What will I get out of this class?
This class is designed to provide you both the content (technical) AND pedagogy (teaching) knowledge all educators should have to help students learn about how technology, computers, and computation are impacting their daily lives, society, economy, and culture. It also supports those planning to get a single- or multiple- subject teaching credential in California to get a supplementary authorization to teach Computer Science in K-12.
How will I learn these things?
Using a project-based approach we will study 4 different "digital worlds" that we all live in and explore various technology solutions that have benefited us in these areas:
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Your digital Personal Data world: How does Amazon know what products to recommend to you? How do devices and apps that track fitness or health work?
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Your Relationship world: How does Facebook change how you interact with others and how has smartphone technology enabled that? How do Snapchat filters work? Can we use software or technology to reduce cyberbullying?
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Your Career or Work world: How are things stored "in the cloud" and what security issues come with that? What new careers or ways of earning of living has technology enabled?
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Your Global world: How can the internet give people greater access to educational opportunities? Are there groups of people who technology doesn't serve well? How does social media change communication and journalism in dictatorial societies?
An online class: how can that be fun?
Join us and find out! This class is designed using best pedagogical practices to support your learning. One of those is to engage and excite you about why learning this material is so valuable! Some of the things we'll be doing include:
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Interacting in collaborative, short readings where you can ask questions and discuss with each other in conversations embedded in the reading
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Watch mini-video lectures embedded with poll questions where you can see what your classmates think
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Take "quick check" quizzes on materials you have just learned -- as many times as you need to master your learning!
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Have repeated opportunities to test yourself and cement your knowledge to last beyond the end of the course through retrieval learning practice
How will I learn about teaching computing?
In addition to learning theory and computer science education standards we will help you look "under the hood" at your own process of learning computer science content in this course -- and think about what activities supported your learning and how they might be improved. Additionally, through materials and videos from our guest K-12 computer science master teachers, you will get access to lesson plans and be able to hear directly from teachers how those lessons have worked in real life. Sometimes you will be able to make additional contributions or find more learning resources that can be shared with everyone in the class!
Still want to know more?
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