Computing changes the world — for better and worse. This big idea examines the beneficial and harmful effects of innovations, the digital divide, bias in computing, crowdsourcing, legal and ethical concerns, and how to stay safe online.
All 6 topics from the College Board CED, in order.
Topic 5.1
Beneficial & Harmful Effects
How the same computing innovation can have both positive and negative effects on society.
Topic 5.2
The Digital Divide
Unequal access to computing and the Internet, and the factors that cause it.
Topic 5.3
Computing Bias
How bias can be built into programs and data, and its consequences.
Topic 5.4
Crowdsourcing
Using the input of many people, often online, to gather data or solve problems.
Topic 5.5
Legal & Ethical Concerns
Intellectual property, licensing, plagiarism, and the ethics of using others' work.
Topic 5.6
Safe Computing
Protecting personal information and staying safe from privacy and security threats.
About Unit 5
Unit 5 covers Big Idea 5: Impact of Computing — how computing innovations affect people and society. A central idea is that the same innovation almost always has both beneficial and harmful effects, and those effects can be intended or unintended. You'll examine the digital divide — the unequal access to computing devices and the Internet across regions, income levels, and demographics — and computing bias, where programs and the data they use can embed unfair assumptions that lead to biased outcomes.
The unit also covers crowdsourcing — harnessing the input of many people (often online) to gather data or solve problems — and legal and ethical concerns, including intellectual property, copyright, licensing (such as Creative Commons and open source), and plagiarism. Finally, safe computing teaches how personal data is collected and used, the risks to privacy and security, and practical protections like strong authentication and encryption.
This is Big Idea 5, worth 21–26% of the multiple-choice exam — the second-largest big idea. The six computational thinking practices below spiral through this and every big idea: