TECH EDUCATION

What is IT (Information Technology)? Definition, Advantages & Disadvantages of IT (Essay)

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Definition of IT (Information Technology):

”Information-Technology (IT) – is the use of computers and other related electronic-devices to process, store, retrieve, transmit, manipulate and even secure data/information.”

Several industries have integrated Information-Technology infrastructures into their systems and these include; computer-hardware, software, electronics, internet-connections and a lot more.  On the other hand, today most companies have IT-departments which help in the management of  computers, networks and other technical-areas within. Additionally, there are several IT-jobs available today and these include; network-administration, computer-programming, computer-engineering, website-development, technical-support, software-developers and a lot more IT-related jobs. Information-Technology is also one of the fastest growing industries today and this is mainly because various organizations like governments, businesses and schools all want to automate their systems inorder to achieve more efficient and effective results at the workplace.

All in all, since we live in an information-era, information-technology has actually become part of our daily lives and its being used in every sector today because it offers a lot of advantages although it also comes with some drawbacks which will be explained in detail in this post.

Examples of Information Technology:

  • Telephones for voice-communication: the first example of IT is a telephone which uses transmission-equipment like switches or wireless-transmitters (network-boosters) to facilitate voice-communication. In fact, today telephones have greatly advanced in their functionalities whereby smartphones can now be used for internet-connections, GPS-tracking, playing-music and a lot more inorder to facilitate for effective and efficient communication.
  • Computers and related electronic-devices: today, computers can actually be used to run different programs, process data/information and even store data more conveniently and faster than never before. Additionally, computers can be used along with other electronic-devices like printers, audio-systems and a lot more inorder to carry out different tasks. Lastly, some computers can’t operate independently whereby they have to be connected with other peripheral-devices like keyboards, mice and a lot more inorder to achieve optimum functionality. However, with fast technological-advancements today there are a lot of computer-devices that have everything integrated inside and don’t need peripheral-devices like keyboards or mice to operate and these include; laptops, tablets, smartphones and a lot more.
  • Software: the other good example of IT is software. Computers can’t operate effectively without software. In fact, most computers run on operating-systems like; windows, Linux, android and a lot more whereby all these are softwares that facilitate for effective operation of a computer. On the other hand, there are also support software’s like word-processor and spreadsheets (excel) which help to automate office-tasks. All in all, a computer can’t operate without software and other related apps hence that’s why software is very crucial in the IT-industry.
  • Data networks: IT also involves the use of networks which help in effective transmission of information thus facilitating for effective communication while using computer-devices. In fact, these data-networks use communication-devices like servers, routers, bridges, hubs and wirings inorder to facilitate for effective transmission of data/information when using computer-devices like laptops, smartphones and a lot more.
  • Peripheral-devices: another great example of IT is peripheral-devices that can be directly connected onto computer-systems inorder to ensure effective performance. Old-computers required peripheral-devices like keyboards and mice to operate but laptops have all these peripheral-devices integrated within. On the other hand, there are also other peripheral-devices that can be connected to a computer inorder to transmit audio, collect video and graphic information and these include scanners, printers, digitizers and a lot more.
  • Video-conferencing equipment: These include computers, networks and other peripheral-devices like cameras to achieve effective results. In fact, today most computers (laptops) and smartphones are equipped with great features that facilitate for video-conferencing. All in all, video-conferencing has made communication between different companies or individuals very simple and effective than never before.
  • Radio communications networks: radios use networks to transmit or receive data and these networks can actually be digital or analog. However, analog technology was mostly used in the past and today most countries are using digital-technology for radio transmissions because it’s efficient and effective compared to analog-networks. In fact, with digital-networks you can streamline radio-content over the internet more efficiently than never before.
  • Internet-connectivity: the internet is actually a perfect example of IT because it allows different computer-devices to connect inorder to transfer, share and store information more effectively. In fact, the internet is the back-bone of IT today whereby most computer-devices won’t be able to accomplish all the required tasks without an internet-connection.
  • Automated computer-systems: these systems actually help to monitor different tasks within a company and then do what’s required automatically with less or no human-help. Some of these system include; information-systems which facilitate in the analysis-process, computer-apps like word-processor and excel which help in the creation and organization of data, automated-machines like robots which can be used in the manufacturing-process without human-labor and a lot more.
  • video and audio equipment: all video and audio equipment like TVs, radios, mp3-players, video-games and lot more are IT-equipments and they are actually based on IT-Infrastructures in-terms of hardware and software. In fact, any electronic-device that gives off sound or shows videos is categorized under information-technology.

 

Note: ”Almost everything which processes information falls under information-technology and today IT is almost in every aspect of our lives”

 

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Difference Between Information Technology & Information Systems:

Information systems (IS) and information technology (IT) are often used interchangeably by most people but in reality information-technology is just a subset of information-systems. In fact, information systems consist of process, people, machines and information-technology. However, the major advancements in information-systems have been brought about by developments in information-technology and the use of computers today. On the other hand, although both terms deal with computers, they actually have distinct characteristics and that’s why I’m going to explain these 2 terms in detail below.

