2.1.1 System Fundementals

Social and ethical issues

Students must study and evaluate the social and ethical issues involved in the use of IT systems. These may include:

Topic 1: The economic value of information by Kent Harvath

Topic 2: Environmental issues related to the production of computer components and supplies by Joseph Toyoshima

Topic 3: Environmental issues related to the disposal of obsolete hardware and computer supplies by Roger Maue

Topic 4: Health and Ergonomic Issues Created by Computers by Ken Moyer

Topic 5: Password protection, Security, Biometrics and Authorized access by Akira Jackson

Topic 6: Issues related to viruses on both stand-alone and network systems by HeeJun Son

Topic 7: Greater dependence of organizations on IT by Takafumi Kurihara

Topic 8: Increase in teleworking and the virtual office by Sung Hwan Chun

Topic 9: The need for ongoing training and retraining by Andrew Leung

Topic 10: The economic and psychological implications of planned IT obsolescence in hardware, software and services, which has been forced on consumers by the IT industry by Sam Simaskul

Topic 11: Organizational policies and standards, for example, e-mail, surveillance and monitoring policies by Matthew Wilder

Knowledge of technology

In order to study and evaluate the social and ethical issues involved in the use of IT systems, the student must have an understanding of related technological concepts. These may include:

Topic 12: Key Terms by Tommy Chang
Data, information, hardware components, for example, input devices, output devices, processing, storage, memory (RAM, ROM), MHz, dpi, bit, KB, MB, GB, TB, ASCII, compatibility

Topic 13: Use, advantages and disadvantages of analogue and digital data by Tomer Lapidot

Topic 14: Operating systems (multitasking, boot) and utilities, for example, defragment, disk format, virus scan programs by no one yet.

Topic 15: Responsible computer use (for example, regular back-ups, virus checking, security, storage, housekeeping) by Raymon Ohmori

Topic 16: A responsible and systematic approach to implementing or upgrading IT systems, for example, analysis, design, implementation, testing, evaluation, training, policies and standards. by Romeo Wu