IB Diploma Programme Digital Society HL (first assessment 2024; 2021 guide). This topic equips the remaining CONTENT areas (3.3 computers, 3.4 networks and the internet, 3.5 media, 3.6 artificial intelligence, 3.7 robots and autonomous technologies) situated by the seven CONTEXTS, as demanded by the source-based Paper 2 (20% HL): diverse sources explored, their claims and perspectives evaluated. This handout teaches the content areas, the contexts and the source discipline. All worked examples are original classroom cases.

Must-know for networks, media and automation:

As substrate, computers 计算机 (3.3) process with limits (memory, energy, attention); networks and the internet 网络与互联网 (3.4) connect them in layers, each layer a choke point (the cable, the platform, the standard): who owns the layer decides its rules. Closest to daily life is the content area of media 媒体 (3.5): creation (everyone a publisher), distribution (the feed ranked, not chronological) and participation (the comment, the share, the pile-on).

Worked case. The class-news feed: three versions of the same school event (the official post, the student video, the satirical meme) travel differently because the ranking algorithm rewards engagement, not accuracy: MEDIA content on a NETWORK choke point.

In 3.6, artificial intelligence 人工智能 is delegated decision (the classifier that flags, the recommender that ranks); robots and autonomous technologies 机器人与自主技术 (3.7) add delegated ACTION (the warehouse robot, the autonomous mower): each delegation moves a human judgement somewhere else. Every case is situated by the seven contexts 情境: cultural, economic, environmental, health, human knowledge, political, social: the same recommender is a different case in the economic context (whose market) and the health context (whose wellbeing).

A second delegation read. The school's essay-feedback classifier (AI content): the judgement about writing quality moves from teacher to model. Context shift: in the human-knowledge context the question is what counts as good writing; in the social context, who gets encouraged. Same tool, two inquiries: the context choice changes the question, which is exactly the unit's craft.

Worked case, continued. The school's essay-feedback classifier: AI content (delegated judgement) in the human-knowledge context (what counts as good writing) and the social context (who gets encouraged): the context choice changes the question.

Paper 2 is source-based: the discipline is the source 来源 read three ways: its CLAIM (what it asserts), its PERSPECTIVE (who speaks, from where, with what interest) and its PROVENANCE (where it came from, who published it, when). Diverse sources means genuinely different perspectives (the platform's statement, the user's testimony, the regulator's report), and the essay weighs them rather than stacking the agreeable ones.

Worked case, concluded. On the feed case, three sources: the platform's transparency post (claim: ranking serves relevance; perspective: the seller of attention), a student creator's testimony (claim: the meme travelled furthest; perspective: the participant), and a media-literacy study (claim: engagement ranking rewards outrage; perspective: the researcher): the essay weighs all three against the case.

• Computers, networks, media: substrate, layers, feed (computers).

• AI and robots: delegated decision, delegated action (automation).

• The seven contexts situating every case (sources).

• Claim, perspective, provenance on every source (sources).

• The worked feed and classifier cases understood (worked). Boundary notes: the examiner must see the inquiry working: concepts named, sources diverse and evaluated, real-world examples real. All worked examples are original classroom cases.