Monday, 20 October 2008

Activity 3

Activity 3

Access To Digital Technology


Name: Jane Winterberry
Age: 68


Q. What example of technology do you use in a normal day?
A. In a normal day I use my sky plus to record TV whilst im at bingo on a Thursday night, I do my banking over the phone. I also ‘try’ to use a mobile phone to text my granddaughter which takes me quite along time to figure out.

Q. Who was it that introduced you to the new technology?
A. It was originally my daughter who introduced me to digital television and to do my banking over the phone as this enables me to do it from home, at first I wasn’t sure because I didn’t think it was safe, but im now glad she showed me how to do it. My granddaughter also introduced me to mobile phones as she grew up and wanted to keep in touch with me all the time.

Q. What things would you like to be able to do with the use of technology?
A. Me and my husband used to go to the cinema quite often, but since were getting old; it’s harder to get there so often, we would like to be able to view new films from home. Because we are not that familiar with using the internet, we cannot do home shopping, so, therefore we would like to be able to do it over the phone some how, or a much more simple website to use.

Activity 2

Activity 2


In the real world, it is reflected that more boys than girls take computer related subjects at school and other learning facilities. This is proven right at abbeyfield school where in my AS ICT class there 10 boys to only 4 girls.

I wanted to show that this is not only the case in Northampton so I asked my friend who is also taking ICT to count the boy to girl ratio in his ICT class. This school is in Nottingham and there are 18 boys to only 7 girls in there GCSE ICT class.


After seeing these results from two different schools, from two completely different parts of the country (although these results aren’t that reliable because it is not a broad test across the whole country)
As jobs across the whole of the world are becoming more and more dependant on computers, this is a massive disadvantage to girls to be able to get a job in the future and therefore means that few girls will have jobs using this ever increasing technology.

Activity 1

Internet Access For The Homeless.


If a homeless person does have access to the internet, they will have the following advantages:


The ability to get information about government grants to help homeless people. If a homeless person can access this information they would then be able to apply for money that can be used to pay for accommodation, this then leads the person to be able to apply for work.

The ability to use online education services, this enables the person to have better job prospects by having a better education.

The ability to get onto social networking pages to get/keep in touch with friends and family. This could also lead to their friends or family offering them housing or a job.


The ability to get information about medical advice by using the NHS website to arrange medical advice.


Finally, the ability to find out about the benefits of visiting shelters, soup kitchens and other places for homeless people where they can get advice on health care, use shower facilities and even meet new people in the same position as them.




If a homeless person does not have access to the internet, they will have the following problems:


They will not have the ability to gain information about the services that are available to them. For example, the places that are available to them to get a free hot meal or somewhere to wash. These are things that can make a homeless persons day much better if they are available to use.

They will not have the ability to keep up with news and information about potential jobs. This will be a struggle for the homeless person to find a job.

Lastly, they will not be able to use email to keep in touch with friends and family because phones cost money that a homeless person just cannot afford.
Here are five things that I believe are more important to have than the internet to a homeless person and reasons why.


People who live on the streets need to be healthy, otherwise they would become very ill.

For people who live on the streets, friends are like the family that they don’t have anymore.

Without food a homeless person would die after a few months if they were in good health, a lot shorter living on the streets.

If a homeless person has somewhere to live they are then able to apply for jobs.

A homeless person needs money to survive, some places do offer free services, but most places require ever increasing prices.

Monday, 13 October 2008

International Digital Divide

In the less economically developed countries (LEDC) such as the countries in Africa there is a growing population of people being able to use the advantages of technology. In Africa only 3% of the whole population, which is 922,011,000 have the access to a main phone line. Because of this tiny amount having access to a phone line, a lesser amount will have the access to internet, this 1.6% of the whole country, and Africa is over 25 times bigger than UK!

If we compare the amount of mobile phone owners in Africa than the amount of people that have access to a main phone line, it is more than double at 6.1%. But, if we break Africa down into two parts, Northern and Southern. Southern Africa has a higher percentage across the board, in the amount of people that have access to a main phone line, mobile phone and internet. Southern Africa is considered the ‘richer’ part of Africa; they have more than double the amount of people who have access to internet.

This is a lot lower when compared with a more economically developed country (MEDC) such as UK. In the UK 57% of the whole population have access to the internet. That is an 11% increase in 4 years. This could be down to the UK household capital per person is higher. This allows them to be able to afford the equipment required to access the internet more easily.