  • Information-Technology (IT): IT can be defined as the study of designing, implementation, management and support of computer-based information-systems. In fact, IT includes the use of hardware, software, databases and networks while processing information/data. On top of that, Information-Technology also focuses on managing technology and improving on the way systems run within an organization. All in all, information-technology is a growing field that is offering people with a variety of job-options and long-term professional skills hence that’s why there are many IT-programs at universities today which help different students with interest in information-technology to improve on their skills and careers. However, you should remember that information-technology falls under information-systems and IT mainly deals with technology involved when using information-systems.
  • Information-systems: information-systems refer to the use of systems, people and process to create, manipulate, store and distribute information/data. In fact, information-systems help to bridge the gap between organizations and computer-systems. However, most people fail to distinguish between IS and IT because they assume that both terms are computer-based systems which is not right. In fact, an information-system can just be a simple pencil and piece-of-paper that is used to create information. On the other hand, today information-systems heavily rely on computer-based systems but this doesn’t mean that they don’t include non-technological systems. Likewise, today most universities are offering students with IS-programs which include programming, communications, computer-security, auditing, system-administration and a lot more.

 

Other Comparisons of Information-System and Information-Technology:

  • Information-systems have been in existence even before the introduction of computers when people used books, pens, drawings and a lot more. However, the origin of information-technology is actually associated with the introduction of computers and this makes IT just a subset of information-systems.
  • Information-systems have experienced a great deal of evolution form manual record-keeping to the current cloud-storage systems/technology. On the other hand, even information-technology has experienced a constant change but in terms of hardware-upgrades, software-upgrades and a lot more.
  • Information-technology is just a subset of information-systems – which means that information-technology has helped to improve on the efficiency and effectiveness of information-systems within organizations. This has actually led to an improvement in the productivity-levels and the way things are being run within a business.

Difference between Information Technology & Computer Science

Today, there are a lot of computer-careers to choose from especially for people interested in computer-science or information-technology. But before deciding on the computer-program to undertake, it is very important for you to first understand the difference between computer-science and information-technology. However, these terms may seem similar but in actual sense they are very different and require a different set of skills. In fact, information-technology involves installing internal-networks, computer-systems and some programming while computer-science is entirely focused on programming computers efficiently using mathematical algorithms. All in all, both information-technology and computer-science work in wider range of environments and even offer students with excellent careers which is a great thing.

  • Information-technology (IT): information-technology is the use of computer-systems, software and networks to process maintain and distribute data. In fact, IT-professionals use programs created by computer-programmers to solve business problems and to ensure practical-application of computers in daily life. It’s for this reason that information-technology has become part of every organization today whether it’s a small or large business. On the other hand, information-technology programs produce professionals like system-administrators, network-engineers, systems-analysts, programmers, Information-security analysts, Computer-support specialists, Database-administrators, technical-support specialists and system engineers. All in all, IT-professionals are more likely to interact with others either in person or via telephone and email services inorder to help solve technological problems.

 

  • Computer-Science (CS): Computer-science is the study of computer-designs, uses of computation, data-processing and systems-control. In fact, computer-science involves designing and developing all types of usable hardware and software like operating-systems, interactive-games and apps. On top of that, computer-science utilizes mathematical-algorithms or writing of computer-code inorder to generate the latest computer-technologies. The people who write these computer-codes are called computer-programmers and they mainly write code to develop new software-programs and it’s these programs that give instructions to your computer or mobile-device while operating. On the other hand, computer-science produces computer professionals like; software-developers, application-developers, Net-developers, Web-programmers, systems-engineers and software development engineers. All in all, computer-science is a great program for people interested in the science behind computers and their operating-systems but computer-science requires someone good at mathematics and interested in programming/coding inorder to achieve effective results.

 

Other Differences Between Information-Technology & Computer-Science:

  • Information-technology produces technology implementers and practitioners while computer-science produces technology designers and developers. This implies that computer-programmers develop the software/Apps and then IT-professionals will help to implement and maintain these software-programs.

 

  • IT-professionals use computer-systems, software and networks to process, maintain and distribute data/information so as to find technological-solutions for different organizations. On the other hand, computer-science professionals do the mechanics of computation (coding), process-data and even control computer-systems. In fact, programmers master the mathematical-algorithms required to write-code and even develop innovative computer-hardware, operating-systems and software-programs/Apps.

 

  • IT-professionals tend to interact with different people inorder help solve and improve on business problems while computer-science professionals are more independent because they require a lot of attention to develop complex-algorithms or write code. In fact, computer-science professionals are more interested in the science behind computers and their operating-systems.

 

  • A degree-program in IT mainly focuses on hardware-maintenance, networking, programming, systems installation and administration while a computer-science program focuses mainly on software-development, operating-systems, software-engineering, databases, network-systems and several programming languages.

