Global Divide

Digital Divide


The Digital Divide refers to the automatic and easily recognized contrasts between different groups. This refers to whether or not they have access to the knowledge of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) or even if they can use the information. The Digital Divide is withing different countries and would consist of individuals, households, businesses and geographical areas.

There are three main Digital Divides: Global, Local and Bridging. I will be talking about these three in more detail.


Rich and Poor


This literally is the statement that you either have money, or you don't and so that you therefore do not have the technology. This is the main divide, this is because without having money to buy the technology you simply can't afford it and the latest technology is increasing in price because it is so high tech.


Urban and Rural


Urban - "the urban popularity"
Rural - "remote rural areas"


This basically mean that you live on the country side or in the city. And dependent on this you will be more likely to have internet connection. If you live in the country you will be likely to have bad WiFi reception whereas if you were to live in the country you would be likely to have a relatively good WiFi reception, this is because in the city they are more developed and it is expected to have internet connection.


Educated and Uneducated


This is the statement of whether or not you are educated with technology or not. The majority of the country will be highly likely to be 'educated' this is because we have grown up with the usage of the internect so we have become acustomed to the technology. However if you live in a county that having a WiFi connection is not likely then you will be labeled 'uneducated' as you do not know you're way around a computer.


Global Divide


The "global digital divide" is essentially a geographical division. The digital divide is a term used to describe the differences that countries have which either have access to the internet, or don’t.There are three main global divides which are: rich and poor, urban and rural and educated and uneducated.


Examples of Global Divide would be things such as:

• Internet Cafes
• Mobile Phones
• ECommerce
• Shipping Goods

All of these things will be found in the UK and will in fact be an expected thing and we would take all of these things for granted as we have had these things for years. However there are countries that are not accustomed to things such things as they do not have the facilities or the money to do so. However the servers in which we need when we are using computer technologies are situated in India.

Local Divide

The Local Divide is referring to the speed of the internet and the comparisons across the country meaning that in the same country there will be people who will have a better and faster connection than someone else, who is in the same country. As well as the speed of internet comparisons the Local Divide also refers to the resources you have as some people will be able to afford a higher priced piece of technology whereas another might only be able to afford a standard piece of technology, if any at all.

Because technology is increasingly being used, for simple tasks such as homework, it is extremely important to have a computer as well as an internet connection because a lot of homework now-a-days, will be set and the resources that the pupils will need will be found on the internet, so without the use of the internet simple tasks such as homework won't be able to be done. Where some people will only be able to afford a computer and a stable dial up connection there are people who will earn a lot more who are able to afford a laptop as well as a WiFi, which would enable them to be portable when working, whereas if you have a computer and a dial up you would have to stay in one place, other wise you will lose your connection.

Advantages of the Local Divide:

• The ways in which people used to find out information will still be used
• We wouldn't become dependent on technology

Disadvantages of the Local Divide:

• We are becoming dependent on technology
• Because people don't earn enough they don't get the chance to use the technologies
• A divide is formed simply because you don't earn enough

I am lucky enough to go to a school that has been funded so that it can become an IT school. This has enables be to become accustomed to using technology, especially as the subject that i do are very computer based subjects, without the use of technology i wouldn't be able to do the simple tasks that i do, including homework. 

Roughly, my school has 800 computers which the pupils within the school are able to use and do in many of their lessons. Technology is always changing and we are constantly having to keep up to date with the latest updates. If you don't keep up to date with the latest technology you will soon become computer illiterate and will not be able to use the technology.

Bridging The Divide

Because there are people who aren't up to scratch with technology there are people who chose to help them, to become up to scratch with technology, to enable them to get computers and even just to help them learn how to use computers. My school has recently sent off computers which used to be used in my school to Africa as they are a county who are computer illiterate as they have not got the chance to learn how to use computers.

Tesco Vouchers

In recent years the supermarkets such as Tescos have been giving out computer vouchers which your school will collect and they will then be able to get more computers. The way in which this works is that when you spend over a certain amount in Tescos you get vouchers. The way in which the Tescos i shopped gave out a voucher for every £10 pounds you spent. This helped out schools that could not afford to get computers and helped to bridge the gap.

Outreach

Outreach is held at St Phillips church in Sherwood, they offer a once a week course which is free and the they would be given the choice of what they wanted to do. The majority of the people there would do things ranging from using word to using photoshop and movie maker. Outreach was created that people of all ages could get help using computers however the people that go are not students or people in education. All of the people that go to outreach are computer illiterate so going to this course also helps to bridge the gap and give a chance for everyone to use technology to the best of their ability.

