Common Core Assessments are Coming!

Are You Ready? Learning.com Will Get You There.

With next generation assessments like PARCC and Smarter Balanced just around the corner, students need critical digital literacy skills so they are comfortable taking an online test, and can use technology tools and skills to demonstrate knowledge of tested material.

Learning.com offers a complete solution, enabling educators with the curriculum and assessments to teach and assess digital literacy skills. EasyTech builds students’ technology proficiency and 21st century skills. 21st Century Skills Assessment identifies student learning gaps and prescribes EasyTech lessons in order to bridge gaps. And WayFind improves teachers’ 21st century teaching skills with targeted, practical professional development.

Our complete digital literacy solution is built on three pillars: curriculum, assessments and professional development to ensure success.


Digital literacy instruction

EasyTech teaches students critical higher-order thinking and digital literacy skills like creativity, innovation, problem solving, communication and collaboration. EasyTech prepares students to meet Common Core State Standards and be ready for PARCC and Smarter Balanced assessments. Designed to be easily integrated into teachers’ core instruction and daily routines, EasyTech’s award-winning curriculum helps teachers build the digital literacy skills that their students need to grow, compete and succeed.

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Assess 21st Century Skills

With an assessment aligned to all 24 ISTE NETS-S 2007 standards, we identify student knowledge gaps in the areas of 21st century skills and digital literacy. Then we generate prescriptive recommendations of EasyTech lessons to help teachers efficiently and effectively address students’ specific needs.

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Support teachers with WayFind

WayFind provides 85 hours of ISTE NETS-T aligned instruction and uses psychometrically valid data to home in on and prescriptively recommend only the precise professional development activities each teacher really needs. WayFind is relevant, to the point PD.

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Professional Development and Implementation Services

We support your efforts with the best professional services team working in digital education. We can customize our support and professional development services to meet your needs. And, we can be with you every step of the way—with chat, webinars, online resources, by phone or face-to-face.

Regardless of format, our PD services are fully customizable to meet your needs, schedule, and objectives to ensure relevance for all participants.

We can help you create a dynamic, engaging, blended education experience for your students. Learning.com is the right way to integrate digital literacy and 21st century skills instruction into your teaching.

EasyTech

Develops the critical 21st century skills and technology proficiency students need to meet Common Core standards and succeed on next generation assessments. Aligned to ISTE NETS-S standards.

Features & Benefits:

  • Instruction for basic technology literacy – from mouse basics to online safety, 21st century skills, keyboarding, Web design, and word processing
  • Aligned with and reports to ISTE NETS-S 2007, state, and core curriculum standards
  • Includes NETS-T professional development curriculum to help teachers learn how to teach 21st century standards
  • Guided instruction with immediate feedback
  • Meets E-Rate requirements for K-12 education and demonstrates compliance
  • Web-delivered, so no downloads, CDs or installations
  • In both English and Spanish
  • Constantly updated

Engaging students with technology based lessons

EasyTech's self-paced, interactive curriculum teaches students critical technology skills in the context of core curriculum and real world challenges.

Integrate 21st century and technology skills into instruction

With EasyTech, teachers don't have to stop or change what they plan to teach to integrate technology and 21st century skills into their day. Instead, EasyTech provides comprehensive, scoped and sequenced lessons that incorporate 21st century skills and technology skills into the teacher's own curriculum.

Turn your core curriculum teachers into 21st century educators

Are your teachers prepared to teach 21st century skills? These skills are now in national and state technology and core curriculum standards and many teachers aren't ready to teach them. To help, EasyTech includes a comprehensive NETS-T professional development curriculum. With units for each of the 20 NETS-T 2008 performance indicators, teachers will master the skills they need. Enable your teachers to use 21st century teaching skills and technology in the classroom and in their careers.

For more information on EasyTech, click here.

21st Century Skills Assessment

21st Century Skills Assessment provides deeper insight into your students’ grasp of critical 21st century skills. It provides educators with important information about students’ creativity, critical thinking, decision making, and digital citizenship. Identifies student learning gaps and recommends EasyTech lessons to address specific needs. Aligned to ISTE NETS-S standards.