 

All in all, both information-technology and computer-science programs have provided students with great careers today and that’s why most universities have already integrated these 2-programs into their curriculum.  On the other hand, information-technology works alongside with computer-science and this has brought about growth within computer-technologies thus changing the way we do business / communicate within our societies.

45 Advantages of Information Technology:

Today, we live in an information-age whereby it has become part of our daily lives and this has highly impacted our societies, businesses, education-systems and healthcare. In the past decade there has a been a rapid change in information-technology and it is even expected to continue changing in the future thus making life in our societies a lot different. Below are some of the advantages of using information-technology in society, business, education and healthcare:

 

IN SOCIETY:

  1. Improved communication: In the past, people used to make long-distance call, sent and received mails via post-centers and later started using internet-cafes to send and receive emails. However, today technology has dramatically changed the way people communicate whereby people now use instant-chats, social-networks, live-streaming services and lot more to communicate with whoever they wish globally faster, efficiently and cheaply. In fact, today almost every person is equipped with a mobile-phone or Smartphone and this actually facilitates for convenient and efficient communication with friends or family at any time of the day no matter their location around the globe. Additionally, online networks like facebook, twitter, whatsapp and a lot more now enable people to communicate in real-time with their loved ones around the world but at a small cost as long as they have access to the internet.
  2. Creation of new jobs: information technology has led to the creation of new job-opportunities in our communities – due to the increasing demand of IT-professionals in different sectors. In fact, different sectors like; health, businesses, education and government all require IT-professionals at a certain point inorder to help manage their information and computer systems thus leading to a creation of several IT-jobs. On the other hand, many people today are showing interest in IT-jobs like computer-programming, software-development, systems-analysis, hardware development and maintenance, website-designing and a lot more thus leading to development of different societies.

 

  1. Globalization: Information-technology has helped to connect different societies around the world. In fact, with information-technology people from different societies can share information quickly and efficiently no matter their location around the globe. On top of that, information-technology has also helped to bring down language-barriers and geographic-boundaries whereby this has enabled different societies around the world to easily share ideas and information with each other thus leading to economic development.

 

  1. Easy access to global markets: Information-technology enables people from different societies to gain access to global-markets through the use of the internet. For example, today people can easily access different online-stores like Amazon, eBay and a lot more through the internet no matter their location around the world. This has actually helped people to gain access to products and services that were hard to find in the old days thus leading to an improvement in the standards of living in our communities.

 

  1. Improved trade between businesses from different societies: with information-technology, the selling and buying of goods/services is no longer restricted by time and distance. This means that companies form different parts of the world can now interconnect and trade with others. In fact, today some local businesses within our societies already have access to the internet and this actually helps to improve on their customer-base thus leading to increased sales than never before.

 

  1. Easy access to news: Today, information-technology has revolutionized the ways in which news is broadcasted/communicated whereby people can easily receive news from different parts of world in real-time by simply using the internet. In fact, today it takes just a few seconds for people from different societies around the world to gain access to breaking news online.

 

  1. Improved entertainment within societies: Information-technology through the use internet on smartphones, laptops, iPods and other devices has given people unlimited access to various entertainment-platforms. People no longer have to wait for night-shows or special-telecasts but instead they can purchase or download movies, music, games and even TV-shows more conveniently. This has actually led to a great improvement in the way people entertain themselves within different communities thus leading to an improvement in the standards of living.

 

  1. Improved dating through dating websites: with the use of information-technology within our societies today, people can easily date using dating websites. On top of that, social-media platforms like facebook, whatsapp, twitter and a lot more have enabled various people to date while online thus leading to a creation of various relationships within different communities. In fact, today people from different communities can easily date online because the internet removes geographical boundaries and it also smooth-ens the communication process.

 

  1. Cost-effective services: with information-technology, people from different societies now have access to cheap internet services like communication, online-studying, online-advertisement and a lot more. This has actually led to the development of different societies around the world because IT ensures increased productivity but with less costs.

 

  1. It enables people with disabilities to gain access to information: every society has disabled-people and information-technology has enabled such people to easily gain access to information and even communicate with each other within the community. Disabled people like the blind, deaf and those with physical-abilities now have different technologies that enable them to see, hear, read, communicate and even gain access to information conveniently than never before. In fact, computer-devices and advanced software’s have given disabled people a chance to compete with able bodied people.

 

IN BUSINESS:

  1. Easy storage of business-information: Information-technology provides businesses with different electronic-storage options inorder to protect all the important information of the company. In fact, today businesses use storage-systems like cloud-servers, virtual-vaults and hard-disks to safe guard important business information and this data can only be accessed by authorized individuals. On the other hand – electronic-storage media allows employees to easily access, manipulate and store information which is a great thing. Lastly, today businesses are capable of storing large amounts of data/information at once because of the in the advancements in information-technology.