Crime and Crime Prevention

When serious crimes occur, masses of information is sent to the incident room; which is set up by the police. This has had to happen because the amount of crime that has happened in recent years has increased dramatically and there are many different types of crimes and also different procedures which would be chosen to deal with each one.

Computers and Crime Prevention

• Fingerprint Recognition
• Facial Recognition System
• CCTV
• Police National Computer (PNC) 
• Speed Cameras

Cyber Crime

• Phishing
• Hacking
• Computer Misuse Act
• Data Protection Act

Fingerprint Recognition
Fingerprint recognition is when you match two fingerprints together, this helps to verify someones identity and to know who they are. However it is only in the last 10 years that the fingerprint scanner was introduced and the reason behind it being created was to help solve crimes. Because of the increasing amount of technology used it would not take long to find a match of identical fingerprints, however when they would first inspect fingerprints it would be by hand, not by computer and could take a while to finally find a match. As well as having computer based sanners for finding the matches the people that are identified would be stored on a database whereas before the use of technology the data collected would be stored within a paper base system.

Facial Recognition System
This is a computer application which automatically identifies and verifies a human being and will give you personal information about them, that you would need to know. The way in which they capture the persons face is either by: digital image or a video frame. This would be another way of solving a crime as you would would be shown an image or a video and then with the facial recognition technology you would be able to identify who the person is relatively fast. This again will all be computer based because of the new technology, because of this technology it makes solving crimes a great deal easier as you will be shown possible matches and then you would be able to come up with a final identity.

CCTV
CCTV cameras, otherwise known as closed circuit televisions are the usage of cameras. The cameras are situated in places that are in need of being monitored, these places would include: in shops; to prevent theft and many more. The first usage of CCTV cameras was in 1942 and after then it was used worldwide in places such as: banks, airports and schools. The tapes in which contain the video footage are kept so that if there has been any problems to do with suspicious behaviour or even theift they have evidential proof which they would take to the police, and they would then use their facial recognition systems to track down who it it and with the use of both these types of technology the criminals will be found a lot sooner.

Police National Computers (PNC)
This is the piece of technology that holds data and personal information about everyone in the country. The only people that have access to these files are the police and they are only used if they feel it necessary. It was created in 1974 and can only be used for 14 hours a day throughout the year. The way in which the data is shared is through a secure network, this is important as the information stored on the database will need to be protected to that everyones personal data is secure.



Speed Cameras

The usage of speed cameras have been enforced largely within the last few years, this is because more and more people are ignoring the speed limits and in case of accidents and to import a level of security because as soon as the car goes past the camera takes a photo, which identifies the cars number plate and sends the photograph straight to the police station, where they continue the speeding ticket in which the speeder will receive through the post. However there are some circumstances in which you can pay up to half of the speeding ticket if you pay it within a certain amount of time.

Phishing
phishing is when you try to acquire a persons personal information, these would include such things as: usernames, passwords and credit card details. A common way in which the 'phisher' would access your data would be by email, you would receive an email and if you are to open any attached documents they will harm you and give the fisher the ability to access all of your personal data so that they can then see your credit card details and when in the wrong hands this could be very harmful to you as you don't know who it is that has your information.



Hacking

Hacking is when someone accesses all of your personal data without authorisation and or acknowledgement. When hacking you would need to so so over a network so in order to be more protected from hackers you would need to be on a secure network and have security software and even then problems such as hacking can occur. Hacking would include the same type of things that phishing does but also the changing of documents, viewing of internet history, and also accessing the accounts that the user has.

Computer Misuse Act
Because of all the fraud that happens the Computer Misuse Act was introduced. The ways in which the Computer Misuse Act was created for are for things such as: copying of coursework, deleting files or stealing money and many more. Because of the Computer Misuse Act it makes it illigal to carry out any of the above things and if you were to do so then you would risk the chance of being caught and serving a penalty.

Data Protection Act
Because of the increasing amount of data that is used and stored about us it is important for all of our personal data to be secure. If our data is not secure then it could get into the wrong hands and can be used against us and depending on what information they receive about us, they could pretend to be you and buy things, which would get you into trouble.

Entertainment in The Information Age

The ways in which technology is being used for entaertainment reasons isnt only for online persposes but offline as well, this include things such as: Gaming, Listening to music, E.Books, Digital Tv and DVD's and the use of all of these, again has increased massively within the previous years.

