The impact of ICT on the way I do things at home and at school.
Technologies that I use:
* Internet
* Mobile Phone
* Instant Messaging
* Text Messaging
* CD ROM Encyclopaedia
* Satellite/Cable TV
* Microsoft Word
In this coursework, I am going to explain the impact of all the technologies listed above, in my daily life. These technologies are very importantly used in my life because they help me do all my work in a good and presentable manner. They help me to find information in a very less time, which helps us to do my work. They help me keep in contact with my friends and my relatives. They also help me entertain myself and have some relaxation. I will explain you how I use the technologies, e.g. personally, socially, or in school.
Internet
There are lots of reasons this technology might be used by me. You can get lots of information and it is also easy to connect. Personally I use this technology for finding information for my homework research. I find lots of information on the Internet. This helps me a lot and it makes it easier to find information. It is also faster. While if you try and find information from some book, then it will take more than double the time to find information. I can say this because I have had an experience like this before when I didn't have Internet and I had to go to the library to find information. This would have been long and it took ages to find a single piece of information. Inspite all this, there are some disadvantages to this technology. Sometimes when you are trying to connect, it does not connect because of the problems in the line. Those problems can be that the line is too busy or it can sometime also be because of the weather. It is very annoying when the connection don't connect sometimes. I normally use it at six o' clock in the evening as I watch my T.V. programmes before that. As far as I know this is time when all my friends go online and so do most of the people around the world. So this might cause the line being too busy.
Another one of my reasons is to search for pictures of my favourite T.V. programme called 'Yu-Gi-Oh'. I can really get some good pictures of the internet and kazaa. Kazaa is software, which you can download for free from www.kazaalite.tk. By this software you can download anything you want including music. I then save the pictures on my computer. I really love them, but sometimes the types of the pictures are different, for e.g. .jpeg, .gif, etc. So I can't save them on my computer and even if I do then I can't view them. This is very annoying because I spend a lot of time downloading them and in the end you end up getting nothing. But most of the time it is beneficial. But you should have an anti virus protector if you want to have kazaa on your computer because you get many viruses from it.
In school I mostly use internet to research on my homework because we don't get to do anything else as we are not allowed to. But everyone always wants to go on the internet. That's why the school has filter on specific websites like websites related to games or anything related to porn. These filters do not let you go on these kinds of websites. I normally use Internet for my ICT and English work only. In ICT I have to find information to complete my class work as it can give you a lot of information. Once I had to do a task in which I had to find prices of product which could help a jogger listen to music while he is jogging. Internet helped me a lot. I was able to find prices of many products in minutes. I may have used a catalogue for looking for prices for e.g. an Argos catalogue. But it would take a lot of my time and I didn't have time because I had to do this work in 45 minutes. And we are actually not allowed Argos catalogues in the school. I sometime think that Argos catalogues would have been better because when everyone goes on the internet then it slows down as everyone is on the line. Other than this there can be other problems as well. Sometimes the internet server can be down if many people has been using it. This creates a problem for the school as there are many people to use internet in the breaks and after school.
Sometimes I also use internet for playing games as my friends have found some websites which are not filtered. I play these games during a free lesson and that is if we are in the ICT room. But most of the time everyone is on the Internet so it makes it slower as well. The teacher should keep the students in the class and give them some work related to the subject. Most of the teachers do this but sometimes some teachers take us to the ICT class. This wastes all the time of the subject and the ...
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Sometimes I also use internet for playing games as my friends have found some websites which are not filtered. I play these games during a free lesson and that is if we are in the ICT room. But most of the time everyone is on the Internet so it makes it slower as well. The teacher should keep the students in the class and give them some work related to the subject. Most of the teachers do this but sometimes some teachers take us to the ICT class. This wastes all the time of the subject and the students don't get to learn what they are supposed to learn. This is a problem that the school should improve.
Mobile Phones
Mobile Phone is a very useful technology in these days. In UK almost everyone has got a Mobile Phone. In UK almost everyone has got a Mobile Phone. Nowadays-even kids have Mobile Phones. I have got one too. I have got a Nokia 3410. Personally I sue Mobile Phones to chat to my friends and family, and also to play game to pass my time when I am bored. Most of time, I use the phone to chat to my family. They live in Crawley. I have got as contract on my phone which is, I have got 750 min free to landline off peak, monthly. This helps a lot because they are free in the evening and I can keep in contact with them. I also call my friends in the evening so I can just spend my time. Another advantage is that it is free which encourages you to chat to your friends and your family. But the problem is that sometimes while chatting too much, I can't know if the minutes have exceeded or not. Although I do have the facility to check how many minutes I have used, but I always forget to have a look at it. Sometimes I think that I should keep a record in my diary so that I remember and I don't have to pay any extra money, but this is very boring and annoying. Most of the time I would forget to keep the record and plus it takes a lot space in my diary.
