Assessing ICT and its Benefits

In the past few years, the acronym “ICT” has been floating around in various domains and in relation to various disciplines, but how many actually know what it’s all about and what the benefits associated with it are? Throwing the missing letters into the mix, “ICT” actually stands for information and communication technologies.

 

ICT is regarded as the “mother” of all development and growth, as it encompasses innovation and a utilization of all the tools necessary to generate and disseminate information on a global scale. Interestingly, the emergence of globalization – the easy transference of knowledge and skills across borders through technologies such as the Internet – is argued to be a direct subset of ICT development.

 

Here is a look at some of the sectors in which ICT has had major positive impact:

 

Benefits in Education:

It is in the opinion of many that the biggest benefit of ICT lies in the classroom. With all the technologies available to children around the country, their learning is significantly enhanced with the use of certain products.

 

While it may not be the case for every child, access to devices such as tablets, and their utilization as a complement to what is being taught on the board helps tremendously to access the information required to excel. The same applies for the deliverers of the material, as they can use projectors and similar devices to display videos or diagrams that would help the students to understand what is being said.

 

 

 

Accessing educational resources has also been made a lot easier through ICT development. In times gone by, in order to complete an assignment, a student would have had to spend hours at the library skipping through the pages of printed materials in order to uncover the information they want. In today’s society, not only can they explore a lot more resources in a shorter time, but in the event that they need to purchase a book to assist them (well, their parents will do the purchasing, but you get the idea), that feat can be accomplished in mere seconds. No delivery of the hard copy is required – they will have access to every page in their device.

 

At a higher level, ICT makes it possible for an individual to receive world-class education without ever stepping into a classroom.  As a matter of fact, they don’t even need to be in the same time zone for them to access all the resources, produce and deliver all the assignments, or sit examinations. Computer? Check. High speed Internet? Check. Learning? Constant.

 

ICT and Job Creation:

While it is true that “job creation” could have been mentioned as a part of the educational benefit, given the wealth of information it deserved a category of its own. Getting straight to the point, there are many jobs that exist today that are directly a result of ICT and its growth in essentially all industries across the world – and these are not necessarily related to the computers and similar systems either.

 

One industry for instance, that pretty much everyone is a fan of now, is social media. In the past decade or so, social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Instragram have gained in popularity to such an extent that the time spent on these domains is no longer considered to be a “waste of time”. As a result, there have been many organizations that have gone as far as to hire individuals as their “social media coordinator”, tasked specifically with managing the various accounts on these domains, interacting with customers and driving the awareness of the brand.

 

 

Another phenomenon that is rapidly attracting an audience is freelancing. The original concept itself is nothing new, as individuals who wanted to make a little extra cash or were not employed with a “9-5” would do odd jobs to as a part of the practice. Now, however, there are multiple websites dedicated to facilitating specific needs – instead of hiring someone permanently, simply contract a freelancer and projects can be completed just as efficiently within the desired time frame. Incidentally, there are some individuals who are full time “freelancers”, as it is possible to work for multiple clients on multiple projects. Though the payments vary, there are some projects worth up to $5,000. Who needs a “9-5” when they can do one project of that magnitude each month for the year.

 

ICT and Medicine:

From an educational viewpoint, ICT has aided medical personnel by providing them with various equipment that increases their knowledge and their ability to be more efficient with their craft. Aside from a theoretical application, however, it is also coming in quite handy for those instances when they have patients under the knife.

 

 

Not only have there been documented cases of surgeons accessing information or consulting with others “mid-surgery”, but there have also been instances where the technology is directly utilized in the procedure. Confirming that there very well may be an app (mobile application) for everything, one doctor used an iPod-based app to perform a joint replacement surgery, ensuring that he was on the right track every step of the way. As the technologies improve, there is no doubt that similar stories will arise – not only in the United States, but in regions across the world.

 

 

Assessing ICT and its Benefits