Games

Games that you can play offline would include 4 different playforms: Nintendo, XBox, Playstation and PC. They have all become extremely popular and they are constatly being improved by having add ons created such as remotes and motion capture.

Nintendo

Nintendo is a mutinational corpration located in Japan, founded in 1889 so it is the oldest out of the 4 platforms so has had a lot of time to improve. And has sold over 565 million hardware units and 3.4 billion software units because it has become worldwide. The productc that Nintendo have introduced are: game boy line, colour TV game, NES, SNES, virtual boy, nintendo 64, nintendo gamecube, game boy advance, nintendo ds, wii, nintendo 3DS which has compatable video games to go with.

I have had experience with Nintendo and find that it appeals greatly to me. I have had a nintendo DS and games that went with it. And i have also had the Wii for roughly 2 years which i find is very good and the games that go with it are also very good.

XBox

Xbox is a sixth generation video game console which is manufactured by Windows. Xbox was released in 2002 so it is reletively new and has become a very popular way of using technology for entertainment purposes within just 9 years. In 2005 the xbox 360 was intoroduced and this allows there to be multiple players . The amount of units sold are: 24+ Million.

I personally have not ever had an Xbox or played on one and i would not want to as it does not appeal to me, as the games that are played on the Xbox are aimed more so at teenage boys.

Playstation

The playstation is a series of video games consoles which were developed and created by Sony, it is the oldest, being introduced in 1994 so it is 17 years old and within them years it has become world wide. A various amount of games have been designed that are compatoble with this console and are played either by being connected to a TV or if the playstation has a screen, then on the console itself.

I have had a few Playstations, the same one but in two different colours and i used one by being connected to a TV and i would be able to play games whilst looking at a bigger screen and i also used it to watch DVD's as they have multiple uses. I also had a screen on one of mine which i would use particulally when i was traveling or when i went on holiday which i found was a great use of entertainment. 

Mobile Gaming

As well as these games, which may limit where you can play as they are not portable, you can also play games on your mobile phones. Phone games have improved greately within previous years and before, you would have a few games that come on your phone, snake, tetrous and brick breaker and if you wanted any more games you would have to pay to go on the internet via your phone which would normally cost you £1 for a day and then you would have to pay for the games that you want and the same would go for downloading music. However as technlogy has improved, some phones come with games but some do not, but this i find is an advantage as then the games that are on my phone are ones that i want. To find the games you want you would use the internet on your phone again, but it would now-a-days be part of your contract and you would download the apps that you want and if you no longer want them you can uninstall it. I find that i would rather not have many, if any games on my phone as it takes up a lot of space and i would rather use the space for contacts.

Music

The way in which people can listen to music isn't just by being online, but you can also listen to music whilst being offline. The way in which you can do this is: iPods and MP3 players. They store all of your music on them so that you can be traveling and still listen to your music which is a great invention as when im sitting on the bus i would want to be listening to music as well.

I have previously owned an MP3 player an ipod nano and i now use an ipod touch, which stores games, podcasts, images and videos.

E.Books/ Readers

Instead of having to carry around a book or two around with you, you can now have 1000+ books on you when only carrying an E.Book. This is the easy and weightless way of carrying your books around and this is a great idea, in my opinion as you don't need to carry around bulky books.

The most common E.Book used is the Amazons Kindle. With it's cheap price, small size and amount of storage. There are also other E.Books that you could have as an alternative however, it i were to get an E.Book it would be the Kindle as it has a really good battery usage and it is also very cheap for what it does.

DVD's

The ways in which we watch movies now does always have to be via the internet. We used to have to watch movies on a tape, which you would have to rewind when you finished watching, so that when you wanted to watch it again all you needed to do was press play. However as technology has improved and developed the usage of DVD's instead of tapes has become more and more occurring  Although, tapes will last longer, DVD's have become more popular as they are small and easy to store and pack.

When DVD's first came out they were very expensive, in comparison. But they were very successful and a huge amount of DVD's were sold. However, because more and more people are watching movies online DVD's are getting cheaper and cheaper and you can even find them in some stores as cheap as £3 as they aren't selling.

Educational In The Information Age

The ways in which technology is used for educational purposes can vary and be used in many different ways, including: registration, smart board and smart cards.

To submit homework

The ways in which I use technology most when concerning education is to upload and submit my work in which I either use email or Blogger. I have 2 Blogger accounts which I use on a regular basis so that my teachers can track my work and check if I am up to date. I find this to be a very good way of completing my work as I don’t have to worry about printing my work as my teachers will check my work online.

