What will I be able to do upon completing this course?

In this course you’ll focus exploring how you interact with and benefit from technology in a typical 24 hour period and explore the underlying technical concepts that make this possible. After successfully completing this course you will be able to: 1 Reflect on an increased observation of the technology around you 2 Describe at least 2 problem-solution sets of challenges that we humans face and explain the technology that responds to them, including geolocation, getting directions (graph representations and paths), crowdsourcing, near field communication, downloading vs streaming, analog vs. digital image representation, Internet performance metrics, and compression algorithms 3 Enact pedagogical knowledge in computer science-specific contexts, enabling you to employ constructivist activities useful in teaching impacts of computing, evaluate and contribute to an unplugged computer science lesson plan on graphs

Can this course help me get the California Supplementary Authorization to teach Computer Science?

Yes! This course is designed as component of a Specialization that is 1 of a set of 4 Specializations (all will be offered on Coursera) that will support the requirements of the California Supplementary Authorization. Additionally, the Specialization may support credentialing or authorization in other states. However, most states require a transcript from an accredited institution of higher education. See the FAQ question on “Will I earn university credit” to find out how to get such a transcript.

Will I earn university credit for completing this course?

Yes, you can earn UCSD credit for completing this course, but only by completing the full Teaching Impacts of Technology in K-12 Education Specialization. In addition, you will need to (1) Enroll in an additional UCSD Extension course before completing the capstone ($500) and (2), complete part of the capstone project via an online proctoring service. After this is done, your Specialization course grades will be accumulated and a transcript with your final grade (both letter grade or pass-only supported) will be issued from UCSD with 4 graduate-level units. These are eligible to count towards the California Supplementary Authorization.

What background knowledge is necessary to succeed in this course?

There is no background knowledge, neither in education nor in Computer Science, required to take this course - just an interest in learning computational concepts about the technology that surrounds us and how to best teach those concepts to others. Basic proficiency in the use of Googledocs will be needed to complete assignments within the course. Google help documentation will be provided, and with some extra attention, first time use of Googledocs should not be a barrier to successful completion of the course.

What is the value of taking this course online?

By providing this course online, our goal is to enable you to master all the material in the course at a pace that is appropriate for you, rather than the typical processes of picking a specific date and measuring how much you can learn by that date of in-person courses. Instead of the relatively bigger chunks of learning work found in traditional courses (e.g. go to class, read the book, do homework, study for the test) this course has a lot of smaller and more diverse activities that guide your learning experience. We use a lot of online features to: break learning into smaller chunks; engage you more in thinking and discussing content with others; better integrate and more frequently test your knowledge (with a focus on mastery, allowing you to go back and learn what you missed then come test again); give you practice in teaching-specific skills you will need as an educator (finding and evaluating online teaching resources, critiquing and modifying lesson plans) We hope you enjoy and learn a lot!

When will I have access to the lectures and assignments?

To access the course materials, assignments and to earn a Certificate, you will need to purchase the Certificate experience when you enroll in a course. You can try a Free Trial instead, or apply for Financial Aid. The course may offer 'Full Course, No Certificate' instead. This option lets you see all course materials, submit required assessments, and get a final grade. This also means that you will not be able to purchase a Certificate experience.

What will I get if I subscribe to this Specialization?

When you enroll in the course, you get access to all of the courses in the Specialization, and you earn a certificate when you complete the work. Your electronic Certificate will be added to your Accomplishments page - from there, you can print your Certificate or add it to your LinkedIn profile.

Is financial aid available?

Yes. In select learning programs, you can apply for financial aid or a scholarship if you can’t afford the enrollment fee. If fin aid or scholarship is available for your learning program selection, you’ll find a link to apply on the description page.

Teaching Impacts of Technology: Fundamentals

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Teaching Impacts of Technology: Fundamentals

This course is part of Teaching Impacts of Technology in K-12 Education Specialization

Instructor: Beth Simon

7,117 already enrolled

Included with

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5 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

39 reviews

Beginner level

No prior experience required

1 week to complete

at 10 hours a week

Flexible schedule

Learn at your own pace

5 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

39 reviews

Beginner level

No prior experience required

1 week to complete

at 10 hours a week

Flexible schedule

Learn at your own pace

Skills you'll gain

Details to know

Shareable certificate

Add to your LinkedIn profile

Assessments

5 assignments

Taught in English

91%

of learners achieved a positive career outcome

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Build your subject-matter expertise

This course is part of the Teaching Impacts of Technology in K-12 Education Specialization

When you enroll in this course, you'll also be enrolled in this Specialization.

