The Way I use ICT at Home, School and College

Introduction

ICT has had a very important role in my life as a student both at school and at home. I use ICT all the time, mainly for recreational purposes, yet often I am unaware that I am doing so. My mobile phone is has become a very important piece of equipment in my life, using very complicated data, yet I am unaware and use it all the time for fun and communication. The home computer, Playstation 2 and my Compact Disk player are all uses of ICT and they mainly help me to have fun and enjoy life, as well as helping me academically. I find ICT very useful and important to me because it widens my approach to life and I am never left bored. ICT does not scare me and does not usually annoy me in any way because it is so useful and I never get bored. There are only a few times that things go wrong in ICT. These are: when my computer takes a very long time to load, when I cannot complete part of a game on the PS2 and when my phone signal goes away and I cannot call anyone.

I am only scared once using ICT – when I watch a very scary video or DVD from the appropriate player! I am pretty much totally dependant on ICT to get around in life. Without it, there would be limited recreational opportunities, contacting people would be very difficult, and ICT lessons at school would be non-existent. Think about a traffic light, for example. It uses special sensors to know how many cars to let through and when to go red, amber or green. People take things like this for granted, but it uses complicated ICT, so think how difficult life would be if we didn’t have something as standard as traffic lights. Many other things, including microwaves and video recorders, are other forms of ICT, which can also be taken for granted. Many people would find life so difficult without ICT including myself. If there was no ICT, cars would be very hard to come by and I would not be unable to complete this report! So maybe it is not all bad if there wasn’t any. Environmentalist groups may find this helpful with no cars, but we would find other methods using no ICT that could damage the planet even more. ICT is very important to everyone, in the way we move and live.

My Use of ICT at School

In and around school, I use ICT in many different ways, in most, if not all, of the subjects that I take. Sometimes, I may not think ICT has been directly involved or included. ICT does not just include someone tapping away on a computer. Without really realising, every computerised worksheet that I have been given has to have used ICT in some way or another. An ICT computerised worksheet, that has been to given to more than I member of the class, has been computerised. Let me give an example. My English teacher, Mr Ninian, wants to give out 31 copies of a single sheet of A4 paper, containing some quotes from a play. This is where ICT comes into the equation. Mr Ninian will go onto a computer during his time and type up, or copy from the Internet, his page of quotes. He will put a title and finish the document. This is the most obvious form of him using ICT. Then he will print out the document off his computer. This is again using ICT, because the computer sends the document tot he printer to be printed out.

Now that Mr Ninian has the copy, he can go to a photocopying machine. Now he will use ICT to print out 31 copies of his document. This is three ways that my English teacher, as well as many other teachers use ICT. I personally use ITC in a similar way but I do not do vast amounts of photocopying. I do however use a scanner to get my work up onto the computer and I use a digital camera in some ICT lessons to get me and my friends on to the computer. A mobile phone also uses ICT when calling people, playing games, sending SMS, going onto the Internet and taking pictures. I use a mobile phone widely, at school also, especially to call people in emergencies or at lucncht9mes to play games. This is also a very popular form of ICT; one that has only been used a short time ago, so more and more people would soon be having one. So the main reasons I use ICT, are in IT lessons, on computers and in other lessons when we use computers. I also use ICT in most, if not all, lessons on worksheets and when I have to perform thorough research using the Internet, I use ICT.

In certain lessons, documents have to be computerised and typed up, so this another. Another, more uncommon use of ICT, is in vending machines. You may not think this as a use, but when you put your money, the machine has to register how much is needed and when you have put in the correct amount. Then, when you make your selection, the machine has to register whether the operation can be performed and if it can, it must deliver the goods. Then, if change is available, the machine has to determine how much is needed and in the correct amount of coins. On my way home from school, I get a train, which involves using the ticket barrier, but first I need to withdraw money from the cash machine to buy my ticket. Here I am using another two methods of ICT, and if there is no one to sell me a ticket, I use a self-service ticket, which again uses ICT. The most common of these that I use in school is computerised work, including computers, typed documents, worksheets and newsletters. In practically every lesson, I am using ICT in some form or another and it is usually involved in worksheets or information that has been typed up or copied from the Internet.

