Title: Emerging Technologies
1Emerging Technologies
- Advice and Guidance for Practitioners
2Emerging Technologies
- Purpose of this guidance
- The adoption and use of emerging technologies has
long been a requirement of administrators within
the workplace. - As organisations strive for efficiency and more
effective ways of operating, the use of emerging
technologies by administrators will continue. - This item of support for practitioners aims to
raise awareness of the importance of
administrators keeping abreast with new
technologies. - Although not a distinct unit of the new
Administration and IT courses, the adoption and
use of emerging technologies permeates learning
and teaching across all practical IT aspects of
the courses and indeed the role of administrators
within the contemporary workplace.
3Emerging Technologies
- Content of this guidance
- The three video case studies included will help
identify current innovations impacting on the
working practices of administrators within the
modern, dynamic workplace. - These current innovations will be further
explored with links to free web-based resources
supplied, to give practitioners and learners the
opportunity to experiment with emerging
technologies which may be of benefit to the
administrative function. The use of the supplied
technologies is not prescriptive, with
practitioners invited to explore the use of these
and other IT innovations. - Reflective questions to stimulate further
thought, discussion and action relating to the
use of emerging technologies as part of National
4 and National 5 Administration and IT provision
are also given.
4Why no prescribed pupil tasks?
- As previously outlined, the use of emerging
technologies is not a discreet element of the
course nor prescribed. However, practitioners
should recognise the value of incorporating the
use of such technologies as part of the planned
learning and teaching activities. - The advice and guidance recognises the key skill
of early adopters of emerging technology of being
able to quickly evaluate the technology and find
a positive purpose and application to complete
administrative tasks more effectively and
efficiently. This, coupled with the sizeable
range of technologies given, has resulted in the
avoidance of prescribed learners approaches. - Practitioners will therefore be expected to
support learners in the adoption and use of such
technologies to contribute to the successful
completion of familiar administrative tasks. - Reflective questions have been supplied to help
practitioners with this.
5Experimental Approaches to Emerging Technologies
- Many learners studying Administration and IT
National 4 and National 5 courses have been
immersed in the use of technology from an early
age. The term digital natives has been coined
to describe such individuals. Many of our
learners will be confident users of information
technology and will be willing to experiment with
previously unfamiliar information technology
resources. - This confidence and approach to the use of
emerging technology is to be encouraged and
should be supported as part of planned learning
experiences. This is particularly relevant
considering the broad and dynamic range of
technologies an administrator would be expected
to use as part of their organisational duties. - Trial and error is an effective learning and
teaching strategy in the adoption and use of
emerging technologies, with the process of
learners deepening their understanding and skills
in the use of the technology being a valuable
learning experience. - Once familiar with the functions of the emerging
technologies, practitioners should offer learning
experiences where learners can apply and deepen
skills in using the emerging technologies within
administrative contexts perhaps replacing
existing technologies. This will increase
learners appreciation of the relevance of
emerging technologies.
6Why Emerging Technologies?
- Please click on the links below to explore why
emerging technologies are essential to
administrators within the contemporary work
environment.
Education Scotland
Campbell Dallas
Material UK
7Current Innovations
- As the video case studies illustrate,
organisations operate within a dynamic, ever
changing environment, with the use of emerging
technologies impacting on work roles and duties
of administrators. - Emerging technologies which are currently
influencing the work of administrators are given
below. Each will be examined in more detail, with
links to relevant resources supplied. It is hoped
practitioners will incorporate the use of these
or similar resources as part of planned
administrative learning experiences.
8Smartphones
- Developments in computing and mobile
telecommunications technology has resulted in
smartphones being a key resource for
administrators. - As well as allowing verbal communication,
smartphones allow administrators to use the
latest computing technology while on the move.
The latest generation of phones offer
face-to-face communication, web browsing and
download, media capture and use, access to
internal and external networks, email capability,
document creating and editing, and access to
social media. - The four most common smartphone platforms for
business are android, apple, blackberry and
windows phone. Each platform has its own
marketplace where apps short for software
applications can be downloaded, installed and
used on the device. Apps can be downloaded for
free or for a small charge. - The number of useful apps for administrators is
growing by the day. - Why not access the links to each smartphone
platform and investigate how this emerging
technology can be used by administrators. - Reflective questions for practitioners
- What learning contexts could I use to introduce
learners to smartphones? - What administrative tasks can be completed using
smartphones? - How could I incorporate smartphones into my
learning and teaching activities? - What essential skills do learners need to acquire
in the use of smartphones?
