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The Advantages of Textbooks in Academic Study


The role of information technology in the classroom has greatly expanded since the 1990s. Many sources, including the U.S. Department of Education, promote the benefits of technological learning, showing that it enables students to play a more active role in their education. While technology has many benefits, educators should not forget the importance and advantages of using textbooks as well.

Synthesis
Textbooks condense vast amounts of knowledge into a resource that can be covered during the academic year. Since the sole purpose of textbooks is to inform, they provide a balanced presentation of information. One textbook can replace many other resources, providing the teacher and students with all essential information on a given topic. Textbooks also synthesize knowledge according to academic level, so students can study the same material at various depths.

Organization
Textbooks have a clear structure and walk the student through each topic in a logical order. Each unit builds on the previous unit, reviewing the information, covering new concepts and giving a preview of what is to come. This structure makes personal study more effective for the students and helps the teacher organize the course syllabus.

Instruction
Each new textbook edition incorporates recent research and new teaching strategies. Textbooks give teachers effective methods of instruction and differentiation. Resources within the textbooks, such as unit reviews, activities, experiments, writing prompts, glossaries and appendices, also help teachers present the material effectively and assess student learning based on course objectives.

Research
Textbooks are efficient references for research. Due to their empirical nature, they are a valid starting point for any investigation. They are comprehensive, since they provide thorough instruction in a given field, and reliable, due to the preparation and research that goes into them. Textbooks also make good references because of their

structure. All information is carefully categorized and can be found easily through the index. Textbook citations and bibliographies provide students with further references to consult if more in-depth research is needed.

Connections
Textbooks provide unique interdisciplinary connections. They examine a given subject thoroughly and present it from various angles. Textbooks show which themes can be studied in multiple disciplines, and usually offer questions or reflections that help students analyze the connections among disciplines. This helps students form a comprehensive web of knowledge, develop higher thinking skills and understand how knowledge connects with reality. Read more: The Advantages of Textbooks in Academic Study | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/info_8045751_advantages-textbooks-academic-study.html#ixzz1XwE3pD2V

What Education Do Information Technology Specialists Need?


Job Description
Information technology specialists can work on a variety of tasks such as dealing with website maintenance, fixing computer and internet problems and helping an individual within the organizations with work related computer issues.

Education
A bachelor's or graduate's degree are often preferred in this field. Some possible degrees would be in anything computer related such as computer programming or computer science.

Alternative Educational Options


For those that do not want to go to a four year or longer degree program there are programs that are shorter available. Associates degrees, which are normally two years long, are an option that will assist you in getting your foot in the door but may influence your ability to move up to better jobs within the company.

Certifications
By getting certified in a specific program such as Microsoft software, you will have a skill that sets you apart from others in the field.

Other skills
Other useful skills in order to be an information technology specialist will be

dependent on the specific roles they are fulfilling. Because of the multiple tasks that may be necessary, organizational skills will be required. The ability to communicate and work well with other people will also be beneficial in this field since most tasks will require some type of team work. Read more: What Education Do Information Technology Specialists Need? | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/facts_5921064_education-information-technology-specialistsneed_.html#ixzz1XwFXhtzp

Information Technology Grants for HIV/AIDS


Information technology plays a key role in the fight against HIV/AIDS. A growing number of organizations and individuals are harnessing the power of new information technology to educate, access resources and improve the flow of information. Some grant funding from nonprofit and government agencies is available for improving and implementing information technologies to reduce the toll of HIV/AIDS throughout the world.

Minority AIDS Initiative Project


The National Prevention Information Network, in association with the Centers for Disease Control, supports the Minority AIDS Initiative Project with grant funding of $400,000 annually. This grant funds the efforts of local educational institutions to implement new technology such as text messaging, social network and multimedia in their efforts to raise teenagers' awareness about HIV/AIDS. Centers for Disease Control National Prevention Information Network Grants Management Specialist DHHS CDC Procurement & Grants Office 2920 Brandywine Rd, MS E-09 Atlanta, GA 30341 770-488-2714 cdcnpin.org

