letters for example that may need to go out to several hundred students. Laser printers are almost as fast, and inkjet are the slowest.
Interactive whiteboards: Interactive Whiteboards are the next step up from white boards they are a large touch screen for a computer allowing the teacher or a student to interact with a program, Promethean, in full view of the class this has become very useful for ICT teachers and other teachers as well however the down side is that the projector for the screen can become damaged and the colours can be off also if you stand between the projector and the board then you will cast a shadow over the screen.
This meets the need for easy to use methods of teaching via ICT, before teachers would have to work at PC’s this removes the interaction element from teaching, with touch screens the teachers can present to the class with all the benefits of ICT to back them up. It meets my needs by improving the quality of my education as I feel more engaged in the lesson as I can play games and answer questions on the board as it is more enjoyable.
Computers: The school uses computers where each student has there own work area, by logging into there area each student has access to there own work as well as the school networks from which they can access the shared work folders and find work placed on there by others, each student can log into any pc connected to the network. These computers fill my need to be able to use Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel etc, as well as being able to E-mail work from home to there my user at school and from school to home. The computers have access to high speed internet which meets my need for research in school, the internet in the school has a filter which only allows me on to certain websites, U-tube or My-space style sites are not accessible. Microsoft Word meets my needs as it allows me to complete my work at school in a professional manner as it has a spell and grammar checker to help me improve the work I am producing. This means that I should not hand in work to my teachers with errors. It also means that if I later want to make changes to my work I can just open up the file and add the changes I don’t have to start from scratch like I would have to if I was to write it by hand.
RM Network: At school all of the computers are linked to a server by the RM network this means that all my work is stored here and not on the computer. This means that I can be more flexible in completing my work as I can go to any computer in the school and complete the work I need to, I don’t have to go to the same computer that I saved my work originally. It also means that as my user area is backed up at the end of the night that I cannot loose any of my work.
ICT in school also allows for Easymail E-mails to be sent, this allows for fast transfer of work to or from school, in Media studies we also use digital and video cameras. These mean that we can film ourselves and watch ourselves back or use photos to enhance our work. This meets my need for easy transfer of work between home and school.
Without ICT in school we would be unable to use such a wide range of recourses used for learning, teachers often create a resource like a Word document or a PowerPoint presentation then save it for reuse every time they need to teach that lesson, without ICT this would not be possible, every time that they needed to present a lesson or show some questions they would have to be re-written on the white board.
