Question

Assignments question: Based on the above case study, it is clear that Information technology is an important aspect in our daily life. Discuss how Information technology have changed our daily routines and have contributed to modernise our daily lives at home, at work and in organisations. AREAS TO FOCUS ON: • Information Technology concepts - How IT evolved-Hardware/Software Role of IT in our daily life o At Home - leisure/communication o Educational Field o Health and medical field o Finance and Banking o Government Services How IT helped organisations to evolve? o Why Use IT? - Competitive advantage/Networks/Classes of Software/Transaction processing//Ecommerce/Communication/Automation/Effective Challenges of IS - Computer Security/Cost/Data loss/System Disasters - Job loss/Health problems/Social Life •

Answer 1

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Information is a resource which has no value until it is extracted, processed and utilized. Information technology deals with information system, data storage, access, retrieval, analysis and intelligent decision making. Information technology refers to the creation, gathering, processing, storage, presentation and dissemination of information and also the processes and devices that enable all this to be done.

History
Information technology has been around for a long time. There are 4 main ages that divide up the history of information technology. Only the latest age and some of the electromechanical age really affects us today, but it is important to understand about how we got the current technology .
4 stages
1)Premechanical
   The premechanical age is the earliest age of information technology. It can be defined as the time between 3000B.C. and 1450A.D. When humans first started communicating they would try to use language or simple picture drawings known as petroglyths which were usually carved in rock. Early alphabets were developed such as the Phoenician alphabet.

2)Mechanical
   The mechanical age can be defined as the time between 1450 and 1840. . Technologies like the slide rule , Pascaline which was a very popular mechanical computer were invented in this period. Charles Babbage developed the difference engine which tabulated polynomial equations using the method of finite differences.

3)Electromechanical
   The electromechanical age can be defined as the time between 1840 and 1940. These are the beginnings of telecommunication. The telegraph was created in the early 1800s. Morse code was created by Samuel Morse in 1835. The telephone (was created by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876. The first radio developed by Guglielmo Marconi in 1894. All of these were extremely crucial emerging technologies that led to big advances in the information technology field.

4)Electronic
The electronic age is we currently live in. It can be defined as the time between 1940 and right now. The ENIAC was the first high-speed, digital computer capable of being reprogrammed to solve a full range of computing problems. This machine was even bigger than the Mark 1 taking up 680 square feet and weighing 30 tons - HUGE. It mainly used vacuum tubes to do its calculations.

The Evolution of Computer Hardware
       The basic components of a personal computer are more or less the same today as they were in the 1990s. The parts still perform the same overall functions as they once did. The motherboard still serves as the computer's central hub, with everything connecting to it; the processor still follows instructions; RAM still stores data for quick access, and hard drives still store data long-term. The way those pieces are connected and how quickly they operate has changed tremendously.Many people who talk about improvements in computers reference Moore's Law, which essentially states the number of integrated circuits in microprocessors will double within every two years. The more integrated circuits, or transistors, a chip has, the faster it's going to be. But that's only one thing that makes computers faster and better.

The Evoluion of Software
     Computer scientist Tom Kilburn is responsible for writing the world’s very first piece of software. Kilburn and his colleague Freddie Williams had built one of the earliest computers, the Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine (also known as the “Baby”). The SSEM was programmed to perform mathematical calculations using machine code instructions. This first piece of software took “only” 52 minutes to correctly compute the greatest divisor of 2 to the power of 18 (262,144).For decades after this groundbreaking event, computers were programmed with punch cards in which holes denoted specific machine code instructions. Fortran, one of the very first higher-level programming languages, was originally published in 1957. The next year, statistician John Tukey coined the word “software” in an article about computer programming. Other pioneering programming languages like Cobol, BASIC, Pascal and C arrived over the next two decades.
   Today, software has become ubiquitous, even in places that you might not expect it, from crock pots to nuclear submarines. Some programming languages, like C and Cobol, have survived the test of time and are still in use. Other languages, such as Java and Python, are somewhat younger and have been used in countless software development projects. Still others, such as Apple’s Swift programming language for iOS or Go Open source, are relatively new and exciting.

Role of Information Technology in daily life
   Information and Communications Technology has an important role in the world since we are now in the information age era. The company can make the business easier to happen with the client, supplier and the distributor. It is also very important in our daily lives. The lack of appropriate information at the right time will result in low productivity, low quality research works, and waste of time to pursue information and even to do research which actually others had done or in other countries. Nowadays IT cannot be separated with our daily needs.

