From the AP Computer Science Principles curriculum, Big Idea #5 is the Impact of Computing.
Today you will consider:
- What constitutes a computing innovation
- How an innovation can have both beneficial and harmful effects
- How an innovation’s effects can be both intended and unintended
- What can be done to avoid bias in the development of computing innovations
What is a computing innovation?
A computing innovation cannot function without a program at its core.
A program includes inputs, instructions that process the provided data, and produces output.
An example of a computing innovation is Apple Watch activity competitions.
Building on the theory of operant conditioning (B.F. Skinner), activity competitions are designed to provide positive reinforcement among friend groups to promote increased physical activity and fitness.
Activity competitions award points, up to a maximum of 600 per day, for personal achievement against goals for exercise minutes, stand counts, and calorie burn from movement.
Participants receive periodic updates about their friend’s physical activity and points earned.
The features of this innovation could motivate participants to be more physically active and thereby improve the fitness of young people in particular.
Input data is generated by various internal sensors. For example, heart rate is determined by measuring volume of blood flow through a process known as photoplethysmography.
Data used includes integers for daily stand totals, minutes of exercise, and active calories burned from movement. Floating-point values are involved as a user earns 1 point for each percent that they add to their activity rings in a day.
These data are represented to the user in the form of circular rings, allowing participants to see their progress and those of competitors (blue for standing, green for exercise, red for movement). Point totals are represented using a simple display of current values, and historically across the competition using bar graphs.
Effects
Computing innovations can be used in ways that their creators do not anticipate.
Innovations can have both beneficial and harmful effects.
A given effect can be viewed as both beneficial and harmful by different people.
Again, Apple Watch Activity competitions are one example of this.
Beneficial Effects
A beneficial effect of Apple Watch activity competitions are that participants are likely to become more physically active than if they relied only upon self-motivation or automated prompts from the watch to “get active”.
Positive reinforcement from friends, in particular, has been shown to be important for increasing physical fitness in young women.
Also, through participation in enough regular activity competitions, a user may form a new habit of increased physical activity. Thus, when competitions have ended, an individual will have gotten used to being more active and may continue to stay active.
The physical fitness of Canadians has been declining for decades. Social support through built-in software like that on Apple Watch has the potential to reverse or at least halt this decline in activity levels.
Harmful Effect
As noted by an Apple Support article about activity competitions: “When you get a notification about a friend’s activity, you can reply with preset smack talk or encouragement.”
A potentially harmful effect of activity competitions is that participants may be exposed to messaging that one participant perceives as “competitive banter” but which the recipient might perceive as discouraging or even abusive.
Given that online harassment and related self-esteem issues, particularly for young people, are real problems, Apple Watch users need to be thoughtful about who they engage in activity competitions with and how they communicate with those individuals.
Effective Collaboration
Effective collaboration produces a computing innovation that reflects the diversity of talents and perspectives of those who designed it.
Collaboration includes diverse perspectives to avoid bias in the development of computing innovations.
Collaboration and including diverse perspectives in design are not just abstract concepts.
The lack of above has had, and continues to have, real harms.