Reliability

This exercise is designed to explore feelings and reactions to events or equipment that don't meet expectations, and what can be done about it.

1) Students to work in groups of two or three. They should have an A4 piece of paper to jot down their ideas.

2) Write on the board:

     "Your mobile phone text messages do not always get delivered promptly."

     "You are charged for phone calls on your mobile that you didn't make".

     "Sometimes, the TV just stops working for no apparent reason. It starts working again later."

     "Your two year old laptop keeps crashing all the time."

Explain that you have tried to find out what caused each problem, but can't. You have tried to get help from e.g. your mobile phone company but they haven't been able to help.

3) In groups, students have 5 minutes (use a countdown clock) to discuss and jot down

     a) how each of these things would make them feel

     b) what promises to themselves or changes in behaviour might result in experiencing any of the above? How do consumers react?

     c) with the laptop, how might they protect their files?

     d) why all electronic things WILL DEFINITELY FAIL one day.

4) Bring the class together to discuss.

5) Ask the students about servers and make sure they know what one is. What would happen if the server 'went down'?

6) Put a copy / handout notes (without the diagram) about 'Failover' (in GCSE Computing 2.1.1 Fundamentals). Their task is to delete all the text in the handout except twenty words, and still get across the essential meaning of the handout. Anyone who has finished should try to summarise the handout as a diagram.

7) Bring the class together to discuss ideas.