Teaching Impacts of Technology in K-12 Education

About this course

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.

Course objectives

• prepare educators to effectively teach computer science
• provide tools and strategies for engaging students in computational thinking