Articles

ICT needs to stay in the national curiculum

I believe that I've grown up in a society where computer literacy is just as important as knowing how to read and write. I can't think of many jobs where some form of IT knowledge isn't useful (oressential), and this is a time when the IT sector is crying out for more skilled workers.

I wouldn’t be able to do what I can do without my ICT teachers. They are encouraging and inspiring, and the most hard-working people I know. They had everything stacked up against them; budget cuts, staff cuts and a massive workload, but they don’t show that in lessons. I'm very worried for their futures.

My view on this is that ICT should remain a core subject because ICT is in everything now it in offices. In cars it’s even in Mc Donald’s therefor it is an important subject to learn

The education of students is of the utmost importance and needs to be a priority for the government, removing ICT form the curriculum would be a disaster to the schooling system. In the real world the public need to know how to operate computers. Everyday millions of people in the world use computers, removing it from the national core curriculum in secondary schools would send the UK back years in advances for education. The cutting of education is a tragedy but to take cuts in ICT is unforgivable, he students of Britain need to be prepared for the real world and that means new technology. The funding for schools has dropped dramatically in the UK and the boards have nearly had to close due to shortages in money several teachers and assistants have been dropped in many schools. this is a tragerdy fix it goverment

Herbie B 

What is the importance of teaching ICT?
Personal experience
In my lessons ICT I have learned many skills which I would not been taught in any other of my lessons. With technology evolving and becoming more and more essential in day to day life, I think it should become more important to be taught this subject. Adults with no knowledge of computers and different skills will defiantly be at big disadvantage compared with adults that can work effectively on computers and that can work with and manipulate different computer programs to do what they want it to do.
I have even found my computer knowledge  has benefited me in other subjects and I have only been studying ICT for a few months.
Also I have found ICT to be fun in many ways as well. I think it is interesting the way you can do and learn so many thing in a computer program I've  had no prior knowledge on E.g. Excel.
In the real world
Some parents may argue that if their children is forced to do a subject they really find dull and boring they shouldn't have to do it, but does this mean then they shouldn't have to math's, English or science. No, children have to important subject .
So many jobs if not all use some element of computer work if its just to sort out banking and financing ICT is a useful skill to have ad people don't see that.

By Kai K.T

I personally think that ICT is an important lesson on the curriculum due to the fact that many people will come along jobs which will require ICT skills, so it is important to learn the basics of the wide variety of skills such as excel, power point and word to get through what life may put in front of you.
By cutting the well known and appreciated curriculum course will start to lower the amount of people growing up with a good computer usage education, which over all may lead to a generation to come who havent experience what computers have to offer in a big scale, which may mislead students to not take the ICT course not because they don’t like the subject, but  because they havent ever had a go at it so how are they sospost to know if they like it if they dont get the chance to explore the world of ICT.
Taking the course of the curriculum means that there wont be funding in that area, which will result in there being no teachers to even teach the subject because they need to get an income and being a teacher in any subject and school is a big commitment and then not to even get paid would just not be an option to people wanting to keep a family healthy and pay there taxes.

By Josh A 

Government removes ict from the national curriculum

ICT is very important in national curriculum because most
 modern day jobs are computerised so having a brief understanding
of computer can prove valuable to have. Removing ict from the
 national curriculum could leave many students with no knowledge
 of ict and that could give them a seriously disadvantage in the
 competitive jobs market.

Ben p

ICT can help children if it stays on the curriculum because of the increasingly technological world that we live in. Today most things are done on computers; banking, shopping, gaming, communicating, socialising and much more. Also jobs are becoming more computer based too, look in the paper, some jobs include hacking into phone networks so that they can figure out how you did it then start locking how you did it. There are also companies who pay lots of money just to do simple things on computers that they don’t understand. If students in schools knew the minimum about computers and programming they would know more than most of the older community of which some own big businesses. Take Sir Allan Sugar, not the best example because he works in IT, so suppose he didn’t know a thing about computers, he would pay a lot of money for someone to come and set up a database or something equally as easy, pupils could get taught these skills early on and then could pursue their career in IT. A little help in every subject will go a long way. Not everybody likes IT, but they will wish that they did, if it is taught.

