Technology and society | CBSE Class 11 | Computer Science

Dear Class 11^th STUDENTS, ! Welcome to this tutorial of Technology and society from your CBSE class 11 of Computer Science Syllabus .

In this tutorial, we shall be learning our chapter-9: Technology and society from Unit 3: Society, Law and Ethics (SLE-1)- Cyber safety   as CBSE BOARD suggested to learn about computer system and its organisation to complete this section.

Unit 3: Society, Law and Ethics (SLE-1)- Cyber safety                                                 

Chapter 9 : Technology and society

• Technology and society
• Gender Issues While Teaching/Using Computers
• Disability Issues While Teaching and Using Computers

I advice you to check the latest syllabus given by CBSE Board at its Official website: www.cbseacademic.nic.in

Also, in this tutorial we will covers all necessary topics/concepts required to complete your exams preparations in CBSE  classes 11th.

NOTE:

• We are also giving some important Questions & Answers for better understanding as well as preparation for your examinations.
• You may also download PDF file of this tutorial from our SHOP for free.
• For your ease and more understanding, we are also giving the video explanation class of each and every topic individually, so that you may clear your topics and get success in your examinations.

Introduction

ICT s are general purpose technologies, i.e., technologies whose value and impact arise primarily from their use in other economic and social sectors. Three capabilities are especially important for economic and social development.

ICTs:

• – Enable greater efficiency in economic and social processes;
• – Enhance the effectiveness of cooperation between different stakeholders; and
• – Increase the volume and range of information available to people, businesses and governments.

Systemic impacts which ICTs have had on the development of economies, societies and culture, include:

Economic impacts include the globalization of production in goods and services, changes in international trade and distribution networks, changes in patterns of consumption, the virtualization of some products and behaviors, and the growing importance of the ICT sector within the world and national economies.

Social Impacts include mass market access to an enormously increased range of information resources, enhanced freedom of expression and association, new patterns of work and human settlement, changed in the relationships between government, citizen and the state, and between citizens, and associated challenges  to traditional ideas of privacy and individuality.

Economic Benefits

The impact of ICT on the economic sector has a positive multiplier effect on the business World. Some major benefits include:

1. Secure Transactions

Banks and similar institutions could be said to be the sector that have benefited the most from latest developments in ICCT. Fund transfer can now be made in a matter of seconds within a locality and to the most parts of the world with a greater security than ever.

      2. Ease and Availability

 One doesn’t need to stand in long queues for fund withdrawal; with the use of the ATM card and Internet banking, the banking transactions can be carried out at any time of the day within the scope of transactions allowed. Such transactions could even include payment of bills such as electricity, water rates etc.

      3. Net Banking

With online or Internet banking a lost s of payments and buying can be done online via one’s bank account at the convenience of one’s home or office. The life wire of any business is fund availability and its timeliness and net banking ensure both.

      4. Global Market

With ICT, now the market is entire globe. A small business in a small town can think of reaching to a buyer in any part of the world. And buyer’s access is not just limited to his own market, (s) he can have access to the all world market, courtesy Internet and ICT.

Gender Issues While Teaching/Using Computers

The subject ‘computers’ is introduced in primary classes in most of the schools, ‘computer science’ as a major subject gets introduced only in high school. While teaching computers, there are many gender specific issues that must be addressed to enforce gender equity in computer science education. Let us talk about these issues.

Gender Issues

Gurvinder and Bela are computer science teachers at two different co-educational schools. Both said that in the class of the subject ‘computer science’, 60-70%⁶ are boys and rest are girls. This trend i.e., more boys opt for ‘computer science’ than girls, has been continuing for years now.

So ‘under representation’ of girls is one major issue.

There are some other issues as well. Let us discuss some major gender issues at school-level computer science education.

1. Under Representation

In India, this has been commonly observed over cities that girls under represented in ‘computer science’ studies be it ‘computer science’ major subject at high school or ‘computer science major’ at collage level. There are far less girls than boys in a computer science section.

A leading engineering institution of India has reported that there has been about 17% of girls represented in ‘computer science’ engineering in recent years.

There are many factors that are attributed as the reasons behind this. These are:

Preconceived Notions: There are many preconceived notions prevalent that subconsciously play a role. Notions like ‘boys are better at technical things, girls are good at humanities, arts etc.’; ‘girls must take up a career keeping in mind that they have to raise a family. They must not take up high involvement careers’, and Teaching is the best option for girls as it gives you half day off and ample number of holidays so that you can easily take care of your family’, etc. have their impact in decision making of girls while talking up subjects. Also, in India, parents play an important role while deciding about subjects and parents directly/indirectly push these pre-conceived notions influencing girls’ decisions and girls end up taking other subjects than ‘computer science’.

Lack of Interest: During primitive years, children often play games on computers/smartphones. Most games available today are boys-centric that increase their interest in computes. Also, at homes boys get to play more on computers/smartphone (keeping in mind the entire India scenario) and develop more interest in computers than girls.

Lack of Motivation: Girls are pressurized to choose a career option which will give them’ work life balance’ in favour of family roles they have to play later on. Girls are always told directly/indirectly in households that you have to play important family role later on and indulging in a subject which will consume   most of your time is not advisable as no matter what, whatever job option you choose, you cannot shy away from your family role. This ‘double burden’ theory also discourages girls from taking up technical subjects like computer science.’