Worksheets have a lot of benefit for me, but the one that I feel plays the most important role on my school life, is vending machines. Without them, I could and probably would, be very hungry at lunchtimes and this could result in illness. Where worksheets have great benefits and are quicker, I could still do all the appropriate work by hand, or written out from a book. This is impossible with vending machines. I am not too keen on the food that the dinner hall has to offer, so I need my source of energy for the day and at lunchtimes, during the middle of a tough school day, this comes from the vending machines. Without them, I would have to find another source to get my food from, and this may not be as good. I need vending machines in school a lot. I feel that ICT is always of use at school and around it because it is so useful and beneficial in almost everything I do. I would struggle to think of circumstances in which ICT is of little or no use what so ever.

I can however think of two cases, which has happened to me and most of my fellow piers. However much I love and us vending machines, they do have two main drawbacks. The first is in the variety of food on offer. Food is occasionally sub standard and it is often near empty. The machines need to stocked up at regular intervals and there must be something that they can do to prevent breakage’s, including lost money or the product not coming out. There is ICT involved and it needs to be sorted out, or new, machines need to be bought in to replace the old ones. The other use happens all the time, especially at a secondary school where there are many of them. This is computers. They are breaking down al the time and their needs to be something to sort it out. We get broken mice, deleted files and times when people cannot get to where they want to go. Obviously, with so many people and such a lot of computers, it is very hard to keep the computers and the equipment (printers, scanners and headphones) in order, but there needs to improvements with the ICT involvement to ensure that all the systems work properly. These are probably the only two reasons I can think of ICT when it is not used, I prefer worksheets and computerised work as many other people do, so it does not bother me. ICT is very useful and important at school.

My Use of ICT at Home

At home, I use ICT in range of different ways, mainly for recreational purposes, but I also use it for cooking and homework. I like to have a lot of fun at home and the best way for this is to have a games console of some description. I have in my possession a Playstation 2 console (Ps2) which I play on most nights and especially at weekends and in the holidays. It is a great way to relax and have fun, whilst being challenging and enjoyable. I can also play with a friend in two player games and link up with eight people in some cases to have fun with friends. This is a really useful method of ICT because it is fun. It may be expensive to buy at first, but there are so much fun things you can. There are hundreds of games available as well as guns and steering wheels to give that arcade feel. It is good fun and a great way to relax after a hard day at school. Other recreational purposes I use ICT in are in my CD player, which included portable CD players, mini-discs and mp3 files. These are all music and the ICT involved is quite complicated to allow them to play and get to the right track and the right place. My large CD player at home can play three compact disks, two tapes (one is recordable) and a radio in which I can play medium and long wave stations.

I use the computer a lot. There are three main reasons I use the computer for, these are communication (MSN Instant Messaging, e-mailing, sending SMS), for games (multiple game sites, The Sims) and for homework/school work purposes (Microsoft Word, Excel, revision websites (GCSE Bitesize.)) I talk to people all the time. I send text messages from Internet websites (www.o2.co.uk, www.tx1.com) to my friends because it is cheaper and quicker than using a mobile phone. I also email people quite a lot, but not as often as my last use of communication. MSN Instant Messaging. I can speak to anyone, anywhere, providing they have the system set up. The basic systems are free but if you really want, you can pay a cheap, fixed rate per month to get additional functions (which I feel are unnecessary.) I log-on most nights and have many addresses of friend s from school and other areas of my life. I can start a conversation with them, block them or invite another friend to join in the conversation. This is an excellent way to communicate with other people because it is free, easy and effective. I use it all the time.