By Zack R.

ICT in School

Should ICT still be part of the curriculum
Day by day ICT is becoming a bigger part of our lives, this is because as technology improves we use it and need to use it more in our day to day lives. If ICT was taken out of schools people would lose a valuable skill and might even find it harder to find work as ICT is such a big part of many jobs in the twenty first century, but also on a lighter note ICT is a very enjoyable subject and I would know as I have experienced six years of ICT in primary and over three years of ICT in secondary. I would say that almost all of my ICT lessons over the nine years have been worthwhile.
Is the government's attitude to computer technology in schools is taking us back to a "dark age" of chalk and talk? That is the fear of many in education who think the coalition government's actions are turning back the clock on recent developments in the use of computers for learning in schools all around the country.
In some respects I agree with some the government’s ideas and plans regarding education for England’s youth for example I agree that we should focus on some of the more traditional English subjects in schools but I do think that ICT should still be a big part of education as schools do have to move with the times.        

By Richard L

Why is I.C.T important to me and others?

In this generation it is important for the younger generation. With the increase of jobs needing computers I think its better the younger children to know how to use a computer and what not to do. I have grown up in the computer generation and have been shown how to work a computer. I think that they should teach more i.c.t in schools because it is a good life skill to know. Because I have been using computers for a few years now and I am getting better every day. I use i.c.t outside of school as I have started using photo shop to edit my pictures. I use Photoshop Elements 9 to edit my pictures for my photography course work. I use this software because it is easy to use and you can learn a lot of skills from it to use inside of school. I.C.T is fun in school when you are working with friends because you can also pick up new skills but at the same time have fun. This subject is not just useful in i.c.t but is used in other subjects for other things. An example of this is business studies. People use computers for businesses because of the software on the computers. An example of this is excel. People use excel because they can store there spread sheets on it.  

Harry N

I believe that ICT is very important in our curriculum because of how fast society is changing. This is evident in many places, such as: IPods, televisions, computers, even traffic lights! Since I have been studying ICT I have learnt a lot about all of the different tools that make things a lot easier. I have learnt about formulas and mail merging, conditional formatting and macros; all easy to use and very, very useful.
My parents help to run an archery club and since I have been studying the subject I have helped them to use all of the programmes tools at choice. They have now made all of their record keeping on a computer and they say that “it is much easier and safer to store our important data. Plus it means that we can automatically print certificates, so that means; less work for us!”
I enjoy ICT because of all of the tools that you can use and how they are all useful, easy to use and help to make our lives easier.
ICT is used in business and leisure more that we think. Such as: certificate making, data storing, ordering in more stock, online shopping and online banking.
 I mentioned my parent’s archery club earlier. They have now made it so all of their data is now saved onto their computer which has made it: easier to find, harder to lose, all in the same place and has more tools to make it easier to keep track of. They use: formulas, macros, conditional formatting, mail merge and many more. I have been helping them with all of the data tracking and my sister has made the club a website to attract a wider audience.
I don’t really want to learn programming because of how I am not interested in it, I just want to know how to use the programme but I know a few people who do want to learn it.
As you can tell ICT should be kept as a part of our curriculum because of how it is very useful and help businesses which we could start up when we are older.

