Teaching Impacts of Technology in K-12 Education

Overview

2% That’s the estimate of how many high school students in all of California took a Computer Science class in 2015. And yet, computers and data are everywhere. Just consider a typical 24 hours in your life … how many different computer devices do you use? We all live in multiple digital worlds that are changing rapidly with new apps, devices, and data analyses offering a constant stream of innovations and technology integrations for our lives.

As it's an integral part of our lives, we’re working towards computer science for all - making it possible for every student, every future member of society, to understand computing and technology. 

To do so, we need teachers. Teachers prepared to both teach computational concepts and use best practices so kids enjoy and see they can be successful in computer science. This is where you (and this Specialization) come in!

In this Teaching Impacts of Technology in K-12 Education Specialization offered by Coursera in partnership with UC San Diego, you will both learn about the impacts of computing in our world and how to teach these impacts to K-12 students. We offer both the technical knowledge and also the pedagogical approaches for teaching these concepts. 

Along the way you’ll engage with freely available materials you can use in your own classroom, as well as learn from teachers currently teaching these concepts in their classrooms.

In short - in this Specialization we'll teach you the computing concepts you need to know and then help you explore and evaluate lesson plans and resources to prepare you for your classroom.

Applied Learning Project

Using a problem-based approach to understanding underlying computing concepts, we’ll travel through five different digital “worlds” in which we engage with technology, exploring the problems posed within that world and the various tech solutions that exist.

At the end of each world, you will reflect on the effectiveness of your learning process and evaluate lesson plans and materials available for use in your own classroom. Through these activities, you’ll become a more reflective teacher and develop an understanding of how instruction and activities can be designed to support learning. See FAQ for per-course details.

As a culminating project, you will complete part of the new advanced placement computer science course - the “Explore Task” - where you research a recent computing innovation and and analyze its impacts on the world. You’ll apply the AP grading checklist to sample secondary student work, provide feedback to a fellow learner, and receive the same from fellow learners.