Reminder

• SETT Framework forms
• SIOP checklist [XLS]
• UDL framework [XLS]
• How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School.
• David H. Rose & Anne Meyer. Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal Design for Learning. ASCD, 2002. Full text online at: http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/ideas/tes

Introduction:

Last session introduced you to a snapshot of UD as applied to web and software applications …now we want to delve deeper into UD.

Excerpts from Chapter 1: Education in the Digital Age from Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age provides a wonderful overview of this week's session

Cultural, educational, and legal changes have significantly altered the mix of students in regular education classrooms. Today's typical classroom might include students whose first language is not English; students who are not reading on grade level; students with behavioral, attention, and motivational problems; students from varied cultural backgrounds; and students classified as gifted. In addition, there are students with particular needs, such as limited vision, motor disabilities, emotional difficulties, speech and language difficulties, and learning disabilities.

At the same time, increasing emphasis on learning standards places greater responsibility on teachers and administrators to ensure that each of these students reaches the highest levels of achievement. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Amendments of 1997 (text available at http://www.ideapractices.org/), preclude a separate educational agenda for students with disabilities and hold teachers responsible for ensuring that these students demonstrate progress within the general education curriculum. The Amendments indicate that high expectations and attention to access, as well as participation and progress within the general curriculum, are critical for improving outcomes for students with disabilities. Most of us would agree that these factors are critical for all learners.

The challenge posed by greater diversity and greater accountability is to enable students with widely divergent needs, skills, and interests to attain the same high standards. To transform the pressures of diversity into opportunities for all learners, we apply insights about learners who don't "fit the mold" to helps us create flexible curricula and tools that will work more effectively for everyone. In this way, the challenges we face as educators inspire us to reconsider the way curriculum is designed and the way schooling is conducted.

Fortunately, technological advances have equipped educators with tremendous new instructional resources in the form of computers and digital media. New technologies offer us the opportunity to respond to the multifaceted individual differences in our student population by providing more varied media, tools, and methods. Because of their inherent flexibility, digital technologies can adjust to learner differences, enabling teachers to (1) differentiate problems a student may have using particular kinds of learning media from more general learning problems and (2) draw upon a student's other strengths and interests that may be blocked by the exclusive use of printed text.

Readings

• Start by reading MSDE Universal Design Handbook [PDF]
• Next, read Strehorn, The application of UD to ESL teaching-to gain insight on one teacher’s perspective working with ESL students [Word ... PDF]
• Next, skim chapter 9 of How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School: Expanded Edition (2000) (you may find other chapters of interest).
• Then skim chapters 4 & 5 of Rose & Anne Meyer. Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal Design for Learning. ASCD, 2002. Full text online at: http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/ideas/tes/ Concept map and key ideas provide an overview—"chapter sections" is where you will find the text. (don’t stress over all the hyperlinks—they only provide definitions)

Next, explore tools that promote UD related to ESL

• Digital Books
• Translators available for free on the web. One of the first was AltaVista's Babelfish. Google also has one (http://www.google.com/) go to Language tools on the right. Others include:
  • Parlink
  • Word2word
  • WordReference Dictionaries
  • SYSTRAN
  • Langenberg
  • Foreign Word
• Merriam-Webster gives audio (if you have speakers and a sound card) and includes quick Spanish/English translations with audio. Another online dictionary links to other resources (many Spanish related) including dictionary translator
• Other Tools

Skim through the resources that you find of most interest

• ETO Digital Issues
• ETO Family, School & Community
• ETO AT/UD

You may have found that the information from this session has captured your attention and would like to read further. Here are additional resources: Educational Technology Research Journals and Educational Technology Organizations (reports, white papers and other publications) and CREDE and ETO Diversity resources, ETO AT/UD resources, ETO Family, School, & Community Resources.

Asynchronous Postings:

Please read the class summaries for the previous session’s threads

• 11.1 UD Reflection
• 11.2 UD Handbook
• 11.3 Digital Books
• 11.4 Chapter 9
• 11.5 Translators
• Part III Group Project is due 1-18-07—found in thread 10.3

Post by Thursday January 18th, 2007.

Also note we are scheduled for a chat 4PM January 11th and the UMCP AT Lab Tour is scheduled for 5PM on 1-18-07