Harry W & Jordan H

The importance of teaching students ICT
It is my belief that we should keep ICT as a mandatory subject as it would seem rather a step backwards to drop it; the modern world is ever filling with computers, and having a younger generation not knowing how to use them would put our country behind many others in the western world. I have learnt many things in ICT myself, the most of which I will use being the skills learnt in Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, Access etc.) As these are very useful in business, and an increasing amount of the corporate world are embracing them, If they did not they would fall behind, just as we will if we cut ICT.  I do find ICT to be fun, and that’s not saying there are not things I wouldn’t improve about it, but it is fun in the way it is interesting, and it is useful in that it informs us of things that will be used in later life.
Computers are used in business primarily because they improve efficiency of the company and its individual workers, saving time, and thus making more money.
I think that students learning about ICT before GCSE should be taught how they are now, but once GCSE starts I think that students should be taught Programming skills, as they will then have to choose to take ICT, so they presumably want to learn more, and making your own systems in ICT can be the best way to learn about others. The reason I think it should only be taught when ICT becomes optional is that many students will not be able to grasp programming and so it may be best to let people choose it, Perhaps as a separate option from the regular ICT we have now, as they do in the U.S.  
Ben S.

Everyday technology gets better and more unique and helpful and students need to be taught how to use this technology and how to use I.C.T. It is a very useful skill. Look around and you will notice that most of the things you see are based on I.C.T. Technology and I.C.T play a big role in todays world and help to do almost everything from making letters to making cars using robotic arms which links directly to I.C.T and software. My personal experience of I.C.T has been very good so far as technology has been getting better. So far in my I.C.T education I have learnt many skills about a wide variety of software. At the moment I am learning about the uses of Microsoft excel and how they are so useful to many people. Excel uses formulas and lots of other skills to help businesses to quickly handle data. I.C.T has lots of data and helps so much. I have learnt many skills that help all around. I have learnt  how to make games, videos, music, documents, programming and also how to use the computer overall. These are some advantages of I.C.T: Data handling is very quick with I.C.T, Robotic equipment won’t et tired out unlike humans, Data storage is easy and large, You can use I.C.T to instantly communicate with others around the world, information is available 24/7, shopping can be done online and computers can be used to automate machinery if it is unsafe for humans. Without I.C.T the world would never be the same. I do myself use I.C.T everyday of my life and  much of the skills I have learnt in school I use at home. The government say that I.C.T should be down graded but I think that it in fact should be upgraded and should be taught more widely as it has a huge importance to this world.

Written By Alastair L

Today we went for a talk from the head chef. He told us all about the new cashless system they use at KEVICC. As it is new to KEVICC he hasn't yet used it to the full potentials. At the moment he uses it for printing off what students are eating daily in each tills, e.g. The Bothy, Redworth, Elmhurst and the Hutch. These reports contain a number for each product they offer at KEVICC and this number is the amount which has been bought using the biometric fingerprint system. This helps the chef because he can see what he is selling and what he isn't selling. He can also estimate the waste he is getting after each day, because if the dinner ladies made 70 panini's yet only sold 50 they have thrown 20 away which is costing KEVICC money. To change this he will reduce the amount of panini's being made.

A spending limit can be set for the students by parents. This will stop them spending over a certain amount per day to reduce costs to the parents.

The cashless system cause much contiversy from parents with children involved in KEVICC, a main reason for this was the safety of the childs fingerprint, the chef reassured them and gave an example of what each finger print looked like on their system, this was "jfryhujh89475897847hfkhgkjhgkjhg84yyjhgjhg". The system is also linked to the SIMS software in KEVICC, this is so when a student is paying for their goods with either a finger print or a pin code, their picture comes up so the dinner lady can identify if the pin being put in, isnt that persons pin but it is someone elses. If a child leaves KEVICC all their details are wiped from the system, this leaves no fingerprint and nothing on SIMS and there is no way that this can be traced once its been deleted. The cashless system is also firewalled by the SWTT company which make the details extra secure and reduces the risk of being hacked by a large amount.

The cashless system runs off the Nationwide company, KEVICC are highly dependant on this company and haven't got a back up plan for it, this is bad because if it did crash they wouldn't know what to do and this could leave students going without food for a day affecting their health, especially if they are diabetic.

