PersonalPublicCommunications

=Personal and public communications=

Social and ethical issues
Students must study and evaluate the social and ethical issues involved in the use of personal and public communications. These may include:
 * the psychological consequences of people being in permanent contact
 * ethical considerations of control as the result of using communications technologies
 * social impact on health of the use of mobile devices
 * effect on personal productivity of personal communications devices
 * effect on the environment of personal communications devices
 * social effects of telecommuting
 * social effects of the widespread use of teleconferencing and videoconferencing
 * social and environmental impact and ethical considerations of telecommuting
 * social impact and ethical considerations of: distance learning, digital entertainment, global media and public information systems.
 * 20 © International Baccalaureate Organization 2006
 * Syllabus details

Knowledge of technology
In order to study and evaluate the social and ethical issues involved in the use of personal and public communications, the student must have an understanding of related technological concepts. These may include:
 * key terms—convergence, teleconferencing, videoconferencing, telecommuting, digital television, push–pull technologies
 * mobile phone and associated services and uses
 * digital entertainment versus live entertainment
 * contents of digital entertainment, for example, violence, pornography and realism
 * features of telecommuting, for example, environmental aspects, flexibility, productivity, business and social relationships
 * face-to-face communications versus communications via technology
 * minimum requirements to enable realistic teleconferencing and videoconferencing
 * undetected intrusions into IT systems, for example, phone tapping
 * personal mobile devices, for example, PDA, laptop
 * emerging technologies as the result of convergence of computers and communications technology
 * public information systems, for example, traffic control, security camera systems, public transfer information systems.