Education

The information age has had a huge impact on education. Due to the advancements in technology the traditional methods of teaching have been significantly altered and many classes are now filled with a variety of different educational electrical devices. Whilst this is seen by many to be a fantastic change in how humans are schooled, others would disagree and claim it to be negative influence. It is now common for schools to own computers, laptops or tablets and teach ‘IT’, meaning information technology (the study and teaching of computing skills such as spreadsheets and databases); as well as making use of various other technological devices and practises.

Registration -

Traditionally, student attendance was kept track of using pen and paper. This method was highly inconvenient as it wasted paper and made it difficult for staff members to find old incidents of absences. Nowadays many schools use electronic registration software such as SIMS, with which teachers can log which students are present and easily use search functions to access a huge database of attendance data. Software such as this can tell users exactly how many times pupils have been absent that year, how many time this was with or without permission, and may be used to store various other data such contact information, exam marks, allergies and more.

Electronic Whiteboards -

Electronic whiteboards allow teachers to make use of the internet, video, games and the various other functions of computers. These tools grant them the ability to provide a unique blend of visual, audio and interactive materials for their students in order to aid their learning. Some websites which offer these include Youtube (a popular social video sharing service: www.youtube.com), BBC Bitesize (a website created by the BBC to help students with their education via audio, video and interactive games such as quizzes: www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize) and Socrative (‘a smart student response system that empowers teachers to engage their classrooms though a series of educational exercises and games via smartphones, laptops and tablets’: www.socrative.com).

ICT (Subject) -

Due to the increasing need for computing knowledge in the workplace, many schools have introduced ICT (meaning Information and Communication Technologies) as a subject (in many cases it has been made compulsory for students up until GCSE level, where they can choose to drop it or stay on and work for a higher qualification). The course teaches students the basics such as Microsoft Office Usage, Database and Spreadsheet skills and other basics such as video editing and simple photo manipulation. As the students’ progress, they are taught harder and more complex skills such as animation, website design and coding.

Tablets -

The rise of popularity in touch tablets such as the iPad and Google Nexus has triggered a response from education, with an increasing amount schools opting for tablets over PCs. A major reason for this being so, is that tablets are considerably cheaper than laptops and desk computers; as well as offering a convenient solution to students carrying bags full of books to school (devices such as the amazon kindle offer thousands of book downloads at cheap prices). However, I personally believe that schools should stick with desktop computers and laptop because they are easier to use for working on and offer a far broader range of programmes (such as Microsoft Powerpoint, excel, Database, Adobe Flash, Video editing software, Photoshop and more).

Spelling -

Contrasting the positives, the information age is actually having a negative effect on a massive amount of youths’ spelling and grammar. The culprits of this are mobile phones and computing devices. These devices allow their users easy access to spell correcting software, which grant people an excuse to be lazy and not fully learn the spelling of their languages. Furthermore, vast quantities of people use mobile phone slang so as to lower their overall sending charges and save time. Both of these are resulting in a dumber, lazier and more illiterate younger generation of humans (traits which are sure to be passed down, resulting in a huge loss of intellect as a species and bringing about massive changes to languages).

Employment

Technology has vastly improved employment and becoming increasingly important (and often essential) to peoples jobs. It has allowed ease in communication, increased workplace productivity and a variety of new job types to appear. As it continues to advance, technology shall play a significant role in determining the future of the jobs and how we work.

Printers -

Printers are widely overlooked when it comes to improvements brought to employment in the information age, but they are one of the most significant new features available. In the past, people would have to rewrite whole documents by hand or typewriter if they needed more than one copy of their work. This made the creation of posters, leaflets, applications and other papers needing to be reproduced an extremely tedious chore. Nowadays people have the ability to produce a vast amount of copies of work with hardly any effort at all, a feature which many people take for granted.

Humans Replaced By Machinery -

Due to the massive advances in technology, machinery is starting to replace human workers in a selection of jobs highly dangerous, inaccessible or easier for machines to be doing. A prime example of this in action are military robots, these are used activities for bomb disposal (over 10,000 roadside bombs have been defused by robots in Iraq), remote controlled operations (via the use of unmanned air vehicles) and more. Moving away from saving lives and violent uses; many factories which mass produce products have significantly reduced their staff numbers so as to accommodate large automatic machines for faster and cheaper production (uses can range from food production, to car manufacturing, to model building and more). In terms of inaccessible jobs, machines uses include: space discovery via probes, mining, volcanic surveys and more.