IT has a great impact in our daily lives. For example, we can read our local newspaper using the online newspaper. Another example is we still can get connected with our family, relatives, or colleagues even if we are abroad by using the electronic mail, yahoo messenger, call conference, or video conference.IT has become an integral part of everyday life for many people. It increases its importance in people’s lives and it is expected that this trend will continue, to the extent that IT literacy will become a functional requirement for people’s work, social, and personal lives.The use of IT in education add value in teaching and learning, by enhancing the effectiveness of learning, or by adding a dimension to learning that was not previously available. IT may also be a significant motivational factor in students’ learning, and can support students’ engagement with collaborative learning.
   IT is one of the economic development pillars to gain national competitive advantage. It can improve the quality of human life because it can be used as a learning and education media, the mass communication media in promoting and campaigning practical and important issues, such as the health and social area. It provides wider knowledge and can help in gaining and accessing information.

Role of IT in organaizational developements
       Information technology has played a vital role in the development of the twenty first century. Either for making a statistical business model or organizational structure, IT has definitely increased the overall performance of the organization.Communication has improved a lot in this era. Before letters and postal cards were used to communicate but today an e-mail has replaced the time consuming procedures. An e-mail can reach to the receiver within seconds. While talking about telecommunication, trunk calls were used to make distant calls, but today, a simplified mobile software application can make your call easier and with no cost at all. All we need to do is to have an internet connection. Sharing any important document has been easier now than it used to be. An entire folder of organization data can be shared to large number of employees with no hassle.As application software has evolved from simplified nature to complex one, algorithms and data handling capacity has increased. Which further leads to have significant effect on the labor market. Even marketing policies are implemented through digital platforms. There are social media having huge number of users. Even a single post can create massive impact on strategic digital marketing. With all the online purchases going on, it’s important that banks and security keep tabs on everything to keep everyone safe. Information technology might just working its hardest with internet transactions. As more transactions are done, the internet requires more networks, more computers, and more security programs to keep its consumers safe. Without information technology, these purchases would be impossible, and it would be impossible for banks to keep these purchases secure.
   Information technology has also made it faster and easier than ever to send or receive money. It’s now also easier to open an online small business to sell whatever you might want. If you don’t want to have to file for a domain name, set up a website, and all the other steps required for registering an online business, you can use other websites like Amazon, eBay, and Etsy to sell things.Information technology also makes it easy for finance to function on a global level. In this modern age, your credit score and credit rating is available online securely. This allows lenders, insurance companies, and businesses to run a quick credit check on you making it far easier to open credit.
   Improvements in information technology have allowed for great reform in healthcare. Most medical offices can now send and receive digital medical information from doctors you’ve had in the past. Changes like this allow costs to be lowered and increase the amount of time doctors can spend on patients compared to paperwork.Security improvements with information technology have made it so that your medical information is secure no matter where it’s sent. You can even have prescriptions sent digitally to local pharmacies at most medical offices. You can read about the privacy of your online medical records from HHS. Learn about changes in the healthcare industry with an online class.Along with the changing the amount of paperwork required at your medical office, information technology has also updated the technology a doctor can use to diagnose or treat you. Using computerized axial tomography (CAT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, the doctor can use a computer to create detailed images of your organs along with creating ;images that show changes in your body chemistry and blood flow. This can be helpful to find illnesses that aren’t found with blood tests or other medical tests.
      With so many transactions done online and so much information available online, it’s important to keep all of that safe. Information technology makes it possible for your online data to stay secure until accessed by the proper channels. Using passwords and encryption, information technology hides your personal digital data away, and the only way it can be accessed is by companies who have permission from you.

Challenges in IT  
     Along with the creation of new and interesting jobs, information technology has also led to a rise in unemployment. By streamlining the business process, job redundancies, downsizing, and outsourcing has occurred. Many low and middle level jobs have been turned to other countries, leaving more people unemployed.
Many people also credit information technology with a lack of job security. As new technology is released and jobs require more and more training, it’s important for employees to stay in a learning mode in order to keep their job. Changes in technology make it difficult for older employees to adapt as quickly as their younger peers.
       Information technology continuously works on making things more secure, there is still a great lack of privacy. Cell phones have been known to be intercepted, and email addresses can be hacked. Just recently, the Heartbleed Bug created a vulnerability in the OpenSSL cryptographic software library, and many people were concerned for their internet security and privacy.
      It is also believed that along with opening a great communication window, information technology has begun to create a dominant culture. Many believe that the United States holds the most influence over how teenagers all over the world now act, dress, and behave simply because of what they can access online. English has slowly become the primary mode of communication for business and other communication areas.

*The siteswhich I reffered for this documentation are

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