Devin Z EDCI 335

Category: edci335

Blog Post 4: Using Videos to Encourage Digital Awareness

June 23, 2025 /

For this blog post, the video I chose on our topic: cyberbullying and mental health, is the video Let’s Fight It Together by Childnet. This video follows the story of a boy who is being cyber bullied and the social, emotional and academic consequences it has on our protagonist. On the more positive hand, the video also illustrates how intervention and support can change the tides on the cyberbullying narrative.

1. Inherent interaction:

While the video does not specifically ask direct question, It instead prompts internal reflection by putting themselves into the shoes of the victim, bully or bystander. This firstly can provide a new found empathy and critical thinking for those who experience cyberbullying, and secondly spark potential change in attitudes and behaviours.

2. Learner response:

Students will likely have a strong opinions and emotional responses towards this video. Individually students are most likely to make mental notes or talk amongst groups about how they and their peers act online and to share their personal experiences. Through this interactive reflection, we are enabling self-awareness and therefore creating better digital citizens.

3. Designed activity:

My proposed activity after watching this video, involves students writing a digital or hard copy journal entry to firstly describe a moment in that video that stood out or mattered and secondly the students would write an action plan about how they would respond to cyberbullying in various situations (victim, bystander or friend). This activity is important for developing social and emotional learning through student led reflection.

4. How would I improve this video?

I believe the video could be improved by making it more of an interactive viewing experience through discussion prompts. Simple questions such as “what would you do in this situation” at key points in the story would promote further engagement and learning.

5. How would I make this video more inclusive?

I’ve brainstormed the following ideas to make this video more inclusive for all:

  1. Provide subtitles and a written transcript.
  2. Allow for responses via text, video or voice.
  3. Offer more structure (including guiding questions) for those who need it.
  4. Ensure that the responses are anonymous for those who are uncomfortable.

This video is an important and powerful resource for teaching the topic of cyberbullying. Using this video as a tool can further engage and prompt students to reflect and talk about cyberbullying as a collective, and therefore create more empathetic digital citizens.

Post 3: Ensuring Inclusive learning for Our Cyberbullying Resource

June 4, 2025 /

While our group develops a plan for the interactive learning resource on cyberbullying, we recognize that learners are incredibly diverse in regards to culture, language, cognition and emotion and that traditional “top down” teaching. Now in 2025, most of us have witnessed and maybe even experienced how cyberbullying operates – its nuances, permanence and how it disproportionally affects marginalized learners. To assure accessibility for all, we will need implement a universal learning design in order to support inclusivity. This blog post will outline how we strive to meet all learners needs.

Why can’t inclusivity be an afterthought?

Cyberbullying affects every victim differently! For example, ESL and neurodivergent learners might struggle to comprehend subtle or culturally different forms of harassment. Furthermore, neurodivergent learners struggle to interpret tone in face-to-face situations. This challenge is exponentially exacerbated when these interactions are in digital spaces (without the extra clues of body language and vocal inflections). The key features (short messages, emojis and quick responses) that make online communication efficient also allow for dangerous ambiguities that serve as traps.

How will we be accommodating?

To ensure our resource is fully inclusive, we will implement (but not limited to) the following resources:

  1. Tone decoding activities: Interactive exercises that dissect media designed to teach learners to identify sarcasm, passive aggressiveness and cultural differences.
  2. Visual and auditory support aids: Videos with captions, visual graphics and voice note discussions. These will be implemented to accommodate different types of learners and learners who require other accommodations.
  3. Flexible assignments: Instead of traditional means of assessment, students can demonstrate learning in various ways, accommodating for the differing strengths of students.
  4. Multilingual resources: Workarounds for those who are new to English or not fully confident with the language (ESL students)
  5. Opt outs and trigger warnings: We will flag sensitive content warning and allowing learners to skip if needed.

Conclusion

For our interactive learning resource, inclusivity is not only about making our resource accessible for all, but also going against the assumption that there is a single right way to learn and navigate digital spaces. By acknowledging and centering our learning resource around diverse perspectives, we want to challenge the misconception that digital literacy is the same for everyone and instead celebrate digital diversity.

Post 2: Investigating Inquiry-Based learning in a Cyberbullying and Mental Health Context

May 29, 2025 /

Inquiry based learning is an Individual/student-centered approach to learning. This approach heavily emphasizes the student having an active role in posing questions, investigating problems and gaining knowledge. This method of instruction relies on the curiosity of learner rather than passive absorption of information (that we tend to do a lot of in university). Furthermore, IBL encourages the learner not to be a student, but rather an investigator using questions to drive leaning forward and helps develop a deeper understanding.

the IBL approach aligns strongly with our chosen topic: cyberbullying and its impact on mental health, particularly in online spaces and social media. Due to the complex, emotionally charged and relevant nature to students (like ourselves) lives/experiences. Students are not simply told or taught about this about cyberbullying and mental health (although in recent years there has been a decrease in the stigma around the topic). Instead, whether we are conscious of this or not, we learn about these topics through inquiry based learning. Students like myself are invited to learn how cyberbullying manifests and what psychological and social consequences it has. This approach regarding this subject fosters empathy, promotes dialogue and most importantly supports the development of respectul digital citizens.

In our completion of the blueprint portion of our interactive learning design project, we concluded that inquiry-based learning plays a central role. Students will be encouraged to investigate real life and personal scenarios, analyzing the role of online behaviour in shaping mental health. Examples of questions that can be asked to facilitate learning include“How can online platforms better protect users?”, “Why do people cyberbully?” or “Has cyberbullying affected anyone I know?”.

In conclusion, IBL isn’t just appropriate for our topic, it is vital. For our topic, it encourages learners to question, reflect, and respond in meaningful ways to digital challenges that affect themselves and their peers.

Post 1: A constructivist, cognitivist and behaviourist approach to tennis coaching

May 24, 2025 /

As a tennis coach, the means of which I provide instruction shifts depending on the needs and experience of the player I’m coaching. With beginner players, I take a constructivist/behaviorist approach to coaching. I believe in creating learning environments where players can actively construct their own understanding and form through my guidance, feedback and positive reinforcement. This often requires modified constraints including smaller courts and slower balls that allow players a greater sense of control before advancing to regular perimeters. This is especially helpful as tennis is an incredibly challenging sport that requires great athleticism and coordination. The tasks I provide promote a deeper understanding despite the challenging nature of the sport.

The approach I take when coaching also evolves with the player. For more advanced, tournament level players I opt for more of cognitive approach. At this stage, the mechanics of these players become largely automatic through repetition. Instruction at stage becomes more about decision making, strategy and anticipation. These three mental processes make up the cognitivist approach. An example of this is breaking down points into patterns. A common technique I use is to ask the player to mentally rehearse these scenarios prior to simulating them on court. This allows the player to to have a concrete plan before commencing the point.

Ultimately, both constructivist and cognitivist styles complement each other across the development pathway. The same coaching technique doesn’t work for every player, meaning coaching isn’t a “one size fits all” profession. This means my job is to provide the best means of instruction for each players unique individual needs.

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