However a good point to this cashless system is the fact that children cannot loose their money. They have no reason to take money into school so parents can be sure that their money hasn't been spent in Morrisons on sweets for their friends. Parents can also access their childs account through Wise Pay on their home comptuer and can monitor what their child is eating exactly, this may improve the childs health. The parent is only allowed to access their own childs information though so this increases security.

A government grant funded the move, originally meant to take place in November 2009, but postponed due to opposition from parents and students. Concerns about the system included the use of fingerprints to identify the student and the security of that information. 

The head chef at KEVICC calmed these fears by pointing out that the fingerprints were stored as a long string of alphanumeric characters and that this information could not then be returned to the image of a fingerprint. The fingerprint information requires other information from the school's main SIMS network, such as the student's full name, date of birth and form, in order to work properly. This information is stored separately from the fingerprints, and without it, the fingerprint information is useless.

Also added to the student's profile is a photograph. This is because there are a number of students who have opted out of the biomentric fingerprint scheme and use  Personal Identification Number's instead. If the PIN is known by other students, they can then buy food under somebody else's account. The photographs reduce this because the people running the tills in the canteens can then check that the right person is obtaining the food. When a person leaves the college, all the information that has been built up about their eating habits on the cashless catering system is deleted, as well as the other information stored on the system.

The catering system also works as a Management Information System, provided by Nationwide Software Development ltd. The system provides the head chef with information about how much of each type of food is bought, and on which site. This information can then be used to determine the difference between the number of each item that is made each day and the number sold, and therefore the amount of food that is wasted each day.

As a future extension to the system, the head chef intends to assign a points system to the food on sale. The number of points assigned to each item available will be determined by how healthy it is. Using this points system will help supply information about how healthily people at the school are eating and aid the introduction of new foods into the school, as information about the kinds of food that people like to eat is available.  

The system is very new, and so there has not yet been a backup strategy put together. Nationwide works with the college to prevent any disaster that would cause a need for a backup strategy. They can provide support remotely, but work directly on the system, as they have permission to get through the South West Grid for Learning's firewall protection. In the event of a total failure of the system, the current strategy would be to return to a paper system, taking the names of the students and the amount they spend and then deducting this amount from the accounts when the system returns to normal service.

Parents are able to check how much balance their child has left on their account and add more money to the account through the WisePay online payment system used by the college. Also displayed at this point is information about what their child has bought each day. If parents feel that their child is spending too much money on food each day, they can ask for a cap to be put on the amount that can be spent.

The NHS is moving to a more mobile method of running its ICT system. At the moment most of the ICT system is held on separate computers and uses varying different formats, so of which are not compatible with other formats in use.

There are a few examples of the need for mobile methods of running the NHS’s ICT and that is that there are many members of staff that have to perform home visits this means that staff currently have to enter the information gathered at the home visit when they get back to the office.

There are some examples of how the NHS are currently using mobile computing to increases effectiveness within its departments, the NHS has a internal portal that stores things like training documents, rules and regulations and other files that all NHS staff would require. Also there is the home visit staff protection system, this system sends out an automated phone call, every 2 hours, to the member of staff performing the home visit and asks them to insert a verification number to confirm they are all right. If the number is not entered then the police are automatically notified of the last know location of the staff member so that aid can be given.

There are new systems that are being developed that strive to make the work that different parts of the NHS do work together instead of being separate. An example of this is the Paris system, this is an example of a cloud system meaning that it is on a separate sever. The Paris system is an attempt to make the records that are kept on patients to be access by all departments of the NHS, this is done by one large interview when the patient first enters a sector of the NHS, then they are signposted (advised to see) to other departments that deal with the areas that effect the patient. This system has been seen as a failure as it is far to complicated to use and does not hold enough information to be useful to the other sectors of the NHS. The Paris system is still evolving and could prove to be an effective way of managing NHS resources better in the future.

