UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS: 2018/2019
EXAMINATION FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN
INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY
BCT 3205: ICT AND SOCIETY
FULL TIME/PART TIME
DATE: AUGUST, 2019 TIME: 2 HOURS
INSTRUCTIONS: Answer Question One & ANY OTHER TWO questions.
QUESTION ONE (Compulsory)
a) How can information and information systems be used to gain power and, thereby create
additional ethical issues? (6 Marks)
b) Will the increased use of computers and the presence of the Internet radically reduce the
enrollments in colleges and universities whose programs are “place-based” (4 Marks)
c) Briefly discuss whether technology determines society or if society determines
technology. (4 Marks)
d) Differentiate between information society and network society (4 Marks)
e) Discuss the current trends in the use of ICTs for development (6 Marks)
f) How are accuracy and quality of Information to be safeguarded? (6 Marks)
QUESTION TWO
a) Explain what globalization is and how it has been supported by developments in
information technology. (6 Marks)
b) With reference to Kenya discuss the societal benefits of implementing e-government
(10 Marks)
c) Giving relevant examples discuss the term computer ethics (4 Marks)
QUESTION THREE
a) Discuss whether the Internet brings people together, or they are isolated as they all sit in
front of their computers? (6Marks)
b) The IT industry is increasingly aware of its own environmental impact. Describe at least
three environmental problems to which the industry contributes and how, as an IT
professional, you can help to solve this problem. (6 Marks)
c) Does the IS constitute a radical break from the industrial society, just as industrialisation
“displaced” agricultural society? (8 Marks)
QUESTION FOUR
a) Most of the work in information society is futuristic and technologically deterministic and
informed by few theoretical insights. However, Frank Webster (2000) has built a useful
typology to understand IS theories. Using examples discuss the theories advanced by
Webster (10 Marks)
b) In your opinion discuss the development priorities that a developing country like Kenya
should have in its ICT policy (10 Marks)
QUESTION FIVE
a) Yearley, Science, Technology and Social Change mentions the uneven success that modern
apparatus and technique have had in ‘modernizing’ underdeveloped countries. In many
underdeveloped economies, ‘the modern elements in the economy have frequently served
to widen the gap between rich and poor’
i) Discuss this statement with reference to the digital divide (6 Marks)
ii) In your opinion will this divide ever be bridged (6 Marks)
b) Discuss the statement “computer and information technology creates new possibilities for
human behaviour” (8 Marks)
