Nurture Digital Well-Being with iPad - APL Live Recap

Helping students, teachers and leaders harness technology to nurture well-being, reduce workload and build positive learning environments is a growing priority for all of us. This was the focus of a recent online session, delivered as a part of the Australian and New Zealand Professional Learning Live series. 

Here is a summary of the key information shared and associated community posts to help support you to nurture digital wellbeing.

Manage Distractions and Save Time with Built-in Tools (👈tap link)

In this forum post I have shared a video that explores:

• Focus, a built-in iPad feature helping reduce distractions and set boundaries.
• The 'Reminders' app, supporting organisation and productivity.
• Screen Time data, providing students with information regarding their iPad usage.  

The post also includes a Numbers scaffold to support students to activate prior understanding of digital well-being, explore screen time data and apply understanding through a creative task.

Well-Being and iPad Series by Coby Reynolds (👈tap link)

There are so many amazing creative activities for teaching well-being in this forum post by Coby Reynolds! It includes 4 lesson ideas with resources related to:

• Self Regulation and Awareness with Keynote.
• Social Awareness and Empathy with Clips.
• Resilience and Mental Health with Freeform.
• Positive mental health with GarageBand (and Clips).

A follow up post called, 'My Wellbeing Toolkit' provides a deeper dive into the topic through creative activities using Pages, Keynote, GarageBand and Freeform.

30 Creative Activities for Well-Being by Julie Parker (👈tap link)

Creativity is a powerful vehicle for authentic expression and what better topic than well-being. Julia Parkers resources help students to explore kindness, gratitude, and mindfulness through a variety of activities including:

• Gratitude Voice Memo screen captures that are turned into artworks.
• Kindness Calendars utilising the templates in Numbers.
• The Sound of a Smile created using drum beats in GarageBand.
• And so much more!!

The post includes a PDF of the 30 Creative Activities for Well-Being and the individual activity cards.

This post is an incredible tribute to the benefits of technology 'when harnessed with compassion to empower young minds to flourish'. I was truly inspired as I read this post. Chloe also shares a comprehensive list of apps that teachers can utilise to nurture student well-being.

Thanks to all the incredible educators who generously contribute to the Education Community Forum.

How are you nurturing the digital well-being of yourself, students and those in your community? Please add your thoughts in the comments.