Tool Man

To help John improve his working style he could use ICT by:

• Using a PDA- which is a Personal Digital Assistant, they include an address book, a calendar, a contacts list, and a memo feature.
• Most modern PDAs have internet access and include software such as word and a spreadsheet software.
• This could help him because, he wouldn't have to carry several different things and keep looking through each of them, by using a PDA he can just have one hand held item that has all of the things he needs on it.
• This would cut down a lot of his time because whatever he needs to look up he wouldn't have to spend a long time looking through everything, he can just have one item that would have a lot of his customers addresses on and prices for the garden objects etc.
• If he used a GPS, it would improve his working style because he wouldnt have to sit at the office and plan out a route to find his clients, he would also not be late for finding his clients because the GPS would tell him where he was going, and also some GPS' give you an alternate route if the roads are blocked with traffic.
• Also he wouldn't have to carry round atlases because all of the information would be there for him already
• By using a laptop, he would be able to save all of his necessary data on there and use software such as excell to make spreadsheets of all his information
• This would save him a lot of time looking through books and other pieces of paperwork to find the information he wants
• By using a mobile phone, he could save money so that instead of carrying round a load of coins he can just use his mobile
• Also he would be able to save all of his contacts in his phone as well so if he needs to contact someone immediately he can just look them up in his phone and call them.
• By using the internet he would be able to look up all of the information for his gardening and DIY tools, because there are different websites telling you you different prices for each thing that you need so you can always get a good price
• Also the internet can be available on any other of his hand held things such as his mobile, or his PDA, so this would cut down a lot of time in the office and he could spend more time at home where he is in a more relaxed environment.

Some disadvantages of using a lot of ICT are:

• That it could break down at any point and he could lose unsaved data and it could take longer to supply to his clients
• Sometimes a GPS can hinder you more than help you by giving you longer routes to places you want to go
• If he lost one of his items or if it was stolen for example the PDA, he wouldnt have a back up.
• If he is out travelling to one of the clients and his laptop or mobile run out of battery, then he wouldn't be able to access the data he needed
• He needs to make sure that all of his information is saved on back up files rather than just one computer incase it crashes or breaks in any other way.

Ambulance Services

• There are satellite tracking devices to allow the service staff to know where the ambulances are
• There is technology that allows you to know the exact number of who you want to talk to within the ambulance service
• There is geographical information so that an ambulance can be sent out quickly if it is in that location
• Ambulances are placed at points that are closest in travel time to places of peak demand and are tracked at all times to show where they are

Some workers have objected being sited in their 'resources' area rather than the ambulance station because:

• there might be better signal
• the area might have a record of the most accidents requiring ambulances

Teleworking BT

• Companys save a lot of money each year on accommodation and recruitment
• Teleworkers are four times less likely to take sick days as most of the time they work from home
• Almost 80 per cent of teleworkers said that they are more productive thanks to reduced disruption, commuting time and stress, and greater flexibility about when and where to work.
• Allowing staff to work from home is good for company productivity, employee health and quality of life
• One in 10 respondents indicated that they would not be able to do their current job unless they were able to telework, because they have children or people who are disabled and dependant on them
• People can work from anywhere due to internet access being available on mobile phones etc.
• People have to spend more hours working rather than travelling etc
• It's harder to set deadlines for the work to be completed
• If the system crashed people working at home wouldn't know

Working styles

• ICT is not just on computers it can be used on any device such as phones etc
• A lot of people in companies use a database as it is most useful, because they can hold details
• Any type of information that needs to be recalled can be held in a database
• Databases are useful because they allow you to get information out quickly, you can type in search criteria to speed up the process
• If it goes wrong it can be a big problem because it stalls their progress and stops big companies from working altogether
• Jobs would be more difficult and take a lot longer without ICT
• If you work in a company, you tend to carry arround a lot of devices such as a laptops, mobile phones etc.
• e-mail is crutial for companies as a type of communication
• EPOS- electronic point of sale: at shops when they use electronic tills. bar code scanner etc.
• EFTPOS- electronic funds transfer at point of sale: safer than carrying around loads of money, quicker than going to a bank and taking out money.
• Newspapers can publish their pages anywhere in the world, so you don't have to send it over by lette etc.
• Doctors can do surgery over the internet, rather than travelling far
• You can get a story from someone with a laptop or mobile phone within 5 minutes
• Organisations have I.T staff to help fix any problems immediately, this is essential because they could lose large amounts of money

Internet Entertainment

BBC iPlayer

• Allows you to watch any programme you want to
• Almost records it from where you last watched something
• It's free so you don't have to pay for it
• You can select channels
• Parents can have control over what their children watch
• It has categories e.g comedy, music etc.