 

  1. Automation of different processes within a business: Information-technology enables businesses to automate certain tasks inorder to increase on productivity and efficiency. In fact, some manufacturing companies have already integrated automated machines/robots which help in the production process thus eliminating the need for human-labor. On top of that, some businesses use advanced software in the accounting and finance departments’ which reduce on human errors and labor-costs. This has enabled companies to maximize on their productivity-levels but with reduced costs. However, this has led to a rise in unemployment levels today hence affecting the standards of living of some people today.

 

  1. Improved security within business: With the use information-technology within businesses, there has been a great improvement in security whereby now most companies have integrated surveillance-systems like security cameras which monitor business-premises all the time. On top of that, some businesses also have information-security systems which help to protect company-information from being hacked or wiped-out during unwanted uncertainties. So, some businesses use advanced IT storage-services like; cloud-servers, virtual-vaults and a lot more to secure client and company information from dangerous users of the company network.

 

  1. It enables businesses to operate remotely (Globalization): Information-technology actually enables businesses to operate remotely all over the world through the use of company electronic-networks. In fact, this enables company-employees to work from anywhere they like without going to offices. On the other hand, even companies can easily promote their products/services remotely thus leading to an increase in productivity levels than never before. Lastly, some multi-national companies like Amazon, Google and a lot more use cloud-based services to manage their virtual offices and staff all over the world which is a great thing.

 

  1. It connects different businesses in the global-market: Information-technology has made it possible for companies to achieve business-to-business (B2B) relations in the global-market over the internet. In fact, this enables different business to market themselves and even carryout out trade-deals with each other more conveniently and efficiently.

 

  1. Information-technology facilitates for multi-tasking within a business: With the integration of information-technology within a business, employees will be able to carry out multiple tasks at once thus leading to increased productivity but with reduced human-labor. For example, technology can enable a manager to control different departments within a company more efficiently by use of a computer network which transfers information through out the organization. On the other hand – multi-tasking within businesses has led to a rise in unemployment levels today because technology has already replaced most of the jobs that were done by people in the past like secretaries, accountants and a lot more.

 

  1. It facilitates for quick and accurate processing of information/data: information-technology actually facilitates for quick and easy processing of information/data within business. In fact, today companies use powerful computer and servers coupled with advanced software’s like spreadsheets, database-programs, word-processors and several analysis-tools to help employees complete their task more conveniently than never before.

 

  1. Improved communication with businesses: communication is actually very essential within the business-world and information-technology actually provides companies with the resources needed to communicate efficiently and effectively. In fact, today businesses use IT-services like emails, video-conferencing, internal chat-rooms, text-messaging platforms and a lot more inorder to effectively communicate with employees and clients.

 

  1. Increased efficiency and effectiveness of employees within a business: information-technology actually used streamlined work-flow systems and share-storage platforms to increase on efficiency within businesses thus allowing employees to process larger amounts of data/work in a limited period of time than never before. In fact, IT-systems help to automate routine business-tasks inorder to make data analysis easier and store information in a form whereby it can be retrieved easily for future reference. Lastly, information-technology even allows company-employees to easily connect with clients’ inorder to answer their questions through the use of emails, chatting-sessions, phone-calls and a lot more in real-time thus making business more efficient and productive.

 

  1. It enables businesses to achieve a competitive-advantage over rivals: the integration of information-technology resources actually allows businesses to achieve and maintain a competitive-advantage over its rivals in the same market. In fact, companies can use information technology to create new products/services, get new markets and to enhance on their customer-services thus leading to competitive-advantage over their rivals in the long-run. On the other hand, information-technology also allows companies to reduce on operation-costs but with increased productivity thus enabling companies to maximize on the profits they make.

 

  1. Improved decision-making within a business: information-technology through the use of the internet to make online-surveys, research, forums, group-discussions, online meeting/conferences and a lot more enables businesses to make the right decisions. In fact, online-platforms like Google-analytics and Microsoft CRM dynamics help businesses to extract useful information which can be of great use in the decision-making process.

 

  1. Improved marketing of products/services (digital-marketing): digital-marketing is actually a modern way of promoting company products and services online all over the world. In fact, digital-marketing involves things like social-media marketing, Google-adverts, mobile-App marketing and other online-marketing services. So, today most businesses are using digital-marketing to promote their products/services all over the globe and this as actually led to the rise of small-businesses than never before.

 

  1. Improved customer support and satisfaction: business success actually depends on knowing customer trends, needs, satisfaction-levels and behaviors whereby this can only be achieved through real-time customer-support over the internet. In fact, effective communication with clients is the way customer demands, issues and their solutions. So, information-technology through the use of internet-services has enabled businesses to communicate with existing customers in real-time and some of these online-services include; emails, social-media platforms, telephone, text and chatting platforms and a lot more. Lastly, some organizations even use customer relationship management systems (CRM) to store valuable customer-information so as to understand customer behavior and future-needs.

