Computer Skills

Beginner

60 mins

Teacher/Student led

+90 XP

What you need:
Chromebook/Laptop/PC or iPad/Tablet

Welcome to ICT: Pick Something Real & Set up Your Workspace

Learn how this 10-week course works, choose a real project you'll develop across all lessons, and set up your Digital Portfolio folder in cloud storage with your first file ready.

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1 Introduction
2 Your 10-week Journey
3 Key Concepts
4 Step-by-step Task — Set up Your Folder and Your First File
5 Common Issues
6 Portfolio Build — Your Own Project Brief
7 Reflection
8 Lesson Summary
Quiz

1 - Introduction

Welcome to ICT

Over the next 10 weeks you're going to learn the digital tools people actually use for real work — documents, spreadsheets, presentations, email, AI — by using them to plan and pitch one real thing you care about. Not a worksheet, not a pretend scenario. A Work Experience pitch, an apprenticeship plan, a fundraiser, a part-time-job proposal, a community project — whatever is real for you. Every lesson builds one page of a Digital Portfolio you keep, and in week 10 you pitch the whole thing live for 2 minutes.

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

See how this course is structured across 10 lessons, and understand what the Digital Portfolio has to contain by the end
Choose a vocationally-anchored Something Real project — from the starter menu or your own idea — that you'll carry across all 10 lessons
Set up your Digital Portfolio folder in cloud storage and create your Project Brief inside it

Warm-up

Before we start, think (don't write) about this one question:

What is one thing in your life right now that you'd like to get a 'yes' to from someone — a parent, an employer, a coach, a bank, a landlord, an interviewer? Not someday. This year.

Hold that idea in your head. The next 10 weeks are about turning exactly that kind of idea into something you can actually show someone.

Teacher Notes

Students often freeze at 'pick something real'. Reassure them that a rough idea is fine in Lesson 1 — they can refine it in Lesson 2 once they start researching. The starter menu in the Key Concepts step is the safety net.

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+5 XP

2 - Your 10-week Journey

Over the next 10 weeks, you'll carry one real project from idea to live pitch. Here's what each week adds to your Digital Portfolio. Every row produces a file — and by week 10, those files together are your pitch.

Week	What you'll do	What lands in your portfolio
1 — today	Pick your Something Real and set up your Digital Portfolio folder	{{code:01_project_brief}}
2	Research your project online and verify a claim an AI tool told you	{{code:02_research_page}}
3	Write a one-page written proposal for your project	{{code:03_proposal_draft}}
4	Redesign the proposal with headers, an image, a table, and clean lists	{{code:04_polished_proposal}}
5	Build a budget, timeline, survey, or inventory sheet with real formulas	{{code:05_numbers_sheet}}
6	Turn the numbers into a chart that actually changes a decision you'd make	{{code:06_decision_chart}}
7	Use an AI assistant to draft, critique, and explain — and judge what to keep	{{code:07_ai_workbench}}
8	Assemble a 5-slide pitch deck from what's already in your portfolio	{{code:08_pitch_deck}}
9	Swap decks with a classmate, give and act on feedback, email the teacher	{{code:09_feedback_round}}
10	Deliver a live 2-minute pitch and walk through your finished portfolio	{{code:10_final_reflection}}

By Lesson 10, your portfolio is your pitch — you won't build anything new, you'll present what you already made.

Teacher Notes

Walk through the table slowly. Students often don't realise the portfolio is the deliverable — they assume there'll be a test at the end. Make it explicit that there is no separate test: what they build each week IS the assessment.

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+10 XP

3 - Key Concepts

Four ideas you'll lean on every week from now on.

Concept	Why it matters	Example
Cloud storage — your files live on a company's servers (OneDrive or Google Drive) and open in a browser	Your files survive a broken laptop or a missed day — pick up from any device	Sign in at school on Monday, open the same file on your phone on Tuesday
Digital Portfolio — one folder holding every file you make, numbered 01 to 10	You can't pitch what you can't find — in week 10 you need to walk someone through everything without hunting	{{code:Digital_Portfolio}} containing {{code:01_project_brief}} through {{code:10_final_reflection}}
Something Real — one project you actually want to pitch, chosen today	Fake projects don't stick — your brain only bothers remembering when the outcome matters	Work Experience pitch to a local garage; a GAA club fundraiser; a proposal to your parents for driving lessons
Navigate first, create second — open the folder before clicking New	Saves you hunting for lost files — online apps auto-save wherever you started them	—

Starter menu — if you can't pick yet

Pick one of these if nothing obvious jumps out, or adapt one into your own:

A Work Experience pitch to a specific employer you'd like to approach (garage, salon, crèche, farm, shop, trades, office)
A research plan for an apprenticeship or PLC course you're thinking about after LCA
A CV and career plan aimed at a specific job or sector
A fundraiser for a local cause (GAA club, parish, community centre)
A proposal to your parents or guardians for something real they can say yes or no to (driving lessons, first car, a laptop)
A creative side project you'd actually run (podcast, small online shop, YouTube channel, weekend market stall)
A community project you'd like to see happen locally

Worked example — what a finished Project Brief looks like

Niamh is in LCA 1 and wants to apply for a motor mechanics apprenticeship next year. She chose her Something Real as a pitch to a local garage for a two-week Work Experience placement. Here's her Project Brief — you'll build one exactly like it in the Portfolio Build:

What: I'm proposing to do my Work Experience at an independent garage in my town. I want two weeks on-site to see what a motor mechanics apprenticeship actually involves, day to day, before I apply for the apprenticeship scheme.

Why: My uncle's a mechanic and says the customer side and the paperwork is more than most people realise. I want to see that for myself instead of guessing, so I know whether to commit to the apprenticeship.

Who: My Work Experience coordinator, who signs the placement off, and the garage owner I'll email to ask for the placement.

3 ICT goals:

Write a formal email to an employer I've never met, that doesn't read like a teenager wrote it
Get comfortable enough with spreadsheets to track my own car costs after I pass my test
Build a clean 5-slide presentation I can actually use with the garage on my last day

Notice the goals are specific — not 'get better at computers'. That's what you'll aim for.

Stuck writing your 3 ICT goals? Start one of these stems and finish the sentence

You don't know yet what every tool in this course will do, so you don't have to invent a goal from nothing. Pick a stem that fits your project and finish it with something you actually want:

Write a formal email that…
Build a budget that shows…
Make a 5-slide pitch that…
Use an AI tool to…
Redesign a document so that…
Turn my numbers into a chart that…
Research and verify a claim about…
Organise my files so I can…

Three of these, finished with your own ending, is a strong set of goals.

Teacher Notes

If students try to write generic ICT goals ('learn Word', 'get good at typing'), point them at the stem bank at the bottom of this step and ask them to adapt one. Niamh's example is the only full worked example they'll see before writing their own.

+10 XP

4 - Step-by-step Task — Set up Your Folder and Your First File

Follow the steps for whichever cloud account your school uses — OneDrive (Microsoft 365) or Google Drive (Google Workspace). The tabs below give you the exact steps for each one. You'll create the {{code:Digital_Portfolio}} folder, open it, then create {{code:01_project_brief}} inside it with four headings ready to fill in.

Teacher Notes

Biggest problem in this step is students creating the document BEFORE opening the folder — the file lands on the root of their drive. If you see a student confused at step 7, ask 'are you inside Digital_Portfolio?' and point at the breadcrumb.

+15 XP

5 - Common Issues

Common Issues

If something doesn't look right, check this table before asking for help — nine times out of ten it's one of these.

Issue	Solution
I can't sign in to my cloud account	Check Caps Lock is off and retype your password carefully. If it still fails, ask your teacher to reset it — don't keep guessing or you'll lock yourself out for 30 minutes.
I don't see the folder I just made	Click {{btn:My files}} (OneDrive) or {{btn:My Drive}} (Google Drive) to go back to the root. Your folder should be there. If it isn't, you may have created it inside a shared or other folder — use the search bar to search for {{code:Digital_Portfolio}}.
My new document saved to the wrong place (not inside {{code:Digital_Portfolio}})	You clicked New before opening the folder. Right-click the file, choose {{menu:Right-click -> Move to}} (OneDrive) or {{menu:Right-click -> Organise -> Move}} (Google Drive), and move it into {{code:Digital_Portfolio}}. Next time, always open the folder first.
The file is showing as 'Document1.docx' not {{code:01_project_brief}}	You didn't rename it. Go back to the open document and click the filename at the top, clear it, type {{code:01_project_brief}}, and press {{key:Enter}}.

Teacher Notes

The 'wrong place' issue (student created a doc outside the folder) is by far the most common. Walk around and check breadcrumbs.

+10 XP

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This lesson is copyright of Coding Ireland 2017 - 2025. Unauthorised use, copying or distribution is not allowed.

Welcome to ICT: Pick Something Real & Set up Your Workspace

Teacher Class Feed

1 - Introduction

Welcome to ICT

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

Warm-up

2 - Your 10-week Journey

3 - Key Concepts

Starter menu — if you can't pick yet

Worked example — what a finished Project Brief looks like

Stuck writing your 3 ICT goals? Start one of these stems and finish the sentence

4 - Step-by-step Task — Set up Your Folder and Your First File

5 - Common Issues

Common Issues

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