XBOX360

• You can go on the internet and play your friends on the same game
• You can have an account so that you can go online
• You can wear headsets so you can talk to people
• You can download games and demo games
• You can download pictures, characters etc.
• 97% of teenagers in America play video games
• They are important in peoples lives as they are a type of social netwroking
• 3/4 of teens play games with other people
• You can play in online groups
• There are many devices where you can play online, including portable ones like the nintendo d.s
• In online games people can meet up and fall in love, or they can love eachother over the internet but when they meet up they can hate each other.
• Some people get married over the game
• Social netwroking always attracts good and bad people, such as people trying to steal your identity etc

Mozy.com

• It is an online backing system, so you can save files to and other documents
• If you lose your files you can just download them again
• It's free for 2gb memory
• Someone can download all of your important files
• If it suddenly gets popular then the whole service will get slowed down and become unuseable
• You don't need to use extra harddrive devices
• If someone downloads your file they need your code to be able to use it

Social Networking-Linked In

• Very professional, so people in business use it
• You can look for jobs by asking questions to experts

Loopt

• Sends a map to your friends of where you are at that moment
• Some problems are that there could be stalkers, paedophiles etc
• Certain phones have a special programme that tells people where you are
• You canshare photos and comments

Downloading

ITunes

· Watch trailers of films
· Bur or rent films
· It suggests other films that might be useful to you
· Has categories
· If you click on one genre of film you can view all
· You can buy iTunes vouchers in shops
· You can buy certain songs instead of whole albums
· There are reviews from other customers on what they think about that song/album/film
· You can put together a playlist of songs and people can buy them
· ITunes is the biggest music seller in the US
· You can get free download on podcasts
· There are categories for new and old podcasts
· You can set up your iTunes so that once you have listened to a podcast you can delete it and it wont clog up your computer memory
· If you search something it will come up under the search bar
· A lot of podcasts come in video as well as audio

E-music
· Has no digital rights management
· Cheaper than iTunes
· Doesn’t have the same features as iTunes
· Only has music, but no films or podcasts etc.
· It has audio books
· Audio book would be useful if you are blind, younger children who can’t read very well, another way of studying and listening to information, they are portable so you can do it when you are out for walks etc.

Other uses of downloading
· You can download software and drivers
· You can download a driver for virtually any digital device
· Most things like printers/scanners need a special driver to connect with your computer
· Tucows.com allows you to download any type of software to try it out
· Some of the programmes are free (freeware) and some programmes you have to pay for
· Shareware you have to buy programmes, but you are allowed to test it before purchase
· You can download updates from Microsoft, about viruses and hackers, to save your computer (patches)This makes it more secure, reliable and allows it to work better.

Gadgets for school

• The new gadgets are very useful, there are things such as new backpacks that adjust to support your lower back.


• There are larger hardrives that are compatable with either apple macs or windows, so you can store more information on them.


• There are battery powered mouses for your computer, this is useful because they are portable so you can use them at home and at school.

These are all new items for school children so that they can use them at school to make it easier and more effective. This is a type of advertising.

online government

• This is useful because it gives you different areas of health that you can look at and if you want to know what sort of things are available from the NHS you can look at this website.
• This is beneficial to the government because it saves them having loads of phone calls from people asking if what is wrong with them is covered on the NHS.
• It also gives health advice, so it saves more time on answering phone calls.

Motoring

You can do things online for your car. Such as apply for a driving licence, tell the DVLA that your car is off road, register your number plate, sort out your MOT etc.

• This is useful because it saves a lot of time, for example if you don't have time to go out of your home and sort out car tax, you can bring up this website and do it online.


• This also makes it easier for the governmet because once everything is online they can have online databases of everyones car details and see who is paying for car tax and who is not, so now they don't have to look through millions of pieces of paperwork and they can just get it all up onscreen.