 

IN EDUCATION:

  1. Easy access to updated educational content/information: information-technology actually makes it very easy to gain access to updated academic information/data by both teachers and students. In fact, both teachers and students use information-technology to acquire and even exchange educational content which makes education very efficient and effective than never before. For example, teachers can use computers and internet-connection to provide visual and audio classes to their students and this actually makes it possible for students to have lectures without being in a physical-classroom. Additionally, teachers can also assign courseworks and other educational-tasks to students via emails or school-websites. this has actually changed the way students learn and the way teachers conduct lessons today thus making education more fun than never before.
  2. It facilitates for full-time learning: information-technology actually facilitates for full-time learning whereby students can now access educational-content at any time of the day whether at school or not. In fact, in the past learning was limited to only physical-classrooms whereby students and teachers could only access educational-information while at school but this has been changed by the great advancements in technology today.
  3. It facilitates for online-studying: information-technology has actually facilitated for online-education whereby students from different locations around the world can now study the courses while using their computers and internet-connectivity. This has given different students a chance to gain access to high-quality education no-matter their location around the world. In fact, this gives different students a chance to compete with others fairly in the job-markets no-matter their location. Lastly, online-studying is very convenient, flexible and cheap compared to going to school physically and it even enables people are working to get a chance to learn during their free-time.
  4. Instant access to educational content/information: information-technology actually facilitates for quick transfer and distribution of educational-information. In fact, today students can easily gain access to academic-information while using computers coupled with an internet-connection and there are also several educational-Apps which can be used by students to access educational-content quickly than never before. On top of that, today students can even download e-books, educational-tutorials and a lot more at any time while using their computers or smartphones and this actually enables them to make research and read about new things from anywhere.
  5. It facilitates for group-learning: information-technology also encourages students to learn in groups through the use of academic-forums or websites where students can discuss about different topics without any fear for expression. Additionally, students and teachers can also achieve group-discussions through video-conferencing and text-chatting whereby this even gives shy students a chance to express themselves and share their ideas about a particular topic. On the other hand, group-learning through the use information-technology also gives a chance to students from schools to participate and share educational-information.
  6. It provides students with audio and visual illustrations: the use of audio-clips and visual-illustrations actually helps students to learn new things faster and easily than in the past. In fact, audio-visual education makes learning more interesting and interactive than using textbooks and blackboard-notes hence this is the main reason as to why students today have a high retention-rate than students from the past generations. All in all, most students tend to understand new educational-concepts quickly with either the use of audio-clips or visual-illustrations compared to text or notes and this has led to production of more creative and innovative people today.
  7. It makes teaching easier: information-technology actually enables teachers to present tough-concepts more clearly inorder for every student to understand while in classroom. This actually possible through the use of audio-visual presentations which provide students with practical examples thus leading to improvement in their retention-rates while at school. All in all, the use projectors and computer-presentation to conduct lessons will help to improve on the way students learn new things while in classroom and that’s why its recommended for schools to implement technology into classrooms inorder generate more creative students.
  8. It makes tracking student’s-progress easier: today, teachers can use different technological tools or software to keep track of student’s progress at school. In fact, there are also different online-tools like “MyStudentsProgress” which enable teachers track the progress of all their students and some schools have even acquired personalized software that can be used to track both student and teachers performance at school.
  9. It reduces on educational-costs: with the use of information-technology, schools no-longer have to buy and fill their libraries with expensive textbooks to be used by teachers and students. In fact, some schools have already introduced digital textbooks that can be accessed and downloaded by teacher and students through a school network/website hence saving schools a lot of money. Additionally, teachers can also provide students with online-tests and homework and then tell them to submit their work through email thus eliminating the need for any paperwork like in the past.
  10. It promotes collaboration and communication at school: there are actually several online tools and Apps that enable students and teachers to engage in group discussion and projects even when not in a classroom-setting. Additionally, the use of chatting-platforms and educational-Apps helps to improve on communication between students especially when carrying out a group-discussion. All in all, information-technology through the use of the internet has led to great improvement in the schools provide education and in the way students learn new things.
  11. It helps to broaden students’ minds: with the use of information-technology in education, students get a chance to gain access to new things which may not be taught in the classroom. So, this has led to the production of more creative and innovative people who have led economic development and changed the way people live today.
  12. It connects students and parents: the use of certain technologies at school like cell-phones actually allows parents to connect with children while at school and this actually provides parents with peace of mind since they can easily communicate emergencies with their children when at school.
  13. It prepares students for the future job-markets: the use of information-technology in schools actually prepares students for the future job-markets which are full of technological-advancements. In fact, in this century are computer-skills are very essential for someone to survive and succeed in the competitive and technological job-market. All in all, integrating technology into education will helps to prepare students for their future and even set them for the increasing digital-economy.

