New Podcast! Universal Design for Learning

Check out my newest podcast, embedded here or (for those who prefer better sound quality) also available directly on my Podbean page.

With any luck, this podcast will give you a good, introductory overview of Universal Design for Learning. It covers UDL's origins in the field of Architecture, the brain research that supports Universal Design in education, as well as the challenges it presents and the tools available today to confront those challenges and meet the needs of every learner.

For schools or teachers interested in implementing UDL, I would like to suggest three excellent resources available at CAST. These are: the Class Profile Maker, the Curriculum Barriers Finder, and the UDL Solutions Finder.

Enjoy!

What a GAME!

Seven weeks ago, I developed a GAME plan to guide me as I engaged in self-directed learning around two goals: (1) to design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity (NETS-T Indicator 2a); and (2) to communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital-age media and formats (NETS-T Indicator 3c). By pursuing these two goals, I hoped to develop confidence incorporating digital tools in my classroom and to be fully prepared to create and maintain my own website.

Over the weeks, I have followed the GAME steps described by Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer (2009). I began by setting my goals, and then developing an action plan of steps and methods that I thought would get me there. I continued to monitor my progress towards my goals and to make small adjustments to my action plan as I went on. Finally, I have evaluated my success (and yes, I did meet my goals to a large degree – I have adapted several of my units to incorporate technology tools and am in a good position to launch a website when I have lesson-free time during the holidays this year) and reflected on how to extend it to support my students with their own learning goals.

As a result of following my plan, I have come to see the GAME plan approach as a valuable tool to guide self-directed learning. In fact, I am currently working with a ninth grade student who is pursuing an independent project outside of the regular curriculum and have guided her in developing her own GAME plan to structure her learning process. Though I intend to implement the GAME plan approach with whole classes in the future, I am pleased to have been able to immediately transfer my GAME plan experience to my instructional practice, if even on such a small scale.

Another small scale immediate impact which my new learning has had on my instructional practice concerns a ninth grader who is currently on an exchange in Australia. In this case, I saw an opportunity to incorporate digital tools to promote student learning and creativity, and jumped on it. Instead of turning in a brief written report about her experiences upon returning from her exchange, I suggested that the student create a blog and post to it once a week. She agreed and together, we set up her very first blog. It has only been a couple of weeks, and we are working on reducing the number of errors included in her posts (without me pre-correcting everything she writes), so it is definitely a work in progress. Still, I am very pleased with this development.

I have also made some adjustments to an upcoming inquiry project to better integrate digital tools and to incorporate more ongoing assessment in order to better manage the project-based learning process. The digital tools I have included in the project include digital storytelling, which employs many reading strategies recommended by the National Reading Panel and can help foster reading competence (Royer & Richards, 2008). The assessments I have built into the project focus on encouraging students to articulate their learning through written reflection, debriefing sessions, and artifacts such as notes or blog entries (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010a). One final adjustment I am making is that of releasing control of the classroom to students as I strive to increasingly step out of the spotlight and take on the role of guide (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010a).

Over the longer term, I anticipate that my new learning will have an even greater impact on my instructional practice. My second goal led me to acquire all of the information (and confidence!) necessary to create my own website to communicate with my students and their parents. I have accomplished this and look forward to doing the actual creating and launching bits during the holidays this winter. I am very excited about the possibilities this presents for publishing student work to an authentic and interested audience.

Other impacts I look forward to include continuing to integrate technology tools into existing curricula and those which I develop in the future, structuring further self-directed learning experiences for my students, and using technology tools to improve differentiation in the classroom. Technology tools can help make the curriculum accessible to all students by crafting projects that fit to students’ learning styles and strengths (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010b), thus enabling even struggling writers to express the content knowledge and understanding they have gained. One final development I hope to see in my instructional practice is the incorporation of online collaboration in the form of international and cross-cultural exchanges. After all, as Vicki Davis, Teacher and IT Director at Westwood Schools in Camilla, Georgia, so emphatically suggests, whatever it is you’re teaching, there is probably someone out there who wants to collaborate with you (Laureate Education, Inc., 2010c).

