IT Impact on Learning Methodology and Accounting - Essay Example

Title: IT Impact on Learning Methodology and Accounting Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Name and Code: University: Date of Submission: Introduction Learning methodology is part of education, which is a wide field that concerns itself with the training of individuals, teaching the learners on different subject matters, equipping individuals with life skills, transfer of knowledge to people that help them to be productive in life, as well as, promotion of research that is aimed at bettering the future. Therefore, education is such a parcel and part of the life of everyone. It has played a big role in the transformation of the field of education, especially on the methodology aspect. The impact of IT in the field of education cannot be underplayed for its impact is great in many societies today. The world began moving from the agricultural age to the industrial age and is now engaging its gear to the information technology age. Education was not left out but instead had been affected to a bigger extend today. The impact of IT on education shall be addressed in detail in this paper in addition to its general impacts to educational circles. The paper shall also address the ethical concerns for IT professional and the general public often with reverence to learning, at the same time, the sustainability issues related to IT application in education. All this will be captured in a conclusion paragraph (Maddux, 2008). IT&Learming Methodology IT impact on education IT has impacted greatly on the modes of learning. Initially the mode of learning that was known was that of direct access of information, either from the teacher or from reading a book. The coming of IT has challenged this as the only mode of learning, by providing other modes that the learners can learn from a teacher or from other learners. For instance through IT; there has been introduction of distance learning programs in many developed and developing countries. Many learning institutions particularly the tertiary colleges and universities have enrolled many learners, who would wish to take their studies in their respective places without physically having to attend classes. In the distance education programs, learners are able to access learning materials and guide from the teacher through the internet. In some advanced educational institution, this has even gone a notch higher to provision of examination to learners via the internet. This happens in the form of the teacher/instructor and learners are able to agree on specific time in which to sit for the exam, the exam is sent on the students log page of the institution, it is timed and after the end time it is submitted. If one has not submitted to the site at times is closed is a failure. These students learning via distance learning, learn through exchange of information, instructions and response to the instruction via the internet. In most of the occasions they would maybe visit the institution at graduation. In addition to this we have the short term web based learning exercises that individuals do undertake (Vickery, 2009). Modes of teaching the Learner IT has too greatly impacted to the changes in the mode of teaching. This is experienced in the different ways that teachers are able to communicate their information to learners in colleges, schools and universities across the globe. Culturally the modes of teaching have been that of the classroom interaction, of the teacher and the learner through discussion, lecture method or direct instruction in the classroom. Information technology has broadened the scope of the modes of teaching, by adding giving of instructions electronically. This may involve the teacher logging on the internet via video conferencing and giving direct instructions to the learners, who may be located far and wide. It may also involve using the electronic mail to send assignments, course work content and instructions to the learners across the globe. The follow up of the teacher on the work given to the learners may also be done electronically via the email services. In addition to this the learner’s response to the teachers’ instruction is also communicated via the internet. Information technology has also brought up inventions such as the use of projectors to teaching (Ray, 2009). This implies that the curriculum is formatted unto slides that the teacher can go through. Using the slides makes the work of the teacher be much simpler to explain and to be understood by the learners. A number of developed countries have taken this into account and it has worked well. Access of learning resources The coming up of online libraries, book stores and colleges has been facilitated much by IT. Information technology has enhanced invention of online libraries. These libraries are run in the following way: the prospective users get an opportunity to seek to use this facility by following the instructions placed on their web page, they log in and pay a subscription fee to use the library. Through the codes, a user gets a personal account that can enable him/her to access information from the library. Books, journals and other written materials can be accessed in such sites by the learner. In addition to the online library, the access of teaching and learning materials has been enhanced by internet provisions that enable one to purchase a book(s), journals and other relevant resources that may be required (John, 2008). The Growth and spread in knowledge IT has played a big role in the spread of knowledge among people all over. Education is aimed at dissemination of knowledge that is useful to the learner and the society as a whole. In this regard, IT has led to inventions such as the online education and information sites such as ‘Wikipedia’ which contains a lot of information with regard to many things. Social internet sites have also contributed to the growth of information though in an informal manner. The users of such sites are able to learn much from each other, through the information shared and the information posted on such sites. IT related technologies such as use of power point slides to teach has made the possibility of much knowledge to be compressed in a manner that still addresses the issue that are to be taught (Hilton, 2010). Increased the job placing and careers through Effective Learning The growth of IT in the learning processes, has promoted more job placing in the learning and education fields. As much as there have been arguments that IT will kill job opportunities; this has not been true parse. This is because the fields of teaching has now been broadened to be inclusive of IT related fields, and this to a bigger extend promotes diversity in the works of the teachers, who manage such learning sessions. The careers have also increased to catering for IT specialist and those specialists who are required to handle the different technologies that are required (Maler, 2010). Enhanced globalization in Learning Processes and Methodologies Globalization involves the coming up of universal way of doing things due to spread of same information across that makes people to look as if they are the same. The learning processes have been influenced by the impacts of globalization brought about by the IT inventions. The IT inventions have enabled borrowing of information from different sites, exchange of these information as well as application of this information. The General impact of IT on learning methodologies The general impact of IT on education includes the change in methodology of learning. This is through the inclusion of learners to learn via the internet provided information, or to exchange information with their teachers, by the IT supported programs. Generally also the change in methodology of teaching is heavily impacted by new IT compliant teaching methodologies, such as, use of slides to teach. The most important general impact of IT in