Applied ICT A Level Unit 1 - ICT and Society
Block Two - Communications revolution?
This block deals with how we communicate using ICT. The key objectives are to:
- consider the range of ways in which we use ICT to communicate in the modern world
- examine the development of e-mail
- develop the skill of assessing the advantages and disadvantages of an ICT development
- develop the skill of applying understanding of an ICT issue to a familiar example
The ICT Communications Revolution:
How do we communicate using ICT? What are some of the similarities and differences between communications methods?
Communications revolution - slides from the presentation summarising ICT communications methods
The Pros and Cons of E-mail:
What exactly is e-mail? What are it's benefits and drawbacks? Why should organisations use e-mail?
E-mail - pros and cons - slides from the presentation introducing e-mail
The E-mail revolution - handout summarising some of the benefits and drawbacks of e-mail
You might also like to consider some more detailed examples of benefits and drawbacks. In 2010, for example, hoax e-mails were sent by criminals
hoping to benefit when flights were cancelled after the Icelandic volcanic eruption closed UK airspace. Later in the same year Google introduced a priority inbox to help users deal with the number of e-mails they receive, hopefully making their work more efficient as a result.
Meanwhile an MP tried to restrict public access to his e-mail address, claiming he received too many e-mails. You can read his original blog post as well, although you should be aware that the blog will contain political points which are clearly going to be biased toward one point of view. Other views do, of course, exist.
Back in 2007 a report found that many workers were increasingly stressed as a result of e-mails continually appearing in their inboxes. As a new method of communicating, workers may be less familiar with ways of managing e-mail.
Finally you might want to read a more general article about how the internet is changing the way we speak, or write anyway. Fwiw, I found it quite interesting...
ICT @ LHS?
Should organisations like Leiston High School adopt e-mail as a main way of communicating between staff? What would the pros and cons be?
E-mail @ LHS? A writing frame for a short piece of written work
E-mail @ LHS? A word version of the writing frame for completion
Why are you being asked to do this? The writing you'll need to do for your newsletter or web pages in the exam for this unit needs to focus on the benefits and drawbacks of ICT developments. If you're going to be able to do this well for the exam then I think you need to practice making arguments effectively. Of course, in the exam you'll have an unfamiliar audience and an organisation you may know little about, but let's start with somewhere you do know!
Trust me - this sort of practice is important. The only reason for providing the writing frame is to give you a scaffold at this stage to help you develop your answer. Don't worry, I'll be taking the scaffold away pretty soon!