In the first week of my GAME plan, I heard Peggy Ertmer, Professor of Educational Technology in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction at Purdue University, say that integrating technology effectively requires four things: knowledge, confidence, belief, and a supportive culture(Laureate Education, Inc., 2010d). Now, as I wrap up this learning experience, I am satisfied that I have gained the knowledge necessary to select the right technology tools to enhance my content goals, and I am becoming more confident in my ability to effectively implement those technologies. I am firmly of the belief that real learning is the result of an active process in which students interact with content in meaningful ways. And I have discovered that my own willingness to try new things is vital to cultivating a supportive culture for technology integration in my school. Most importantly, I am convinced that technology integration is not as hard as we often make it out to be – in fact, technology tools are often a natural fit to existing curriculum goals.

References:

Cennamo, K., Ross, J., & Ertmer, P. (2010). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010a). Spotlight on technology: Problem-based learning, part 2. [Video recording]. Integrating technology across the content areas. Baltimore, MD.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010b). Meeting students’ needs with technology, part one [Video recording]. Integrating technology across the content areas. Baltimore, MD: Laureate Education, Inc.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010c). Enriching content area learning experiences with technology, part two [Video recording]. Integrating technology across the content areas. Baltimore, MD: Laureate Education, Inc.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010d). Enriching content area learning experiences with technology, part one [Video recording]. Integrating technology across the content areas. Baltimore, MD: Laureate Education, Inc.

Royer, R., & Richards, P. (2008, November). Digital storytelling. Learning & Leading with Technology, 36(3), 29–31.

The GAME of the Future

The idea behind the GAME plan - setting a learning goal, taking action to achieve it, monitoring and adjusting one’s progress, and evaluating and extending one’s learning - is one which could benefit students immensely as they develop into self-directed learners. The GAME plan creates a framework for independent learning which can serve any number of learning goals and its simple steps could continue to serve students as they become life-long learners.

In the classroom, I can imagine instructing students in the GAME plan as they set personal goals within one of the NETS-S skill areas. Working withing the skill area of demonstrating creativity and innovation, for example, students could explore the specific learning goals listed in the NETS-S and choose one they would like to develop in a GAME plan. This would give us, as a class, the common starting place of creativity and innovation, yet allow each student to explore and deepen their skills according to their own needs and interests. We would also have a common ending place, as each student could carry their new knowledge and experience back into the classroom for others to benefit from during the extension and evaluation phase. Using a GAME plan structure in class would also give me, as the teacher, an excellent opportunity to model the process and expose myself as a passionate learner, as I work along side the students to meet my own GAME plan learning goals.

Overtime

One important thing I have learned so far in pursuing my game plan that I can apply to my instructional practice is that if my GAME plan goals are to be the main focus of my learning, then they really do need to be the main focus. Let me explain. My GAME plan involves learning about everything I need to know to be ready to launch a web site AND reviewing my whole curriculum for opportunities to integrate technology to enhance student learning. Actually, one of these topics would be enough to keep me busy with self-directed learning in addition to my teaching. Add to that an exploration of social networking and collaboration sites and a genuine interest in learning more about problem-based learning, and you've got one overtaxed teacher/learner. I guess what I'm trying to say is that if I use a GAME plan strategy with students in the future, I will be sure that it is not a sideline activity to an otherwise full curriculum.

That said, it will not be a surprise for my readers that I am not ready to set new learning goals. I intend to wrap up my GAME plan goals properly and launch my web site (most likely during the late fall / early winter). After that, I will set my sights on modeling collaborative knowledge construction (NETS-T Standard 1d) and developing and modeling cultural understanding and global awareness (NETS-T Standard 4d).

As for my learning approaches, well, I'm fairly satisfied with those. I have consulted experts, explored web resources, and networked with my colleagues, and I have learned a lot.