The Peace Packs Program


In partnership with AOL and Time Warner, the Peace Corps provides small cash grants to individual Peace Corps volunteers who are developing new ways to use information technology to increase communication and share information in remote areas such as Ghana. Peace Corps Paul D. Coverdell Peace Corps Headquarters 1111 20th Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20526 800-424-8580

peacecorps.org

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation


The private Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation offers grants to nonprofit organizations with 501(c) (3) status that seek to improve information and awareness about HIV/AIDs. Although no grants are offered to religious organizations or to individuals, other tax-exempt groups are invited to apply. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation PO Box 23350 Seattle, WA 98102 206-709-3100 info@gatesfoundation.org Read more: Information Technology Grants for HIV/AIDS | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/list_7185923_information-technology-grants-hiv_aids.html#ixzz1XwGzBig0

Science is the understanding and continuous exploration of the natural world. In short, it is a study of "As Is". Technology is applying the outcome of scientific principles to innovate and improve the man-made things in the world. The output of Technology is a new or better process of doing. Engineering is applying the outcome of technology to design, develop, and manufacture the end product. Example: The first understanding of steam as a form of water power capable of opening up a tightly closed tea-kettle lid is science. Then the making of a steam boiler prototype in a laboratory by continuous experimentation and finally arriving at the most efficient process is an example of technology. Later, manufacturing the steam boiler in a factory and rolling it out for use comes under engineering. Engineering provides feedback to technology to innovate or improve better ways of doing. Inputs from technological innovation allow science to explore other natural phenomenon. Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_difference_between_science_and_technology_and_engine ering#ixzz1XwL3nAlq

Definition of Information Technology

Object 1

In the broadest sense, information technology refers to both the hardware and software that are used to store, retrieve, and manipulate information. At the lowest level you have the servers with an

operating system. Installed on these servers are things like database and web serving software. The servers are connected to each other and to users via a network infrastructure. And the users accessing these servers have their own hardware, operating system, and software tools.

IT (information technology)
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IT (information technology) is a term that encompasses all forms of technology used to create, store, exchange, and use information in its various forms (business data, voice conversations, still images, motion pictures, multimedia presentations, and other forms, including those not yet conceived). It's a convenient term for including both telephony and computer technology in the same word. It is the technology that is driving what has often been called "the information revolution." Related glossary terms: limited combustible cable (LCC), cow power (biogas), green cloud, Energy Star, unified computing system (UCS), economizer, modular datacenter, Bloom Energy Server, fuel cell, CADE (Corporate Average Data center Efficiency)

What is the difference between science and technology? Although different from each other, Science and Technology go hand-in-hand, and in this particular explanation, Science is the egg, and Technology is the Chicken if you believe that the egg came first. I can't tell you where the egg came from, other than the fact that Creation and Evolution seem to be intertwined. Science can broadly be defined as the study of "things" such as: Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Genetics, Geology, Psychology, Sociology, and other fields of study that analyze interactions, behaviors, physical properties, effects, causes, etc. in order to rationalize or establish given properties, behaviors and interactions about such "things". In Science class, the basis of Science is the conducting of experiments. Basically, a theory is made (stated), analysis and testing are performed with the use of various controls, and when a specific, measurable result occurs, and can be reproduced or proven time and time again, the theory then becomes Scientific law, or a truism of sorts (I am trying to be general in order to represent all the fields). Technology, refers generally to items of use, created from "Applied Science". A good example of this is the production of Solar panels. Solar Panels are used in a variety of different technologies, but the simplest example is a Solar Powered Calculator. It was proposed long ago that the Sun emits 2 types of energy, heat energy and light energy. The Sun's heat energy is what

warms the Earth's atmosphere so that life as we know it can exist, by warming the atmosphere to a tolerable temperature that the Human Body can function in. (Space is somewhere around -230 degrees Farenheit, and at those temperatures, plants could not grow, and the Human body would not be able to carry on normal functions such as breathing in that cold of temperature.) The sun's light energy is absorbed by Solar Panels (and Solar Cells), and converts that energy to electricity so that the calculator can perform mathematical functions. To test this, put a piece of electrical tape over the solar panel on a solar calculator for 15 minutes, and then see if you can turn it on. If you can't then you know the light energy is being converted to electricity. In brief: Science is the study of forces and interactions between different "things", both animate and inanimate. Technology can be referred to as things which we make, but were developed by applying Scientific law, knowing what such "things" are capable of doing.

