Creating EasyTech Units

Content Area Units within the EasyTech Platform
September 4, 2013
To bring Technology Infusion out of isolation and into the content areas
Rather than technology instruction and integration being something “extra” or additional for teachers, it places it within
projects that are already being done
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Unit Creation
o Identify 1 - 2 content area projects that include a technology component
o Highlight the technology utilized in the project
o Correlate the skills needed with EasyTech Lessons
o Place content area project onto platform of an EasyTech Activity
 Activity Description
 Content Standards
 Lesson Plan
 Student Prompt
 Including any necessary additional resources
 Including scoring rubric
 Response Template, if necessary
o Link EasyTech lessons to unit
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Teacher/Student Utilization
o Teacher assigns unit as a whole
o Students complete preliminary EasyTech lessons prior to working on the content based project
o Students are given the project details through Activity within EasyTech platform
o Students work on the project from any computer and upload the piece in process to the assignment in
EasyTech
o Students can continue the work from any computer
o Students “Submit” the final project within EasyTech … No Printing, No emailing, No thumb drives
o Teachers view completed projects wherever they log in to EasyTech
Creating Content Area Project Units
I.
The first step is to set up the “Journal Item”. This will be the culminating project within your Unit.
Go to “My Curriculum”, click on “Items”, and choose “Create Item” (if you need to go “back”, don’t hit the browser’s
Back button, but hit the Back Arrow instead)
On the “Create a Curriculum Item” page, choose “Journal”, and click on “Next”
There are 6 possible sections to fill out in the Journal Item:
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Details – Name and brief description (Required Section)
Categories – Content Area Information
Standards – Drop Down menus for National Standards, NJ Common Core, or NJ Core Content Standards
Lesson Plan – An area to write lesson plan for yourself and fellow educators
Prompt – Location for the student directions (Required Section)
Response Template – If you want create a response template from which the students will work.
When each of the sections are complete, click on “Save” on the bottom of the page
II.
Once the Journal Item is created, you can now create a “Unit” where you can choose EasyTech lessons
that the students should complete in order to gain the Technology Skills necessary for completing the
project (Journal Item).
You will need to browse through the EasyTech library of lessons to decide which ones are appropriate pre-requisite
lessons for your project.
The first step will be to click on “Library” on the top of the screen
Click on the “EasyTech” icon in the middle of the screen
Click on the “EasyTech – All K-8 CONTENT” icon
Browse through the categories of Technology content that your students will need to know to complete the project.
Some of the more common categories are below:
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Favorites – Add a lesson to your “Favorites”. Then, when it is time to add them to your unit, they will be in
the “Favorites” section
o In the column between “Rating” and Grade” is the “Favorites” column. There is nothing there by
default, but click and a red heart will appear. This lesson will now be saved in your “Favorites” for
easy finding when assigning lessons to your unit
Visual Mapping – Graphic Organizer such as Kidspiration or Inspiration
Word Processing –Microsoft Word Lessons
Microsoft Word 2010 – Videos of how to use Microsoft Word 2010 (not interactive, but VALUABLE information)
Spreadsheets – Microsoft Excel
Databases – Microsoft Access
Presentations – Microsoft PowerPoint
Once you have decided the EasyTech lessons that you will want to include in your Unit, go to the Units Section on the
top left side of the screen. You may need to click on the “Start” button with the left hand arrow to go back to the
main page and click on “My Curriculum” first
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Click on “Create Unit”
Give it a name and description.
Click on “Create”.
Click on “Assign Curriculum”
If you saved lessons to your “Favorites”, scroll to the bottom of the screen to see your “Favorites”
First search for the EasyTech lessons you had identified earlier. When you find the lesson, click on “Assign” and it will
appear within your Unit on the left hand side
BEFORE you assign the lesson to your Unit, there will be no lesson names on the left and the “Assign” button will be
clickable
AFTER you have assigned the lesson, the lesson will appear on the left side and the “Assign” button will be greyed out
because that lesson is already included
Breadcrumb trail
Click on the Breadcrumb trail that is on the top of the screen to go back to the EasyTech Categories and repeat this
step until you have selected all the EasyTech lessons that you want to include in the Unit.
Once all the EasyTech lessons are within your unit, click on the “Assign Curriculum” button to go back and assign the
culminating project you created
Instead of clicking on “EasyTech” as you did earlier, go to the bottom of the screen and select “Items”
Choose the project (Journal Item) you created earlier, and click on “Assign”
Your Unit is now complete and ready to be assigned to your class.
To assign it to your class, go to the beginning screen by clicking the Units button with the arrow to the left (many
times) until you get back to the initial page. Go until it says “Select One” and you can’t go back any further.
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Choose your class.
Click on “Assign Curriculum”
Scroll down to “Units” on the bottom of the page
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Click on your newly created unit, and hit “Assign Unit”