 

IN HEALTH CARE:

  1. IT reduces on paperwork in hospitals: information-technology through the use of an electronic health record system (EHR) helps to reduce on the amount of paperwork done when at the hospital. In fact, the clipboard and new-patient questionnaires are still being used today but with fast technological-advancements they won’t last for long. Additionally, today hospital that use electronic-health-record systems can store all patient information digitally and this implies that id a patient goes back again for any treatment he/she won’t have to fill any forms thus reducing on time and paperwork which favors both patients and doctors.
  2. IT helps doctors to monitor patients and even ensure their safety: information-technology through the use of electronic-health-record systems can help doctors and nurses to easily monitor their patients while in the hospital most especially if an emergency arises. For example, an electronic-health-record system can alert a doctor incase another doctor already prescribed a drug to a particular patient. Additionally, electronic-health-record systems also help to warn care-providers if they try to prescribe a drug that may cause complications.
  3. Technology helps to protect patients-information: information-technology through the use of electronic-health-record systems helps to secure patients information away from the hands of wrong people. Additionally, an EHR-system enables the right people to gain access to accurate medical-information of patient’s inorder to make the right decision especially during an emergency.
  4. IT reduces on unnecessary procedures and tests: with information-technology through the use of electronic-health-record systems, patients no longer have to repeat any medical tests incase these tests are required by a particular doctor yet they were carried-out by another doctor. So, with electronic-health-record systems doctors and care-providers can easily gain access to all the patient test-results and records thus reducing on the need to make unnecessary or repeated tests on patients whereby such tests can be costly and time-wasting.
  5. IT facilitates for easy access to your health-records: with the use of information-technology in hospitals, patients will be able to gain direct-access to their health-information over the internet and this can be possible through the use of electronic-health-record systems in hospitals. In fact, the patient’s direct-access to their health-information helps them to keep track of health-status which is a great thing. Lastly, this access to medical-information may also allow the patients to communicate directly with their health-care providers if need arises.
  6. IT ensures financial-benefits within healthcare: studies show that the implementation of information-technology in healthcare in-terms of electronic-record-systems into big-hospitals within USA has helped the government to save a lot of money in a period of years. In fact, it was estimated that about 50-percent of healthcare-finances received by patients where wasted due to inefficient processes within hospitals but this has gradually changed with integration of information-technology into hospitals.
  7. Faster lab-results: with the use information-technology in hospitals today, 75% of laboratory-clinicians claim to have received lab-results faster than never before. This has actually helped to reduce on the time that patients spend while waiting for lab-results thus leading to an improvement in the health-services are provided today.
  8. IT saves time: most healthcare professionals like doctors claim that electronic-prescriptions and appointments with patients help to save-up a lot of time and even reduce of their effort required to physically attend to patients. On the other hand, the use of information-technology in different departments on hospitals also helps patients to receive faster medical-attention especially when there is an emergency.
  9. Improved research within healthcare: the use of information-technology in healthcare has enabled health-professional to make research on various medical-issues with the help of the internet and this has actually enabled them to explore new treatments and medicines to diseases that to heal in the old-days. In fact, there are also a lot of advanced technological-tools today that enable health-experts to treat people with various chronic diseases like cancer, brain-diseases and a lot more. On the other hand, even patients can make online-research inorder to learn about different methods of treating a particular disease and this at times eliminates the need to consult a health-professional thus saving patients a lot of time and money.

 

23 Disadvantages of Information Technology:

 

IN SOCIETY:

  • Increase in unemployment levels within societies: although information-technology has helped to improve the way we live and do things today, it has also led to a rise in unemployment-levels due to downsizing and outsourcing carried out by different companies in our societies. In fact, information-technology has eliminated most of the lower and middle-level jobs thus causing a lot of people in out societies unemployed.
  • Increased privacy-issues in society: although information-technology has brought about an improvement in the way we communicate today, it has also led to an increase in privacy-issues within our societies whereby today cell-phone signals can be easily intercepted and emails can be hacked inorder to extract information from people. This has actually made people worried about their private-life becoming public which is not good for the society.
  • It has led to one-culture dominance over different societies: although information-technology has helped to make the world a global-village, it has also led to one-culture dominating the weaker-cultures which is not a great thing for the rising generations in different cultures. For example, today the USA-cultures highly influence the way most young-people all over the world act, dress and behave. Additionally, most native languages form different societies have also become overshadowed by English because it has become the primary-mode of communication for almost anything like business all over the world.
  • It has disconnected people living in the same societies: although information technology has greatly improved on the way people communicate today, it has also helped to disconnect different people living the same environment whereby today most people spend most of their time on computers and cell-phones instead of going out with friends. In fact, today it’s very hard for some people to make new friends in the society that they are living in because they spend most of their time computers and cell-phones. All in all, technology has led to an increase in break-ups and loneliness amongst people living in the same societies today.
  • Technology is addictive: once people start using information-technology services like social-networks they tend to get addicted to using these services and this has actually made different youth unproductive because they spend most of their time of social-networks hence affecting the development of our societies in the long-run.
  • It has led to the development of destructive-weapons: information-technology has been actually used to create destructive-weapons which have been used by different governments to destroy different communities around the world like in Iraq, Syria, Libya, etc.
  • It’s a time-waster: some people in our societies actually spend a lot of valuable time using irrelevant technology-services like social-networks and chatting-platforms. In fact, the use of such technological-services has made some people incompetent and useless within the society.

