Big Debates

Five kinds of issue

Every "impacts of technology" question on this paper is really asking you to sort a situation into the right kinds of issue and then say something specific about each. OCR names **five**: **ethical**, **legal**, **cultural**, **environmental** and **privacy**. Note that **cultural is its own category here**, which is not true on every exam board, so folding it into "ethical" costs marks. One thing to get straight now, because it changes how you write. **OCR's eight-mark extended response carries no AO3.** It is not asking for a judgement and a conclusion. It rewards sustained, accurate application across several perspectives, in proper technical vocabulary. Breadth and precision, not a verdict. The three named Acts belong to a separate module. Here the law is just the floor: something can be perfectly legal and still be an ethical, cultural or environmental problem.

The five categories

Learn these as five distinct questions to ask about any technology.

Sort each issue into its category

What makes an issue cultural?

OCR lists cultural issues separately from ethical ones. What is the difference?

• A cultural issue is about how technology changes the way groups of people live, work and relate to each other; an ethical issue is about whether something is right or wrong
• There is no real difference; the words are interchangeable
• Cultural issues are about art, music and entertainment only
• Cultural issues are the ones covered by legislation

What the 8-marker actually rewards

This is worth reading twice, because the advice you may have been given for other subjects is wrong here. **OCR's eight-mark extended response carries no AO3.** There are no marks for reaching a judgement, weighing everything up and declaring a winner. A dramatic concluding paragraph adds nothing. What it does reward: - **Sustained application** - staying on the specific situation in the question, not general points about technology - **Balance across perspectives** - several stakeholders, not two sides of one argument - **Technical vocabulary, used accurately** - name the category, name the technology, use the right terms So the winning move is **breadth with precision**. Ask who is affected and how differently, then say something specific and correctly-labelled about each. Run out of stakeholders and you run out of marks.

Find the stakeholders

A council is replacing its in-person services with an online-only system. Tap the TWO groups whose position an eight-mark answer would have to discuss.

• A council announces that applications for housing and benefits will move online only.
• Older residents and those without home internet access will need to use a library computer or ask someone for help
• , while most working-age applicants find the new system faster. The council expects to save money.
• The counter staff whose roles the system replaces will be redeployed or made redundant
• and the new servers will run in an existing data centre.

The environmental cost of computing

Select the TWO statements that would count as developed environmental points.

• Data centres consume large amounts of electricity for both processing and cooling, so the impact continues for as long as the service runs
• Short replacement cycles create electronic waste containing materials that are difficult and costly to recover
• Computers are bad for the environment
• Digital services have no environmental impact because nothing physical is produced

Open source or proprietary

Two ways software can be licensed. The specification asks you to recommend one for a given situation, so learn them as a set of trade-offs rather than a list.

Licensing in a paragraph

Software whose source code is published and may be modified and redistributed is _____, and it is usually _____ to obtain. Software whose source code is kept secret and which is used under a purchased licence is _____. The main practical advantage of the second is that it comes with official _____, while the main practical advantage of the first is that an organisation with the right expertise can _____ it to suit its own needs.

Recommend a licence

A small charity needs office software for twelve volunteers. It has almost no budget and no technical staff, and the volunteers must be able to open documents sent by other organisations. What do you recommend, and why?

• Open source, because the cost matters most here and mainstream open-source office software opens the common file formats other organisations send
• Proprietary, because it comes with official support
• Both, so volunteers can choose
• Write their own software so it fits exactly

An 8-mark answer, built

**"A council is replacing its in-person services with an online-only system. Discuss the impacts of this change. (8 marks)"** "The change has a significant **cultural** impact. Residents without home internet access, who are more likely to be older or on low incomes, can no longer use the service in the way they did, so the digital divide becomes a barrier to housing and benefits rather than an inconvenience. There is also an employment impact, as counter staff roles are removed or redeployed. There is a **privacy** dimension. Applications made online generate stored personal data, including records of what each resident applied for and when, held on council servers and subject to the council's data protection obligations. The **environmental** picture is mixed. Fewer residents travelling to council offices reduces emissions, but the servers running the new system consume electricity continuously for processing and cooling. An **ethical** question sits underneath all of this: the saving is real, but it is achieved partly by moving effort from the council onto residents least able to absorb it." **Look at what that answer does and does not do.** It names four of the five categories, uses each label explicitly, and stays on this council throughout rather than drifting into general points about the internet. It does **not** end with a verdict on whether the council should proceed, because on this paper there are no marks for one. Breadth and precision is the whole game.

Plan the extended response

Put these planning steps into the order that produces an answer like the one you have just read.

• Read the scenario and underline the specific situation, so every point can be tied back to it
• List the stakeholders: everyone affected, and note that they are affected differently
• Label each effect with the category it belongs to, and check how many of the five you have reached
• For each one, add the mechanism: not just what happens, but why it follows from the change
• Write it up a category at a time, naming each label explicitly as you go

Write a stakeholder sentence

Build a sentence with the three parts an eight-mark point needs: who, what, and why it follows.

The school picks its software

A school is choosing software for 400 student machines. Work through the decision with the network manager.

• The head sees that open-source office software is free and wants to switch everything. What should the network manager point out first?
• The exam boards require coursework in a specific proprietary file format. How does that affect the decision?
• A governor asks whether open source is less secure because anyone can read the code. What is the accurate answer?

Your turn: the big debate

A supermarket chain replaces all its staffed checkouts with self-service tills and an app that tracks what each customer buys. Discuss the impacts of this change.

• Identify at least three groups affected, and say how each is affected differently
• Name the category each impact belongs to, using OCR's own labels
• For at least two impacts, give the mechanism: why the effect follows from the change
• Include one environmental and one privacy point, each with a specific detail rather than a general claim