Information Technology in a Global Society
IB ITGS - Overview
• What is ‘ITGS’ ?
• Group 3 ‘Individuals and Societies’ subject
• Social and ethical issues of IT (Information
Technology)
• Understanding how IT works
IB ITGS – Social and Ethical
 Social issues… (examples – good AND bad)
 Economic effects of the Internet
 Health issues of video games
 Environmental issues of dumping old PCs
 Ethical issues…
 Who is responsible if your computer crashes ?
 Who is held accountable for iPod faults ?
IB ITGS - Aims
 Develop an understanding of (new) technology
 Study human experience and behaviour with IT
 Analyse and argue theories about the use of IT
 Develop an awareness of human attitudes and beliefs
towards IT
 Understand social and ethical considerations in the
use of IT at local and global levels
IB ITGS – Course content
 Strand 1 – Social and Ethical Significance
 SL/HL: Social and ethical considerations linked to specified IT
developments
 Reliability, Integrity, Security, Privacy and anonymity,
Authenticity, Intellectual property, Equality of access,
Control, Globalization and cultural diversity, Policies and
standards, People and machines and Digital Citizenship
 HL EXTENSION
Social and ethical considerations linked to the two HL
extension topics and the issues raised by the annually issued
case study.
IB ITGS – Course content
 STAND 2: Application to specified scenarios
 SL/HL core
 Scenarios based on real-life situations must be used when addressing
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specified IT
developments.
Students must study the following 6 themes.
2.1 Business and employment
2.2 Education and training
2.3 Environment
2.4 Health
2.5 Home and leisure
2.6 Politics and government
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 HL extension
 Scenarios based on real-life situations must be used when addressing specified IT
 developments in the two HL extension topics and the annually issued case study.
IB ITGS – Course content
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Strand 3: IT systems
SL/HL core
The terminology, concepts and tools relating to specified IT developments.
Students must study the following 9 topics.
3.1 Hardware
3.2 Software
3.3 Networks
3.4 Internet
3.5 Personal and public communications
3.6 Multimedia/digital media
3.7 Databases
3.8 Spreadsheets, modelling and simulations
3.9 Introduction to project management
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HL extension
Students must study the following topics.
3.10 IT systems in organizations
3.11 Robotics, artificial intelligence and expert systems
3.12 Information systems specific to the annually issued case study
EXTERNAL Assessment Outline HL
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External assessment (4 hours 45 minutes) 80%
Paper 1 (2 hours 15 minutes)
Seven structured questions in three sections that assess in an integrated way the three
strands of the syllabus.
• Social and ethical significance
• Application to specific scenarios
• IT systems
Section A
Students answer two of three structured questions on any of the SL/HL core topics.
Section B
Students answer one of two structured questions based on topic 3.10, “IT systems in
organizations”.
Section C
Students answer one of two structured questions based on topic 3.11, “Robotics,
artificial intelligence and expert systems”.
(80 marks)35%
Paper 2 (1 hour 15 minutes)
This paper consists of one unseen article.
Students are required to write a response to this article.
(26 marks)20%
Paper 3 (1 hour 15 minutes)
Four questions based on a pre-seen case study.
(30 marks)25%
INTERNAL Assessment Outline HL
 Internal assessment
 This component is internally assessed by the teacher and
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externally moderated by the
IB at the end of the course.
Project (30 hours)
The development of an original IT product for a specified
client. Students must produce:
• a cover page using prescribed format
• an original IT product
• documentation supporting the product (word limit 2,000
words).(30 marks)
EXTERNAL Assessment Outline SL
 External assessment (3 hours) 70%
 Paper 1 (1 hour 45 minutes)
 Five structured questions that assess in an integrated way the
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three strands of the
syllabus.
• Social and ethical significance
• Application to specific scenarios
• IT systems
Students answer three of five structured questions on any of the
SL/HL core topics.(60 marks)40%
Paper 2 (1 hour 15 minutes)
This paper consists of one unseen article.
Students are required to write a response to this article.
(26 marks)30%
INTERNAL Assessment Outline SL
 Internal assessment (30%)
 This component is internally assessed by the teacher and
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externally moderated by the
IB at the end of the course.
Project (30 hours)
The development of an original IT product for a specified
client. Students must produce:
• a cover page using prescribed format
• an original IT product
• documentation supporting the product (word limit 2,000
words).
(30 marks)
IB ITGS - HL
 Higher Level (HL) ITGS Paper 3 includes a compulsory
case study.
 Case study is provided at the beginning of the 2nd year
(H4 year). Students study the content, develop
questions and ideas over the final year.
 Paper 3 (IB ITGS HL) is based on the studied case
study.
