Life in the Information Age

Unit 1GCE Applied ICT

Objectives

• To use a wide range of resources to gather relevant information about how ICT affects different aspects of people’s lives

• To present a description of how ICT is affecting different aspects of people’s lives

• To identify the benefits and drawbacks of life with ICT in the Information Age

Introduction

• ICT has made a huge impact on our personal, social and professional lives

• ICT impacts almost every aspect of our daily lives

ICT

Working Styles

Communication

Education

Entertainment & leisure

Banking and Shopping

Decision making

Employment Opportunities

Crime and crime prevention

Civil rights

Legislation

Working Styles

• With modern PCs and Broadband, it is easier to work from home

• Video Conferencing– Reduces expensive and time consuming travel

Communication

• Mobile & video phones• E-mail• SMS, MMS• Instant messaging• Social networking• Wi-Fi

Education

• Talk and chalk...– A thing of the past?

• Interactive wipe boards, internet• Multimedia/student interaction

Entertainment & Leisure

Banking and shopping

• ICT has changed our banking and shopping habits• Internet banking– Access accounts at any time– Transfer money easily– More efficient money management

• Shopping– Price comparison websites– Prices often discounted– Gives access to disabled– Progressed from books/CDs to weekly groceries

Decision Making

• Processors have decreased in size• Artificial Intelligence (AI) has improved• Computers can be ‘trained’ to make choices

depending on the options available to them• Master David Levy beaten by a computer at

Chess in 1989• Many medical systems are now controlled by

computers

Employment Opportunities

• As more companies are using ICT, they are expecting a wider range of skills from their employees

• There are new roles that require staff trained with specialist IT skills– Database administrators– Software engineers– Network administrators– Hardware engineers– Web designers

Crime & Crime Prevention

• ICT has brought with it new forms of crime• Criminals are becoming more efficient• There are two forms of cyber crime:– Modern ‘ICT’ crimes committed against computers

and their networks (viruses, hacking)– Previously existing crimes that have now been

made easier (ID Theft, exploitation, fraud)

Civil Rights

• A civil right is a privilege that we enjoy as the result of living within a particular country or region

• Some argue that these have been invaded thanks to the widespread use of ICT– Government/organisations store information

about us– ID cards – good or bad thing?

Legislation

• Since 1988, all new Public General Acts are available online

• Computer Misuse Act 1990• Copyright, Designs & Patents act