Still in the GAME

After focusing on my website goal last week, this week I've turned my attention to my second goal, that of better incorporating technology tools into my curriculum. I have been going through my plans for the year and looking for learning goals, activities, and assessments that are a good (and natural) match for technology. I have found incorporating technology tools into my standing plans to be relatively easy, in theory at least. I have targeted several performance assessments throughout the year which I am in the process of modifying to include technology options, such as digital storytelling, podcasts, or wikis. In this sense, my GAME plan actions have been effective.

However, though coming up with exciting ideas and building these into my curriculum has been going fairly smoothly, I anticipate difficulties in implementation. Providing students with technology options for assessments does not have to mean investing huge amounts of class time to instructing students in the use of the technologies, assuming student already know how to use the tools and are able to trouble-shoot when problems arise. I am concerned, however, that to make technology an integral part of my curriculum and available to everyone, I will need to invest considerable class time in the direct instruction, modeling, and guided practice of technology tools. This is where ideas like natural fit and smooth integration start to loose their luster. So the question that has arisen for me this week is: Can I realistically and effectively integrate technology into my current curriculum without investing considerable amounts of additional class time (thus being forced to redesign my curriculum)?

Playing the GAME

This was a productive week for me. I have done some exploring and have found some answers, though not necessarily those I was hoping for. One of my GAME plan goals is to do the research, planning, and learning necessary to launch my own teacher website. Though this may not seem like a giant leap considering the hundreds of thousands (millions?) of teacher websites out there, for me it’s a big deal and I want it to really work (as opposed to being something I start and abandon later when the newness wears off).

After speaking with our web-master, my suspicion that our school website is not set up to host teacher sites was confirmed. If I wanted to have my own site which I could easily update without first submitting all of my information to the web-master, I would have to look elsewhere. I visited Class Jump,Educator Pages, and Bloust, all of whom offer free user-friendly web sites for teachers. I also revisited the class blog I had previously set up through Edublogs to assess its features, possibilities, and limitations as compared with other hosts. In the process of exploring these sites, I set up user accounts and began to create preliminary, “draft” web pages at Class Jump and Educator Pages. Bloust seems a bit commercial, so I have skipped it so far, though I’m planning to give it more attention in the coming days.

What I have discovered in the process is this: (1) My own ideas for how exactly I want to use my website and what it should look like are not as clear as I had previously thought; and (2) It is difficult to find a free website hosting site that offers everything you’re looking for. As I tried to visualize myself, my students, and their parents using my website, I also became increasingly concerned that I might not be up to the job of updating and adding to my site as regularly as needed (which would actually be daily if students are tp be able to rely on it for assignments and documents). Suddenly the whole idea seemed like a lot more work than I had bargained for. This is the point when I stopped exploring and took a nap.

Optimistic and encouraging comments would be greatly appreciated.

GAME Resources

In order to carry out my plan for ISTE Indicator 2a, I will need to get a list together of potential website platforms available free for teachers in order to explore and evaluate them in relation to my needs (your suggestions are more than welcome!). Which also means that I need to get clearer about what exactly my needs are. At the moment I am thinking about using my website for organizational items (calendar, assignments), for student learning support (audio recordings of our readings, quality links, tips, rubrics), and as a place to publish student work in a variety of formats. I would also like to be able to have separate pages for the various classes that I teach. My target audience is primarily my students, followed by their parents, and the school community as a whole.

Another valuable resource will be exploring teacher websites which have been up and running for some time in order to expand my own ideas before solidifying them. Once I have narrowed down the possibilities, tutorials in the website platforms will help me to get better acquainted with the options and capabilities they offer. So far I haven’t got much further than articulating my goals and beginning to conceptualize what my site could look like.

For exploring multi-media student projects in connection with ISTE Indicator 3c, Classroom 2.0 and Edublogs could also be excellent resources. So far I have begun re-thinking several units I have planned for this year, and am focusing on a book presentation my ninth graders will be preparing in October to wrap-up their literature circles in order to incorporate digital tools and allow for a more individualized demonstration of their knowledge and skills.