Page 40/41 - Activity 3

Costa Rica
Population: 4,195,914
Landlines: 1.437 million
Celluar: 1.503 million
Telephone system: general assessment: good domestic telephone service in terms of breadth of coverage; restricted cellular telephone service; state-run monopoly provider is struggling with the demand for new lines, resulting in long waiting times domestic: point-to-point and point-to-multi-point microwave, fiber-optic, and coaxial cable link rural areas; Internet service is available international: country code - 506; landing point for the Americas Region Caribbean Ring System (ARCOS-1) fiber-optic telecommunications submarine cable and the MAYA-1 submarine cable that provide links to South and Central America, parts of the Caribbean, and the US; connected to Central American Microwave System; satellite earth stations.
Radio broadcast stations: AM 65, FM 51, shortwave 19
Country code: .cr
Internet hosts: 13,792
Internet users: 1.5 million


United Kingdom
Population: 60,943,912
Land lines: 33.682 million
Celluar: 71.992 million
Telephone System: General assessment: technologically advanced domestic and international system domestic: equal mix of buried cables, microwave radio relay, and fiber-optic systems international: country code - 44; numerous submarine cables provide links throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, the Middle East, and US; satellite earth stations - 10 Intelsat (7 Atlantic Ocean and 3 Indian Ocean), 1 Inmarsat (Atlantic Ocean region), and 1 Eutelsat; at least 8 large international switching centers.
Radio broadcast stations: AM 219, FM 431, shortwave 3
Country Code: .uk
Internet hosts: 5.118 million
Internet Users: 40.2 million

As you can see for this activity I compared Costa Rica and the United Kingdom. When I compared the data it wasn't long before I could see the huge economic difference between the two. For example there are more moblie phone users in UK alone then there are people in Costa Rica. One thing I did find in common however was that both countries had more cellluar users than landline users, this tells me that technology has evolved and that the more traditional landline based phone system has been replaced by mobiles. I think that it is safe to assume that Costa Rica is very far behind the UK, and the divide could take generations to close.

Page 40/41 - Activity 2

Dr Odreda cites a number of infrastructural reasons for the lack of effective ICT. What are these?

Dr Odreda states that there is a poor economy in Sub-Saharan Africa, making effective ICT costly. the preblem is not helped by a regional lack of power, so supplying computers with electricity is made difficult. in addtion to this a lot of training i9s needed so that someone can succesfully install a computer, which is just not possible for the area.

What is identified as the most pressing need for Africa (in terms of ICT)?

At present, the most pressing need in Africa is not new systems, but rather the know-how to effectively use what is already there.

How successful have computer-aid projects been?

Although the number of computers has increased rapidly in some places, the process of computerization has not been as successful as it should be in a majority of these countries. they haven't been very successful, because most have failed.

Why have they failed?

They have mostly failed as a result of lack of govermental funding.

What computer skills are identified as lacking?

Accordingly Africa lacks computer skills in all areas, most countries lack the education and training facilities needed to help people acquire the proper skills. The few training centres that do exist have not been able to keep up with demand. Only a handful of countries such as Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria and Zimbabwe have universities that offer computer science degrees.

1.3 Page 40/41 - Activity 1

Why might countries like Niger be on the wrong side of then digital divide?

I researched this query using the CIA World Factbook, the site allowed me to search for information on more than 1000 countries, so the information was easy to access. I discovered that the economic state of Niger, in particular, is very poor. For example; 63% of the population is below the poverty line, and they have to import all of there 220 million kilowatts of electrical power. This means that electricity might be too precious to be consumed by powering things like laptops, computers and telephones.
In addition to this Niger as a country receives as much as 515.4 million dollars in economic aid, this shows me that the country is very poor and may not be able to afford luxuries such as computers. Moreover there is a national debt of 2.1 billion dolllars, estimated, that Niger owed back to it's partners, that include France.
When I looked at the communication figures for Niger, I see that 24,000 out of the 13,272,679 population had mainline telephones, 900,000 had mobile and celluar phones and there was 40,000 were internet users.
I think that Niger are the other side of the digital divide because of the poor state of the economy, it is very obvious when we can see the very low percentages of people have pretty basic things by our standards.

