1.
The Nature, Impact,
and Issue of
Information Technology
1.3 Impacts of IT on people
and society
Health and Safety
Issues
Through telemedicine, healthcare
providers and researchers could share
medical images, patient records, and
research and perform long-distance
patient examinations.
 Interactive, multimedia materials
directed to the public would outline
healthcare options.

Telemedicine
access to medical care for consumers
and health professionals via
telecommunications technology
 E.g. American Telemedicine
Association (ATA)
http://www.atmeda.org

Ergonomics

http://ergonomics.ucla.edu/
Employment Structure
Over Time
The use of computer in so many
aspects of life has created thousands
of new jobs.
 At the same time, some jobs have
been taken away by computers

Jobs created
Internet Service Provider
 Internet Content Provider
 IT Instructor
 School technical support service (TSS)
 Web page designer
 …

Jobs are taken away
Bank service
 Phone answering
 Irrigation
 …

Needs for Training and
Retraining



Due to the rapid changes in technology,
companies offer re-training programs for
their employees (Employee Retraining
Board,
http://www.erb.org/english/index3.html)
Schools provide new courses for their
students. (e.g. this subject)
Many IT training courses are available in the
market. (e.g. Unisoft,
http://www.unisoftnet.com/unisoft/index.htm)
Education in primary
and secondary schools




The government has put in a large amount
of resources for IT in education (ED2 &
ED3).
Each school will have more computers
linked by a Local Area Network.
All the teachers will be trained to use IT
tools in teaching (BIT, IIT, UIT & AIT)
Students are expected to have capabilities
to process information effectively and
efficiently.
Courses offered by
tertiary institutes

Universities offer formal education and
certification or degree programs in
computer information systems,
computer science, and computer
engineering.
Vocational Training
Council
Professional IT training for non-IT
graduate and certification or diploma
programs in computing studies and
information system.
 http://www.vtc.edu.hk/prospectus/engli
sh/f5/full/disciplines/comput/index.htm

Assignment


Students are required to prepare a list of IT
career from the advertisements on the
newspaper or career websites.
The list should include the following aspects:
– Job title and job nature.
– Skills required.
– Relevant courses provided by universities or
colleges.
Ethical, Moral, Social, and
Environmental Issues

Information explosion
– The rapid development of the Internet
facilitates information exchanges and
freedom of expressions.
– People can gain various kinds of
knowledge faster and more convenient.
Ethical, Moral, Social, and
Environmental Issues
– However, its use has also been abused
by people who post obscene materials or
immoral information.
– Use information for purposes that are not
originally claimed for.
– Keep information while that is no longer
used for the purposes originally claimed.
Ethical, Moral, Social, and
Environmental Issues

Mail bomb
– A mail bomb is the sending of a massive
amount of electronic mail to a specific
person or system.
– A huge amount of mail may simply fill up
the recipient's disk space on the server or,
in some cases, may be too much for a
server to handle and may cause the
server to stop functioning.
Ethical, Moral, Social, and
Environmental Issues

System Hacking
– Illegally access to other computer
systems for either deliberate destruction
or fun.

Virus Wide-spread
– Disseminate virus program via the
Internet or network systems.