River Island already has a leading website which is enabled by Java and performs everything effortlessly and quickly. I feel that they will take this website and create a 3D shopping experience. By this I mean that they will use a programme like "Second life" http://secondlife.com/?v=1.1, and customers will be able to sit at home or in a cafe on a laptop/computer connected to the internet and physically walk around the store and purchase goods they want without the effort of having to move! I also believe that you will be able to put your measurements in, which can be done by standing on a board, we're already half way there with the WII fit board, and generate an image to see if the clothes you are about to purchase will look good on your posture and physique, if you are unsure there may also be a “personal shopper” service which will enable you to get professional advice on what clothes would look best on you and they will keep you up with latest styles. 

I also think River Island will evolve in the payment options they are faced with. Most people nowadays use the EPOS(Electronic Point of Sale) or cash to pay for their goods with the odd "love2shop" vouchers. Soon people will be able to pay with a chip. This chip can be put into a mobile phone or on a bracelet or even a ring, yet it will store enough details for a shop to be able to charge your finances in your bank account to pay for goods. I feel money will soon become a much lower level of importance, if not extinct. 

Developing technology is a huge marketed and is hugely visible in the leisure industry. With new hardware devices such as the Ipad being introduced to world you can be sure to see amazing things for the future.

Believe it or not, technology has come much further than you can imagine. The are games being developed that you can virtually play for example for football games you have to physically move your feet or tennis games where you have to swing your arm. This is done behind closed doors so the general population do even know this stuff is happening but i can guarantee that in just a few year, you will be sitting in your living room, being your favourite football played in action.

The progression of mobile technology to make our lives that little bit easier has come so far in just a few year. You see the Iphone as technology which is someone advanced when in actual fact it is far less superior than it is hyped up to be.

Phones like are no longer the future they are the present and are here to make your lives much simpler and providing you with tools which before would be hard to come by.

In the tourism industry, technology has been widely used to help the growth. In some museums you can find robotic guides to give your tours or 3d cinema to enhance viewing. All these help the industry by bringing new customers to cinema or to entice people into going to the museum.

Virtual worlds may transform the way people shop in the future. Currently, there is the ability for customers to buy items on the internet through e-commerce; websites with images of items available to buy and the capacity to pay online by card. 

Virtual worlds such as Second Life allow people to go anywhere they want to. This could in the future include online shopping centres. As better technology allows the reality of the virtual worlds improves, it will become easier for retailers to display their products to customers over the internet in virtual shopping centres. With the use of ‘avatars’ in virtual worlds as Second Life does, shoppers will be able to try the clothes onto their avatar and, if the avatar is a true representation of the shopper, see how items will fit and look on themselves when received in real life.

Using a virtual world to effectively advertise and sell products will reduce the costs to retailers as more people gain a presence in such realities. There will be a reduced need to find, equip and staff premises in each town, reducing the cost to companies. 

Virtual worlds and avatars may also transform the way that business managers communicate with each other. Currently, people from all over the world can communicate cheaply or for free over mediums such as Skype, a VoIP technology, instant messaging such as msn messenger and e-mail. 

These methods can however become too informal for the situation, and become limiting in the number of people they can accommodate or lose the importance of a situation. 

Second Life is already used by many large companies for board meetings, in custom built virtual rooms on Second Life. This enables managers at national level from all over the world from one company to meet and discuss the strategies of the whole company, without having to leave the area that they live in. 

Allowing national managers to meet in one room gives them the chance to get together to discuss how the company will move forward and advertise in a fairly uniform way across the world. International companies, such as Topshop, who will be selling the same products across the whole company quickly, as fashions change quickly, will need to have meetings such as this frequently, and then implement any decisions into their own country.

Back in the real world and the nearer future, the way that customers go to pay for items they buy will change. The point at which people pay more by electronic means than with cash was reached in 2007. Since then, the number of card payments has kept rising, and the proportion of cash payments is declining. The development of contactless payment from some cards for transactions less than £15 will further reduce the place that cash takes in retail transactions. It is predicted that eventually, mobile phones will become synonymous with payment by contactless technology, a move that has already begun with an iPhone app.