Online Government

Advantages of online government:

• You can pay fines online
• Apply for driving licences
• Find out about jobs and things connected to the coucil
• You can look at planning permission
• You can look at the NHS direct online
• You can order prescriptions online
• You can register your vehicles online
• You can do your car tax online
• It's easier to get people to pay for things if it is online
• The government won't spend as much on paper and stamps
• It's quicker than sending letters and waiting to receive them, so you can just use e-mail

online education

If I had to learn from this website i would rank it 6/10. This is because it does have information that you need but someone has to post the information on there, for example your teachers.

• Some advantages of think.com are that you have your own account for whichever year group you are in so that you can have work sent to your year so that you can do online worksheets etc.
• You can view other peoples profiles, so if you have anything you are unsure about you can ask your friends or your teacher by leaving them a sticky.
• Also you can upload our own work onto your account so if you haveforgotten your usb pen and need to take a piece of work home, you can just download it from your think.com account.
• Also if you have missed any work from a lesson your teacher can upload the work and you can catch up at home.
• Some disadvantages are that anyone can view your work once you have uploaded it to your account and then save it onto their own computer.
• Your teachers have to make time to upload the work on there for you.
• If you forget your password there's not an easy way of getting it back.

So overall this is quite a good way of learning, but it takes a lot of other people to participate to make it work.

online education

If I had to learn from this website i would rank it 8/10. This is because it is very useful to have things to listen to if you don't quite fully understand what is written onscreen.

• Some advantages of this website are that there are audio books on different subjects for you to listen to.
• There is information onscreen as well as the audio books.
• You can have a login account so that you can access other types of audio books, and ask questions if you don't understand.
• Some disadvantages are that the work on there is not of all levels so it might not be the level you want.

So overall this website is good because it has many different options for you to look at for your work, but on the other hand it might not be the level of work that you require.

online education

If I had to learn from this website I would rank it 4/10. This is because even though there are a lot of subjects available for you to access, the information is not reliable because it is an open source, which means anyone can write information on there.

• Some advantages of Wikipedia are that there is a lot of information available.
• It's quick and easy to access if yu have the internet.
• It puts all of the subjects into different catergories.
• Some disadvantages are that the information can be put on there by anyone so it is not always reliable.
• There is sometimes a lot of information and complex language so it is not always easy to understand.
• If you don't understand something there is no other information to help you understand it.

So overall learning from Wikipedia is not that effective because the information isn't that reliable and there is no other way of finding out things that you don't understand.

online education

• If you were learning from this website I would rank it 8/10. This is because it is very useful on giving online tutorials.
• Some advantages are that it gives a step by step guide on how to use whatever you are looking at.
• It has annotations explaining how to use each part.
• There is an audio description incase you don't understand or follow the tutorial.
• There are lessons available for lots of different programmes.
• Some disadvantages are that the tutorials are only for learning how to use programmes on the computer, not specific subjects e.g. Maths.
• If you don't understand something after the tutorial you can't ask someone a question on how it works.

You can learn well from this website because there are step by step instructions on how to use every part of the programme you want to learn.

Online Education

• If I had to rank this website from learning from it i would give it a 6/10.
• This is useful because it is very good on telling you basic things you need to know about certain topics, but a downside is that it is very basic.
• It is good because it gives you activities and quizzes on things you want to learn.
• A disadvantage of bitesize is that its target audience is primarily for people at school, so if you were an adult this would not be useful because the target audience is for school children.
• An advantage of this website is that there are online tutorials showing you how to learn things such as poetry for example.
• Also an advantage is that there are all sorts of topics, so if you were stuck on history you could look on bitesize and it would have a link to a history page.
• Also a disadvantage is that if you do look on another subject it doesn't always cover what you want to find, so it could have maths but it might not have the information you are looking for, so it can be unreliable.

eBay work

• The major purposes of eBay are to sell things by auction. Depending if you are buying or selling you can either gain money or get things cheaper than the instore prices.


• The target audience can range from teenagers to adultsof any age. This is because most things are available if you search what you are looking. You can set up an eBay account and but you have to have a bank account that the money comes from, this is why the audience starts at teenagers.


• How the auction process works is when there is a particular item that you want, you can view the time remaining before the bidding closes, and before it gets to the end of the time you can place a bid, if yours is the highest you then get the item. Items often end up cheaper than you will by them in the highstreet, including post and packaging costs.