Learn new concepts from industry experts
Gain a foundational understanding of a subject or tool
Develop job-relevant skills with hands-on projects
Earn a shareable career certificate

There are 5 modules in this course

In this course you’ll focus on the fundamentals of teaching the impacts of technology, starting by exploring how you interact with and benefit from technology in a typical 24 hour period, such as the desire for instant food and entertainment. This will be done through a series of paired teaching sections, exploring a specific “Impact of Computing” in your typical day and the “Technologies and Computing Concepts” that enable that impact, all at a K12-appropriate level.

This course is part of a larger Specialization through which you’ll learn impacts of computing concepts you need to know, organized into 5 distinct digital "worlds”, as well as learn pedagogical techniques and evaluate lesson plans and resources to utilize in your classroom. By the end, you’ll be prepared to teach pre-college learners to be both savvy and effective participants in their digital world. In this particular digital world (daily life), you’ll explore the following Impacts & Technology pairs -- Impacts (Food Delivery): Apps that bring you food, drivers, and find and recommend businesses Technologies and Computing Concepts: Geolocation, Push Notifications, Near Field Communications, HMTL5, GPS, Graph representations, Minimal Spanning Trees, Shortest Path Algorithms Impacts (Entertainment): Streaming for entertainment and education, Environmental impact of Internet, YouTube culture Technologies and Computing Concepts: Data Centers, Downloading vs Streaming, Digital vs. Analog image representation, basic compression algorithms, Internet metrics (latency, bandwidth) In the pedagogy section for this course, in which best practices for teaching computing concepts are explored, you’ll learn to employ constructivist activities useful in teaching impacts of computing and to evaluate and contribute to an unplugged lesson plan. In terms of CSTA K-12 computer science standards, we’ll primarily cover learning objectives within the “impacts of computing” concept, while also including some within the “networks and the Internet” concepts and the “data and analysis” concept. Practices we cover include “fostering and inclusive computing culture”, “recognizing and defining computational problems”, and “communicating about computing”.

Module details

Welcome! Are you interested in teaching about the impacts of the technology you use everyday? To learn more about the computation and computing concepts that underlie those technologies? We'll be using a problem-based approach to explore interesting ways to teach concepts of networks and the internet, data and analysis, and even algorithms and data representation. Finally, we'll evaluate, critique and improve/personalize an "unplugged activity" where students learn how to create the minimal network needed to provide connectivity amongst a set of houses. This activity can be scaled for use in grade levels from 4th grade to 12th grade.

What's included

2 videos3 readings1 assignment1 discussion prompt

2 videosTotal 12 minutes

Welcome to the Course!6 minutes
This is part of a Specialization6 minutes

3 readingsTotal 15 minutes

Are You Wanting UC, San Diego transcript credit?5 minutes
Expectations, Engagement and Assessment Goals5 minutes
Using Googledoc Templates in this Class5 minutes

1 assignmentTotal 7 minutes

Orientation Quiz - Make Sure you Know the Score7 minutes

1 discussion promptTotal 10 minutes

Who are you and What are you looking for?10 minutes

How do you interact with and benefit from technology in a 24 hour period? We'll ask you to track your technology use and reflect on its costs and benefits to you. We'll also start by looking at a problem many people might have in a given 24 hour period -- being hungry and wanting someone to bring them some food! We'll explore several smartphone apps related to this including doordash, yelp, and lyft.