Links to smartphone platforms
9Cloud Computing
- Pioneering information technology providers are
now offering cloud computing services to clients. - This means that individual users can access
essential software applications and their
documents from any computer that is linked to the
internet. All software and documents produced
using the software is stored by the cloud
computing service provider on remote servers
which are accessed via the internet. - This saves organisations time and effort
downloading, installing and keeping software
up-to-date. It also increases convenience with
users being able to access cloud resources from
any device that can be connected to the internet. - Administrators may have to access cloud services
to access, extract and save documents and
resources for colleagues or for their own
professional use. - Access the links provided to further investigate
cloud computing services. - Reflective questions for practitioners
- How could I incorporate cloud computing into my
learning and teaching activities? - What essential skills do learners need to acquire
when using cloud computing?
Links to cloud computing resources
10Alternatives to Microsoft Office
- The Microsoft Office suite of integrated software
applications is still the most widely used
collection of titles used by administrators. It
is therefore essential and expected that much of
the work of learners will focus on using this
collection of software titles within
administrative contexts, particularly for word
processing, spreadsheets and database tasks. - However, with organisations looking for cost
savings on IT expenditure a growing number are
now using alternative free integrated office
suites which offer similar functionality and
quality as the market leader. Popular
alternatives include Openoffice, Google docs,
Libreoffice and Zoho. - It is therefore of value for learners to have an
awareness of alternatives to Microsoft Office and
to measure and appreciate the extent their skills
are transferable from package to package. - Learners could explore and compare the
effectiveness of Microsoft Office with one or
more alternative. - Reflective questions for practitioners
- What is the value of learners of being aware of
alternatives to MS Office? - How could I incorporate these alternatives into
my learning and teaching activities?
Links to alternative office suites
11Social Media for Administrators
- The recent explosion in the use of social media
applications as a communication tool has impacted
on the work of administrators. - Organisations will use social media to encourage
two-way and instant communication with employees,
customers and suppliers. - Many administrators will be required to regularly
access and update an organisations social media
presence with information supplied by colleagues. - Administrators may also have their own presence
for professional networking, communication and
collaboration purposes. - Common social media sites used by organisations
are Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Google. - The use of Social Media by organisations is
expected to further evolve, with many predicting
that Social Media will overtake e-mail as the
most used means of electronic communication.
Indeed the information technology services
multinational Atos, for example, made the
decision to ban the used of email by its 75,000
employees based in 42 countries around the world,
with internal social media technologies used
instead. - Reflective questions for practitioners
- What administrative tasks could be completed by
using social media? - How could I incorporate social media into my
learning and teaching activities? - What skills could be developed with learners
through the use of social media ?
Links to social media
12Communication
- How administrators engage, interact and
communicate with key organisation stakeholders is
influenced greatly by emerging technologies. - Organisations are looking for more immediate and
personable communication approaches than email
and a range of innovative web-based resources
have been launched to cater for this growing
need. - Administrators are now using these resources as
part of their day-to-day duties. They may also be
expected to support colleagues in the use of such
technologies. - As well as social media sites, popular
developments include the use of instant messaging
services, including Google Talk and Microsoft
Messenger. - Real-time, web-conferencing services which permit
face-to-face audio and visual communication are
also being used by administrators to pass and
receive information. Applications including skype
and facetime have made the transition from social
applications to important organisational
communication vehicles. - Reflective questions for practitioners
- How I could I incorporate these communication
tools into my learning and teaching? - What skills do learners need to acquire to use
these communication tools?
Links to communication tools
13Collaboration
- Organisations have also been quick to adopt
web-based facilities that allow a number of users
to access and contribute to the creation and
development of documents. - Online collaboration forums are beneficial for
the tasks that require teamworking and are suited
to the development of creative ideas or complex
documents. - It also offers opportunities for partnership
working with customers and suppliers who can view
and comment on live documents, as they are being
produced. - Administrators may be tasked to set-up and invite
users to attend such a collaboration site or
indeed fully participate to create documents, for
example those required for meetings and events. - You could access the links to investigate a
number of free online collaboration sites which
may be of benefit to administrators. - Reflective questions for practitioners
- How might online collaboration tools be used by
administrators? - How might I incorporate these tools into my
learning and teaching activities? - What essential skills might learners acquire in
using communication tools?