Most of the time I use my Mobile Phone to play the games on it. I have got games like, Snakes II, Bantumi, Link 5, Space Impact, etc. I play these games to pass my time. I don't have any brother or sister of around my age, so I can't play with them. And secondly as my friends have played on my phone, they have got high scores on my phone. So I play to beat those scores. I feel proud when I get my own high score.
I don't use my Mobile Phones in the school because we are not allowed to use them and if we do then they get confiscated.
Instant Messaging
Instant Messaging is a text based program. You can type anything you want and just press enter so it just passes through. This is a very fast program. Instant Messaging can be used in messengers like Yahoo Messenger and MSN Messenger. Through Instant Messaging you can chat to anyone in the whole world. But you have to add their email addresses in you messenger account so you can chat to them. By the help of this technology you can chat to your family and friends. This helps you to keep in contact with them. I have got Yahoo Messenger and MSN Messenger. I go online every day after I come back from school and chat to my friends. This helps you relax as well because after a long day at school, you need something to enjoy with. This helps you enjoy a lot and as I have said before, it also helps you to keep in contact with your friends and family.
Although sometimes you can't connect onto it because there can be many people online on the messenger. It is still good and enjoying. You also have the option to show yourself as you would like to. Sometimes if you're busy you can just show yourself to be busy and so the person on the other side would understand that you are busy. But sometimes people just block you because they don't want to talk with you. This could be an advantage and a disadvantage because you can do this to someone else as well. Another one of the problems is that sometimes, when you send message, you can't confirm whether the message has been send or not. As it has happened to me, that I wrote a big message because it was very important information and as I clicked on send, it never got passed. This could be very annoying. Other option can be that you write in small amount and then send it but this can break the link of what you are saying. One of the best advantages of these messengers is that it is completely free. You can just go to www.yahoo.com to download Yahoo Messenger and go to www.msn.com to download MSN Messenger. Unlike SMS, which costs you money to send a little bit of text, this service is completely free.
Text Messaging
Text messaging is a text based program. It can be done through any Mobile Phone. You can write a small message and then send it to another Mobile. But you can only write a little amount of text. This could be a disadvantage and an advantage because if you want to write a long message, you can't just turn on your computer and go on the internet and then send the message because this will take a very long time than Texting. But Text Messaging is not free. You have to pay, on average, about 12 pence on every service.
Personally I use this technology to keep in contact with my relatives and to send funny messages to my friends. Mostly I use it to Text funny messages to my friends because I get them from my cousin and I have 50 free text messages anyway. So I just send them to my friends. But the problem is you can't confirm that the message as been sent. Some phones do have the facility to have a report i.e. when you send a message, you get a message saying that the message has been delivered; but many phones don't have them. Sometimes the messages don't even go and still the credit is cancelled from our phone. This is not fair. They should improve some facilities for this. They shouldn't cut credits if the message is not sent.
Another reason I use Text Messaging is to keep in contact with my relatives. As they live quite far from Croydon. I usually text them about 5 time every week. This is good because I can keep my relationship going on. Another alternate is to call them, but calling could cost more and as I text them regularly, I don't have to say long things, so I don't have to call.
As I have said before that we are not allowed Mobile Phones, so I can't use this technology because if I do then my Mobile Phone gets confiscated.
CD ROM Encyclopaedia
CD ROM Encyclopaedia is a very useful and important technology in my life. I have got CD ROM Encyclopaedia 2003. Before I didn't have internet, I had to do all my homework from my CD ROM Encyclopaedia. Even after I got my internet, I do my homework from CD ROM Encyclopaedia. Personally I use CD ROM Encyclopaedia to do my school homework. Mostly I have to use this to do my history homework because CD ROM Encyclopaedia has got everything about history. History is a very long and detailed subject, and this technology has got everything about history, so it helps me a lot. The main problem of my CD ROM Encyclopaedia is that it needs its CD to run. So I can't do anything if I haven't got the CD. This is a problem for me. A general problem is that sometimes you don't find the information that you are looking for. An alternate for this could be that you go and find the information you need on the internet but CD ROM Encyclopaedia has more accurate results than the internet. So I would always prefer CD ROM Encyclopaedia for finding information, and that you know what you are finding.
Another reason I also use CD ROM Encyclopaedia is to find things on the map. I like finding different places on the world map. But the reason I use this is to find routes from one place to another. If you want to go from here to Leicester, than you could find the route on the CD ROM Encyclopaedia. But sometimes it doesn't give you the right routes as here are many new roads build after the making of my CD ROM Encyclopaedia. This could be a big problem because if you don't know about the roads and you take directions from this map then you could end up going somewhere else. An alternate to this can be that you go on www.multimap.com. This is a website that gives you all the directions from one place to another in the whole U.K. But the problem is that it only gives you the directions for U.K. It doesn't give you the directions of any other place. So I would prefer the CD ROM Encyclopaedia because even though it is a bit old, you could just take the directions and then follow the signs on the road.
