Longer-answer GCSE Questions

I'm currently writing a course for AQA to demystify some of the long answer questions in the GCSE Computer Science course, specifically the ethical, legal and environmental impacts section. This has got me thinking quite a bit and I'm going to keep this post as a little repository for ideas for long answer questions, because I'm having to spend quite a bit of effort to come up with them and don't see why that effort shouldn't help others!

The AQA specification [1] marries itself to long answer questions in the section:

"Explain the current ethical, legal and environmental impacts and risks of digital technology on society. Where data privacy issues arise these should be considered."

Furthermore it states that:

Exam questions will be taken from the following areas:
• cyber security
• mobile technologies
• wireless networking
• cloud storage
• theft of computer code
• issues around copyright of algorithms
• cracking
• hacking
• wearable technologies
• computer based implants.
Students will be expected to understand and explain the general principles behind the issues rather than have detailed knowledge on specific issues.

Students should be aware that ordinary citizens normally value their privacy and may not like it when governments or security services have too much access.

Students should be aware that governments and security services often argue that they cannot keep their citizens safe from terrorism and other attacks unless they have access to private data.

So, some ideas for questions based around these! This list will start small (like empty small!) but hopefully will grow with time. Feel free to mail or tweet me your ideas and thoughts.

Cyber Security

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Mobile Technologies

Wireless Networking

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Cloud Storage

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Theft of Computer Code

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Issues around Copyright of Algorithms

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Cracking

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Hacking

...

Wearable Technologies

...

Computer Based Implants

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[1]:AQA GCSE Computer Science Specification, pg30