IB Digital Society SL study plan

Map the layers of a digital system (physical hardware, operating system, application, network, stored data) and label at least three concrete examples per layer.

Write a plain-language walkthrough of how one user action, such as uploading a photo, passes through each layer, using correct terms for client, server, packet, protocol and bandwidth.

Distinguish the four practical limits on a system - processing power, memory, storage and connection speed - and give one real scenario where each limit forces a design compromise.

Build a personal glossary of 30 core systems terms, each with a definition in your own words plus one worked example.

Trace three data pipelines (an environmental sensor, app usage tracking, an open government dataset) from capture through storage to the point where an organisation acts on the data.

Explain the difference between a hand-written algorithm and a model trained on data, and describe one documented case where biased training data produced a skewed output.

Identify the stakeholders affected by three everyday digital services - the user, the platform operator, a third-party buyer, a regulator - and state what each one gains and risks.

Answer six short structured questions on systems under timed conditions, allowing six minutes each, then mark them against criteria you derive from the command terms used.

Analyse how digital identity is created and verified in three different contexts (a social media account, a national digital ID scheme, a school learning platform) and name the data each one holds.

Evaluate the trade-off between personalisation and privacy in a recommendation-driven service, arguing both sides before reaching a judgement.

Compare access to digital technology in two contrasting countries using at least four indicators such as network coverage, device ownership, affordability and digital skills.

Draft five short stakeholder-perspective paragraphs on one contentious issue, covering a user, a company, a government, a vulnerable group and a future generation.

Compare two regulatory approaches to the same problem - for example, platform content moderation or data protection - and judge which better protects the stakeholders you identified in week 3.

Analyse how a specific piece of misinformation spread, identifying the mechanism (algorithmic amplification, closed groups, coordinated accounts), the audience and the counter-measures attempted.

Explain how intellectual property and ownership work for digital goods such as software licences, streamed media and user-generated content.

Sit one closed-book timed paper covering Domains 1 and 2 and mark it against the assessment criteria, recording every lost mark by cause.

Describe four families of emerging technology - artificial intelligence, connected devices, extended reality and distributed ledger systems - and give one credible current use case for each.

Apply a full design cycle to a real problem you can observe: define it, generate three candidate technical responses, sketch a prototype and set evaluation criteria before judging.

Analyse the lifecycle of a digital product from idea to scale, naming the point at which cost, trust or regulation typically slows it down.

Assess the environmental cost of digital innovation by tracing the energy, water and material footprint of one device or service from manufacture to disposal.

Evaluate one emerging technology from the perspectives of two stakeholder groups with genuinely opposing interests, and justify which concern should take priority.

Link a specific digital innovation to one named sustainable development goal and argue whether the innovation advances or undermines it.

Compare three examples of innovation that failed or were withdrawn, and identify the shared cause across them.

Draft an internal assessment proposal: a research question narrow enough to answer, a justified choice of digital tool, and five credible annotated sources.

Assemble a bank of eight reusable case studies - at least two per domain - each summarised in five lines with the stakeholders, the technology, the tension and a judgement.

Practise four extended 'evaluate' responses under timing, deliberately writing a balanced argument that reaches a defensible conclusion rather than listing points.

Sit a full timed Paper 2 style paper across all three domains and mark it against the published criteria.

Convert every recurring error into a one-line correction rule for a personal exam-technique sheet.

Re-teach your three weakest sub-topics from the week 4 and week 7 error logs by writing a 200-word explanation of each without notes.

Rehearse case-study recall by retrieving all eight case studies from memory and checking each against your bank.

Complete one final timed paper under exam conditions and compare the score with week 7 to confirm improvement.

Finish and proofread the internal assessment draft against the assessment criteria, checking that the artefact and the written commentary address the same research question.