Computer use

I also use computers practically every day for doing day today tasks which would mostly consume of doing my work. The software I used is Microsoft which would mostly be: Word and Excel for various reasons. I also use a computer to store all my files instead of relying on a memory stick. I can access the work I do at school using Frog so I again do not have to rely on a memory stick as they can run out of memory or can be lost.

Registration/ sims

The ways in which teachers take a register is now all done with using technology rather that on paper like it would have been done only 5 years ago. This is a good way of registering in my opinion as it can easily be changed or updating without looking messy and unreadable. With the use of sims teachers can do reports which are sent out to the students on a regular basis. As well as this sims can be used by the teachers to monitor us and that enables them to find out all of the comments that other teachers have made which would be helpful to a teacher that has not had previous contact with the student

Advantages:

• it saves paper
• it is easy to use
• you can change information on it easily

Disadvantages:

• it is very costly
• information would have to be extremely secure

Smart boards

The usage of smart boards has spiraled and has become an essential part of every lesson including sports. There is atleast one computer in every room and St Gregory’s and a lot more in the computer rooms which have up to 60. The smart boards are in my opinion a vital piece of technology within a class room as it makes interactive learning. You can also save what you have written on the board whereas if we still had blackboards or whiteboards as soon as we wipe the board its gone. I also find it very good as the teacher is able to show the whole class a document which would be easy to read.

Advantages:

• it is interactive
• easier to teach bigger classes

Disadvantages:

• they can prove difficult to use
• it is very costly
• it is hard to resolve problems

Smart Cards

Smart cards have only been introduced and used within the last couple of years and they have now become an only way of entering the sixth form block, they have enabled this so that the only people that are able to enter the building are ones that have the smart card and are allowed into the building, whereas if you didn’t need to have a smart card to enter the building anyone could enter. Another smart card that is used is a canteen one, in which you put money on, via parent pay. This enables that the person using the card is responsible for the card as an image appears on the screen of the person that should be using it.

Life In The Information Age

The amount of technology we use in our every day lives has dramatically changed when we think about how much technology there was 30 years ago. And because of the increased amount of technology it is hard to find a job which does not use the latest technology, so you would be unemployable unless you know how to use it.

Offices have changed dramatically within the last 30 years and the majority of the things you would have found within an office in 1980 has all become a piece of technology. What you'd of expected to see in an office 30 years ago would include: adding machines, type writers, filing cabinets and fax machines.




Whereas now a days you would expect to find the newest technology including computers which would store all of the documents and data so that you wouldn't have to print them. In fact all of the things you'd expect to see in 1980 would all be done using a computer as they are capable of almost everything. And because of the laptop being able to do pretty much everything there is less need for more staff.


Another case where the technology has changed the way in which people work would be a sales rep. The way in which they would travel before would include carrying a big address book, full of all the addresses he needs, an atlas so that he'd find his way, a catalogue, a calculator, paper work, and small coins for making phone calls.




Whereas now, a sales rep would only really need one piece of technology which would be a laptop, it would have all of the catalogue on it with a price list, it has a calculator on it, the addresses could be stored in a database. And instead of carrying around an atlas a sales rep now-a-days would invest in a satnav which tells you where to go once you type in the address. And they also wouldn't need to carry change to make phone calls as they would have a mobile phone which would normally be on contract and given to them.

Online Entertainment

There are many uses of IT now-a-day which are rapidly rising. These would include things like: YouTube, iPlayer, 4od and Spotify. Some are used more than others but within the next few years their amount of use will rise even further.

YouTube

Youtube is a video sharing website which was created in 2005 so it is reletively new to our entertainment variety. With this site you can create an account so that you can 'like' or 'dislike' other peoples videos and you can also comment on them, however you can view videos without having an account which can be seen as a great advantage as many other sites require you to be a user and have an account. This website uses Adobe Flash Video so in order to view the videos you will need to download this. Before YouTube to be able to view videos you would have to use napster.

advantages of YouTube:

• You can watch television channels, if you've missed them
• You can subscribe to your favourites
• You can use YouTube on your phone

disadvantages of YouTube:

• Some videos can take a while to load because they're high quality
• If you're watching previous tv shows then you'll be shown adverts
• Sometimes a video is not what it appears to be

In my opinion i think youTube is a great way of watching tv programmes which i have missed and i find that it will be at a decent quality and one that will load reletively fast. I have had a lot of experience with YouTube and i have used it to do things such as: listen to music, watch videos, and watch tv programs.

