Category: Professional Development

The capacity to utilize technology sensibly, securely, and politely is known as digital citizenship. It refers to the capacity to safeguard private information on the internet, reduce the risks brought on by cyber threats or other online threats, and use information and media in a polite, informed, and lawful manner. In my second practicum, I taught an entire unit of Digital Media Literacy to two eighth-grade English classes, which makes me feel very prepared to discuss it here today as well as share lesson plans that I designed or developed from lessons found on MediaSmart.ca.

Safety on the internet is of major concern no matter your age, but learning how to navigate the internet safely is not something that comes naturally to most people. With the increased use of artificial intelligence (A.I) being introduced online your privacy can be more at risk. How so? Increased use of scam websites, phishing, and location discoveries are more and more common – especially due to the amount of time we all as individuals spend online, “teenagers spend 7 hours and 22 minutes per day in front of screens. That equates to 43% of a teen’s waking hours. By comparison, that’s 24 minutes more than the global average of 6 hours 58 minutes.” (Exploding topics).

There is also a feeling of a certain safety when you are online as a digital citizen, you feel safe to get away with things you may not be able to do in ‘real’ life – and while it may feel like you are anonymous online, you aren’t. This may be because you made your accounts with a common email or phone number, perhaps you linked your accounts – it’s very hard to be truly anonymous. Your digital footprint is forever connected to you, you may grow up and realize an old post you made is not something you align with anymore but you can’t just delete it (you can try) because somewhere there is a footprint (screen shots, a data history, etc) and your erasing of the post doesn’t remove it from your footprint. This can be devastating to some as it may result in you not getting hired in certain roles or perhaps becoming ‘canceled’ later down the road.

So how does one become a good Digital Citizen?

Here are a few ways one can become a good digital citizen:

• Be Kind – Treat others with kindness and respect both on and offline
• Dont take everything at face value, don’t believe all that you see – take the time to investigate and find the truth
• Dont take others’ materials/work and claim it as yours – give credit where credit is deserved, DO NOT PLAGIARIZE
• Be careful with what you share – keep personal identity (IDs, Credit Cards) off of your posts and think about if you want to be tied to a post that’s racist, homophobic, or otherwise hurtful for once it is posted you have no control over how it’s taken.

Lesson Plans:

On Monday the 29th of January I attended a workshop hosted by POPARD (Provincial Outreach Program For Autism & Related Disorders) on ASD and Sensory Differences. The main topic covered was that of senses broken down into side topics of The Seven Senses, Regulation and Sensory difficulty.

This workshop was a wonderful source of basic information surrounding ASD and children who live with sensory differences. It was a great introduction to terminology, and recognising student under-stimulation to over-stimulation.

What are senses? Senses allow us to observe and understand the world around us

Something that I found especially interesting was the introduction to the Seven senses which expands on my previous knowledge of the five senses (touch, taste, sight, hearing, smell). The Seven Senses add the vestibular and proprioception to the previous list of five. Vestibular refers to the vestibule that is found within the ear; the vestibule is connected to the sense of movement and balance. Proprioception refers to awareness of the body such as pressure and positions.

Below I have attached a great learning resource depicting the seven senses.

Sensory Integration and Regulation

Sensory integration is a skill that all people develop over time and at different rates. My understanding of sensory integration is that it is how we receive information, organise information and then use that information to interact with our environments. Integration is more difficult for some than others, after all, we are all unique individuals, and sometimes we can experience dysregulation or “sensory overload”. Sensory overload can be scary, and triggers are unique to the individual. Some potential triggers may include noise levels, visual stimuli, clutter, transition periods, scents, lighting, personal space boundaries and seating arrangements.

According to Shanker (2013), there are five interrelated domains we can use to better understand self-regulation. Below I have attached the model in which the workshop shared with us.

Breaking down the 5 Domain Mode:

• Biological
  • Four neural mechanisms within the brain deal with stress
    • social engagement
    • fight or flight
    • freeze
    • disassociation
      • there is a hierarchy for responding to stressors that typically follows this listing
  • Through being regulated a child develops the ability to self-regulate.
    • a regulated child/person does not mean a managed child
  • A person becomes chronically hypo-aroused or hyperaroused if/when their central control system has become overwhelmed
• Emotional
  • many students, especially younger students, find it difficult to “monitor, evaluate and modify” their emotions
  • the more hyper-aroused the student is the less capacity they will have to monitor their emotions
  • Young students experience emotions to an intense extent. Reactions to these emotions may be sudden and can feel ‘catastrophic’
• Cognitive
  • Refers to any of the mental processes involved in knowledge acquisition
    • includes: attention, memory, problem-solving, perception
  • Sustained concentration is a high-cost demand on the child’s auto-nervous system
  • Many if not most attentional problems appear to be due to sensory processing challenges (auditory, visual, physical sensory etc.) which can appear subtly and can easily be overlooked.
• Social
  • This domain’s problem lies in the arousal created by social engagement.
• Pro-Social
  • It is not normal for children to display anti-social behaviour (but what exactly is normal?)
  • There are biological mechanisms that result in anti-social behaviours in the right circumstances
  • Stress overload is a leading cause in non-prosocial behaviour

How to best help our students when they get Over-Stimulated

• Create a Safe and consistent quiet space
  • Some classes rooms I have observed have reading nooks and quiet carpeted corners
• Take the class outside for a walk
• Lead the entire class through meditation/ mindful breathing exercises
• Allow students access to over-ear headphones to cut out loud surrounding sounds
• 54321 Method
  • Lead your student through a grounding exercises in which you ask them to name
    • 5 things they see
    • 4 things they touch/feel
    • 3 things they hear
    • 2 things they smell
    • and 1 thing they taste

(I have only ever encountered the 54321 method in very rare/minimal circumstances typically involving extreme anxiety)

1. CEBM. Theoretical Framework SENSORY AND THE OT PERSPECTIVE ↩︎
2. Shanker, 2013. as cited POPARD ASD and Sensory Difficulties workshop, 2024 ↩︎