DP Digital Society Questionbank

The students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) want to be included in school activities and have appropriate access to the curriculum. 

The two interventions influence a student’s identity in the classroom.

Evaluate the impact of educational digital technologies, such as social robots and assistive technologies, on the identity of students with SEND in Tayton School.

With reference to the stimulus material and your own inquiries, recommend whether Tayton School should use social robots and/or assistive technologies to ensure students with SEND can be further integrated into the school.

Should we completely automate journalism?

Some of the news articles that you read are written by automated journalism software. This software uses algorithms and natural language generators to turn facts and trends into news stories.

Narrative Science, a company that produces automated journalism software, predicts that by 2026 up to 90 % of news articles could be generated by machine learning algorithms.

Discuss whether it is acceptable for news articles to be generated by automated journalism software.

Robbi’s website claims that, “Robbi is friendly, helpful and intelligent. He can sense and respond, and learns as you engage with him”. Some of the customers who own Robbi are considering whether they could extend the range of tasks Robbi could perform, or whether they should allow Robbi to make decisions for them.

To what extent should individuals rely on social robots like Robbi to act as decision-makers for them?

Using a Segway with machine learning capabilities?

The Segway Patroller is a two-wheeled, battery-powered electric vehicle. Recently, Segway Patrollers have been used for security purposes in cities as well as in public spaces such as concerts, railway stations and shopping malls.

The Segway Patroller can travel up to a speed of 20 kilometres per hour (about 12 miles per hour) and travel about 40 kilometres (25 miles) in distance before the battery needs to be recharged.

Figure 3: A Segway Patroller

The human face of student counselling

Many Diploma Programme (DP) coordinators are finding they do not have enough time to interview every student before they choose their DP subjects. They are considering purchasing the Student Counselling System, a proprietary management information system (MIS).

The developers of the Student Counselling System claim that, if students complete online questionnaires to determine their interests, abilities and future goals, the system can give them very accurate results, resulting in less than 5% of students changing their diploma subjects. They also claim the Student Counselling System will allow DP coordinators to be able to interview every student, something they cannot do now.

Some DP coordinators have concerns about the automation of this process and believe that advising students is something that is best done by relying on their own professional judgement and intuition.

Discuss whether DP coordinators should rely on the recommendations of the Student Counselling System rather than their own professional judgement and intuition when advising students about what DP subjects to study.

Policing as a human activity?

Toby Walsh, Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the University of New South Wales, Australia, notes that the use of police robots raises “many important questions that we, as a society, have to think about”.

Singapore has started testing patrol robots that survey pedestrian areas in the city-state. Xavier, the mall-cop robot, will be autonomously rolling through the Toa Payoh central district for three weeks scanning for “undesirable social behaviours”.

Figure 4 shows an example of a patrol robot.

Figure 4: An example of a patrol robot

A cashless society

In the near future, it is possible that cash will not be accepted as a means of payment in Sweden. People are already using alternative ways of paying, such as mobile payment, card payment and internet payment. Currently, over 95% of citizens in Sweden have internet access.

Many people in Sweden claim there are advantages of using an app developed by Swish. The Swish app allows friends to share a restaurant bill, pay where credit or debit cards are not accepted, for babysitting or parking tickets, or make a donation at church.

However, other people in Sweden claim that making the Swish app the only means of payment may increase inequalities within the country.

Discuss whether countries should pass legislation making apps such as Swish the only means of payment.

Automated medical image analysis

EBBZS IT, based in Groningen, the Netherlands, intends to develop a system using artificial intelligence (AI) to help doctors at Joelstraat Hospital interpret medical images.

Due to the high resolution* of the digital images (see Figure 4), EBBZS IT claims the AI system will be able to learn from these images to assist doctors when diagnosing patients’ illnesses.

EBBZS IT also claims the AI system will be able to cope with the significant increase in the volume of patients and the increased complexity of their symptoms and conditions.

Figure 4: Examples of digital images used in the AI system

Smart farming

A government in East Africa is using the expertise of scientists at a university in the region to promote the culture of smart farming and increase the productivity of farmers (see Figure 5). To do this, they have developed an app that the farmers can use to assist them in their decision-making.