IB ITGS – Sample questions
IB ITGS – Sample questions
The Automated Factory
In the modern automated factory robots are used for
painting, welding, and other repetitive assembly-line
jobs.
Computers also help track inventory, time the delivery of
parts, control the quality of the production, monitor
wear and tear on machines, and schedule maintenance.
Engineers use CAD (computer-aided design) and CAM
(computer-aided manufacturing) technologies to design
new products and the machines that build those
products.
The Automated Office
• In the mainframe era, computers used for behind-the-
scenes jobs such as accounting and payroll.
– Computer-related decisions were in the hands of central
data processing managers.
• In the PC era, jobs migrated from mainframes to
desktops, and people used PCs to do things that
the mainframes weren’t programmed to do.
2002 Prentice Hall
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The Automated Office
• Enterprise computing - PCs are essential parts of
the overall computing structure for most business
enterprises
– Workers use technology tools such as word
processing, spreadsheets, desktop publishing and
email
– To lessen costs of PCs, companies replace them with
thin clients.
•
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Refers to network computers, Internet appliances, and
similar devices
Low-cost, low-maintenance machines allowing workers to
access critical network information without the overhead
of a PC or workstation
The Automated Office
Today’s offices use automation to help with many facets
of manage workflow through computers and applications
such as:
 Groupware
 Management Information Systems
 Decision Support Systems
 Project Management Systems
The Electronic Cottage
Futurist Alvin Toffler popularized the term electronic
cottage to describe a home where technology allows a
person to work at home.
“Telecommuting may allow
us to redefine the issues so
that we’re not simply
moving people to work but
also moving work to
people.”
—Booth Gardner, former
Washington governor
Computer Monitoring
• Using computer technology to track, record,
and evaluate worker performance, often
without the knowledge of the worker.
Problems:
•Privacy
•Morale
•Devalued Skills
•Loss of Quality
Employment and Unemployment
 Because of automation the
unskilled, uneducated worker
may face a lifetime of
minimum wage jobs or
welfare.
 Technology may be helping to
create an unbalanced society
with two classes: a growing
mass of poor uneducated
people and a shrinking class of
affluent educated people.
Cautiously Optimistic Forecasts
Technology will continue to spur economic growth
and new jobs.
Economic growth may depend on whether we have
a suitably trained workforce.
The demand for professionals - teachers and engineers –
is likely to rise.
Painful periods of adjustment may be in store for many
factory workers, clerical workers, and other semiskilled
and unskilled laborers
Will we need a New Economy?
 The average workweek 150 years ago was 70 hours; for
the last 50 years it has been steady at about 40. Should
governments and businesses encourage job-sharing and
other systems that allow for less-than-40-hour jobs?
 What will people do with their time if machines do
most of the work? What new leisure activities should be
made available?
 How will people define their identities if work becomes
less central to their lives?
Tomorrow Never Knows
 Technology is hard to
foresee, and it is even
harder to predict the
impact that
technology
will have on society.
The 1930 movie Just Imagine presented a
bold, if not quite accurate, vision of the
future; here Maureen O’Sullivan sits in her
personal flying machine.
Tomorrow Never Knows
 We can predict the future by recognizing the four
phases of any technology or media business: hardware,
software, service, and way of life.
Tomorrow Never Knows
 Hardware--develop new hardware
 Software--software such as television programs, web
pages and databases give value to hardware products
 Service--companies focus on serving their customers
 Way of life--product/service becomes so entrenched
that it becomes almost invisible
From Research to Reality
Ideas are sprouting from the
minds of engineers and
scientists that will collectively
shape the future of information
technology.
Trends point to those ideas most
likely to succeed.
Tomorrow’s Hardware:
Trends and Innovations
 Speed: computer speed today
typically is measured in MIPS
(millions of instructions per
second), where an instruction
is the most primitive operation
performed by the processor
 Size: central components of a
The IBM S/390 G6 server performs up
to 1.6 billion instructions per second—
almost 1 billion times the performance
of the historic Mark I—at a cost that is
far less than a mainframe or
supercomputer.
modern computer are stored
on a handful of tiny chips
 Efficiency: desktop & portable
computers consume very little
electricity
Tomorrow’s Hardware:
More Trends and Innovations
 Capacity: optical, magnetic, and semiconductor
storage devices virtually eliminate storage as an
issue
 Cost: hardware has dramatically dropped in cost
Technological Innovations
 Alternative chip technologies
 Alternative architectures
 Alternative storage technologies
 Alternative output displays
 Alternative input devices: sensors
“Smart dust” computers at the
University of California at Berkeley
help monitor and control heating
and cooling systems using
environmental sensors and
wireless communication links
Tomorrow’s Software:
Evolving Applications and Interfaces
Computer scientists aren’t even close to developing tools
that will allow programmers to produce error-free
software quickly. However, software technology is
advancing rapidly.