When I come in from school or sports clubs and I feel hungry, I need something to eat quickly and easily. My favourite for this is a microwave. It uses ICT to control how long the food has to be controlled for and it has to make the plate spin around at an appropriate speed so the food does not fly off. I use this on most days especially when I have to eat in a hurry. I also use the computer for homeworks, typing up documents or web research. The most common of these I use is probably the computer. This is because it falls into a vast recreational category as well as for homework and research purposes. I also surf the web for funny things and great pictures/animations. The most beneficial out of the purposes is the microwave oven because it provides me with a quick, easy meal that can be made instantly. Mostly, I take it out the package, put it in, press the appropriate buttons, and then eat! Without my food, I could not survive and I am usually on the go and somewhat motivated by myself so I need to eat. ICT is very useful for me when I use it at home. As I have already explained earlier, I use ICT for recreational purposes so I can have some fun and relax.

I also use it for schoolwork and so I can eat. I am a very sporty person so I feel ICT does not make me very lazy. It certainly cuts down the time it takes to perform certain tasks. If I have to computerise a piece of homework for any subject, I will use ICT over the written method anytime but that does not mean it is time efficient. To set up, use and maintain a computer is an expensive but to buy a pad of paper, it’s cheap. Many of us can write faster than we can type so it is not saving time. I disagree, ICT has helped quicken the time to perform tasks but has not made me a lazy person, and I am still as active as ever. My homework tasks that are set on the computer rely on ICT for them to be performed correctly and accurately. It definitely improves the quality of my work, making it look very neat and presentable. I can change any size, shape or colour of any part of a document at a mouse click which is quicker and neater than writing. The Internet has so much information on offer and a good search engine (Google, Yahoo etc.) can provide you with enough information to fill fifty textbooks! So maybe this is a bad thing because of the sheer volume of information available.

I certainly understand my work a lot easier than a textbook but a textbook has advantages over the Internet because it is direct accurate information from a reliable source. The Internet information takes a long time to sort through and find a good short piece of work you need rather than being in front of you. You also cannot download viruses via documents from a textbook! In the future when I shall be revising for my important exams (GCSE’s, AS levels, A Levels) I will use the Internet and some websites to help me with my work (BBC Bitesize Revision).

So ICT is having an important role on my education and I feel that very soon it will be very important. At home there is hardly any cases when ICT has little or no value to me. I can only think of when I am on the internet and I type in a search on Google (www.google.com) for a subject such as Henry 6th and his 8 wives or similar. The search will take me to a page where it says Search Results 1-10 of about 14, 000. This is extremely annoying because I want to know the names of the wives and how they were killed. Instead I get pages up advertising yoga, promoting a television company and where to buy Henry 6th replicas. I fail to get a decent page with good proper information. As this goes, I would be better to get a history textbook and find the information and, if need be, type it up from the book.

My Use of ICT in my Personal and Social Life

I have a very active social and personal life, being on the go most of the time. This means that ICT has to play some form, mainly as communication purposes. The most common for myself is a mobile phone. I am a keen sportsman, and my sport is gymnastics. I am a very enthusiastic member of my club and train six days every week. This means, for at least three hours on most days, I am in Basildon. I need my mobile phone to communicate with my parents to confirm that I can get home and the ‘when’ and ‘how’ part of my journey. When I am out with my friends, it is usually quite late, and especially when we go to parties or clubs and come home very late, I need to be able to communicate with my parents to collect me or to inform them that I am coming home via another means.

On my best friend’s mobile phone, I can send SMS, MMS, emails, faxes and pagers. My Dad has a pager that he keeps with him at all times, and this uses ICT also. I send a short message off my friend’s phone and my Dad’s phone intercepts the signal and it begins to bleep, informing him he has a message. My Dad reads, and appropriately reacts to the situation. This is very helpful to me. I have already mentioned the importance of my mobile phone to call my Dad, but I have not mentioned how it helps to communicate with my friends. I ring and text my friends all the time and it helps me to arrange and communicate with them, cheaply from a reliable source. ICT is very important in my personal life for getting my life sorted out.

Conclusion

ICT is so very important in my life. Without it, life would be very difficult. I mainly use ICT for recreational purposes but all is beneficial. We need to be careful of ICT and not go too far, and destroy ourselves.