I’m thinking of having my class research China’s proposed Social Credit system as a practice Explore PT. However the system is still underdevelopment and is not actually deployed. Is this an acceptable topic for an Explore PT?
Hi @dsawyer,
First, this was a fascinating topic to read about! I hadn’t seen it before but I love how this is relevant to impact of computing! Now…
According to the College Board rubric, they define a “computing innovation” as follows:
“A computing innovation is an innovation that includes a computer or program code as an integral part of its functionality.”
AND
“Computing innovations may be physical computing innovations such as Google glasses or self-driving cars, non-physical computer software like a cell phone app, or computing concepts such as ecommerce
or social networking which rely on physical transactions conducted on the Internet.”
In their examples provided, they do give a non-example as well: “The innovation, near field communication (NFC), is not a computing innovation; rather, it is a standard that allows computing innovations to transfer data between them when they are close together.”
SO, with that (and based on my limited research on the Social Credit System), I would be weary of having students use this as a REAL explore topic - but to be honest, I am not sure where the line is between “a standard that allows computing innovations to do things” and “computing concepts” lies. That being said, I think the topic certainly shows the impact of computing in society and could be a good way to get students to practice writing about benefits and harms caused by technology.
@bhatnagars any thoughts on this?
KT