One of the greatest benefits to learning about assistive technology is that it enables students to enhance their communication in the classroom. Students who are hard of hearing or are deaf face a number of challenges in the classroom. They are unable to understand instructions from educators, classroom discussions, and have difficulty communicating with peers. This hinders them from learning as well as from establishing strong social relationships with peers that are critical for creating a positive learning environment. Another type of disability that creates difficult situations for students is the inability to speak. This type of disability prevents students from expressing their needs, asking questions, and also from establishing strong social connections with peers. I hope to continue to uncover effective, prove methods for minimizing barriers for these students in my classroom.

Additional Resources for UDL

While researching the principles of UDL on the CAST website, I also came across some other great resources that helped me clarify exactly what the principles mean and how they could apply to different scenarios. Ohio State University and University of Washington both give detailed descriptions and suggested methods for implementing the principles for Universal Design for Learning. Even though the tutorials on the CAST website have helped me tremendously, I still needed some clarity as to how UDL will actually look in action inside my classroom of fourth graders. The 5 sites listed below all provide explicit details and direct instructions for how to make it work!

OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY: 

Additional information and resources for understanding teaching methods are available:

http://ada.osu.edu/resources/fastfacts/Universal_Design.htm

OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY: 

Guided notes seem like a great tool for college students taking notes, but I think my students could benefit from this idea as well. I can post the symbols in the classroom so they can refer to them as often as they need to and I could even give each student a printed copy to glue into their notebooks.
Additional information can be found at:
 http://ada.osu.edu/resources/fastfacts/Guided-Notes-Fact-Sheet.pdf

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON:

This website gives a great description of UDL and describes the 7 steps for implementing it successfully. 

1. Identify the course

2. Define the universe

3. Involve students

4. Adopt instructional strategies

5. Apply instructional strategies

6. Plan for accommodations

7. Evaluate

Additional information and detailed descriptions of each step can be found at: http://www.washington.edu/doit/Brochures/PDF/equal_access_udi.pdf

CAST:

I created a *free* CAST account so that I could browse their database of UDL lesson plans to get ideas and possibly even use some of the templates that they already have to build my own lesson plans! You can set up an account and browse at http://udlexchange.cast.org/browse/category/lesson.7


THE NATIONAL CENTER ON UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR LEARNING:

The National Center on Universal Design for Learning has a great page for any educator looking to make a positive change in their school or classroom. The advocacy page can be found at http://www.udlcenter.org/advocacy and offers support for families and educators.


References:
Heward, William. "Guided Notes." Ohio State University. Retrieved on 9/21/2014 from  http://ada.osu.edu/resources/fastfacts/Guided-Notes-Fact-Sheet.pdf.

Burgstahler, Sheryl. "Equal Access: Universal Design for Learning." University of Washington. Retrieved 9/21/2014, from  http://www.washington.edu/doit/Brochures/PDF/equal_access_udi.pdf.

"UDL Exchange." CAST. Retrieved 9/21/2014, from            http://udlexchange.cast.org/browse/category/lesson.7.

"National Center on Universal Design for Learning: Advocacy." National Center on Universal Design for Learning. Retrieved 9/21/2014 from http://www.udlcenter.org/advocacy.

UDL Guidelines Pre-Assessment of My Lesson

The next step in building my skills for mastering the UDL Guidelines for instruction involves selecting a sample lesson plan from my collection and reviewing it with the UDL Guidelines to complete a pre-assessment checklist. The checklist (shown below) coordinates with the principles of UDL. I assessed an emergency lesson plan I had on file that uses a book to teach history and literacy surrounding the American revolution.

I found many weaknesses in my lesson where the format and instructional techniques I chose to use did not allow for multiple means of recognition, engagement, and expression. As I was reviewing each step of my lesson and considering the different guidelines I was inspired with so many ideas for altering my lesson for the post-assessment.

CAST: Teaching Every Student Continued

I've been doing more exploring on the CAST website and spent a lot of time using the tools on the Teaching Every Student page. There is an excellent tutorial that focuses on strengthening skills for analyzing curriculum barriers. The tutorial builds on the skills that I learned yesterday while exploring the tools and activities page of CAST's website. It includes choices of various students with unique skills and sample curriculums in different subject areas. Your job is to analyze the skills of the student and examine the requirements of the curriculum to uncover the barriers each student might encounter. This process helps instructors identify areas of weakness in their teaching practices.

The spreadsheet I posted below is a clip of my analysis of a student named Paula who has difficulty reading and writing full sentences but is able to read and write individual words well. Her fifth grade US History curriculum requires her to read textbooks and write out assignments with rare help from assistive technology.

CAST: Teaching Every Student

The CAST website offers a wealth of resources for gaining an in-depth understanding of what UDL actually looks like inside the ideal classroom. Their page "Teaching Every Student" explains the details about the UDL guidelines and principles and gives interactive activities where visitors can apply the principles to their own skills and challenges as well as to their students'.  The page can be found at http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/. I highly recommend completing the two activities, as they have given me insight as to how I can better reach my students by tapping into their unique skills in the three networks explained in the videos on this page.
One thing I noticed about this site, is that it does an excellent job of setting an example of how to provide resources for all visitors. The principles are all explained using multiple means of representation through images, videos, text, case studies, and interactive activities.

Cast.org's UDL Guideline Checklist

UDL is a set of principles that instructors can follow to help their lessons be more flexible and reach more learners. There are three main principles that must be followed in order to achieve this goal:

                                               1. Provide multiple means of REPRESENTATION

                                               2. Provide multiple means of ACTION and EXPRESSION

                                               3. Provide multiple means of ENGAGEMENT

The Cast website (http://www.cast.org/udl/index.html) provides a look inside the neuroscience that proves the effectiveness of the three principles of UDL. 

The website also gives detailed descriptions of how to meet the unique needs of each individual learner in your classroom in a way that coordinates with the three UDL principles. I used one of my own lesson plans that I thought could use some improvement to go through the checklist on the website and brainstorm ways that I could differentiate the lesson. I gained some great ideas for customizing the visual representation through the use of technology (Checkpoint 1.3), enhancing student capacity for monitoring progress (Checkpoint 6.4), and develop self assessment skills (Checkpoint 9.3).  I'll be testing them out in my classroom next week!

UDL Tech Tool Kit

I just discovered an amazing website that offers a variety of FREE technology resources for teachers to utilize in the classroom. Click here to view the site: http://udltechtoolkit.wikispaces.com/
The teacher who created this blog addresses many of the issues that I have experienced in attempting to incorporate technology into my UDL classroom; cost, unfamiliarity, unavailability. This website provides great tools for brainstorming, graphic organizing, literacy, writing, collaborating, research skills, and math, among a number of other topics. These technological tools can be used to meet a variety of learning needs and provide options for building skills and completing assignments. As a new teacher on a serious budget with little experience, I need as many free resources as I can get my hands on. I plan on using the digital graphic organizer tool "Popplet" and a multimedia storytelling tool this week in my literacy class!

Intro

The purpose of this blog is to illustrate my exploration of Assistive Technology and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and their application in elementary and special education classrooms. I have a background in interior design and I was fist introduced to the term "Universal Design" as an architectural concept that served as a framework for creating spaces where individuals of all ability levels were capable of moving freely and comfortably. UDL takes this concept and applies it to students moving through course content.