Role of Information Technology during COVID-19 Movement Control Order
Just at the moment we thought 2020 is going to be a great, a novel coronavirus which is known
as Covid-19 arose, put us all in awe and even better locked us in our houses for the longest
duration that we have never imagine. In mid-March 2020, a localised cluster was found in
Malaysia which uncontrollably infecting Malaysian.18th March 2020 mark a momentous occasion
that changed every Malaysian’s lives, it is when our Prime Minister imposed Movement Control
Order (MCO). MCO required all Malaysian to stay at home whilst all universities, offices, factories
and schools are forced to shut down except for essential sectors. This have risen a shock among
students, officers, and workers in general.
Evidently, MCO being imposed making Malaysia faces unprecedented time where Malaysian
are unable to carries any face-to-face activities as usual. This is when the information technology
(IT) pitched in. IT is the use of computers to store, process, distribute and manipulate information
or data. One of the most significant roles of IT is distributing current information regarding the
updates on Covid-19 and constantly reminding the people to abide MCO. One of the initiatives
done by the government is sending Short Message Service (SMS) relating to the updates and
important notice that some of us might overlooked. Some may find it a bit nuisance but for those
who have a limited access to the internet or even newspaper, this is very helpful as it keeps them
in the know of what is being imposed by the government.
Next, it is undeniably that the presence of IT helps facilitate working from home. People in the
working force opted to non-face-to-face meetings that are facilitated through many video
conferencing platforms. There is many video conferencing software available online such as
Skype, Microsoft Team and Zoom. These gems of IT help bosses to check on their workers and
keep the work going despite being at home. The existence of organizing software such as Trello
help to keep all the organization’s data like tasks to do and the due date. This help to keep track
of works done by the workers despite being away from the office.
One of the biggest roles of IT during MCO is to facilitate e-learning classes. On primary and
secondary school level, teachers use many applications and software such as Kahoot and
Quizizz to give out class materials. On university level, lecturers often use video conferencing to
have the lectures. As for assignment, lecturer use Google Drive as file storage system that allow
student to submit the assignments and to grade the assignments.
In conclusion, we can see that IT plays an important role in our daily life during MCO. IT have
help make our day to day life and work easy connecting citizen to the government, workers to
their bosses and teachers to their student all at the comfort of our own house. Nothing is no longer
impossible with the existence of IT.