TECH EDUCATION

Advantages and Disadvantages of Information Technology

By Philip Yiga | January 17, 2017

Today, technology is almost everywhere and it has actually played a big role in the educational-sector, health-sector and business-sector. In fact, technology has become part of our everyday lives and this has actually created a great impact in our societies today. On the other hand, the evolution of information-technology has greatly changed in the way we communicate and work today whereby it has made the world a global village and it has led to the development of most sectors around the around. All in all, in this article I’m going to provide you with some of the advantages and disadvantages of information-technology in each sector and I think they will be of great use.

The Advantages of information-technology in business:

Improved efficiency and effectiveness in business: integrating technology in business ensures that everything is running smoothly within the company because IT can be used in different departments of the company which include manufacturing, finance, human-resource and security-sections. So, with such efficiency within all departments, a company will be able to improve on its production-levels while reducing on its expenses.
It enables businesses to access the global-market: with the use of information-technology in business, companies will be able to access the global-market easily and faster than never before. In fact, today there are many web-platforms that enable businesses to market their products and services globally. So, this has actually led to the development of different business-sectors globally without even spending a lot of money on advertisement.
Information-technology enables businesses to keep-up with the supply and demand levels: with the use of information-systems within businesses, companies will be able to easily monitor their product-supplies and demand-levels inorder to meet customer needs. This actually enables a company to operate smoothly without experiencing any shortages or losses thus leading to development in the shortest time possible.
Technology reduces on human-error within businesses: with the use of information-technology within business, companies will be able to reduce on human-errors in sensitive department like finance by simply integrating accounting information-systems that can easily do all the calculations and bookkeeping tasks within the company. This has helped to reduce on the losses that companies usually experienced due to errors made by employees while carrying out transactions.
Technology offers small-businesses with a competitive-advantage in the global-market: today, the integration of technology into business has actually enabled smaller-businesses to fairly compete with bigger-companies through the use on online-marketing. In fact, many startup businesses have risen today due to the several advantages technology offers them in the global-market and this is actually a great thing in terms of economic development.
Information-techonlogy enables companies to reduce on operational costs: with the use of technology in business, companies are actually able to reduce on operational costs while maximizing on their profits hence leading to maximum development in the long-run. In fact, today some companies use information-systems in certain department which require less labor yet they provide effective results, manufacturing-companies use robots instead to people and this actually leads to high production-levels but with reduced expenses. All in all, the use of technology in companies has reduced on the need to use manual-labor or people in the production process thus saving companies a lot of money while increasing on their production-levels.

The Advantages of information-technology in Education:

Information-technology prepares students for the future: with the use of technology in education, teachers will be able to prepare their students for the future job-market which requires people with some technological-knowledge on different things like computers, smartphones, tablets and other technological-tools. In fact, students with enough knowledge on how to use technology are most likely to become successful in the future than students that have limited knowledge on technology.
It provides students with updated educational-content: information-technology in education actually enables students to easily access up-to-date information which is readily available online. In fact, students will have to use their computers, tablets or smartphones coupled with an internet-connection inorder to easily access all the information they need online.
It makes education more fun and exciting: the integration of information-technology into schools actually makes studying more exciting and fun due to the use of different technological-tools that keep students engaged and active when having lessons in a classroom. In fact, this has helped to reduce on the number of high-school and college dropouts thus making the world a better place.
Technology enables teachers to update educational-content easily: with the use of information-technology in schools, teachers and professors can easily update educational content by using several technological-tools like computers and then upload this information onto servers’ inorder to ensure easy access to this content by students. In fact, this has helped teachers to save a lot of time on writing new textbooks and even save them a lot of money that would have been spent on printing these textbooks.
Information-technology improves on communication in education: with the use of technological-tools in schools, teachers and students will be able to communicate easily using different online-platforms like facebook and whatsapp. On top of that, even students from different schools will be able to communicate online and share knowledge on different topics. This has actually made education very effective and efficient than in the past thus improving on the performance of students today.
Information-technology facilitates for online-studying: today, the integration of information-technology into the educational-sector has facilitated for online-studies whereby some students in remote areas of the world can gain access to high-quality education by simply taking their courses online. This has actually led to the development of the educational sector globally hence making the world a better place.
Information-technology reduces on work-load in schools: with the use of information technology in schools, teachers no-longer have to carry huge textbooks to classrooms but instead use computers and projectors to carryout lessons. On the other hand, even students no longer have to carry heavy-bags full of books and textbooks but instead carry laptops or tablets to school which contain all the educational-content they need at school.