Page 18/19 - Activity 21

Here is my list of online entertainment i have been using:

• Game Sites:- It can be tedious waiting for downloads, so meanwhile I often like to play games offered online, many of which started life in Flash. The benefit is that a lot of these sites run for free, so no costs for a casual gamer.
• Video Sites:- More specifically YouTube, this very popular site is still going strong, with little to none competition. I like YouTube because again it is free, but in addition to this there is a very expansive library to choose from, with new videos almost daily, it is very rare not to find what you are looking for.
• Online Gaming:- Next generation consoles; Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii all offer online gaming. All one has to do is plug in an ethernet cable and your away. Online gaming gives people the oppurtunity to play an array of games with people all over the globe, whether it be football in Fifa, or warfare in Call of Duty.
• Instant Messaging:- Many teenagers enjoy staying in touch with there friends, so, many companies have exploited this need for socialism and created sites like Msn. Msn is a hugely diverse piece of software which again allows any two people in the world to talk to each other as if they were in the same room. In addition to this, hardware such as webcams can be added to give a broader sense of realism. Again this is free so it is very widely used, and has more users than mobile phone and landline users combined.

Page 16/17 - Activity 20

Instead of trying to think of everything we download from the internet, me and my partner decided to choose the 4 we download most:

• Music:- Every teenager knows of the site offered by Apple; iTunes, which lets you download all of the latest tracks and tunes, for a cost. The user can then put this downloaded music onto their mp3 player, such as an iPod.
• Software:- Computers can become useless if they are not updated regulary with the latest software, whether it be the new photoshop, or the latest version of Macromedia Flash, a bonus here is that these dowloads are mostly free.
• Game Demos:- Seeing as me and my partner are both gamers we rely on demo downloads straight from the console. This allows us to sample a new game without having to buy it, and it turning out to be a waste of money.
• Newsletters:- My dad used to receive monthly newsletters through the post, nowadays he gets them through e-mail, he says it is much more convinient for him, and it saves money for the company.

Page 14/15 - Activity 17

I visited www.lynda.com and watched both the `Welcome` video, and the `What's a blog really?`, I found that it was a very basic outline of what any blog could provide, and didn't teach me much more than iI had already learnt. However whilst browsing related videos I found that there were videos all about Blogger, which were really relevant, and went into a very special and professional level of detail. In addition to this there was a very large library of other videos on other subjects I could access, the benefit here was I was not limited to how much I could download. This is good if I'm needing to broaden my knowledge on more than one subject.
I think that these videos are a good educational tool because unlike real life each video can be used over and over, and rewound and fast foward to the necessary parts of the video, if anything is missed. Moreover for those who are not at school this site allows adults to get help they need, without necessarily having to invest in costly adult education classes.
Overall it is hard to find a bad comment for lynda.com, and it is by far the best online education tool I have found.

Page 14/15 - Activity 18

The first website I visited is probably the better known out of the three, the Open University. If I was to take on a course through the OU it would give me the freedom to choose between a full, and half-time course. What this means is that if I am employed full time I wouldn't have to give up work to learn. In addition to this the OU supplies all of the learning materials necessary to complete the course. I think I would learn well through the OU as it is well organised and there is teacher support for every stage of the way so i'm not left alone and possibly struggling. However if I took the half-time course it could take as long as six years to finish the course, which is a long time to be learning one subject, and if I need to learn more than one the lengthy learning period is doubled.
The second site I visited was the BBC webwise page. Though it was not as formal as the OU, and didn't offer any sort of qualifications , the page was very user friendly. I opted to do a course in basic Information Technology, however there was no lenghty pages of text, instead there was interactive movies, games, and presentations, to informalise the information. In addition to this after I had completed the course, which only took one hour, I found myself remembering things better than I might have if it was just text, because I remebered the game I had played, or movie I watched that related to it. On the other hand there was only a select few courses, with not many to choose from.
As for children, the BBC offers BBC Bitesize, I myself used this for my GCSE revision and found it useful, like with the Webwise site, Bitesize teaches through games like Grade or No Grade, which are just a bit of fun designed to help kids remember. I think the main benefit of a site such as Bitesize is that there is no need to sign up to anything, anyone can visit the site when they need it most. Moreover the information is condensed into smaller chunks, which are more mangable for children. A clear disadvantage however is that the site is only relevant up until a certain age, in my case 16, as it offers no A-Level learning tools.

Page 14/15 - Activity 16

I visited the Macromedia website, and sampled some of the recorded seminars. In addition to this I attempted to join one of the virtual classrooms, unfortunately though there was not one in session.
Advantages of e-learning over traditional teaching, i found, was the convinience of it. For example it could be eleven o'clock at night and i could go onto the website to listen a seminar, in addition to this if I was at university and I missed a lecture, I could recap on one of the recorded seminars online, that was a similar subject.
Disadvantages I found however was the extreme luck one needed to find a virtual classroom that was in session, this takes away some of the convinience of the site. Moreover the times at which the teachers came online to host the classrooms were living in america. This meant that if they came onlin at four o'clock in the afternoon, this would equate as one o'clock in the morning in Great Britain.

