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Scenario Cards -- Computer Literacy

Use these scenarios to explore how technology works and how to use it well.

What Happens When You Click Send?​

Scenario: Alex types a message to a friend and clicks "send." Thirty seconds later, the friend is on the other side of the world and receives it instantly.

Discussion:

  • What happened between "send" and "receive"?
  • What is a packet? Why does the internet break messages into pieces?
  • What could go wrong in the middle? What happens then?

Extension: Research what a router does.

The File That Disappeared​

Scenario: Sam spends an hour working on a document. The computer freezes and restarts. The document is gone because Sam never saved it.

Discussion:

  • What is saving a file, exactly?
  • Why doesn't saving happen automatically?
  • What is one habit that would have prevented this?

Extension: Research "autosave" and how it works.

The Buggy Program​

Scenario: Morgan writes a program that should print "Hello 5 times." Instead, it prints "Hello" forever and never stops.

Discussion:

  • What is the bug?
  • What is the debugging process?
  • How would you find the problem systematically rather than just guessing?

Extension: Find and fix the infinite loop: "while true: print('Hello')"

The Free App​

Scenario: Riley downloads a free photo-editing app. The setup screen asks for permission to access: your camera, microphone, contacts, location, and purchase history.

Discussion:

  • Why does a photo editor need your microphone?
  • What does "free" mean here? Who is paying, and how?
  • Which permissions would you approve? Which would you deny?

Extension: Read the permission list for one real app on your device.

The AI Homework Helper​

Scenario: Casey asks an AI assistant to "write a paragraph about the water cycle." The AI produces a paragraph instantly. The paragraph sounds good but has one incorrect fact.

Discussion:

  • What did the AI do well? What did it miss?
  • What should Casey do before submitting this?
  • When is an AI tool helpful? When is it risky?

Extension: Ask an AI a factual question about a topic you know well and check for errors.

The Broken System​

Scenario: A fictional town's traffic lights all stop working at the same time. Turns out one central computer controlled all of them, and a software update caused a crash.

Discussion:

  • What is the system we are looking at? What are its parts?
  • What was the failure point?
  • How could the system be redesigned to be more resilient?

Extension: Research "single point of failure" in systems design.