What's included

12 videos9 readings1 assignment3 app items4 discussion prompts

12 videosTotal 38 minutes

24 Hours in Your Digital World4 minutes
Goals4 minutes
Your First Interactive Reading12 minutes
Click-Enabled Home Delivery6 minutes
Why These Resources?3 minutes
Check Your Knowledge0 minutes
What is Teacher Powerup?2 minutes
In Your Experience...0 minutes
What is the Shortest Path?2 minutes
Optional: Check Your Knowledge0 minutes
Teaching Tip: Formative Assessment Classroom Techniques4 minutes
Check Your Knowledge0 minutes

9 readingsTotal 72 minutes

Personalize Your Learning: Track your technology use10 minutes
Where's my interactive reading grade?3 minutes
Geolocation10 minutes
Getting Driving Directions: Use Graphs!25 minutes
Payment Integration & Mobile Payments7 minutes
Geolocation with HTML57 minutes
Optional: After Geolocation: Getting Directions with Dijkstra's Shortest Path0 minutes
Push Notifications10 minutes
Optional Extra Teacher Resources0 minutes

1 assignmentTotal 25 minutes

Mastery Quiz25 minutes

3 app itemsTotal 42 minutes

Yelp, Doordash, and Lyft: What do they have in common?15 minutes
Push Notifications12 minutes
What is Near Field Communication (NFC)15 minutes

4 discussion promptsTotal 40 minutes

To your door with a "click"10 minutes
What was your algorithm?10 minutes
What location-aware experiences have you had on your computer?10 minutes
Point of Most Significance10 minutes

Streaming media has had huge impacts not only on consumer choice, but on who is enabled to produce digital media -- be it entertainment or education. Then we'll look at some of the limitations and possible new advances in this area.

What's included

5 videos7 readings2 assignments3 app items4 discussion prompts

5 videosTotal 6 minutes

Enrichment Revolution: Video to your Device5 minutes
In Your Experience0 minutes
Check Your Knowledge0 minutes
Check Your Knowledge0 minutes
Check Your Knowledge0 minutes

7 readingsTotal 65 minutes

In Your Experience: Can you relate?5 minutes
Internet and Data Center Basics12 minutes
You, too, can explain downloading vs streaming5 minutes
Movies, Pictures: Digital vs. Analog12 minutes
So How Does Netflix Work?15 minutes
Compression: How to reduce what goes over the internet16 minutes
Optional Teacher Resources: More on How the Internet Works - Packed in 15 minutes0 minutes

2 assignmentsTotal 52 minutes

Mastery Quiz: Part 125 minutes
Mastery Quiz: Part 227 minutes

3 app itemsTotal 55 minutes

Is the Internet Green?10 minutes
The Impacts of YouTube on our Culture20 minutes
Downloading vs Streaming: The Details25 minutes

4 discussion promptsTotal 35 minutes

24 Hour Tracking Log...What did you learn?5 minutes
How about that dress analogy?10 minutes
Activity: Testing Your Internet "Speed"10 minutes
What did you think was important?10 minutes

This week our work falls into 2 categories. The impacts computing has had on our lives so far may not be the entire story. The CSTA K-12 standards focus a lot on having students not only look at the past, but consider impacts of future advances. Second, we reflect on core constructivist learning theory -- but with a specific focus on teaching computing concepts.

What's included

6 videos4 readings1 assignment3 discussion prompts

6 videosTotal 20 minutes

Why Study: Impacts and Next Steps4 minutes
Teaching Computing vs Teaching X2 minutes
Check Your Knowledge0 minutes
Brains Aren't Buckets7 minutes
Learning Design Review: What Structures Do We Use To Support Your Learning?7 minutes
Check Your Knowledge0 minutes

4 readingsTotal 50 minutes

Are You Addicted to the "Blue Dot"? or How to Fool a GPS20 minutes
Student Expectations and Learning about Impacts of Computing10 minutes
The Importance of Connecting to Pre-existing Knowledge for Teaching Computing10 minutes
Teachers Speak: Constructivist Learning Example10 minutes

1 assignmentTotal 12 minutes

Pedagogy Mastery Quiz12 minutes

3 discussion promptsTotal 30 minutes

How will GPS change our future?10 minutes
Learning Reflection Handout10 minutes
FACT: Two Stars and a Wish - Standardized Units10 minutes

We'll evaluate a "CS Unplugged" lesson plan that supports students in learning how to represent real world map/travel representations in a graph. This lesson plan extends upon the "Paving a Muddy City" online simulator you used earlier in the course. We'll walk through a revised lesson plan and ask you to help improve it by added vocabulary and assessment items. You'll be able to contribute to and access a crowdsources set of resources created by other learners in this class!