Crucial Presentation Skills in Information Technology - Essay Example

Reflective essay Name: Course: Instructor: Date: Introduction: Information technology profession and society represents a broad subject which some of us may know or may not even know about. The interesting thing is that before I came to realize what it was I had no idea of its existence. However, some of the things that I saw and used on daily basis involved information technology without my knowledge. I’m one among millions of people who didn’t know about information technology until I studied it in class this semester. The term information technology professional and society revolves around gathering, archiving, application, and management of software from an information technology professional point of view and eventually how it affects the society. I have come to discover that information technology in recent years has experienced complete revolution in ways how information is gathered, archived, and applied in businesses as well as governments across the world. Let me say am not the same again in the area of information technology, I have learnt lots of things in this subject starting from the lectures, discussions, tutorials, presentations, and negotiations in the class. In addition, I have developed crucial presentation skills in information technology where I have presented twice. I have gained knowledge from those presentations as well from participating and expressing myself in various topics in class. Therefore, this write up will discuss and expound in details how I have undertaken this subject, my understanding so far, what I have gained thereof, how it has influenced me, and how I’m going to apply what I have learnt in the future as an IT professional. What I have learned in the lectures: In my first lecture I was introduced to a common term “ethics” yet I have never thought about it in the information communication technology aspects. It came in form of a question in the first lecture ‘why do we need ethics in ICT?’ This came as a surprise because I have always taken ethics in terms of social and business aspects. However, I now know about ethics in information communication technology point of view. I came to understand that I need ethics in ICT since I need to know where I am as well as obey the law. Ethics stands ability to know whether you are morally right or wrong, this enable people to do what is right and avoid on infringing other people’s rights. Moreover, the ICT lectures have given me the knowledge in negotiating ethical dilemmas that arises from execution of tasks in businesses and other areas concerning ICT. Assignments give out during lectures have boosted my understanding in ICT and I can now tackle ethical dilemmas by employing the three major ways learnt in lectures duty based, goal based, and right based analysis. The lecturer dwelt majorly on issues that he said were important in understanding information communication technology. He emphasized on computing, networking as well as representation. I now can say confidently that I understand what these terms means. In addition, we have taken time in discussing about people behavior in my lectures this semester and their connection to information. From the time I started learning about information technology I have made strides in identifying how people behavior is related to information technology. For instance, in introducing and using blackberry in my country it eventually leads to seclusion which affects their social relations. Blackberries become part of their lives and to some extent their partners since they spend considerable amount of time every day playing with their blackberries. I realized my mother had been observant enough when I wanted to buy a blackberry but she refused. She was on the idea that I might become isolated from others due to the use of my blackberry. It is the time I discovered how people’s lives can change due to technology. Information technology influences almost every aspect of human life. The lectures that I have attended have opened my inner eyes. As I understood information technology the more I embrace and understand the resultant aspects in human life. In this aspect I have come to understand that information technology influences the religious activities of humans. This dawned on me when we were discussing about philosophers in the lecture. I have keen interest on philosophy and this has enabled me to understand what is being taught with ease. This has made me to embrace technology and philosophy together which has improved my understanding capacity. There exists some connection in philosophy and information technology. It has been an amazing experience. Lecture seven was outstanding; we talked about IT law in Australia. Our lecturer delivered it in form of a speech. The speech was very rich and I learnt lot of new things in this lecture. It had not been brought to my knowledge before that some certain actions in the information technology field could end up somebody in a court of law. It had never occurred to my mind that such serious laws existed in my country. I indeed learned a lot when we talk about the IT law in Australia. The lecturer was kind enough to expound on what to do to avoid finding ourselves on the wrong side of the IT law. We also discussed about copyright and patent rights. We expounded on why downloading was unethical and illegal. My perception towards downloading in the aspects of copyright changed from that moment. We should at least recognize the work of other people by giving it credit or by buying instead of just downloading stuff for our beneficial use. The same case applies to owner of books; when we photocopy of scan them. We are actually killing their profession and therefore should be held liable for our actions What I have learned in Tutorials and presentations: Tutorials and presentations made my understanding easier and were also exciting for me. In the course of learning we have discussed subjects which were astounding. I learnt that a huge and technologically advanced country like China had no Google; the search engine. The government of this country is particularly strict on the information content that is available to its citizens. This was particularly surprising for me; they normally use other less quality search engines. Moreover, I didn’t know that somebody’s Id could be stolen on social networking sites. This information was availed to me via a presentation. This presentation could not have come at a better instance than this when I had posted all my personal details on Face book. Am so thankful about the presentation on networking sites, I will remove all my personal information from face book and will never post it again on social websites. What I have learned from discussion board: A number of interesting topics arose in the discussion boards. For instance, there was this interesting article on media, sex, and violence. The topic covered how young people are affected by these three aspects of technology. We discussed about the article as well as the possible solutions. It seems my colleagues had the same ideas about the issues. I also benefited from other topics in the discussion board. In particular was the suicide topic that enabled me to understand the causes of suicide, preventions and how the problem can be dealt with. It was actually the first time that I discussed such topics with my classmates. Furthermore, we discussed on religion and IT topics which were particularly hot as they led to generation of very hot reactions concerning them. The IT professional responsibilities: In the course of my learning I found that IT professionals have particular responsibilities toward communities in which they live in. this means that they occupy important places in the IT field. There is a code of ethics that has to be followed in the information technology field, ACS. In this there are a number of ethics that an IT professional should follow so as to gain his reputation. In line with those ethics I have to an IT expert has responsibilities towards the society and therefore for one to be an IT professional he/she has to study them and then apply in the field of work. I have moral and legal roles to stick to. First, my attitude should be ethical that is I and relationship with my colleagues and the public in general. Secondly, the ability to keep up as well as meet expectations, this also include being suitably knowledgeable about the place one is working in as well as taking the appropriate responsibility thereof (Schneiderman, 2000). Thirdly, keeping up with the new technologies embracing long lasting technology through learning and also develop myself as a professional. Then I should use my position and powers to positively change the society I live in (McDermid, 2001). How this course affected me and the changing I will apply in my future: I believe this course has impacted positively in my life as a professional to be. In line with what I have learnt I will these positive key points learnt in my future when I will be practicing as a professional. In every IT topic I have to seriously consider the legal, social, as well as ethical implications. Further, I have learnt that it is important to secure myself as well as my devices to avoid losing any data. Conclusion: In conclusion, in my write up I have emphasized on very crucial information concerning information technology. I have dwelt on the benefits of this course I also talked about the lectures and how they were rich in information from different sources; that is from the teacher and the guests. I have further emphasized on a very important word learnt this semester ‘ethics’. In addition to this I used quite a substantial part of the write-up in explaining the effects of information technology in people’s lives. Then, I discussed what topics have influenced me in tutorials and presentations. I touched on topics and issues that I felt were particularly moving. After that, I talked about crucial topics that I found on discussion boards and had valued information. Finally, I dwelt on code of ethics in information technology ACS work in the IT field in future. I learnt great deal of things that I intend to apply in my profession. References: Lecture two from online lectures Lecture four from online lectures Lecture seven from online lectures McDermid, J.A, 2001, Software Safety. Australian Computer Society, Darlinghurst, Austria. Schneiderman, B., 2000, Human Values and the Future of Technology: A Declaration of Responsibility, SIGCHI Bulletin, New York. http://www.suite101.com/content/binaural-drugs---do-programs-like-i-doser-work-a198454 http://www.wikileads.net/ Read More