education is that it has made education an all inclusive matter. Currently, through IT information is available in so many sites in which any one can access. However, the free access to these information has led also to negative impacts in the event that wrong or unpleasant information is accessed by the learner. Finally, IT has led to the change in curriculum and education systems in different countries so that they bring it to relevance of the IT controlled economy. The ethical issues for IT professionals and general public related to Learning Methodololgies Personal touch in learning, a number of scholars have questioned the application of a number of IT solutions to educational problems. They claim that the practice by IT professions to introduce such practices as to impact negatively on the growth of the learner; for instance use of electronic calculator is said to have a negative impact to the learners ability to compute. Other ethical issues include: the availability of abusive information in online educational websites. In addition to these, we have the issue of lack of universality in certain concepts that shape societies behavior. The issue on the efficiency of monitoring of education programs to access how efficient they are. The information leakages and costs involved and finally the falsehood, and selfish approaches to information and knowledge sharing (Nolan, 2009). The sustainability issues related to IT application in educational learning processes IT has been applied in education and still is being applied with its growing demand. However the sustainability of such moves has been faced by a number of challenges. These challenges include; the cost factor, this is the major challenge that threatens the application of IT due to the high costs that have to be met to buy IT equipments and machines. The changing society and technology has also been an ethical matter with. The impacts of abuse of IT in educational sector, this is where access to internet by learners may cause them to visit bad sites. Also the issue of the illiterate people having limited opportunity to use these sites has raised ethical concerns (Donoghue, 2009). Conclusion I would say that IT has impacted greatly in the field of general education and particularly to the modes of learning. In fact, currently many governments are making most of their teaching and learning programs to be IT compliant. From the above we can see the impact of IT on learning methodologies is significant. IT & Accounting Introduction The Impact of Information Technology on Accounting In general, Information technology has greatly impacted the field of accounting in many ways. Significantly, it has impacted positively to the accounting practices, through introduction of IT networks and computerized accounting systems, which have shortened the time needed by the accountants to come up with financial information that is useful to the business managers and the key stakeholders of a particular business venture. IT & Accounting In particular, IT has impacted the field of accounting through enabling of the design and application of computerized accounting systems. This is the highest impact that IT has made on accounting. This has made companies to be able to develop and use systems that are computerized to track and put to record all the financial transactions. This invention has led to transformation of manual spreadsheets, paper ledgers, and hand written financial statements into computer systems that can effectively translate individual transactions, into financial reports that are accurate and easy to read, analyze and interpret (John, 2006).. Often a number of the popular accounting systems are flexible enough, to be tailored for application and relevance to specific companies or firms. This enables many companies to create departmental and individual; reports quickly and easily; for these reports are essential in the making of management decisions. In addition to this, the computerized accounting systems are relatively easy to be adjusted to reflect any changes in business operations resulting from, economic changes (Williams, 2000). IT has also facilitated the increased functionality of the accounting departments of business organizations. This is evident through its influence to increasing the timeliness of accounting information. The computerized accounting systems have improved the timeliness of information and thus accountants can come up with accounting reports, and operations analysis that may offer an accurate picture of the current operation to management. The number of financial reports has also been on the rise due to the input of computerized systems. These reports include the departmental profit and loss reports, cash flow reports, and market share analysis reports; which has been made much more accessible (James, 2003). IT has also made accounting reporting be much more accurate. Numerous computerized accounting systems have provisions for internal, check and balance measures that are aimed at ensuring that all transactions and accounts are well balanced before final statements are prepared. These systems would allow journal entries that are not matching to be entered, thus ensuring that all individual transactions are properly recorded. Accuracy has also been enhanced by limiting the number of accountants who have access to the accounting information. This implies that only qualified accountants will be able to adjust the accounting records kept (Dull, 2009). IT has also promoted faster processing of accounting information. Computerized accounting systems have made it possible for accountants to process large amounts of accounting information and take this through a quick processing process in the system. This provision has also lessened the amount of time needed to close the different accounting periods. The shorter periods of closing accounting periods have played a bigger part in cost control, particularly with regards to labor involved and this ultimately increases company’s efficiency. IT has also facilitated better external reporting in accounting. The reports that are to be issued to the external investors and stakeholders have been improved by the accounting systems. Improved modes of reporting accounting information has increased confidence among investors to the reports. For companies are able to use funds raised from these investors for equity financing, which is significant in expansion of business operations of a company. The sustainability of IT application in accounting is positively projected to work. This is because computers, internet, servers, wirelesses and personal digital devices have forever transformed how companies conduct their day to day business. The durability of software packages have also led to progress in traditional operations and production processes (Drury, 2007). Conclusion In conclusion, Information technology has done more good than harm to the field of accounting. It has enabled so many inventions to be done, made accounting more flexible, increased the accuracy of reporting of accounting information as well as made the accounting periods be shorter, therefore, cutting down costs that would go to labor. Reference Maddux, D. (2008). Type II uses of technology in education and learning processes : projects, case studies, and software applications. London: Routledge publishers. Vickery, G. (2009). OECD Information Technology Outlook. Chicago: OECD Publishing. Ray, S. (2009). Technology applications in learning educational learning processes : a learning view. London: Routledge publishers. John, W. (2008). Quarterly Review of Distance Education. New York, NY: IAP Publishers Donoghue, J. (2009). Technology supported learning and teaching: a staff perspective. London: Idea Group publishers Hilton, M. (2010). Enhancing undergraduate learning with information technology. New York, NY: National Academies Press. Maler, P. (2010). 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