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”.

• Course Orientation
• Welcome! Are you interested in teaching about the impacts of your personal data in the digital world? To learn more about the computation and computing concepts that underlie the technologies using that data? 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 read a chapter from a children's fiction book -- "The Secret Code Menace" and identify some computer science learning outcomes for that chapter.
• Data Collection
• Why is it that when you are shopping for an item on one website, you start seeing ads for it other in other places? How do websites know (and quite well) what products and services to recommend their customers and users? We'll look at how the internet has evolved to personalize people's experiences while online. Then to finish up this week, we will learn about how cookies and web servers work, as well as how HTTPS keeps connections secure.
• Data Privacy
• This week we'll look at aspects of our personal data such as -- when we we do not want it used, how we can keep it safe, and what control we have. In this Technology Exploration, we'll learn about ciphers, hashing, cryptography, and encryption. Also, do you know the difference between the "deep" web and the "dark" web? (You will know by the end of this week!)
• Data Use
• So far we have learned about data collection and privacy. Now we will spend the week covering some ways that data is used, so we must introduce big data. Along with our exploration of this progressive concept, we will help you connect the use of big data to machine learning though an activity designed to guide your understanding in a fun way!
• Impacts of Computing and Pedagogy
• Next we'll let you choose what you want to explore around "impacts of computing" for the technologies we've explored in this world. Along with that, we'll introduce another "Formative Classroom Assessment Technique" (FACT) and have you practice how you would use this in the classroom. For our pedagogical focus, we'll look at how retrieval practice helps you learn far more effectively than "re-studying" and how to define the learning objectives for a given learning activity using Bloom's taxonomy. Finally, you'll get to read a short chapter from a children's fiction book "The Secret Code Menace" and identify for yourself what kids can learn from reading it!