Dr. Lorayne Robertson is an Associate Professor, former Assistant Dean in the Faculty of Education, and former Director of the Graduate Programs in Education at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT). Her main Research areas include:
● Body image, critical health literacy
● Critical media literacy / digital literacies
● E-learning in K-12 and Higher Education
● Technology leadership in schools
Dr. Robertson offers research support to several national organizations in Canada who support girls' health including NEDIC, the national e-health repository for information on eating disorders. She is an advocate of critical body literacy which she defines as follows: "Critical body literacy is a set of skills and understandings related to health that can be gained by students and teachers if they are open to the notion that health means more than size and shape, and how health is defined and determined is constructed socially in ways far more complex than individual choice" (Robertson, 2013).
She was the primary investigator for a KNAER project, Mobilizing Key Body-Positive Health Literacy Curriculum Messages Grades 4 to 9. One of the ways Dr. Robertson's project mobilized knowledge was by creating a web site: teachbodyimage.org. The website has mini-lessons and short teaching units based on research on body image and critical body literacy (Robertson & Thomson, 2012), and it also provides research summaries to help teachers address body image in developmentally-appropriate ways, as well as a wealth of information for parents and teacher, which includes support materials designed to build protective and resilience in students to help them to resist societal pressures to match an unrealistic media ideal.
Learning theory has been substantiated in research, but much of this research was completed before the emergence of online learning. Surprisingly, online learning theory provides support for differentiated learning in multiple ways, providing new spaces and opportunities for learning. Exploring the historic and legal definition of the provision of "the least restrictive environment" for learners with special needs reveals that communication is a central concept for differentiated learning. Recent policy has been introduced in Ontario, Canada which encourages teachers to consider that differentiated instruction is the right of every learner. These parallels similar pedagogical trends in Australia. The theory and pedagogy behind the Ontario policy change to differentiate "the content, process, and assessment for all" connects strongly to the theory of universal design for learning (US) and enabled classrooms (Australia). There are policy gaps, however, surrounding how technology at the point of instruction can support all learners, and, in particular, those learners who have been identified as having special needs. It is worthy of note that these gaps parallel the disconnects between how learning is happening outside of school and within school. Evidence is growing that solutions to these multiple issues are within the reach but will require transformative thinking for elementary, secondary, and tertiary institutions.
