Quantcast
You are here: Home / Archives for information technology

How does Education use the Internet? (Infographic)

December 22, 2011 By 2 Comments

When I was at school it was in the day of chalk, and spirit duplicators with the occasional photocopied page. At college, sure the photocopies increased, but visual aids were more often than not a textbook page or diagram printed onto a transparency slide for the overhead projector. When working on assignments the key information for your work was most likely to be found in that book…you may know the one…there’s 4 copies, no one’s looked at them for months but every year when that assignment question comes round they’re suddenly all borrowed out from the library.

The library was the font of all knowledge during college and when I graduated my learning was work related and via colleagues or at night class; which was still textbooks, photocopies and overhead projectors – you wanted to learn something you bought a book. Then I got internet access at home…

These days, the majority of my learning is via colleagues and the internet, if I want to learn about or check something, an on-line search is the first port of call. I’m seeing younger family members use the internet for school, last week we were searching on-line for information about meteors to present back to the class. In fact, a recent infographic from SEO.com flagged that over 90% of students will go online to search rather than use the library, 83% go online because the library is closed (the internet can cater for those unsociable all nighters typing/writing up assignments). 


Of course students will need to learn how to verify the information gained and most folks would have guessed that Wikipedia would be the most used resource. That may be why 1 out of 3 academic leaders consider the internet inferior to face to face instruction! While I don’t believe it can beat a good educator in a face to face lesson, it can be an excellent tool for many tasks – the logistics of administration, engagement in class with a challenge or interaction during an assignment.  Take a look… I’ve embedded SEO.com’s infographic at the end of the post so you can see some of the numbers and how the internet is used by different colleges and universities.

Final Thoughts

The internet has changed education and I think it has changed for the better and will continue to grow in use. Some 8 out of 10 faculty report using video for class, you can see an excellent example in this TedTalk about using multimedia in math class. In a Nov blog post, TED advised that 2012 will see the launch of a new initiative called TED-Ed for students and educators; a library of videos organised in categories and playlists to provide an “immersive insight into a learning concept”. 

More than six million students are taking an on-line course - I don’t see myself going back to night class in 2012, but I will be taking an online course or two. How about you, do you use the internet for your studies? Or are you a full time educator either teaching about or using the internet as part of your lessons? 

How Has The Internet Changed Education?

 

Thanks to Killer Infographics for the idea for the article – Killer Infographics creates
infographic design and promotions for clients around the globe

Filed Under: Infographics, information technology

Streamlining Business Intelligence for IT Departments and End Users

March 3, 2009 By Leave a Comment

In these uncertain economic times, businesses are being forced to implement crucial cost-cutting measures to expel any and all unnecessary spending. But in the process of trying to improve cost efficiency, businesses can inadvertently under-utilize, or even expel altogether, valuable initiatives that are strategically viable to the longevity of that business.

But how can businesses be so oblivious to their own strengths and weaknesses? One common reason is miscommunication of business intelligence between the business’s Information Technology department, and the organization’s end users.

Internal Conflict Between IT Departments and End Users

While IT departments are cost centers, and strive to maintain security and control over sensitive data, end users want access to this same business intelligence information. This creates turmoil within the business, as IT departments and end users butt heads over the consumption and delivery of information, which ultimately leads to miscommunication over business efficiency.

This internal confusion can be severely detrimental to a business’s success. For instance, some IT costs are difficult to assess, and without streamlined business intelligence, these costs can only be indirectly measured by business managers. In the end, business managers will not have a true awareness of their total IT costs, and will be unable to make concrete decisions regarding their IT spending.


Streamlining Business Intelligence to Accommodate Everybody

One way to avoid miscommunication between IT departments and end users, is for businesses to initiate a single comprehensive business intelligence reporting platform. With a platform like this, IT departments could maintain security over confidential data, while also serving the specific information needs of end users.
The successful platform would allow IT departments an environment to interact with end users based on their department, skill level, and experience. By interacting with end users in this way, IT departments could easily police the leaking of unnecessary information, while also making sure end users find access to the information that they need. To do this, the business intelligence reporting platform would have to account for power users, business users, enterprise users, customers, partners, and external users.

Working Together

If a power user wanted a piece of information that an IT department needed to keep confidential, using this streamlined business intelligence, the IT department could give that power user a multitude of appropriate information alternatives. While certain data would remain secure, the IT department would directly guide the user to find what he or she needs.

With IT Departments and end users no longer enemies, enhanced communication would increase awareness of which valuable business initiatives need to remain in place.

Filed Under: business intelligence, information technology