Impacts of Technology

This unit covers the ethical, legal, privacy and environmental impacts of digital technology, and it is the part of the course where answers are argued rather than recalled.

The marks are in the specificity. Saying that something is unfair earns nothing; naming who is affected and what happens to them earns credit. An algorithm trained on past hiring decisions reproduces the biases in those decisions while appearing objective — that is an answer. Four pieces of legislation need matching to situations rather than simply listing, and the environmental impact of technology spans manufacturing, use and disposal, not just electricity consumption. Questions frequently ask for both benefits and drawbacks, so a one-sided answer caps the marks available however well written it is.