MITECS Empowered Learner
Celebrate 100’s day with a bit of technology. These free online tools allow students extra enrichment when celebrating the 100th day of school.
This Internet fact finding activity is as easy A-B-C! Students will get an introduction to safe search engines, including MeL, (Michigan e-Library.org), to find ways to do a basic online search safely for information by simply using the letters of the alphabet.
Students will learn the names and functions of the parts of a basic browser window, the nomenclature, and actions.
Young keyboarders with their small hands have limited skills when it comes to keyboarding. It is important that they learn how to use a mouse as many of the educational games they play will require mousing skills. There are many games available to students to learn how to use a mouse.
Innovator Eric Curts has coded this marvelous Google Sheets template to create a fantastic game of Battleship. It may be used to introduce students to useful tech skills such as how to share, use of revision history, locate specific cells and enter data.
Bees and Honey is an interactive mousing game. Students will have fun with counting and also with 1:1 correspondence. They will use mousing and clicking skills as they use the app.
Lower elementary students are just learning their letters and numbers. Upper elementary students will know all their letters and numbers. Unless students have been introduced to a keyboard most likely they don’t know where the keys are located. All students need to know and remember what is on each key on the keyboard.
The goal of this activity is to provide resources for helping students build appropriate keyboarding skills and position through practice, modeling, and goal setting and monitoring processes.
Students will learn how to use blogging to make online connections with other learners while demonstrating their learning in the core content areas. Students will have an authentic audience for their writing.
Disney’s Color and Play App allows students to color their favorite Disney characters and animate them or make them
Students will use Seesaw's built-in audio recording, drawing and caption tools to reflect on what they've learned or explain how they got their answer.
It is very important early on that students learn how to care for their device whether it be their mobile device, their laptop, or a desktop. Care can include many things from student hygiene to how the device is carried. This activity card will cover the bases for all ages to learn how to properly care for their device.
This activity assumes that students have some familiarity with using the Chrome browser, most likely a Chromebook before (probably in a previous grade). Using a simple KWL chart on a Google Doc, students can collaborate and acquire shortcuts for using a Chromebook (or just the Chrome browser) more efficiently.
ClassroomScreen is a free digital tool that displays a variety of widgets to help students focus. This can be used with a single group or with a multigroup setting. There is a random name generator, timer, clock, QR code generator, drawing and text tools, traffic lights and work symbols.
Stoodle is where users can join an online classroom by simply sharing an URL. It offers real time collaboration and communication, multiple users can work on the same virtual whiteboard at the same time through text chat and voice conferencing using their computer’s microphone. They also can type, draw, and search and upload images.
According to Eastern Michigan University, composing at a computer is a unique activity that many students will need time to master. Students have played games and may know some of the keys on the keyboard. Before students actually begin composing, they need to learn about the different keys on the keyboard without focusing on their writing skills and typing. Students need to learn how to create spaces between their words, type capital and lower case letters, delete text, save and print a document.
Using Abcya!Paint, and NickJr. Free Draw, students will become digital artists as they create artifacts, using web based painting tools
Students have some Earth Day fun learning about recycling and sorting, while reviewing important Internet browser components and keyboard keys. The students will use the Michael Michael Recycle Game to learn these concepts.
A Google Slide Deck introduction to the MITECS competency Empowered Learner - Students leverage technology to take an active role in choosing, achieving and demonstrating competency in their learning goals, informed by the learning sciences.
Example: Seventh grade students in an English class set individual goals based on their initial reading fluency and comprehension assessment results. As the academic year progressed, the students jotted “success notes” to themselves as they mastered new skills. Each student charted their goals and monitored their own progress each week through a personalized goal tracker checklist. As the academic year progressed, each student wrote about their learning journey in an online journal that was shared with their teacher. At the end of the year, students reflected on and celebrated their growth.
Questions for Reflection:
- How do the MITECS complement core content?
- How might you and your colleagues develop cross-curricular experiences to support the MITECS?
- Which of the competencies are you most familiar with?
- Which competency is an area of growth for you, as an educator?
Students seek and provide feedback from classmates using the Comments feature within Google Docs or Slides. Students will then revise their writing and/or presentation based on the feedback received.