VLE | The School Portal

The School Portal, VLE (Virtual Learning Environment);

The portal is something that students at the Armthorpe academy use daily. The look of it seems unprofessional; very amateur. Bad colours, layout, images it all adds up to a horrific layout and make it hard to navigate around, and if you look at the age range that the vle is aimed at(11-16) you think that many of these people are going to struggle to navigate around it. The Armthorpe VLE has some good features however you have to dig deep into the website to find them and many students dont have the time of day to look deep into our vle, this means that many useful statistics, news, etc is wasted.

The school portal could become useful if it was nicely laid and out suitable to the target audience. This would mean maybe adding a navigation bar, less text, pictures etc and make the important 'stuff' stand out, this way it takes little time to look at it and makes the essential information actual visible and finally would be read by someone. Also the vle needs to be constantly updated, sometimes it is updated fast other times information is added to late so you never know if you can trust it. These set backs to the vle make student avoid it however it does have potential to be a very good service within the school.

 

 

Direct Gov

Directgov:

• Look at education and learning
• Job Searches
• Driving theories and tests
• There is a page for parents for schools and pre-schools
• Crime and justice page
• Page for young people e.g. money problems or work and careers
• Motoring e.g. tax
• Health

Information services:

Crime and Justice:

The police force e.g. vacancies different types of police and what they do.

http://goo.gl/YU0xi

Motoring:

Driver safety e.g. the highway code or an enhanced rider scheme for bikers.

http://goo.gl/rRM6A

Job searching:

There is useful information when it comes to looking for a job e.g. what your CV should look like or voluntary work advice.

http://goo.gl/oxqNI

Pensions and Retirement:

There is advice for older people e.g. planning for retirement or state pension.

http://goo.gl/W7t6e

Online reporting and advice:

Flooding advice:

There is advice for what to do if your house floods and information on areas that may be affected by the flood (flood warnings).

http://goo.gl/Q431Y

Disabled People:

There is plenty of advice for what disabled people can do for things such as job advice or travel holidays and breaks.

http://goo.gl/2dxsm

Health and wellbeing:

There is a whole NHS page for things like healthy living.

http://goo.gl/35G6R

Britons living abroad:

There is plenty of information regarding going abroad e.g. money or your safety from things such as conflict.

http://goo.gl/Q0CfB

Online Payments:

Driving licence:
Through the government website you can apply for a driving license of a provisional license.
http://goo.gl/vuKzi

Passports:
You can also apply for a passport through the website.
http://goo.gl/AqsoI

 

Overall, I think that this website is a very useful website as it has a lot of information on a lot of different topics. But this itself is a disadvantage because if you don’t know what you’re looking for, you can get sidetracked or not know what leads to what you need. Because this website has a lot of information, odds are you are going to find what you need, you just need to know where to look.

Downloadable Services

There are many downloadable services available to us. But why should we use them? One of the main reasons we should use the downloadable function is that it is much quicker than buying the physical product. It will save a lot of time and maybe some money too. You are able to do it from the comforts of your own home which is a big bonus as it saves a trip out especially if you have a busy schedule. Also some things are only exclusively available online, this will sometimes entice people to use these online services if they are interested in the service offered.

One big problem that may occur through downloading products is viruses. Viruses could be attached to the product and if so your computer will download the virus aswell creating a world of problems. However many professional services now ensure all of them to be virus free however it is still a possiblilty. There is also the possibilty of getting scammed through downloadable services, some of these you pay for and you may pay but not recieve the service or even worse they may steel your personal details. This will put a majority of people off and make them wary of what sites they use. So a new business coming into the downloadable service market may be avoided due to it been not trusted source.

It generally fulfils its purposes. Many downloadable services are very fast and efficient, they save a lot of time for people on a busy work schedule and thats a lot of people these days with busy schedules, so this does attract a lot of people. however there still are risks involved. Such as giving away your personal details to an untrustworthy source or even just not recieving the service youved paid for. There are also viruses kicking about in some of these services that will caused you time and problems that should happen.  

E-commerce | Online Banking

The task we have being assigned is to research the purposes of online banking. 

Online banking just gives another way of banking for another person. There are benefits and drawbacks of online banking and you could argue that it is only limited to certain groups of people. However all in all the purpose of online banking is to make it quick and efficient. This will benefit people who dont have much time to hand to travel to a bank. 

However a certain group that may benefit and struggle from online banking is elderly. Some elderly may not be in a position to travel to the bank, this is where online banking can be a benefit to them as they can do it from the comforts of their own home. However, stereotypically the elderly are not comfortable/up to date with current technology so they will have no idea how to use online banking, they may not even have a computer/internet. Although they can learn to use online banking or buy a computer it may just be more beneficial for many of them to go to a local bank. 
However a certain group that online banking is going to benefit is business men/women. This is because they work long hours and banks may be closed when they go home so because online banking is 24/7 they can do it quicker and at the comforts of their home/work at their own time. 

Generally, i imagine the audience to be aimed at 16 - 40 year olds, generally people who have an idea of how to use a computer and the internet, also people who are comfortable buying things online and think that it is secure. Generally this age group would of bought products online previously so they will more than likely trust and use online banking. 

Online banking does fulfil its purpose to some extent. Anyone with a bank account can use it and it generally is more beneficial as its quicker and can be used anywhere to a degree and can be used at anytime. However not everyone will be able to use it as not everyone is up to date with technology or they may not think online banking is secure.