Links to collaboration tools
14Presentation
- Microsoft PowerPoint, with an estimated 500
million users around the globe, is undoubtedly
still the key presentation application
administrators would be expected to use in the
workplace. - However, due to the wide use of Microsoft
PowerPoint, a number of organisations have sought
alternatives that allow information to presented
in fresh and engaging ways and avoid the so
called death by PowerPoint phenomena. This
phrase is often used to describe audiences being
overly exposed and largely switched off to talks
delivered using poorly designed PowerPoint
presentations. In Switzerland a political party
has been established to protest against this
rising phenomenon! - A number of web-based, non-linear presentation
applications have emerged, giving organisations a
viable alternative to PowerPoint. Instead of
presenting information on a series of slides,
users can layout information on one canvass and
then choose a path (the order) for presenting
this information to their audience. - With many organisations storing completed
presentations electronically for retrospective
use on intranets, websites and social media
sites, many presentation applications also allow
presentations to be saved as video files to be
uploaded to desired location(s). Links to four
online presentation applications are given. - Reflective questions for practitioners
- How do they compare with Microsoft PowerPoint?
- What is the value to learners of being aware of
alternatives to MS PowerPoint? - How might I incorporate these alternatives into
my learning and teaching activities?
Links to presentation applications
15Personal Effectiveness
- With administrators constantly looking for ways
to manage and use their time more effectively a
range of online technologies are now being used
to help administrators priorities and monitor
progress with tasks they have been issued. - Online to-do lists, timeline and scheduling
resources that can be accessed from a variety of
devices including PCs and smartphones are
becoming more and more popular. - Administrators may use these for their own
effectiveness, but may also be required to
maintain such resources for colleagues. - You could access the supplied links to
investigate further emerging personal
effectiveness technologies being used by
administrators. - Reflective questions for practitioners
- Why are personal effectiveness tools important to
administrators? - How might I incorporate these tools into my
learning and teaching activities? - What are the essential skills the learner may
acquire when using personal effectiveness tools?
Links to personal effectiveness tools
16Other useful tools for administrators
- An increasing range of useful tools to help
administrators in the modern, dynamic workplace
are available online - Often administrators will be tasked to convert a
document or media file from one file type to
another. To make this easier, online file
conversion sites are useful tools regularly used
by administrators. - Screen casting software is another useful tool
for administrators recordings of screen
movements and actions can be taken and stored as
a movie file. This may be of use to
administrators tasked with giving demonstrations
in the use of emerging technologies. - Online questionnaire and poll generation websites
are also of great benefit to administrators. Such
sites make it easy to create questionnaires and
polls that can then be integrated on an
organisations website, social media site or
intranet. These sites also make it easy to
collate and make sense of the responses gathered.
Administrators may use these sites to evaluate
their own work perhaps gaining feedback on the
success of an event. Administrators may also be
asked to create and administer them for
colleagues seeking feedback from employees,
customers and suppliers. - Online video hosting websites, such as YouTube,
are also being used by administrators.
Administrators may watch video tutorials to
increase skills, for example, on how to use an
item of software. Administrators may also be
required to upload content for colleagues to then
be embedded on the organisations website or
social media site. - You could access the supplied links to explore
examples of these online tools of use to
administrators.
Links to other useful tools
17Future Emerging Technologies
- The difficulty in predicting new technologies and
how they will impact on the operations of
administrators is illustrated in the supplied
link to the BBC Tomorrows World programme
broadcast in 1969. - This however has not stopped innovative
organisations offering their view on potential
upcoming technologies. Click on the Microsoft
icon to view their vision of the future. - What is for certain is that new technologies will
be launched that will continue to shape the role
of administrators and how they complete tasks
within the workplace. It is therefore critical
that education practitioners provide
opportunities for learners to develop awareness
and skills in the use of newly emerging
technologies within hands-on, administrative
contexts. - Practitioners can keep abreast of emerging
technologies by scanning appropriate IT news
stories and new technology websites. Links to two
useful sites are supplied. - Practitioners should also strive to strengthen
links with local organisations who may be willing
to showcase breaking technologies to learners
within real life contexts.
Links to future technologies
18Reflective Questions
SQA Administration and IT National 4
- The following questions may be used by individual
practitioners or with colleagues to stimulate
further thought and action relating to the use of
emerging technologies within planned learning
experiences at National 4 and National 5
Administration and IT. - What is the value of learners developing skills
in the use of emerging technologies? - What challenges must be overcome to facilitate
meaningful learning experiences incorporating the
use of emerging technologies? - How does the recommended trial and error approach
to the use of emerging technologies differ from
my current learning and teaching approaches to
the use of information technology? What is the
value of this proposed approach? - What existing Administration and IT resources
could be used to allow learners to apply skills
in the use of these emerging technologies within
Administrative contexts? - How will I ensure appropriate progression in
skills development in the use of emerging
technologies from National 4 to National 5? - What approaches will I employ to keep informed of
future developments in technology that impact on
the work of administrators? How might I
incorporate these new technologies into my course
provision?
SQA Administration and IT National 5
Links to Administration IT Documentation
Education Scotland Audit Tool