Lack of Role Models: Girls these days see less of role models in the field of ‘computer science’ whom they can imitate. TV, movies, advertisements, everywhere it is portrayed that is technical fields like ‘computers science’, are men’s fields. If you see a woman scientist in a team, there are 10 other scientists who are males, in a movie/ advertisement etc. what would you think sub-consciously. All these things influence girls sub-psychologically and they infer that ‘computer science’ is for boys and do not take up the subject

Lack of Encouragement in class: As there are lesser number of girls in a class, the teachers for most work-assignments end up choosing more boys. Also, less number of girls means, lesser peer-encouragement. Also, some teachers pin point on their roles in society such ‘girls will get married and may not take it up as career’. All this may play as a hindrance and girls do not develop as much interest as they can in ‘computer science’ subjects.

2. Not-Friendly Work-Culture

It has been observed that when, in schools, work-partners are chosen, boys prefer boys over girls. And even if a girl and a boy are made work-partners, boys prefer to work actively and make girls silent observes. Boys are not comfortable in situations where they are not playing active roles.

Even if girls are given separate computers to work on, they are very shy of working actively. As per a study, the problems mentioned by girls in a computer room are like: ‘insufficient access time’, ‘difficulty with maintenance’ or ‘insufficient peripherals available’ etc. contrary to problems mentioned by boys as ‘software not usable’, ‘limitations of software’, poor quality of help’ etc.

Possible Solutions

The issues listed above are not intentionally created; hence they need a different type of handling.

(i) There should be more initiatives and programmers that encourage girls to take computer science subject. Presently there are many initiatives supported by government and run by many tech-giants to encourage more girls to take up ‘computer science’ subject.

(ii) The Film and TV censor board should be encouraged more to work on computers on their own and also to find solutions of their routine problems such as ‘peripheral not available’. They should assertively speak to the lab attendant to get all the peripheral not devices they want. They should be encouraged to celebrate small success in the lab (such as a bug successfully removed) to big success (such as project working superbly). This will instill more confidence and more interest in girls to work with ‘computer science’ subject.

Disability Issues While Teaching and Using Computers

Increased focus on ‘inclusive education’ and promoting access for students with disabilities and impairments, in the field of technology and computer science have made today’s classroom really diverse and inclusive. While at one end, it has positively aided to the cause of ‘inclusive education’; on the other side, there are many issues that have risen and those must to taken care of in order to impart real education.

In the specially abled students, there can be one or more disabilities:

• (i) Locomotor disabilities. Severe deformities, polio, leprosy, cerebral palsy.
• (ii) Hearing and speech disabilities. Hearing impairment, speech aphasia.
• (iii) Cognitive impairment. Specific learning deficits (Dyslexia, Dyscalculia), Down’s syndrome, Autism.
• (iv) Vision impairment. Low vision, blindness.

Various disability issues faced in the teaching/using computers with regard to above disabilities are being discussed below.

1. Unavailability of Teaching Materials/Aids

Students with different disabilities need different types of teaching aids/materials. For instance, visually challenged students would want that there  are screen readers that could read the digital content to them; also programming lessons should not involve visual inputs (e.g., in classes 9-10 there are two alternatives for programming concepts: Python for visually impaired students and scratch for others)

Similarly, hearing impaired students would students would want more of visual input than oratory, rather oratory instructions should be available in sign language if possible.

A lot of children, not all, with locomotor disabilities are both keyboard disabled and mouse disabled; however they can use virtual keyboards for writing computer programs. For virtual keyboards supporting such students, following types of hardware are required:

• 1.      Sophisticated virtual keyboard software.
• 2.      A joystick that is specific to the needs of the child.
• 3.      A programming editor that can be interfaced with the virtual keyboard, and does not require any mouse movements.

For low-vision students, Braille Keyboards, Braille monitors, and Braille printers along with screen readers should be made available to facilitate their learning and working on computers.

Unavailability of such supportive programming aids and software are a big issue that must be handled by schools and their managements.

2.      Lack of Special Needs Teachers

For different types of special needs, if special needs teachers are available, disabled students get their needs addressed in right manner e.g., for hearing impaired students, a teacher who is able to converse in sign language would be able to convey and explain the study material than traditional methods.

There should be teachers who know what types of hardware, software, tools etc. can be used for the differently able students as per their specific needs, e.g., special types of specialized hardware such as Braille keyboards, monitors, printers, synthetic speech generators etc., software assistants such as Google assistant etc.

There are many types of software features and voice assistants visually impaired students can use e.g.,

• Microsoft’s Narrator and Cortana and Ubuntu’s Orca and onboard, the voice assistants which blind people can use for a variety of essential tasks.
• A special version of linux called BLinux especially meant for the blind.
• Host of accessibility features of various Office software that can be easily activated. These features are present in both Microsoft office and open source offerings such as Apache Open Office and Libre Office.
• Specialized editor for visually impaired students for typing programs.

3.      Lack of Supporting Curriculum

Curriculum should be designed while keeping focus on inclusive education. There always should be possible alternatives keeping in mind special needs of the students. Software and programs should be so used so that the disabled students can easily work on that. For example, office software based curriculum can easily be implemented for all types of students as nearly all office software provide accessibility features.  Similarly, a programming language that requires manual code typing such as python, can also be used for teaching programming as long as specialized editors are also available, but scratch, the block based  programming language should not be used as it lacks accessibility features.

Further, the computer science contents and programming contests should be so conducted so that all types of students can participate in them, inclusively.

Possible Solutions

Possible solutions for the disability issues are straight forward:

• Schools must work toward making available the required teaching aids/materials to fulfill special needs of students with disabilities. There should be proper budget allocated for buying the required material and equipment to promote inclusive education.
• School must employ special needs teachers and should also train other teachers as well about how to interact with students with special needs so as to help them learn in a better inclusive way. There should be special budget allocated for training the staff about such needs.
• Schools must support the inclusive curriculum and refrain from any other practice that directly or indirectly puts the disabled students at the disadvantaged side.