 

IN BUSINESS:

  • High implementation and maintenance costs: integrating information-technology into business is actually very expensive whereby some small-businesses can’t afford integrating technology into their systems and this implies that they will end up losing their clients to businesses with improved technology-systems since they tend to provide better services and products. On the other hand, technology requires regular maintenance which can also be costly and this implies that only large-businesses may afford certain technological-tools. Lastly, some new-technologies may also require a company to train its employee’s inorder to achieve effective results.
  • Increased security-issues within businesses: businesses that have integrated information-technology into their systems actually store their data/information on internal-servers or remote cloud-servers which can easily be accessed by wrong people within the company, hackers and viruses whereby this puts businesses on a high risk of losing important information/data.
  • It disconnects employees while at work: businesses that use information-technology actually tend to face a problem of disconnected employees since they tend to use text and instant messages, telephones and a lot more to communicate whereby this eliminates the need to meet physically inorder to discuss about important tasks while at the workplace. In fact, most employees today tend to spend most of their time chatting with online-friends instead of workmates and this somehow affects the productivity-levels of businesses in the long-run.
  • Increased distractions in business (workplace): information-technology actually causes a lot of distractions in businesses which include system-failures and other interruptions like email-alerts, instant-messaging alerts, constant phone-call, etc. In fact, some employees within a business tend to spend most of their time on social-networks and chatting-platforms like facebook, whatsapp, twitter and ding other things like playing online-games, listening to music and watching videos whereby this affects their productivity-levels while at work thus affecting the performance of most businesses today.

 

IN EDUCATION:

  • Easy access to inappropriate content by students: the biggest concern of using information-technology in education is the increased access to inappropriate content like pornography, violet-information and a lot more by students. In fact, this can cause serious issues if such content is shared with other students within the classroom.
  • Increased laziness amongst students: information-technology through the use of computerized-devices and the internet actually makes it easy for students to find answers and this has actually led an increase in laziness amongst students because they don’t have read or make intensive-research like in the past. All in all, integrating information-technology into education has resulted into poor studying-habits and increased laziness amongst learners today.
  • It disconnects students and teachers: the use of information-technology in form of online-studying ahs actually led to a physical disconnection between students and teachers. On the other hand, even the use of information-technology at school disconnects students while in a classroom-environment because every students will be learning using their computerized-device. In fact, some students today are addicted to social-networks and they tend to spend most of their time chatting with their online-friends than talking to their fellow classmates.
  • Increased cyberbullying in schools: with the use of information-technology in education, there has been an increase in cyberbullying at schools whereby some students use internet-services like social-networks and lot more to harass or bully fellow students.
  • Increased cheating in education: information technology can actually become a big-problem most especially in an exam or test-taking environment because some students tend to sneak in with cell-phones into exam-room for cheating purposes. Additionally, it’s very hard to monitor people taking exams online and the fact is that online-exams can be easily cheated.
  • Information-technology causes distractions in the classroom: with the use information-technology tools in the classroom, students are more likely to get distracted by several things like playing games, watching-videos, listening to music, chatting with friends and lot more during lessons. This greatly affects the concentration-levels of students thus leading to a decline in their performance in the long-run.
  • It’s expensive to integrate technology into schools: integrating advanced technologies into classrooms is actually expensive and this implies that only high-quality schools will be able to integrate technological-tools into their classrooms. In fact, it’s very difficult for a public-school to integrate technological-tools into its classrooms because it costly and even requires maintenance and upgrades. On the other hand, schools that allow students to come with their own laptops and cell-phones to schools are also facing a problem because some parents can’t afford to provide such technological-tools to their kids.
  • Technology hinders basic-skills amongst students: information-technology automates almost everything whereby students today use different technologies to solve difficult-questions instead of learning and understanding. For example, students use calculators to solve complex math-algorithms instead of learning and understanding how to solve such algorithms. In fact, technology, has greatly affected students-ability to solve problems when learning.