In school, I don't use this technology now but I used to use it last year. I used to use this technology for almost every subject. But mostly I have used this for geography. Geography is a subject in which we had to find lots of information about places and their types of land and thing like that. This technology helped me a lot because, as I have said before, CD ROM Encyclopaedia contain more than information you can think of. I was able to do my work easily and fast. I used this technology because miss had told us that if you finish your work then you can go on the internet and do what you want. So I use this technology to do my work very fast and then enjoy. But the problem, as I have said before, is that sometimes it doesn't give you the correct information. For example if you search for Political Parties, it will give you the information that you don't need, i.e. it gives you names of all the Political Parties from all over the world. These are the main reasons, that I use the CD ROM Encyclopaedia for.
Satellite/Cable TV
Satellite/Cable TV is a very useful and also a very enjoyable technology that has been developed throughout the world. You can do many things like watch your favourite programmes, check the timings of the transportation like plane and trains, check the latest stocks and shares, check the latest new about anything in the world, check the weather reports of the upcoming days, etc. But personally I use this technology for watching some good programmes and to check the weather report of the next day.
Everyday, I watch three programmes and one programme in the weekends. They are all my favourite programmes. Those programmes are, Beyblade, Dragonball and Ultimate Muscle in the weekdays and Yu-Gi-Oh in the weekends. I watch them regularly. They are the best programmes for me. Sometimes there can be problems like, it might not come up. There are strong winds normally and because of that the Satellite/Cable TV don't work. It just goes all blue and nothing comes up. This is very annoying when it happens because it just happens when you are watching your favourite programmes.
Another reason I use this technology is to check the weather of the next day. As it is getting colder and colder, I check the weather of the next day and wear the suitable clothes. This weather is predicted by the satellites. It also provides you the facility to see the weather for the next 5 days, which is very useful. But sometimes the weather predicted is not right. Once the weather report said that it was going to be sunny the next day, so I didn't wear the jacket and when I went to school, after the break, it started raining. So the weather report can not be trusted sometimes. But overall they are reliable. They give you the idea about what you should be doing the next day. An alternate for this can be that you wit until the next day and then check outside how it is. But this could be very long and time wasting as some people might not have time to go out and check how the weather as they could be very busy and have to go to their work early, as my dad does. But still overall the weather reports that the Satellite/Cable TV give you are reliable and can be trusted.
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word is a program in which you can write and develop them with lots and lots of advanced tools such as the dictionary spell check, colour change, inserting pictures, etc. this software has helped me the most any technology has ever helped. As I have been using the computer for almost 5 years, it is very easy to type for me now. So while using Microsoft Word, I have no problem in any sorts. And even if I do have some problem it marks it with a red underline s that you can know that it is a mistake and then the dictionary corrects it for you. So you don't have to worry about your spelling mistakes. But sometime when you know that you are right, the computer doesn't have that word in its dictionary and it tries and corrects it for you. This makes me angry because you know what you are writing and still it tries and corrects it for you and the red underline is very irritating. But still it is a machine so we can't do anything except for adding the word in the dictionary on you Microsoft Word. Another advantage is that if you forget to write anything on your piece of work then you can add it anytime you want while if you write on paper, you will have to do the whole thing all over again. Another thing is that you can do a spell check after you have finished you work and don't want to waste time looking over the document for any mistakes. This spellchecker helps you to find all the mistakes altogether so this would save you your time. One more problem is that when you finish your long work on the document and then if you forget to save and close it or your computer crashes, then you lose all your work that you have done and this could be a real problem. Other than this I don't have any problems on Microsoft Word
In school I use Microsoft Word for the same purpose that I use it for at home. But the only problem is that the school has the older version of Microsoft Word and I have the newer one. This is very confusing because you can't find some things that my Microsoft Word has. For example, I always use the font called Amaze for all my works while the school's Microsoft Word does not have this type of font so sometimes I can't do my homework in school.
Conclusion
In conclusion I would like to say that, ICT had been the most important part of my life so far. Anything I do, I need ICT. Even in my studies, which are meant to be my most important thing in my life, ICT come first, because we need ICT in everything. Because of all this, according to me everyone should know how to operate a computer in this modern life. ICT is becoming very important in almost every part of everyone's life and I think that it would be very necessary to know ICT in a very few years time.
PRATIK MEHTA GCSE Coursework 07/05/2007