Page 14/15 - Activity 15

I found that this site was very useful, as well as humane. The site offers everything anyone would need to know about dissecting a frog, but without having to use a real frog. In addition to this it gives the opportunity for the student to practice things like pinning the limbs over and over again, and even if they get it wrong it just resets, unlike real life.

I think that nowadays we will begin to see more and more of these simulation sites, because it is easier for the teacher to just use a simmulation site rather than buying 30 frogs for their students. In addition to this as I have mentioned mistakes need not be costly, and wastage averted.

Picture from NetFrog.

Page 12/13 - Activity 13

I visited the banking site Barclays, this site offered lots in the way in advice and walkthroughs for how to use the online banking system. Even though I couldn't use the system I could see that the system was very effective from the walkthrough. The whole banking process we are used to has been turned on it's head into a much simpler process. Barclays supplies its customers with a calculator looking device that supplies them with a code for which they can reach their account from. from here the customer can manage their account. The really big advantage is that the device generates a different code each time, that has to be verified through Barclays, so the site is secure.
The other site I visited was Natwest, which was much the same as the Barclays, accept Natwest does not provide its customers with the code providing device. Instead Natwest simply asks for the last three digits on the back of the card. i think this is less secure then that of Barclays, because if ayone was to find out a Natwest's customer's pin number then there savings could be stolen from using the net.
I think that in the future, all banks should offer these code generating devices, as it makes the banking more secure. In addition to this I think that all internet banking could be improved with the introduction of seperate internet banking cards, with no numbers on it. This way if someone managed to steal this card it would be useless to the thief.

Page 12/13 - Activity 12

http://www.ebay.com/ I visited the auction site eBay. Today eBay is very successful, I think this is because it's simplistic approach, almost anyone could log on, use the basic search engine to find an item, and then place a bid on that item. In addition to this there is often a good deal to be had when using eBay, because many auctions start at a low price people will get a good deal for what they wanted. As well as this many people use eBay, as opposed to going out and buying the product, for convinience, this is because many of the products people get of eBay will be delivered to their homes.
On the other hand, eBay does have its limitations, for example if you are looking for sometthing specific you may not find it. In addition to this some products uploaded are faulty, or unusuable, harming the reputation of the site, even though they have no control as to what people sell.

Page 12/13 - Activity 11

I visited the BBC weather site to get a specific five day forecast for my area, the results were as follows;

• Monday (6th):- 15 degrees celsius (max.), 8mph wind, Dark grey clouds with patchy rain.
• Tuesday (7th):- 16 degrees celcius (max.), 24mph wind, Dark grey clouds with patchy rain.
• Wednesday (8th):- 15 degrees celsius (max.), 16mph wind, Light cloud.
• Thursday (9th):- 17 degrees celcius (max.), 8mph wind, Light cloud.
• Friday (10th):- 17 degrees celcius (max.), 18mph wind, Sunny.

Page 12/13 - Activity 10

I need to plan a journey, from my home address, to Tottenham Court Road, in London. I will use Google Maps and a different site called Multimap.

• I found that even though google Maps was the more reputable company, it was Multimap that I found easier to navigate. Multimaps directions were clear and concise with regular checkpoints marking a change of road in the journey. In addition to this I founfd that you could choose between the quickest and/or the shortest journey route, which was useful.


• The problems I found using google maps was that the route it gave me seemed to go round unnecessary round-a-bouts and down into dead-ended cul-de-sacs. Additionally the estimated time of arrival that Google gave me was one and one quarter hours more than multimaps estimated time.


• However Multimap was not without its problems. Multimaps `quickest` route led me through roads that weren't pictured on the map, instead was a picture of a field. Either the road doesnt exist, or the satellite pictures had not been updated in a while.


• One thing Google maps offered that Multimap didnt was Bird's eye view, which gave me the option of taking a close-up view of the roads.0


• One thing I found in common between the two sites is that they both offer a normal map, and a terrain view, giving me the option of more detail.

Page 8/9 - Activity 8

Create an SMS haiku poem/message:-

This is a poem about applied ICT;

I luv ICT
Rele is the best 4 me
luv 2 pass wiv B

Mr R