Our topic is about cyberbullying and mental health. We want to help Canadian teens understand cyberbullying, learn better ways to talk online, and protect their mental health. In our interactive learning resource, we hope that our framework can ensure that all students can participate, express themselves, and feel supported.
Therefore, to meet diverse learning needs, we provide a diverse approach: videos, simple reading materials, anonymous text sharing, and creative posters. This supports UDL’s idea of Multiple Means of Representation (Universal Design). To be more specific, the video has subtitles and the text uses plain and understandable language, making it suitable for English learners or students with learning differences. We also use Padlet to allow students to share their ideas in different ways—text, pictures, or voice. This helps reduce pressure and gives everyone a way to join in.
If unexpected events occur, like heavy snow or the need to learn from home, the tools we use—Padlet, Canva, Google Docs, YouTube— all can be used online at any time. This supports the idea from the reading that learning should be flexible, like using GPS to choose the best path (Universal Design).
At the same time, we also thought about potential problems. For example, some students may find Canva hard to use; we can provide a template, or they can use PowerPoint instead. For some shy students, Padlet allows anonymous posts. For those students who may feel writing is hard, we can let them use pictures to express themselves. Although these changes are small, they help everyone, just like curb cuts help more than just wheelchair users.
By designing this way, I have learned that true inclusion means identifying problems before they prevent people from learning, such as the gorilla in the video from Inclusive Learning Design, we often miss what we don’t look for. Therefore, our top priority is to identify and solve these problems, and then every teenager can thrive on their learning journey.