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Learning.com Launches Curriculum to Teach Online Safety and Communication Skills

New EasyTech lessons and activities support middle school students to learn critical skills in blogs, podcasts, online communicating and more

Portland, Ore. – February 4, 2008 – Learning.com announces the launch of “Communicating Online,” a new unit within EasyTech, its award-winning, Web-delivered technology literacy curriculum. The new unit’s lessons and activities help middle school students learn how to use today’s online communication tools while developing their communication and collaboration skills.

The Communicating Online unit directly addresses issues of online safety and develops students’ digital citizenship and information fluency, including how to evaluate, analyze and ethically use information. The unit covers:

• Instant messaging
• Blogs
• Podcasts
• Community sites
• Mapping technology
• Information validity
• Internet safety
• Ethical use of information

Because EasyTech is Web-delivered, Learning.com’s customers automatically and immediately have access to this new content, with no need to download new materials or add a patch to their current systems, saving schools valuable time and allowing teachers to immediately incorporate this new curriculum into their instructional planning.

“This new unit in EasyTech exemplifies Learning.com’s vision to provide our customers with ongoing updates and expanded curriculum for our existing products,” says Bill Kelly, Learning.com’s CEO and cofounder. “We listened to our customers and responded with content that engages students and teaches critical 21st century skills.”

As with all EasyTech content, the unit features a digital coach that guides and encourages students. In this unit, Lukas, a guitar-wielding musician, takes students As with all EasyTech content, the unit features a digital coach that guides and encourages students. In this unit, Lukas, a guitar-wielding musician, takes students across the globe to internationally acclaimed music festivals. Along the way he creates a blog and podcasts, and learns about global mapping tools to learn about where he is and help him navigate to his next destination. Students work with Lukas to perform the skills they are learning within engaging language arts, math, science and social studies curriculum.

This unit also helps students strengthen their skills in listening, researching, critical analysis, global awareness, problem-solving and creativity, as they work within EasyTech’s safe environment to create their own projects.

The award-winning EasyTech is built upon a research foundation that integrates what is understood about how students learn within technology-delivered curriculum. Its self-paced, interactive tutorials engage students in creating activities that are relevant to them. Its smart instructional design, coupled with guided practice and immediate feedback, means students gain technology skills more effectively, and grasp how and why technology applies to their world.

EasyTech is also aligned with ISTE NETS, state and core curriculum standards.

About Learning.com
Learning.com, the premier provider of Web-delivered curriculum and assessment, partners with schools and districts across the United States to improve student learning. Its award winning technology literacy solutions are EasyTech, a technology literacy curriculum that integrates technology instruction into math, science, language arts and social studies; and TechLiteracy Assessment, a technology proficiency assessment that provides educators with the data to understand how well students grasp foundational technology skills and meet accountability requirements. Its first core curriculum solution is Aha!Math, a supplemental K-5 math curriculum that supports teachers to improve students’ foundational math skills, while developing their problem-solving and reasoning skills. Founded in 1999 Learning.com, serves nearly two million students.