ifferent sources provide different definitions. A few of these definitions and their sources are included, below... The International Foundation for Information Technology (IF4IT) provides three definitions for Information Technology: 1. The technology used for the study, understanding, planning, design, construction, testing, distribution, support and operations of software, computers and computer related systems that exist for the purpose of Data, Information and Knowledge processing. 2. The industry that has evolved to include the study, science, and solution sets for all aspects of Data, Information and Knowledge management and/or processing. 3. The Organization in an enterprise or business that is held responsible and accountable for the technology used for planning, design, construction, testing, distribution, support and operations of software, computers and computer related systems that exist for the purpose of Data, Information and Knowledge management and/or processing. The Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) defines Information Technology as: "The study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware." IT deals with the use of electronic computers and computer software to convert, store, protect, process, transmit, and securely retrieve information. The combination of telecommunication and computer science for the capture, storage and transmission of information to every nook and corner of the world is said to be IT. An unreferenced source contributed the following definition for Information Technology: Information Technology is the technology (hardware and software) required for the processing of data and other information. This website is a type of information technology. See the related links. Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_information_technology#ixzz1XwMqIWWs

Some advantages and disadvantages of information technology


Before we can know about all the advantages and disadvantages of information technology, it is essential that we know what information technology is exactly, and why it has it come to play such a important role in our daily lives. Today information technology involves more than just computer literacy; it also takes into account how computers work and how these computers can further be used not just for information processing but also for communications and problem solving tasks as well. Our world today has changed a great deal with the aid of information technology. Things that were once done manually or by hand have now become computerized operating systems, which simply require a single click of a mouse to get a task completed. With the aid of IT we are not only able to stream line our business processes but we are also able to get constant information in 'real time' that is up to the minute and up to date. The significance of IT can be seen from the fact that it has penetrated almost every aspect of our daily lives from business to leisure and even society. Today personal PCs, cell phones, fax machines, pagers, email and internet have all not only become an integral part of our very culture but also play an essential role in our day to day activities. With such a wide scope for the purpose of this article we shall focus on the impact of the internet in information technology.

Some of the advantages of information technology include:


Globalization - IT has not only brought the world closer together, but it has allowed the world's economy to become a single interdependent system. This means that we can not only share information quickly and efficiently, but we can also bring down barriers of linguistic and geographic boundaries. The world has developed into a global village due to the help of information technology allowing countries like Chile and Japan who are not only separated by distance but also by language to shares ideas and information with each other. Communication - With the help of information technology, communication has also become cheaper, quicker, and more efficient. We can now communicate with anyone around the globe by simply text messaging them or sending them an email for an almost instantaneous response. The internet has also opened up face to face direct communication from different parts of the world thanks to the helps of video conferencing. Cost effectiveness - Information technology has helped to computerize the business process thus streamlining businesses to make them extremely cost effective money making machines. This in turn increases productivity which ultimately gives rise to profits that means better pay and less strenuous working conditions. Bridging the cultural gap - Information technology has helped to bridge the cultural gap by helping people from different cultures to communicate with one another, and allow for the exchange of views and ideas, thus increasing awareness and reducing prejudice. More time - IT has made it possible for businesses to be open 24 x7 all over the globe. This means that a business can be open anytime anywhere, making purchases from different countries easier

and more convenient. It also means that you can have your goods delivered right to your doorstep with having to move a single muscle. Creation of new jobs - Probably the best advantage of information technology is the creation of new and interesting jobs. Computer programmers, Systems analyzers, Hardware and Software developers and Web designers are just some of the many new employment opportunities created with the help of IT.

Some disadvantages of information technology include:


Unemployment - While information technology may have streamlined the business process it has also crated job redundancies, downsizing and outsourcing. This means that a lot of lower and middle level jobs have been done away with causing more people to become unemployed. Privacy - Though information technology may have made communication quicker, easier and more convenient, it has also bought along privacy issues. From cell phone signal interceptions to email hacking, people are now worried about their once private information becoming public knowledge. Lack of job security - Industry experts believe that the internet has made job security a big issue as since technology keeps on changing with each day. This means that one has to be in a constant learning mode, if he or she wishes for their job to be secure. Dominant culture - While information technology may have made the world a global village, it has also contributed to one culture dominating another weaker one. For example it is now argued that US influences how most young teenagers all over the world now act, dress and behave. Languages too have become overshadowed, with English becoming the primary mode of communication for business and everything else.

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