The main advantage of online banking would be that its very convenient to a vast majority of the population. It can be used anywhere and anytime and saves time from travelling to a local or not local bank. However although many banks deem online banking to be very secure there still is a slight possibility that you may get hacked and this creates a massive problem. 

E-commerce | Ebay

Ebay;

eBay is an international company that auctions and sells an endless amount of products; however it’s the users that make eBay what it is. Its main purposes are to provide an online auction to offer used or new products at lower prices than the original rrp. Many businesses have eBay stores now because it has became a good merchanting site because it has a wide customer base. Its also very quick and easy to use which saves a trip down to the shops, this makes eBay very appealing to some people.

The audience for eBay is too broad to pinpoint. The majority of people I know use this, including myself, friends, mum and dad and sometimes my grand-parents too. This creates such a wide customer basis as you only need a basic knowledge of how to use the internet and then you can use eBay, as it is very user-friendly.

The auction process within eBay is relatively simple to use. The seller sets a time and a original price to start with, the shortest time length to sell something is 1 day and goes up to 24 days. The auctions can start from as little as 0.1p and can go up to anything, there are no limitations. Once the item is up on auction everyone who searches something specific to that item potentially will come across it. They then have the option to bid. Most bidding on products come at the end of the auction where it’s a mad dash to get the winning bid in, the highest bid once the auction is over wins the product.

eBay fulfils its purposes to some extent. It has now got such a wide customer base it has endless amount of products on offer. Many of them are at good prices. It now has a buy it now button incorporated, this make its quicker to buy a product and gives you an option incase you don’t want to take part in an auction. However, sellers have now got onto getting their friends to bump the price of the product up, this makes it unfair for buyer as they don’t get a good deal as such.

eBay, is very useful for buying products quickly and mostly securely, very few problems occur. It also has a wide customer base which in turn gives an endless amount of products. However if you do get scammed getting your money back is a hassle and some people don’t have the time to do it!

BBC Weather | 5 Day Review

Wednesday 19th September;

BBC Forecast;

The forecast given from BBC weather is generally sunny all day reaching a maximum of 14 degrees, it has given the odd bit of rain however this is only a short spell within the day. The lowest the temperature is going to go is 10 degrees with an average of 13mph winds.

Actual Weather; 

The forecast that was given from BBC, i felt, was fairly accurate. The temperature felt like it was about 13 - 14 degrees maximum, and there was a little bit of rain like BBC said so. The wind felt fairly average, however at points it felt above 13mph. Towards the end of the day the temperature did start to decrease and feels like it fell to around, 10 degrees. So all in all it was a fairly accurate weather review from BBC. 

Thursday 20th September;

BBC Forecast;

The forecast given from BBC is rainy spells which are expected all day on and off with an average temperature of being about 15 degrees. Winds are expected to be around 13mph.

Actual Weather;

Rainy spells happened throughout the day, which was given from BBC. The wind felt to be fairly accurate and what i would estimate being around the 12 - 13mph mark. However the temperature did feel a little cooler than what was said, i'd say it felt to be about 12 degrees more than anything.

Friday 21st September;

BBC Forecast;

The forecast given from BBC has given light rain showers to be reoccurring throughout the day with a maximum temperature being 12 degrees with winds being fairly mild; around 7mph

Actual Weather;

The forecast that was given by the BBC was fairly accurate. There was a lot of rain showers spread out throughout the whole day, which is what BBC said. Also it was very cold outside compared to normal whether, probably ranging from 10 - 12 degrees, so BBC was fairly accurate there and the wind speed was hardly noticeable so BBC was once again accurate. 

Saturday 22nd September;

BBC Forecast;

Today the BBC have said that the maximum temperature that it is going to go to is around 12 degrees with the lowest being around 6 degrees towards the end of the day. It will be clear skies mainly throughout the day but sometimes sunny with some clouds. Average wind speed of 4 mph.

Actual Weather;

Today i once again think that BBC is very accurate. The temperature felt the same as what the BBC predicted and there were cloudy spells within the day. The temperature did drop very rapidly towards the end of the day and it felt to be around 5 - 6 degrees, as BBC stated. The wind was hardly noticeable, like the 4mph winds that were forecast.

Sunday 23rd September;

BBC Forecast;

Today the BBC has forecast the maximum temperature to be around 13 degrees. For the first half of the day it is supposed to be cloudy with sunny intervals however the second half of the day it is forecast heavy showers from then on through to the next day. The wind speed is picking up and is supposed to be averaging around 14mph.

Actual Weather;

Once again the forecast from BBC seemed to be fairly accurate. The temperature felt to be around 13 degrees as predicted and after noon the rain came, heavily, as the BBC stated. The wind speed did feel around 14mph, as stated by the BBC.

Results;

Overall the results collected in the last five days from the BBC have being fairly accurate. Although not 100% accurate the weather compared to the forecast is fairly similar, this leads me to say that the forecast given from the BBC is trustworthy and unless you want a more dept filled forecast there really is no point paying for another forecast, especially when the BBC forecasts are free.

Newsgroups

Newsgroups have both advantages and disadvantages. While using newsgroups if you get a lot of people on your topic having a discussion you can get information quickly and get a variety of views on an endless amount of topics.

However there are limitations to newsgroup, for example if you don’t get anyone talking on a topic then there is no discussion, this therefore renders newsgroups useless. Also for some groups you have to have an account to put your views across and sometimes people don’t want to sign up to a website, so this limits the people who will post on the group.

Newsgroup fulfil their purpose to some extent, there are some major set backs like not having any people on your group or limited people sign up, however if you start to get authors and responses on your group then it can be very useful to collect a variety of views and to also express your view.