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 Specialization 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.
Teaching Impacts of Technology in K-12 Education Specialization
Teach Impacts of Computing in K-12. Be prepared to help students understand computing and its impacts in their digital worlds
Offered By
How the Specialization Works
Take Courses
A Coursera Specialization is a series of courses that helps you master a skill. To begin, enroll in the Specialization directly, or review its courses and choose the one you'd like to start with. When you subscribe to a course that is part of a Specialization, you’re automatically subscribed to the full Specialization. It’s okay to complete just one course — you can pause your learning or end your subscription at any time. Visit your learner dashboard to track your course enrollments and your progress.
Hands-on Project
Every Specialization includes a hands-on project. You'll need to successfully finish the project(s) to complete the Specialization and earn your certificate. If the Specialization includes a separate course for the hands-on project, you'll need to finish each of the other courses before you can start it.
Earn a Certificate
When you finish every course and complete the hands-on project, you'll earn a Certificate that you can share with prospective employers and your professional network.
There are 6 Courses in this Specialization
Course1
Teaching Impacts of Technology: Fundamentals
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”.
Course2
Teaching Impacts of Technology: Data Collection, Use, and Privacy
In this course you’ll focus on how constant data collection and big data analysis have impacted us, exploring the interplay between using your data and protecting it, as well as thinking about what it could do for you in the future. 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 (personal data), you’ll explore the following Impacts & Technology pairs --
Impacts (Show me what I want to see!): Internet Privacy, Custom Ads, Personalization of web pages
Technologies and Computing Concepts: Cookies, Web vs Internet, https, Web Servers
Impacts (Use my data…. But protect it!): Common Cybersecurity knowledge levels, ISP data collection, Internet design, finding out what is known about you online, software terms and services
Technology and Computing Concepts: DNS, Cryptography (ciphers, hashing, encryption, SSL), Deep and Dark Web
Impacts (What could my data do for me in the future?): What is Big Data, Machine Learning finds new music, Wearable technologies.
Technology and Computing Concepts: AI vs ML, Supervised vs Unsupervised learning, Neural Networks, Recommender systems, Speech recognition
In the pedagogy section for this course, in which best practices for teaching computing concepts are explored, you’ll learn how to apply Bloom’s taxonomy to create meaningful CS learning objectives, the importance of retrieval-based learning, to build learning activities with online simulators, and how to use “fun” books to teach computing.
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”.
Course3
Teaching Impacts of Technology: Relationships
In this course you’ll focus on how “smart” devices have changed how we interact with others in personal ways, impacting how we stay connected in our increasingly mobile society. 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 (relationships), you’ll explore the following Impacts & Technology pairs --
Impacts (Keep me connected in a mobile society):, personal relationships, facebook, circle of friends
Technology and Computing Concepts: algorithms, software engineering evolution, heuristics, computer runtime, big O notation, P vs NP
Impacts (Making geography-based connections): findings friends, maps, geolocation
Technology and Computing Concepts: data and binary, image encoding, pixels, how color pickers work, filters, blurs
In the pedagogy section for this course, in which best practices for teaching computing concepts are explored, you’ll learn about the current CSTA K-12 CS Standards and practice using them to review and apply to lesson plans, as well as how to apply the ICAP framework to connect your students’ engagement to active learning outcomes, such as through peer instruction.
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”.
Course4
Teaching Impacts of Technology: Workplace of the Future
In this course you’ll focus on how the Internet has enabled new careers and changed expectations in traditional work settings, creating a new vision for the workplace of the future. 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 (careers and work), you’ll explore the following Impacts & Technology pairs --
Impacts (Getting jobs in new ways): technology based freelancing, Linkedin and how it changed the way we work
Technology and Computing Concepts: Data retrieval, data vs metadata, SQL, Boolean logic (AND, OR, NOT)
Impacts (Physical ties to work restricts people and businesses): work communication, the cloud, cloud computing, companies affected by ransomware attacks
Technology and Computing Concepts: how the cloud works, FTP, cloud storage, clients and servers, scalability basics, fault tolerance, AWS, devops
Impacts (Advancing your career in the fast moving technical world): digital technology changing jobs, online classes, machines replacing jobs, data science and artificial intelligence
In the pedagogy section for this course, in which best practices for teaching computing concepts are explored, you’ll learn how to effectively explore and critique curricular material you find and practice reviewing lesson plans, with a focus on material aimed at learning HTML.
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”.