iPlayer

iPlayer is an internet television and radio service created in 2007, so again is a relitevly new way of using online entertainment. It shows you TV shows in which you may of missed so you have another chance to watch the programs you've missed. The channels that this site provides are all of the BBC channels such as: BBC Three etc.

advantages of iPlayer:

• You can catch up on programs you've missed
• It's at your convinience
• You can pause it
• You don't need a TV Licence

Disadvantages of iPlayer:

• If you have slow internet connection it will be slow
• You would need internet
• The programmes uploaded will have to be taken down after a patricular amount of days
• It could be bad quality

In my opinion i also think that iPlayer is a great way of catching up of programs i have missed and i find it very easy to use. However, because it is a high quality video i sometimes find that it takes a while to watch and so i would then be more likely to stop using iPlayer and use YouTube as it would be faster.

Itunes

Itunes is a media player computer program which is used for playing, downloading and organising music. This software is compatible with iPods, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPads as they sync via Itunes. In order to download music you use the Itunes Store where you can download music, videos, apps, books, podcasts and movies. You are able to connect to to the Istore through Itunes, which is done with great ease, however you always need to have internet.

advantages of itunes:

• It is a quick, easy and simple to use
• You can use it anywhere, if you have an internet connection
• Its full of files that you want

disadvantages of itunes:

• You'll need internet connection to download files

• Songs could be costly

Spotify

Spotify is a music straming service which provides the viewer with a range of different genres to chose from. It was lanched in 2008 spotify services are available in most counties including: France, Spain and the United States. You are now able to access spotify on your mobile phone, providing that you are a paying cusomer and pay the monthly bill which enables you to listen to the music 'offline'. When spotify had been around for about a year they introduced a method of joining up to spotify which you could only do if someone else who already had spotify sent you an invitation but that soon got axed. After this there is now a time limit on how long you can listen to music for which is 10hours and once you exceed this time limit you can no longer listen to music.

I have got a Spotify account and i have done since it first came out. I find it to be a good way of listening to music as you can select a specific genre however i find that because you need really good internet access it takes a while to stream so i would again, be more likely to use another way which would be either YouTube or Itunes. The time limit also put me off of using it as it wasn't only listening time that decreed the amount of time i had left to listen to music but even if i wasnt listening to music and simply just had spotify open it was doing so. However since then i have used it again and have found that my time is not being limited.

advantages of spotify:

• There is something for eveyone because of the wide range of genres
• You can make playlists which contain songs that you like
• You can listen anytime, if you have an internet connection

disadvantages of spotify:

• You need internet connection
• Play back time is limited
• The adverts interupt

Downloading Services

Now-a-day there is a variety of different things in which you can download. The ways that technology is being used for downloading purposes are increasing and have increased a great deal within recent years. There are many different types of downloading services too, such as: Add-ons, Upgrades, Torrents, Open Source and Patches.

Patches
A patch is a type of software that has specifically been designed to fix occurring problems. As well as fixing problems this software also updates programs that you have on your computer. With the patch you'd be able to fix any bugs or security issues. However if the patch is incorrectly designed then it won't be able to do these tasks and it could even cause more problems.

Advantages of having a patch:

• They can add new features and software
• They fix the software if there are any problems
• They can update any out of date software
• It automatically updates

Disadvantages of having a patch:

• Instead of fixing problems, it can cause them
• They take up memory on your computer
• dependent on the size of the patch it could take a while.

Personally i have never used a patch before and i don't think i would be likely to because of the risk of there being problems made rather than solved.

Bit Torrent

Bit Torrent is a peer-to-peer sharing protocol. It is used to share files that are of a large format, you share the files over Internet and where the Internet is concerned there are always risks that could occur so when you make the decision to use bit torrent you need to make sure you are secure. Bit torrent is one of the most common protocols for transferring large files. Bit Torrent has also on average has more active users than YouTube and facbook combined.


The only data that the torrent holds is information about the location of different pieces of target file. They work by all the information needed into smaller pieces which will be stored on different hosts. Because of the pieces of data being separated and broken up into smaller pieces the time it takes to download will be quicker than if the file were to be at its normal larger size. You are also given reviews by other people all that will reassure you that the download will be alright and wont harm your computer.


Advantages of using Bit Torrent:

• It's peer-to-peer so you can download your files from hosts that you trust
• Downloading will be a lot faster

Disadvantages of using Bit Torrent:

• Some people use it for illegal purposes
• There is a risk of getting a virus
• Not all downloads have been reviewed.

Personally i feel that the risks are too high and there is quite a big chance of receiving a virus so i don't think i would feel comfortable or safe using Bit Torrent.