Digital tools connect to new knowledge creation by extending who can participate, how evidence is collected and analysed, and how ideas are tested and shared. They do not create knowledge independently: people design systems, interpret outputs and judge reliability.
This is central to the human knowledge context in IB Digital Society and applies to both SL and HL. Databases, simulations, online collaboration, data analytics and artificial intelligence can increase the scale and speed of inquiry. They may also broaden participation by enabling non-specialists to contribute observations or solutions that experts might overlook.
System: Foldit is an online protein-folding game combining human visual problem-solving with computational algorithms. Players manipulate three-dimensional protein structures, and the system scores their proposed models.
Example specifics: In 2011, Foldit players helped solve the crystal structure of a retroviral protease after conventional approaches had struggled. The result, reported in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, offered insights relevant to antiretroviral drug design.
Impacts and implications: The impact was that player-generated models contributed to an established scientific result. The implication is that digital systems can support citizen science, collaborative inquiry and new forms of expertise. However, access, scoring-system design and scientific validation remained important. Foldit did not replace scientific judgement; it organized human contributions and computational processing within a research system.
The example demonstrates systems because knowledge emerged through interactions among players, algorithms, scientific methods and online communication. It also reveals power: digital participation broadened, but scientific institutions retained authority to validate and publish findings.
A common misconception is that more digital data automatically creates knowledge. Data becomes credible knowledge only when people select, process, interpret and evaluate it using appropriate methods and evidence.
For an IB Explain response, identify a specific digital system, show how it changes participation or analysis, and explain why human evaluation remains necessary.