Figure 5: An example of farming in East Africa

Smart warehouse

Greenwood Industries’ warehouse uses a smart storage solution for the picking of products from the shelves of the warehouse. Robots are used in this automated picking process.

Currently, these robots are programmed to access a knowledge base* that enables these robots to use the most efficient route for the picking of products.

Greenwood Industries claims the picking process would be improved if the expert system was replaced by an artificial neural network (ANN).

Discuss whether Greenwood Industries should replace the existing system with one that uses an artificial neural network (ANN).

* knowledge base: a set of rules that are manually input into an expert system.

Cameras in school

The principal at Flynn School has received requests from parents saying that they would like to monitor their children’s performance in school more closely. He is considering extending the school’s IT system by installing cameras linked to facial recognition software that can record student behaviour in lessons.

The facial recognition software can determine a student’s attention level and behaviour, such as identifying if they are listening, answering questions, talking with other students, or sleeping. The software uses machine learning to analyse each student’s behaviour and gives them a weekly score that is automatically emailed to their parents.

The principal claims that monitoring students’ behaviour more closely will improve the teaching and learning that takes place.

Discuss whether Flynn School should introduce a facial recognition system that uses machine learning to analyse each student’s behaviour and give them a score that is automatically emailed to their parents.

Robotic Surgery

Sandy Parkar, the manager of a large hospital, is considering using robots controlled by surgeons to carry out surgical procedures. The surgeon uses a computer console to control the robot (see Figure 5).

Figure 5: Robotic surgery

[Source: mathisworks / iStock.]

All the robot’s movements, and the surgical procedure, are recorded. This allows information to be collected about each procedure.

In 2022, a patient died while undergoing a surgical procedure in which a surgical robot was used. Sandy claims the manufacturer of the robot should be accountable. This was contested by the manufacturer, and a court case followed to determine who was accountable.  

Discuss whether the surgeon, the manufacturer of the surgical robot, or the hospital manager should be held accountable.

The students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) want to be included in school activities and have appropriate access to the curriculum. 

The two interventions influence a student’s identity in the classroom.

Evaluate the impact of educational digital technologies, such as social robots and assistive technologies, on the identity of students with SEND in Tayton School.

With reference to the stimulus material and your own inquiries, recommend whether Tayton School should use social robots and/or assistive technologies to ensure students with SEND can be further integrated into the school.

How to appropriately interact in an online environment

Increasing numbers of parents are claiming digital technologies that monitor online activities are the best way to protect their children from offensive content. A number of companies, such as mSpy and Qustodio, have developed online monitoring apps.

Other parents claim it is not necessary to monitor their children’s online behaviour, preferring to encourage their children to develop the knowledge and skills to make appropriate choices.

Parents can consider two different interventions to ensure their children use the online environment appropriately:

1. Monitor their children’s online behaviour using apps
2. Encourage their children to develop the knowledge and skills to use the online environment and make appropriate choices.

With reference to real-life scenarios, evaluate these two interventions.

Fake news

We see and hear news every day and trust that the information provided is accurate. That belief may soon end.

Artificial intelligence (AI) software is now being developed that can produce fake video footage of public figures using recordings of their own voices. Using as little as one minute of user-generated content (data), it can reproduce a particular person’s voice. The developer of this software demonstrated the results by using the voices of Bill Clinton, George Bush and Barack Obama in a computer-generated conversation.

Once a person’s voice has been reproduced, a fake video can be created by processing hundreds of videos of the person’s face. Video footage of politicians are often used, as there is so much data available online.

Law professor John Silverman commented that, as humans we tend to believe what we see, and the increased number of tools to make fake media that is unrecognizable from real media is going to prove a major challenge in the future.

Discuss the claim that companies who develop software that can create fake videos of politicians should be accountable for the fake videos posted by users of their software on social media platforms.

It was recently reported that an autonomous vehicle had collided with an elderly person in a wheelchair that had rolled into the road. The autonomous vehicle chose to run over the wheelchair rather than avoid it, as swerving would have put two children at risk. This incident led to a discussion in the council about the ethical decision-making process used by the autonomous vehicle.