Instructor
Beth Simon
Teaching ProfessorEducation Studies
About University of California San Diego
UC San Diego is an academic powerhouse and economic engine, recognized as one of the top 10 public universities by U.S. News and World Report. Innovation is central to who we are and what we do. Here, students learn that knowledge isn't just acquired in the classroom—life is their laboratory.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the refund policy?
Can I just enroll in a single course?
Yes! To get started, click the course card that interests you and enroll. You can enroll and complete the course to earn a shareable certificate, or you can audit it to view the course materials for free. When you subscribe to a course that is part of a Specialization, you’re automatically subscribed to the full Specialization. Visit your learner dashboard to track your progress.
Is financial aid available?
Can I take the course for free?
Is this course really 100% online? Do I need to attend any classes in person?
This course is completely online, so there’s no need to show up to a classroom in person. You can access your lectures, readings and assignments anytime and anywhere via the web or your mobile device.
Who should take the Specialization?
This Specialization has been developed primarily to support K-12 teachers (but best targets middle and high school) in educating their students about the technologies impacting their lives and putting those students on a solid path towards comfort and interest in computing. However, this course is valuable to anyone interested in learning about the technical knowledge of how computation in our digital world works and is causing all sorts of changes, as well as how to teach that knowledge to others -- which includes, among others, members of the tech community involved in K-12 outreach, parents, and other informal educators.
What resources will I create by successfully completing the projects in each of the Specialization courses?
In each course you will evaluate and/or augment an activity or lesson plan, which you'll then be able to take straight into a classroom. Specifically, for each course:
Course 1: Evaluate and Modify an Unplugged Activity on Networks
Course 2: Use Fiction/Literacy Circles To Teach Computing
Course 3: Evaluate and Add Interactivity to “History of a Pixel” Lesson Plan
Course 4: Explore code.org for materials you can use for a lesson plan on Learning HTML
Course 5: TBD
What will I be able to do upon completing the Specialization?
After successfully completing this Specialization, you will have foundational technical knowledge about the computational technology that surrounds us today and foundational pedagogical knowledge of how to teach that to others, particularly in the K-12 setting. Specifically, you will be able to:
[1] Analyze various solutions to human problems that technology, computing, and the Internet have enabled - and analyze the impact these have had on our society, economy, and culture. (Impacts of Computing Knowledge)
[2] Explain and utilize provided resources to teach various computing concepts that underlie the technologies and software that solve these problems for us. (Technical Knowledge)
[3] Evaluate and reflect on your experiences learning about technology, computing, and the Internet and apply those to creating effective learning activities to support the learning of others. (Pedagogical Knowledge)
[4] Evaluate resources for effectively teaching issues addressing computer science K-12 concepts: impacts of computing, data and analysis, and networks and the Internet. (Pedagogical Knowledge)
[5] Complete and evaluate the APCSP Explore Task (in the culminating project). (Technical and Pedagogical KnowledgeI
Will the Specialization help me get the California Supplementary Authorization to teach Computer Science?
Yes! This Specialization is designed as 1 of a set of 4 Specializations (all will be offered on Coursera) that will support the requirements of the California supplementary authorization. Additionally, this Specialization may support credentialing or authorization in other states. However, most states require a transcript from an accredited institution of higher education. This course can support that -- see “Will I earn university credit” below.
Will I earn university credit for completing the Specialization?
Yes, you can earn credit from the University of California San Diego for completing this Specialization. To do so you must first successfully complete the full Specialization. Then, 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?
There is no background knowledge, neither in education nor in Computer Science, required to take this Specialization - 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
How long does it take to complete the Specialization?
There are six courses in this Specialization, one covering each digital world and a final culminating project course. Each course is built around four weekly modules, which can each be completed in approximately three-five hours. However, completion time is very dependent on each learner and the time you’re able to dedicate to the Specialization each week. There are deadlines to help you complete in a timely manner (targeting completion in 24 weeks), but you can move faster (by taking courses concurrently) or slower as suits your needs.
Do I need to take the courses in a specific order?
Each course in the Specialization is built to stand alone and can be taken in the order you choose, or concurrently. However, the course order was developed to build from more individual-focused worlds (24 hours in your digital world, your personal data) to more outward-facing worlds (relationship, career, and global), so if you are taking them sequentially we recommend following their order within the Specialization. At minimum, we recommend starting with the 24 Hours in Your Digital World course and ending with the Culminating Project course.
Which of the CSTA K-12 computer science standards will the Specialization cover?
In terms of the 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 touching upon the “data and analysis” concept. Practices we cover include “fostering and inclusive computing culture”, “recognizing and defining computational problems”, and “communicating about computing”.
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