Teaching Impacts of Technology: Data Collection, Use, and Privacy

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.

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.

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!)

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!

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!