• It fulfils its purposes because even if you don't place a bid on certain items you can buy them without having to bid anyway, so sometimes it still works out cheaper.


• The benefits of this service is that you can do it from your home, so you don't have to find time to go shopping. Also if you can't find something you want in the shops, you can look on eBay and sometimes they will have what you're looking for.


• Some disadvantages of eBay are that sometimes if you buy something the person that has taken your money can sometimes just take your money and not send the item for a few weeks so you can be sitting waiting for it. Also if you get a good bid on an object the postage and package cost can be a lot depending on where abouts in the country it is coming from and going to.


• It is successful as a shopping model because there are so many things available for people to buy. It has a wide range of things available for everyone so whatever someones interest there is more than likely going to be something available for that person to buy on eBay. It is also so successful because you can get brand named things for a lot cheaper than you would if you bought them in the shops. And because there are so many people invoilved on eBay, if you are selling somehting, you can get a good price for it if there are a lot of people interested and offering high bids.

online tutorial

Webinars

Virtual Classrooms

Why are they useful?

• Because they can help you have a better understanding on certain topics
• They are easy to access
• You don't have to travel to attend one, so you can attend one in your own home
• You don't have a set time you have to attend them if it's in your home
• You can still access the information after the Webinar is over
• You can get links to other websites that are involved with that subject

Disadvantages:

• You can't ask any questions if you don't understand immediately

Use a Simulation

Advantages

Some advantages of using this site before dissecting are:

• That it tells you what to do to look at each part of the frog without getting it wrong.


• It tells you what materials you are going to need


• It goes through step by step what you need to do, with pictures, video and audio things available for you


• It lets you know what you are likely to expect


• It also gives you experience of dissecting a frog, so when you come to do it yourself you are not completely stuck..

Some disadvantages are:

• That you don't get to do it firsthand for the first time


• the pictures arent that clear


• You wont know if you're doing it right when you come to do it yourself

This website tells you that online simulations can be very helpful. This is because, particularly this website, teach you step by step on how to do each part of the dissection. It gives you audio and video descriptions, if you are not sure on any of the vocabulary they use it takes you to links to the glossary, andit gives you a quiz at the end to see if you know what you are doing. So when you come to doing it yourself you should be confident that you are doing it correctly.

Learning objects and simulations

This site is designed to help A-level and other students.

When you look at the site it is very helpful when you need different subjects

It gives you links to different ones such as Biology, Psychology and I.T etc.

Also it gives different lessons in history (on a timeline) when different industrial things were obtained e.g. the industrial revolution.

The website can also help you to understand more about how computers came into better use and how they were used in the past.

It teaches us that online education can be very useful. This is because when you look at websites such as this one, the information is reliable because unlike websites such as wikipedia not anyone can type in what they want to, so the information is a good source for A-level students etc to gain access to and receive education from.

The Weather this week

The weather for the next five days has been forcasted to be sunny intervals with temperatures varying.

On wednesday it is said to be 16 degrees.
Thursday and Friday it is said to be 17 degrees.
Saturday it is supposed to drop down again to 16 degrees and then on Sunday it is supposed to drop down again to 15 degrees.

The actual weather today (wednesday) has been fairly sunny and around 15/16 degrees.

Plan a Journey

If you were planning a journey from Southend to Tottenham Court Road, by train it would take an hour and thirty five minutes, going from Southend Victoria directly to Tottenham Court Road.
This would cost £13.40 off peak times for a return for one adult. (Adults are 16 years and over)
The trains go from southend Victoria to Tottenham, every twenty minutes.
To find all of this information you can use http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/en/pj/fa.
I found the sources useful in finding real-time information because you can type in exactly what station you need to go to and they will tell you exactly what you need to know. So you can find out times and fairs by following the steps on the website.