The Advantages of information-technology in Finance:

Information-technology enables financial institutions like banks to operate efficiently: the use of information-technology in financial-institutions like banks has actually facilitated for efficient and effective operations in certain department like accounting. This is actually possible by the use of information-systems which help banks to easily monitor transactions that are being carried out.
It has facilitated for e-banking: information technology has actually enabled banks to carryout transactions more effectively and efficiently over the internet than never before. In fact, today banks can easily carryout transactions globally with the use of internet thus making people’s lives better. However, there are some disadvantages that come along with using internet for transactions whereby many banks and people have lost a lot of money using online-banking due to security-issues.
It enables financial-institutions to operate on a global-level: with the use of information-technology in finance, banks are actually capable of operating on a global-level whereby today some international-banks can carry out transactions globally and this actually makes life very convenient and efficient for people who have accounts in such banks. For example, today banks provide their clients with electronic visa-cards that can be used globally to access their accounts and this is a great thing.
It enables financial-institutions to reduce on operational-costs: the use of information-technology in banks actually facilitates for reduced operational-costs whereby banks have information and accounting systems that help to carry out certain tasks efficiently compared to human-labor thus enabling companies to maximize on their profits. Additionally, this even helps to eliminate on human-errors which are usually caused by employees in certain financial departments.

The Advantages of information-technology in Healthcare:

It facilitates for easy sharing of information between doctors: with the integration of information-technology into healthcare, different doctors can easily share medical-information efficiently and effectively than never before. This has actually enabled doctors to learn more things from each other thus helping to save lives of different patients in the long run.
Improved storage and security of medical-information: with the use of information technology in healthcare, hospitals can now use improved information-systems to securely keep medical-information of their patients. In fact, with these information-systems only the recommended personnel can gain access to them thus ensuring optimum privacy of patients-data than in the past when patient-records were kept in books.
Improved communication between patients and doctors: information-technology actually enables patients to easily communicate with their doctors in real-time without even making an appointment or going to the hospital. This actually helps to save-up time and money the patients would have spent on meeting the doctors physically in hospitals. Additionally, it also saves doctors a lot of time they would have spent on each patient coming to their offices for consultation.
It has improved on the equipment doctors use to diagnose patients: information-technology has actually led to an improvement in the equipment used to diagnose or treat patients. For example, today doctors use computerized-axial-tomography (CAT) or magnetic-resonance-imaging (MRI) scanning-technology to create detailed images of your internal-organs and to determine changes in your body-chemistry and blood-flow. This will actually help doctors to easily find illnesses in their patients that can’t be found with mere blood-tests or other regular medical-tests.

Disadvantages of information technology:

It has led to unemployment and lack of job-security: although information-technology has created some new interesting jobs, it has also led to a rise in unemployment. This is mainly because companies today are integrating information-systems which can do different tasks immediately like; calculating financial transactions automatically, processing paperwork immediately, storing information easily, automated telephone-answering and a lot more. In fact, technology has now replaced most of the tasks that were formerly done by human-employees. On top of that, internet has also made job-security an issue because technology keeps on changing daily and this implies that employees need to keep learning gradually if they really want to secure their jobs.
Increased security-issues online: with the use information-technology in this age, there has been an increase in security-issues caused by hackers who can easily access sensitive information of companies and people then use that information for malicious things like; identity-theft, cybercrime and a lot more. This has actually made different companies and people concerned about their online security and privacy when doing business.
Information-technology is expensive to implement: for companies, schools or hospitals to integrate technological-equipment and systems into their workplaces it will actually require a good amount of money. In fact, only a few companies are capable of using the latest technologies because they are usually very expensive. on the other hand, even after installing these technologies into their offices their will be other costs like training employees who are not familiar with how to use the new technology.
Increased access to inappropriate content by children: with the use of technology everywhere even in schools, children can easily access inappropriate-content like pornography and bad-groups over the internet thus leading to the destruction of the young generation. In fact, it’s even very hard to monitor kids using technology because they learn how to use it faster and better than old-people. However, there are parental-controls that can help limit kids from accessing certain content online but these controls may not work for some clever kids.
Information-Technology has reduced on physical-interactions between people: with the increased usage of technology today, physical-interactions between people have greatly decreased whereby people spend most of their time on online chatting-platforms like whatsapp, facebook and a lot more. This has actually disconnected people in different ways and it has also led to a rise in laziness amongst people. On top of that, even some companies have noticed a decrease in the performance of their employees because some of them spend most of their time on social-networks and this actually affects company productivity-levels in long-run.
It has led to cultural-dominance: since information-technology has made the world a global-village, it has actually contributed to west-culture dominance over other weaker-cultures. For example, today most teenagers around the world are greatly influenced by USA-cultures of dressing, behaving and even talking. In fact, English is becoming a dominant language for communication around the world and this has actually overshadowed several native-languages around the globe.

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