Integrating Mindful Device Use Into the Classroom

Purpose & objective

In our schools, students who qualify for direct instruction of digital tools i.e. dictation or Read & Write, are the ones explicitly taught how to use it. These are often the students in the "Red" the ones showing a significant learning delay, or behaviour issues. The students in the "Yellow" often come second in this regard, because resources are stretched thin. However, instead of targeting only the students who are outright identified as needing this support, we teach all the students how to use these tools so no one is "left behind"? It is essentially the same as providing a wheelchair ramp, as it benefits more than just a small percentage of students.

The purpose of these presentation is to shift this mindset from the digital tools in iOS and Chrome devices, such as Read&Write, dictation, Reader View being only accessible for the identified students to making it available to all. All the while, teaching students that device use can be mindful, from creating their own deep breathing sequences for students to manage stress and anxiety to changing the colours on their screen to more calming tones.

Participants will be able to walk away with an understanding of how to implement the teaching of tools like Read&Write, Clips for mindful breathing sequences, Pages for journaling, ScreenTime tools to help students manage the time they are on specific apps, using Reminders to help students stay organized, on task and transition throughout the day, and Alarms to help them transition, focus and navigate their day. We will touch on other digital tools on iOS and Chrome devices that will aid students and teachers on a daily basis.

Examples from my school, will be provided as this is the current model that we employ amongst our students. All students are taught at the beginning of the year how to use a variety of digital tools. Our school population has a extremely high number of students that have learning disabilities and struggle academically and some behaviourally on a daily basis. This doesn't fully encompass all of our students, as not all are identified. By ensuring that all students know how to use this, we have seen an increase in student success as well as students' being able to work independently towards their personal learning goals.

Outline

Participants will learn about different iOS and Chrome tools that they can teach all their students to use so they all have an equitable opportunity for success. Often there are students who get overlooked because they do really well with getting through school unnoticed, but not all their needs are met.

We will begin the presentation with a short discussion about how digital tools and special education look in their schools, which will last only a few minutes.

This will provide the lead into the rest of the presentation where I will introduce how my school does mindful device use, where all students are taught how to use the tools and then they choose if they want to use them and how to use them to be successful. This will be short, only spending a maximum of 5 minutes on this.

We will then dive into the different tools that can be used on iOS and Chrome devices.

We will begin with iOS, going over how to use Clips to create a deep breathing sequence for students to use in moments of stress or anxiety, how to use Pages for Journaling, Reminders for students who struggle to stay on task or be organized, Alarms for transitions, speech tools for students to not only hear the words from an assigned text, but also to listen to what they have written to check for errors, and different apps such as Headspace, Breathe, Think, Do by Sesame Street to help promote mindfulness when using a device. We will spend about 20 minutes going over each of these tools.

Then I will delve into the different digital tools for Chrome devices, such as changing the browser colour to a calming one for students who may find the bright white overwhelming, using Chrome tab groups and the different ways to use them, for students who would benefit from organizational tools, the Read&Write extension, Chrome accessibility tools, and the Calm Chrome extension. We will spend about 15 minutes on these tools.
At the end of presenting what each of these different tools do, participants will have about 10 minutes to play the different tools outlined. During this time, they will be able to ask questions to further their understanding.

Supporting research

https://www.instagram.com/atcreativestation/ - A Digital Mind Series