Features & Benefits:

  • Four levels of proficiency for each standards category: advanced, proficient, basic and below basic
  • Shows how students performed for each of the 24 NETS-S Performance indicators
  • Full reports at the district, school, teacher, class and student levels with comparative national data
  • Pre-tests and post-tests provide data to pinpoint challenges
  • Prescribes lessons and projects from EasyTech to address identified knowledge gaps and accelerate learning

Performance- and Knowledge-based items

The 21st Century Skills Assessment uses a psychometrically validated blend of interactive, performance-based questions that allow students to authentically perform complex tasks in simulated applications, and multiple choice, knowledge-based questions.

Reports that inform instruction

All 21st Century Skills Assessment reports provide proficiency data across four levels (Below Basic, Basic, Proficient, Advanced) not only for overall proficiency, but also for each of the NETS-S 2007 strands, and for each standard measured by the project. Prescribes lessons and projects from EasyTech to address identified knowledge gaps and accelerate learning.

For more information on 21st Century Skills Assessment, click here.

WayFind

Incorporate technology into your teaching skills. Use prescription and included curriculum to assign the right PD to the right teachers. Aligned to ISTE NETS-T standards.

Features & Benefits:

  • Psychometrically valid
  • Criterion referenced
  • Interactive, performance-based and multiple choice questions
  • Includes comprehensive NETS-T curriculum
  • Aligned to all 20 NETS-T standards in these five strands:
    • Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity
    • Design and develop digital-age learning experiences & assessments
    • Model digital-age work and learning
    • Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility
    • Engage in professional growth and leadership
  • Web-delivered — no downloads or installations

Solid reports to inform your PD

Reports at the individual teacher, class, school, district and state levels enable districts to compare data and to pinpoint where to focus professional development for teachers through accurate data. See exactly where teachers and schools are strongest.

Comprehensive NETS-T curriculum for professional development

WayFind includes a comprehensive NETS-T professional development curriculum for teachers. Enable your teachers to use 21st century teaching skills and technology in the classroom and in their careers. Are your teachers prepared to teach the 21st century skills that are now in national and state technology and core curriculum standards? With units for each of the 20 NETS-T 2008 performance indicators, teachers will learn how to implement every part of the NETS-T. Use WayFind to diagnose teacher needs and efficiently and accurately prescribe the right PD to the right teachers.

For more information on WayFind, click here.

Sample Question from PARCC and Smarter Balanced

PARCC and Smarter Balanced are changing how student knowledge is assessed, but what will the new questions look like? Check out the sample question below to find out if your students have the skills they need to succeed.

PARCC Sample Question (click to zoom)

Smarter Balanced Sample Question (click to zoom)

Sample Question

You have read three texts describing Amelia Earhart. All three include the claim that Earhart was a brave, courageous person. The three texts are:

  • "Biography of Amelia Earhart"
  • "Earhart's Final Resting Place Believed Found"
  • "Amelia Earhart's Life and Disappearance"

Consider the argument each author uses to demonstrate Earhart's bravery.

Write an essay that analyzes the strength of the arguments about Earhart's bravery in at least two of the texts. Remember to use textual evidence to support your ideas.

Challenges:

  • Media technology is integrated throughout ELA content standards - digital literacy skills are absolutely essential to meeting them.
  • Beginning in 4th grade, students will be expected to respond to questions using a word processor.
  • Writing standards require students be able to type two pages of text in one sitting. The number of pages students are to type in one sitting increases throughout the grade levels.
  • Not only are students unfamiliar with typing large quantities of text, they are not familiar with using the various writing processes on the computer to organize their thoughts without pencil and paper.

Solutions:

  • EasyTech addresses these critical skills with specific lessons around each process involved in answering an essay question on a computer-based assessment, from keyboarding to web browsing.
  • PARCC Example: In the screen shot to the top-left, students learn to organize their thoughts using word processing functions in “Lesson: Prewriting on a word processor.”
  • Smarter Balanced Example: In the second screen shot, students learn mouse basics by dragging elements in “Lesson: Mouse Basics - Drag.”
  • EasyTech digital literacy curriculum supports this explicit standard in Common Core ELA:
    CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.6.6 Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of three pages in a single sitting.

Click here for more information on PARCC.

Click here for more information on Smarter Balanced.