Discuss who should be accountable for an accident in the town involving an autonomous vehicle.

With reference to the stimulus material above and to your own inquiries, recommend the digital intervention(s) that the council should choose to address the challenge of ensuring mobility associated with living in towns such as Miketon.

Can digital technologies be used sustainably?

Many organizations claim that the most efficient use of information technology (IT) equipment, such as laptops and printers, is to replace them on a regular basis. For example, an organization’s strategy may be to do this every three years.

Other organizations purchase IT equipment that can easily be upgraded by increasing the storage and memory or upgrading the processing capabilities only when required. They claim they do not need to replace their IT equipment on such a regular basis and believe this is a more sustainable practice.

Evaluate the sustainability of these two strategies.

App or intuition?

Apps have been developed that allow a customer to submit a trip request to a taxi company on their smartphone. These apps allow the customer to select the starting point and final destination of the journey as well as add other information, such as the time of journey and number of passengers.

The developers of the taxi journey app claim it can capture the real-time details of a journey, including the starting point, route, distance travelled, the speed of the car and the final destination. The app integrates this information with real-time traffic information, such as closed roads or accidents. Fares can be estimated before the journey, and the customer can pay digitally with their credit card or by PayPal.

Some traditional taxi drivers in cities such as Paris and Rio de Janeiro have campaigned against the introduction of these apps in taxi companies. Based on previous journeys recorded by the app, the taxi company recommends that their taxi drivers rely on the taxi journey app rather than their own knowledge of the city when determining the best route.

Discuss whether the taxi driver should rely on the taxi journey app, rather than their own knowledge of the city, when determining the best route.

Selecting candidates for political parties

Political parties often have large numbers of applicants who wish to act as representatives in their various governing bodies. A senior party official must make the final decision about which applicants should be offered which roles. Many roles receive as many as 15 applications, and it is not possible to interview each applicant.

In an attempt to streamline the application process, a prospective representative will need to complete two tasks:

1. Completing an online questionnaire.
2. Submitting a video where they explain the reasons behind their application.

Neither task will involve the team in the political party.

The applicants will be directed to a link provided by the software developer where they can complete both tasks. The responses to the questionnaires and the videos will be analysed using artificial intelligence (AI).

The software will score the questionnaire and video for each applicant and send it to the senior party official’s team. The applicants with the highest scores will then be invited by the political party for an interview.

The software developers claim this will reduce the number of applications the senior party official needs to process and lead to the most appropriate applicants being selected for an interview.

Discuss whether the political party should introduce the digital system to assist the senior party official when deciding which applicants should be offered roles as representatives.

Sharing dashcam* footage with police

Many police departments have started campaigns to encourage members of the public to upload footage of possible offences committed by drivers to police websites. The police are looking for footage of activities such as dangerous driving and driving whilst talking on a cellphone/mobile phone.

Members of the public can create an account on the police website to upload footage from their dashcam (see Figure 3). They can also upload their dashcam footage anonymously.

The police claim that using dashcam footage uploaded by the public will help reduce the number of accidents caused by dangerous driving.

Figure 3: An example of a dashcam

* dashcam: a video camera mounted in a vehicle to record activity on roads

Discuss whether this dashcam footage should be used by the police as part of their strategy to reduce the number of accidents caused by dangerous driving.

Clouds under the sea

Microsoft has located one of its data centres on the seabed. Project Natick is now operating 100 feet below the surface of the North Sea (see Figure 4).

Figure 4: An artist’s representation of a data centre on the sea bed

[Adapted under sea photo by NOAA on Unsplash]

Microsoft has chosen to develop data centres on the seabed because they claim there are concerns about the environmental impact of data centres built on land. These seabed data centres can be constructed and placed on the sea bed in 90 days. This is compared to the two years that are required for land-based data centres.

Google patented their design for an underwater data centre in 2009. Even though functioning prototypes have been trialled, none have been used commercially.

The demand for data storage is doubling every two years, so it is likely that an increasing number of data centres will need to be constructed. These data centres can be constructed either under the sea or on land.

Discuss whether companies like Microsoft should build data centres on the seabed.