New LOoK at the ITGS Triangle

The current ITGS Guide has been in existence since 2010 (first examination in May 2012). It is time to step back and take a new look at the ITGS Triangle. The timing is right because students are now preparing for the May 2015 examinations and what should be emerging are the BIG IDEAS relating to ITGS. What are the overall  concepts, contents and contexts that need in order to address the scenarios that they will face in a few weeks?

The key to most situations is understanding the details and terminology in the scenario and identifying primary stakeholders and how they are involved. This may be individual(s), groups or societies.

To often students take each individual scenario at face-value and do not see that a particular scenario in effect is very similar to other situations that have been studied before. They often attempt to memorize list of features, advantages and disadvantages for a particular IT system and fail to apply their learning to the new situations that are presented in the questions on Paper 1 and scenario on Paper 2. Consequently, we need to expand the text in the Triangle to include additional perspectives.

It is not sufficient to study IT systems in a void. They must be placed in context and often involve hands-on experience in order to understand how the system or tools actually functions. Otherwise, it may not be possible to understand the scenario and how the related  social and ethical impacts have emerged.

In today’s world, it is not enough to only recognize social and ethical issues in a particular scenario. Some questions on Paper 1 and part d on Paper 2 expect students to propose and evaluate feasible solutions. Often students ‘dream-up’ a solution on an examination paper, when in effect they should have investigated solutions for various issues throughout their studies. Often solutions in one situation can be feasibly applied in new scenarios.