Community resourceWorksheet

J277 1.6 Technology and wider society

Part 1 of 5 · J277 1.6 Essentials

This worksheet explores the five key issue areas around technology in wider society: ethical, legal, cultural, environmental and privacy concerns. Pupils identify stakeholders affected by technology decisions and analyse consequences using provided scenarios. The tasks develop structured written responses, suitable for learners familiar with basic digital technology concepts and aiming to build their evaluative and explanatory skills.

Shared by Chris H.Verified teacher

  • 12 cells
  • About 50 minutes
  • CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Shared 31 Jul 2026

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Digital impacts Essentials 1: technology and wider society

Digital technology can improve people's lives, but the same technology can create disadvantages, risks and difficult choices. OCR J277 asks you to discuss ethical, legal, cultural, environmental and privacy issues using examples.

In this worksheet you will:

  • recognise the five issue areas
  • identify people and groups affected by a technology
  • explain positive and negative impacts
  • distinguish something that is legal from something that is ethical
  • begin writing developed, scenario-based answers

There is not always one correct opinion. Marks come from accurate knowledge, clear reasoning and application to the stated situation.

Five lenses for examining technology

  • An ethical issue concerns what people consider right, fair or responsible. A legal action can still be considered unfair.
  • A legal issue concerns laws, rights and prohibited actions. The relevant OCR laws are explored in later Essentials worksheets.
  • A cultural issue concerns how technology changes people's ways of life, communication, work, customs, access and participation.
  • An environmental issue concerns effects such as raw-material extraction, energy use, pollution and electronic waste.
  • A privacy issue concerns people's control over information about themselves, including what is collected, observed, stored and shared.

These categories can overlap. Recording a person's location may create a privacy concern, an ethical question about whether the monitoring is fair, and a legal issue about how the personal data is handled.

Fill in the blanks5 marks
Whether an action is fair is an ______ issue. Whether it follows an Act of Parliament is a ______ issue. A change to how communities communicate is a ______ issue. Energy use and electronic waste are ______ issues. Control over personal information is a ______ issue.
  • privacy
  • legal
  • performance
  • topology
  • ethical
  • environmental
  • cultural
Multiple choice, several answers4 marks

Which four classifications are reasonable? Select all that apply.

  • AA processor completes a calculation quickly: primarily an ethical issue
  • BA phone is difficult to repair and is replaced early: an environmental issue
  • CA school records pupils' locations all day: a privacy issue
  • DA file is compressed before transfer: primarily a cultural issue
  • EA cashless shop excludes a customer without a bank account: an ethical and cultural issue
  • FA company copies software without permission: a legal issue

Stakeholders and consequences

A stakeholder is a person or group affected by a decision. Possible stakeholders include users, people being recorded, employees, customers, an organisation, creators, local communities and future users of environmental resources.

Do not stop after naming a stakeholder. Build a consequence chain:

The sports centre accepts only app-based tickets. A customer without a suitable phone may be unable to enter, so the system could exclude some people from a community service.

This is stronger than “some people will not like it” because it uses the scenario, identifies who is affected and explains what happens.

Written answer6 marks

A town sports centre replaces its reception desk and cash payments with an app-only booking and entry system. Explain one positive impact and one negative impact for different stakeholders.

Name the affected stakeholder each time. Apply both points to booking, payment or entry at the sports centre.

Students type their answer here.

Build an exam-ready paragraph

Use PEEL as a thinking scaffold, not as something OCR requires you to name:

  1. Point: make one precise claim.
  2. Evidence or application: use a detail from the scenario.
  3. Explain: show the consequence and who is affected.
  4. Link: return to the issue or decision in the question.

For example:

One privacy concern is that the app records every visit. This creates a history of when each member used the sports centre. If the records were accessed or shared inappropriately, information about a member's routine could be exposed. The centre must therefore consider whether all of this data is necessary and how it will be protected.

Do not invent evidence or statistics. Your “evidence” is the information given in the question.

Written answer9 marks

For each scenario, identify the most relevant issue type and explain one consequence.

A. A video platform helps local musicians reach listeners worldwide, but popular global content makes some local music less visible.

B. A company replaces working tablets every year and sends the old devices to landfill.

C. A navigation app stores a detailed history of every journey made by its users.

Write one short developed chain for each. Other issue labels may be accepted when the consequence clearly justifies them.

Students type their answer here.

Multiple choice1 mark

Which statement best explains the relationship between legal and ethical issues?

  • AIf an action is legal, everyone must consider it ethical
  • BAn action can follow the law but still be considered unfair or irresponsible
  • CEthical issues apply only when a computer is broken
  • DLegal and ethical are two names for the same issue
Written answer4 marks

A delivery company gives each driver a phone that reports the driver's live location to a manager throughout the working day. Write one PEEL paragraph explaining either a benefit or a concern.

Make the point precise, use live location and the delivery context, explain the effect on a stakeholder, and link back to whether the monitoring is justified.

Students type their answer here.

Written answer8 marks

Challenge: The sports centre argues that its app-only system is better because it is faster and cheaper to operate. Evaluate whether those advantages are enough to justify replacing every non-digital way to book and enter.

Consider more than one stakeholder, acknowledge the stated benefits and weigh them against access, cultural or ethical concerns. Suggest a proportionate improvement.

Students type their answer here.

Essentials review

Without looking back, explain each term in one sentence: ethical, legal, cultural, environmental, privacy and stakeholder.

Then test each of your scenario answers:

  • Did I use a detail from the situation?
  • Did I identify who is affected?
  • Did I explain what happens as a result?
  • If I gave two sides, are they genuinely different?

The next Essentials worksheets develop the named laws and software licences. The five issue lenses introduced here remain useful throughout the unit.