 

IN HEALTH CARE:

  • It’s expensive to implement in hospitals: integrating advanced technological-tools into hospitals can be very expensive whereby only a few high-quality hospitals can afford to acquire advanced diagnostic and treatment machines. In fact, smaller hospitals won’t be able to afford integrating advanced technological-tools and this implies that only a few people today can gain access to advanced technological treatments.
  • It requires costly upgrades and maintenance: using information-technology in hospitals is a great thing but it requires regular software and hardware upgrades which are very costly. On top of that, technology even requires maintenance at some point inorder to ensure that all the hardware and software is operating normally but this also requires a lot of money. So, it’s only a few advanced hospitals that are capable of upgrading and maintaining their technological-tools inorder to provide patients with high-quality health-services but this comes at price on the side of the patients.
  • It requires training of health-professionals: since information-technology is always evolving, this implies that hospitals will have to make regular software and hardware upgrades whereby these require well trained people. So, hospitals will have to train health-professionals on how to use new technological hardware and software inorder to achieve effective results. However, these trainings can be costly on the side of the hospital and they actually have to do them inorder to achieve effective healthcare results.
  • Over-dependency on technology by health-professionals: some health-professionals tend to become over-reliant on technology and even forget to interact with their patients and this is not a good thing especially when making diagnosis.

Starting A Career In Information Technology

Information-technology is actually a fast-growing sector and this implies that it requires more people (IT-experts), computers and networks to operate efficiently. So, if you really want to start a career in information-technology then you may need to take some time inorder to get certified in any IT-course but in this article I’m going to provide you with some of the basic steps that you can follow inorder to start a successful career in information-technology.

 

Section-1: Focus On Your Interests:

  1. Determine if you’re suitable for IT: IT involves a lot of puzzles and experimentation whereby this makes it suitable for people who love solving problems. Additionally, IT also requires people who can work independently when it comes to solving problems and this actually implies that if you’re not good at problem-solving and can’t even work independently then consider not going for an IT-career.
  2. Identify your IT passions and work on them: IT is actually a broad sector and it’s for this reason that you should focus on IT-fields that your most interested in. for example, if you love games then consider going for IT computer-gaming careers which involve, developing games, testing games, gaming customer-support and a lot more.
  3. Focus basing on your work-style: there are actually a lot of IT-jobs out there but they all fall into 3-categories which include; consultancy, project-management and development. So, you will need to choose from any of these categories basing on your personality of work-style.
  4. Connect with the right IT-people: several IT-experts love to assist people and this implies that if you really want to start a career in information-technology then you will need to connect with a friend who is good in IT inorder to learn about the basics in selected IT-field. All in all, you should find a role-model in the IT-sector and then try to connect with them inorder to get to know about certain things.

 

Section-2: How to Get Educated And Certified In Information-Technology:

  1. Consider evaluating your existing degrees and certifications: most IT-positions prefer people with some sort of higher education-experience and this implies that you need to have a certificate in any IT-course or even a bachelor’s degree in IT, computer-science, software-engineering and a lot more inorder to achieve a successful IT-career. However, if you don’t have any certificate of degree in IT then you may consider going for an IT-course inorder to startup career in IT.
  2. Consider reviewing self-taught skills: the more knowledge you get in the IT-field, the more experience and income you will get. So, try to consider upgrading on the skills that you have learnt outside the classroom by going for a certification inorder to improve on your IT-career in a particular field.
  3. Search for IT educational-opportunities: basing on your desired career-path, current educational/professional experience and amount of free-time, try to look into different institutions that offer IT-programs inorder to figure-out what suits you best. In fact, you should consider looking at the entry requirements for each IT-program inorder to determine whether they favor you before you begin studying. However, you should know that there isn’t a single educational-path to an IT-career because Information-Technology is broad and any program associated to it may take you about a few months to 4-years to complete.
  4. Consider looking into IT professional-certifications: even without a bachelors degree in any IT-program, an MCSE or Certification in can help you get a successful IT-career. so, try to figure-out the best IT-certifications by simply researching on different IT-programs and then choose a program that is popular in your field and country inorder to stay updated in that program. For example you may consider getting certified in a popular programming-language like java inorder to achieve a successful IT-career.
  5. Go for an internship in a good IT-department: work-experience is very essential when building an IT-career and that’s why its recommended for IT-students to get an internship in reputable-company inorder to build a great network and even learn new IT-skills that can’t be taught in the classroom. On the other hand, most IT-internships are paid and this is a great thing because it motivates the learners.
  6. Try applying for a job after studying a particular IT-program: in case you have completed a particular IT-program, consider creating a resume inorder to help you apply for a full-time IT-job. In fact, your resume should emphasize things like your working-experience, IT-certifications and a lot more then take this resume to different companies inorder to try-out your luck. Likewise, you can even post your resume on job-search network/site like; LinkedIn, monster, freelancer and a lot more inorder to increase on your chances of getting a better IT-job.
  7. Go for an interview if called by any company: if your resume was great then consider being invited for your first IT-interview in any given company. In fact, IT-interviews can be very stressing but you can pass them with some preparation, focus and confidence. So, consider doing some revision a night before the interview and also remember to show-up on time and well-dressed for best results.

 

REFERENCES:

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Vanilla Farmer, Amazon Retailer & Tech Researcher. Yosaki is my personal blog but I'm working on some big tech project back doors. I will keep on posting various topics on things I have knowledge about.

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