In the future, teaching will not be done in the classroom. But will be done from anywhere in the world. Students will be able to log onto their computer and will be able to "plug themself in" and automatically will be in their classroom. But before this, other developments will happen. Cloud computing is set to have a huge impact on the way education happens.

Cloud computing allows you to access your documents from anywhere in the world. All of your documents will be accessible from any computer. This means that your teacher will be able to access your work from wherever they are. The advantages of cloud computing are that. You can access your work from wherever. There are no need for internal servers, everything is stored in the "cloud". 

The main impact future developments in the world of ICT is going to have in education is virtual reality. With this, you may not even have to attend a school to be taught. You may simply be able to connect to the internet and "plug in" and you will then be in the class room. This means that anyone, anywhere in the world can be in the same lecture or class room as you. This of course will have its advantages and its disadvantages. The advantages are that it is easier for the student and the teacher to get there. Instead of having to travel miles to get to a school site. They would only have to go to wherever their computer is. Their are however social issues with it, it would take away student/teacher interaction. As they are not in the same room as one another. 

Strategic management staff need to be trained in use of the system to gain access to monthly figures on sales, profit, loss and other information they require. For example, at Dartington Cider Press, strategic managers go on an off-site course, where they will learn to use the company's systems (sometimes called bootcamp).

Tactical management will need training to use the system to find information relevant to their department or area. This training will often take place in group sessions, where several people work on how to use the system at the same time, under instruction, as there will be several managers at tactical level who need to know how to work the same parts of the ICT system to effectively carry out their jobs. Where the company is very big, such as large chain stores, with many departments and regions, the groups may become too large to effectively train staff in group sessions, in which case, a group presentation may be used and the company have support readily available for staff with problems using the system.

Operational staff need to know how to use systems such as Electronic Point Of Sale (EPOS). Training in use of such systems will be through cascade training, where somebody who already knows how to use the system trains others, from higher level operational staff as a part of an employee's induction training. New Look train their till staff in such a way.

Customers are external users of large supermarket and other online shopping websites. They are trained for example by Tesco Direct through written instructions on the help section of the e-commerce site. Other similar websites use videos showing customers how to work with their system.

External and Internal Users

Users of a ICT system can be both internal and external to the organisation. In HSBC they have many users of whom can be both external and internal. For example, HSBC have millions of customers who are external to the company but use the online features such as Internet banking. These don't work for the organisation therefore they are external users.

An example of an internal user would be any employee who is involved using ICT. The personal finance department is an internal user because they work within the company dealing with mortgages, loans and business plans. They use ICT in this role.

Levels of Training

• One to one
• group sessions
• group presentation
• user guides
• videos/dvd
• manuals
• email
• induction training
• staff courses/boot camp
• cascade training

HSBC will employ alot of different levels of traning to suit each role within the company. HSBC will employ one to one training generally for all levels of staff. This is because they are a very complicated busiess and each role requires a fair amount of training. One to one training is used for morespecific roles such as personal advisors because it is more demanding in the training required and you can get alot more information from one to one rather than group sessions.

Group sessions are used because it is much faster and more efficient comparerd to one to one and allows for lots of staff to be trained at the same time. This will be used in the training of cashiers or helpdesk personnel. 

User guides can be issued for less complicated roles such as replenishment or technical support where they can refer to a set guide. This makes a useful referance for later use if they forget some information.

The use of email to assist and support both users and audience is very good in HSBC. They have web and telephone advisors which will help support any problems a customer might have. For example if they cant access online banking then the use of email can provide the customer with information about how they can access it.

Induction training is used alot in HSBC and in most organisations. This is because it allows the company to give the basic rules and safety prsentations to the emplyees before they begin the job. This will minimise the risk of mistakes occuring.