If you wanted to plan a journey by car you could always look at the AA Route planner website. This tells you a suitable route. You can do this by typing in exactly where you want to go and where from.

tsunami information

· Each website presents this information in different ways because on the BBC for example, at the time had a bulletin board so people could find each other. Also sky sports showed the information on the screen when people had been found.
· Also by having the information on the T.V at the time allowed people to share the information quickly around the world. As well as that having news on the internet let the information be shared quickly.
· As soon as the news had spread on the T.V for example, big organisations such as the Red Cross and relieve India started to collect money immediately to rebuild the society and peoples homes.
· Individuals were probably not brought together by the internet in that specific area at the time because everything was destroyed. So there probably weren’t any computers that were connected to the internet. On the other hand people in more well built up countries were probably brought together because they are able to view videos on the web, and receive e-mails on what had just happened.

Modern communication services were used rather than older ones because they were probably more reliable. This is because as the older ones become more dated they are less likely to pick up messages and things from people that might be missing.
Each service was effective in its own way because, when sky news put people names on screen when they had been found it enabled people to know who was safe and maybe who you were looking for.

Advantages & Disadvantages of SMS banking

Advantages

• Allows you to request and receive banking informationfrom your bank on your mobile phone
• You can manage bank accounts, check account balances, perform check requests and pay some bills.
• If you are in a business you can access your account whenever you need to
• it is more convenient because you don't have to go to a bank to complete a banking transaction.
• It's quite discrete, so you can view it when you are doing everyday jobs and you don't have to set aside time to go to the bank.

Disadvantages

• If you don't have the internet on your mobile you can't access what you need on your bank account.
• You could get your phone stolen and it will have all of your details on it, so people can gain access to your account as well as your phone.
• It causes more people to use their mobile phones and can cause radiation.

Phishing

Phishing is bad for the society because it is basically fraud. People are hacking into other peoples online bank accounts and using them.
It has been said that in the first six months of this year there were 21,000 cases of "phishing" frauds involving banks etc.
People are sending out fake e-mails saying that they are from their bank, so that when they type in all of their details it is really going to someone else.
This is bad for the society because if you have old people who are just starting to use the internet for things such as online banking, they are being conned, and giving away all of their personal details.
Some banks are sending out new gadgets to their costumers to make it safer for them to use online banking. This is reducing the risk of phishing fraudsters.

online banking

Online Banking

· The purpose of this website is to check your account, possibly get a credit card, and look at mortgages, insurance, interest rates and pensions.
· The target audience is probably home owners, because it’s all about mortgages and home insurance and things to do with owning a home.
· It fulfils its purpose because there are direct links to each subject that someone may wish to view to do with money.
· The advantages of this website are that because there are direct links to the things people might want, it’s not hard to find and it’s not confusing to follow if you’re a person using this for the first time. Also if there is something you can’t find on the home page you can type it into the search bar to help you find exactly what you want.
· Online banking can be improved in the future by making it safer. This is because when you type in all of your account details, they can be hacked into and someone can start using your card and spending your money.


· The target audience is probably adults. This is because it is all about getting loans and car insurance etc.
· Its purpose is to help adults with their money problems and it fulfils its purpose by giving people multiple options on how to deal with their money.
· The advantages of this are if people do have problems then they can be helped and quite easily because there are specific links to things that they might need.Online banking can be improved in the future because this website doesn’t show how you can view your own bank accoun

Updates

Today i have updated all of my posts and have uploaded annotations on e-mails and how they are used.

IRC & BBS

What is IRC?
· An IRC is an Internet Relay Chat.
· It is an instant messaging service that allows you to speak to people all over the world.
· It’ not like msn where you know all of your contacts, you can speak to anyone from anywhere.

Advantages
· Quick
· Free
· Allows you to talk to anyone in the world
· It’s quicker than a letter

Disadvantages
· There can be paedophiles
· Cyber bullying
· You don’t know who you’re talking to


What is BBS?
· It’s a Bulletin Board System
· It allows you to download files
· You can read news
· And leave messages for people to read

Advantages
· You can talk to people
· It’s not instant so you can leave messages for people to read later
· You can obtain information from the bulletins

Disadvantages
· The system is becoming outdated so not many people know what it is or how to use it
· Quite a slow processAnyone can use it so you don’t always know who you’re talking to

Advntages & Disadvantages of SMS

Advantages
· They are quite discrete
· You can keep in touch with people who move away
· You are able to change arrangements quickly if you are in a hurry
· You don’t have to stay on the phone for a long time if you just need to tell someone something quickly and you can't get them off the phone
· They are more private than a phone call, so people don't have to hear your conversation
· They are also cheaper than sending a letter
· Messages are saved so you can keep information, for example if you have a time and a place to meet somebody you don't have to ring them up and ask them incase you've forgotten

