COVID-19 and IT literacy

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 I have been through personal IT literacy revolution within these couple of years.

The company I worked 2 years ago was a small company without much information technology. Everything was done in paperwork. Attendance record was kept on paper, and I needed my boss’s signature.

I started to work at another company in 2019, and briefly in 2021. The experience between these two years were revolutionary.

For the first time in my life, I used online attendance record. Some of the meetings were done by Zoom, which I have also never heard of before. The company still needed to use lot of paper, but it was beginning to be replaced by mobile application. Conversation between branch offices abroad was done on online chat. Phones were replaced by internet phone.  Meeting was announced not by e-mail but by the Outlook invitation.

During unemployment, I experienced interviews by Zoom and Teams, as the companies can't let candidate visit their offices. HR were also working from home so they needed to use Zoom or Teams for interview.

The company which I briefly worked in the spring of 2021 implemented zero-paperwork. Some of the older staffs were not allowed to take memo on paper. Everything had to be stored in cloud system and conversation was done through Teams chat

I also took up part-time work to bridge the gap of unemployment. The company hired people who can work from home. They used Google Workspace, and I experienced spreadsheets and Google Meet.

Looking back these 2 years, I have never thought myself using such a variety of internet use on business scene. Those who I met after I became unemployed said that they need to go online because of Covid-19.

I wonder if our current work style and use of IT would remain the same in post-Covid-19 era. Would we use internet phone, instead of mobile phones?  Will Zoom or Teams meeting be remain as it is, or will we still use meeting room? Will we still be using printers and papers?  Do we still have chance to meet colleagues in person, or do we work only through internet chat?

It is difficult to keep up with IT literacy which is changing a fast pace. I reckon Covid-19 had accelerated this trend. Do we go back to the time when we needed to get superior’s signatures, or photocopies of presentation?  Let’s see what will happen when Covid-19 is more or less over.



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