Uses of ICT.

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Fiona Hibbard                Unit 3 – ICT Coursework

               

  • Contents –

  • Chapter 1 –

Uses of ICT at Home

ICT technologies used at home are things like;-

  • the internet,
  • e-mail,
  • computers,
  • mobile phones,
  • telephones,
  • fax machines,
  • radio,
  • satellite, cable and digital,
  • electronic organisers and pagers

Internet; - used for searching information, buying online, banking online, communicating with people via chat rooms, messengers such as MSN, AIM and Yahoo. Also used for booking holidays, checking travel times.

I use the internet for searching information for homework, communicating with friends and family via messenger and e-mail. Also for checking times for leisure facilities such as cinema listings and times, television programme schedules.

The advantages of the internet are buying online can be cheaper in most cases. It contains a vast amount of easily accessible information which can be obtained for free. It doesn’t require leaving the house. Broadband is tens times as fast as a normal 56K modem connection. Disadvantages however are things such as the connection may be slow. Not all websites will respond because they may be out of order when needed. You cannot use the phone line whilst on the internet unless you are running through a Broadband connection. When you are downloading files and software there may be a risk of it containing a virus, which can damage or wipe your drive and computer files and programs. You cannot always find the exact information that you are searching for even using the more advanced search engines.

This is affected by the Internet Code of Practice, and the audience that uses the internet must only be allowed to see suitable pages and not any indecent material. To do this there are blocks systems. For example the AOL Parental Controls, can be set by the administrator so that certain users can only access certain pages. I.e. A younger user would have their account set on a control for their age group that blocked any indecent and offensive pages.

E-mail; - is electronic mail, and is used to send long messages to other mail recipients. It requires an internet connection and an e-mail provider such as AOL, Yahoo or Hotmail.

I use e-mail to send messages to family in other parts of the country and abroad. It is faster, easier and cheaper than normal post. It cannot get lost.

Advantages of this are that it is almost instant, fast and easy. You can easily send files and images. Disadvantages include that the e-mail isn’t personal. People can attach viruses which can be downloaded without knowing. To use e-mail an internet connection is needed. Junk mail known as SPAM is a big problem but can be controlled using special settings with things like AOL mail controls. E-mail can also be quite intrusive if you are at work or busy.

E-mail is affected by the Internet Code of Practice, Mail and News. One of the points made are that uploaded files and downloaded files cannot exceed a certain limit. This is controlled by the e-mailing system because it has a limit to the file size. Therefore any larger files cannot be sent.

 

Computers; - used for processing word documents like essays and coursework pages. Computers can also be used to create graphs and charts from inputted data. Desktop publishing software like Microsoft Publisher can be used to design and produce things like greetings cards, brochures, news letters, flyers and more.

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I use my computer at home for producing neat written documents for homework. I also use it for the internet to research information.

Advantages of using a computer to produce written documents are that all the work made is to a more professional standard and is neater. Templates and Wizards make layout and designs easier and faster. Disadvantages are that if the computer crashes or there is a power cut, all the unsaved work will be lost but regular saving can prevent this.

Computers are affected by the Software Copyright Laws which says that any software can only be used ...

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