 WIMP: (windows, icons, menus, and pointing devices)
interface is easier to learn and use than earlier characterbased interfaces
 SILK: for speech, image, language, and knowledge
capabilities.
Evolving Interfaces
 SILK incorporates many important software
technologies:
 Speech and language: voice recognition systems,
natural-language processing
 Image: three-dimensional models, animation, and video
clips; virtual reality interfaces
 Knowledge: self-maintaining systems
Tomorrow’s Service:
Truly Intelligent Agents
 Agents are software programs designed to be
managed rather than manipulated.
 An intelligent software agent:
 asks questions as well as responds to commands
 pays attention to its user’s work patterns
 serves as a guide and a coach
 takes on its owner’s goals
 uses reasoning to fabricate goals of its own
More on Intelligent Agents
 Wizards and other agent-like software: guide users
through complex tasks and answer questions when
problems arise
 Bots: software robots that crawl around the Web
collecting information, helping consumers make
decisions, answering email, and even playing games
Future Software Agents
A well-trained software agent in the future might
accomplish these tasks:
 Remind you that it’s time to get the tires rotated on your car
 Distribute notes to the other members of your study group
 Manage your appointments and keep track of your
communications
 Defend your system and your home from viruses, intruders,
and other security breaches
 Detect your emotional state and respond accordingly
Tomorrow’s Way of Life: Transparent
Technology
“This will be the generation where the
technology disappears into the tool, serving
valuable functions but keeping out of the way
– the generation of the invisible computer.”
Donald A. Norman
Embedded Intelligence
 Computers are disappearing into more of our tools.
 Information appliances, including cell phones, fax
machines, and GPS devices, perform their specialized
functions while hiding the technological details from
their users.
Embedded Intelligence
 Wearable computers: strap-on units for active
information gatherer
 CPUs, keyboards, and touchpads stitched right into
the clothes, turning their wearers into wireless
Internet nodes
Ubiquitous Computers
 Examples of ubiquitous computers are smart badges
and smartboards
 While ubiquitous computers offer convenience and
efficiency beyond anything that’s come before, they
also raise serious questions about personal privacy,
intimacy, and independence.
From Internet to Omninet
 Connectivity is a critical part of ubiquitous computing.
 As more machines become connected, the Net will
evolve from today’s loose digital fishnet into a tightlywoven, seamless fabric that surrounds us.
The Day after Tomorrow: Information
Technology Meets Biology
 Bio-economy will replace the information economy
sometime around the year 2020.
 Biotechnology and microtechnology will become
more intertwined with information technology in
the coming decades .
Borrowing from Biology
 The network of the future will be more like a biological
system.
 Neural nets allow individual computers to learn from
experience because their design is inspired by
biological nervous systems.
 Research is being conducted in neurons electronically
linked onto chips for communication; this type of
research could eventually lead to artificial retinas and
prosthetic limbs that are extensions of the human
nervous system.
Microtechnology
 Use microtechnology to
develop micromachines—
machines on the scale of a
millionth of a meter.
 Micro-electro-mechanical
systems (MEMS): for
example, a motor twice as
wide as a human hair that
runs on static electricity
Microtechnology
 Microsensors - tiny devices that can detect pressure,
temperature, and other environmental qualities
 BioMEMS - apply chip technology to biological
applications may soon cure many forms of deafness,
enable many blind people to see images and navigate,
stimulate paralyzed limbs, diagnose bacterial agents,
determine drug safety, and deliver drugs precisely
where they’re needed.
Nanotechnology
 Nanotechnology - the manufacture of machines on a
scale of a few billionths of a meter
 Nanomachines would have to be constructed atom by
atom using processes drawn from particle physics,
biophysics, and molecular biology.
Nanotechnology
 Nanotubes - tiny
cylindrical molecules with
semiconductor properties
similar to those found in
silicon chips; could lead to
quantum computers—
computers based on the
properties of atoms and
their nuclei and the laws
of quantum mechanics
 Germ-sized robots
 Self-assembling
machines
Artificial Life
 Artificial life: synthetic
organisms that act like
natural living systems
 Simple software organisms
that exist only in computer
memory or…
 colonies of tiny insect robots
that communicate with each
other and respond to changes
in their environment.
Human Questions
for a Computer Age
 Will Computers Be Democratic?
 Will the Global Village Be a Community?
 Will We Become Information Slaves?
Standing on the
Shoulders of Giants
The computer is a powerful and malleable tool. It
can be used to empower or imprison, to explore or
exploit, to create or destroy. We can choose. We’ve
been given the tools. It’s up to all of us to invent the
future.
If I have seen farther than other men, it is
because I stood on the shoulders of giants.
—Isaac Newton