Disadvantages
· Older generations find it hard to work out, for example which buttons to press and how to send it to the correct person
· Some people don’t always switch on their phones so they wont be able to know if arrangements have been changed
· There’s not always signal, especially if you're in the countryside or somewhere without a phone mast.
· they costs more money to send abroad then they do in england, and e-mails don't cost any more to send abroad

Effects in Society

• A lot of teenagers are seen as rude if they are with family and they constantly keep texting their friends.
• Businesses can take over personal life if they are constant message reminders
• SMS's are seen as a way of life for getting hold of people so that you don't have to ring them all the time.

Uses of SMS for Businesses & People

Business
· You can inform bosses or employees e.g. if you’re going to be late for a meeting or starting the day
· There is communication between employees so if you want to ask about a missed meeting and you don't want to ask your boss you could just ask a felllow collegue about anything that ypu've missed
· You can srrange sudden meetings incase information has changed and people need to be informed

Person
· You can stay in touch with friends and family easily by just sending a quick message
· You can let people know arrangements faster incase they have changed suddenly
· They are quite discrete, so if you are in the cinema and someone needs to get hold of you, you can qdiscretely message the, without disturbing over people

About Blogs

About Blogs

• In a a blog new articles go to the top of the page with the date and time
  · Each blog shows how many times each article has been viewed
  · They are mainly about news and peoples views
  · The front pages of the blogs usually show short versions of the articles
  · A Blog = web log
  · They are usually written in an informal, friendly style
  · A blog is basically an online database of stories
  · Blogs talk about other articles or websites

Advantages & Disadvantages of e-mail

Advantages

· E-mails are quicker to send
· They enable you to send attachments such as pictures, videos or other website links
· You can send them to more than one person at once, so it takes less time sending to everyone for example in a work place
· You can subscribe to interests, for example if you are a fan af a particular football team you can subscribe to any updates they may have and they are able to send them to you via e-mail
· You are able to keep up with job updates, for example if there is certain information your boss needs to send you, they can do it via e-mail so that they don't have to write it out all by hand and then send it to you through the post which would take more time.
·You can keep in touch with people that come from other countries without having to spend money on sending letters.
· Cheaper than sending a letter, because you have to pay for however much the letter weighs and if you have a lot of information to send to someone then it's going to cost you more than typing it out and sending it in an e-mail.



Disadvantages
· Not everyone has an internet connection/computer, so if they needed information they would have to go somewhere else to use the internet
· Receive junk mail, so if you are looking in your e-mails you can get junk mail which clogs up your inbox space
· Anyone can send you emails that has your address, so if you have forwarded an e-mail to your friend and they then forward to their friends, anyone can get your e-mail address and send you e-mails
· People could hack into your email account and get all of you personal details such as your address.

• Someone could send you a virus which would infect your computer as well as maybe taking all of your personal details as well.

Advantages & Disadvantages of Blogs

• Advantages
  
  · You can share views & relate to other people that have the same interest as you
  · They show peoples interests so you can make new friends by commenting their posts
  · They are interactive so you can watch videos and play music
  · You can meet new people
  · They give you a chance to express your own personal views so if you agree/don't agree with something you can express yourself on your blog
  · People are able to comment on what you’ve said so they can back up your opinion and give you new ideas
  · You can share knowledge to help other people
  · They reflect peoples personalities so they are all individual and unique to that specific person
  · Pictures can be added to emphasise text
  
  Disadvantages
  
  · They are not that well known so not a lot of people now how to look at them or make their own one
  · They are open to all sorts of people so you could get peodaphiles looking at your blog
  · Not everyone can access them as not everyone has a computer
  · They often have specific audiences
  Take up a lot of time to set up and then to actually keep the posts updated
  · They are quite hard to set up for novices who don't really know what a blog is and what they can put on it
  · Certain views may be offensive to people that don't agree with you
  · Your blog can be hacked in to and people can start writing things on there that you didnt want
  · People who comment your blog can leave inappropriate pictures
  · As there is an availibility to comment your posts they can often attract negative views
  · Sometimes people blogs can be useless and boring as there is not always a specific point for them.