What is UDL? Here’s a great video that makes it easy to understand.

For the last three years I have been exploring how to add Universal Design for Learning principles and strategies into blended and online lessons. It’s been an interesting journey from which I have learned that integrating UDL online requires a purposeful approach at the design stage. It really is all about the design.

So where can you get started?
Unfortunately there does not seem to be a manual to follow but taking the elements of UDL that are the most easily transferable seems to work for teachers. Highlighting critical features with icons or color  for example, helps draw the student’s attention to important points. Or posting videos or images that connect to background knowledge or demonstrate and model a skilled performance as a model for students.

What I have learned
With explicit instruction around integrating UDL principles into the design of blended and online learning environments the quality of the design is improved and the teachers are more easily able to offer out a virtual hand of support when students are lost online.

Read lots more about this in this presentation. It contains many useful resources and practical tips and examples.

By Literacy_rate_world.svg: Original image by User:Astrokey44; new SVG version by User:Andrew_pmkderivative work: Joél be back (Literacy_rate_world.svg) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons

Is it Time to Start Taking Action?
This is an image based on our traditional understanding of literacy. The basic literacies of reading, writing are fundamentally important, but this definition of literacy is no longer enough for our students and has not been for some time. Can we as educators continue to talk of the 21st century skills and literacies without taking action? After all we are already well on our way to the middle of the second decade of the 21st century. Isn’t it time to  actually start implementing the ‘new’ literacies?

What Does it mean to be literate in 2012?
 I asked  a group of teachers sitting around the lunch table this question and received an array or answers that ran the full range from: “I think the basic literacy skills are the most important, you know reading and writing”, to ” I know they need more than the basics we used to teach, the Internet has changed things, but I’m not sure what that means.”

I’m not sure that there is anyone clearly defined answer. If there is, it is constantly changing, just as the technology changes.  In my view any definition of literacy for 21st century learners reaches far beyond reading, writing and  digital literacy. It 21st century literacies expand to

What I do believe is that students will have to learn to adapt and learn how to keep learning. This means that students need to learn how to be self-directed learners.

The Reality: We Need Visionary Leadership
ISTE outlines the essential conditions for success for the implementation of the NETS technology standards. The first element is visionary leadership, without which there is at best a disconnect when teachers  develop and review curriculum. I witness good  teachers and curriculum coordinators working hard to redesign curriculum around the common core standards and while they develop excellent units based on content areas they are often missing an opportunity to integrate the new literacies. Often the value of incorporating the NETS technology standards or 21st century literacies is given lip service or ignored in the redesign  or curriculum review process.  Most teachers involved in the curriculum reviews are unaware of the  NETS technology standards for administrators, teachers or students.

Without this visionary leadership there also a disconnect when planning professional development or innovations like 1:1 computing and BYOD where the focus becomes the hardware and not the curriculum goals and objectives.

So What’s the Urgency?
For me it’s about catching up, as I believe we are already behind and it’s going to take sustained high quality professional development, over time, for teachers to acquire the knowledge and skills to develop curriculum that integrates the literacies.  The NETs Standards were published in 2007, the NCTE 21st Century Literacies in 2008 . We are already 12 years into the 21st century and it’s been 5 years since the NETs Standards were published. The class of 2012 will graduate this year, will they be 21st century literate? How many more classes will graduate before we have a 21st century illiterate generation?

The New Literacies In a Nutshell:
Suzie Boss sums it up ‘literacy boils down to learning to be independent, aware and productive citizens.’

Check out this presentation from the Global Education Conference 2011: Infusing a Cultural Perspective and Technolog, Blanca Beltran and I provide examples of student projects. What ideas do you have for your classroom?

Video: How to Motivate Students to Learn a Foreign Language

Global work place skills Ning: A community of educators that advocate language and culture skills in the 21st century work place

Voki: Bill Clinton tells you about his life

Enhanced Podcast: Motivating Students to Read in the Target Language

Podcast: Yuaxio’s Story

Video: Learning Interrogatives’La Trompeta’ 

Digital Story: Celebrity Interviews

Animation Xtranormal: Introducing Yourself

Ipad/iPhone:  Learning Negatives with Talking Tom

Why do you need an AT tool kit?

• apps on your ipad
• using the iPad’s accessibility options
• your computer’s operating system
• computer software
• online resources

Let’s start with:  Online Resources
Websites: to support struggling learners

Online Libraries:
Bookshare: Free digital books for those who provide proof of a disability.
Google Books: An expanded selection of books with screen reader software to support the visually impaired.
Project Gutenberg: Over 33,000 free e-books.
Reading Ally: Text books and magazines for those who provide proof of a disability.

Online Concept Maps:
Microsoft Office 2007 Smart Art plug-in provides a visual representation. It’s quick and easy to use.
Bubbl is brainstorming software that  is easy and simple to use.

Online Spell-Checkers:
Google Chrome will check the spelling of text within web forms.
ieSpell is a free IE browser extension that spell-checks web forms and text fields.

Now let’s look at your : iPad Accessibility Options
Found in Settings/General/Accessibility
Voiceover-reads all information on the iPad

Apps For Writing:
Writer’s Muse: This handy app will help you pick characters, scenarios, outcomes, any item or detail you need to inspire your writing. Very motivating for students, easy to customize.
Popplet: Concept mapping tool- fun and easy to use.
Toontastic: A creative learning tool that empowers kids to draw, animate, and share their own cartoons through imaginative play.
Dragon Dictate: Easy to use voice recognition software.
Storykit: App for creating an electronic storybook.
PuppetsPals HD: Create animations with audio.
ComicTouch: Create comics with drawings and photos, add your own captions in balloons.

Apps For Organization:
Auditorium Notes: Take notes or audio recording and sync seamlessly with Dropbox on the Internet. Access your files from your computer or iPad.
Dropbox: Bring your files with you when you’re on the go, add files to your Favorites for fast, offline viewing, easily upload photos and videos to Dropbox, share freely with family and friends.

Computer Software for Reading:
WordTalk: A free text-to-speech plugin for Microsoft Word. For people with reading and writing difficulties.
Ginger: Proofreading, spelling and grammar check in any application. Improve your English writing – learn from your mistakes. Text to speech reader – improve your pronunciation. Great for students with Autism.
Libravox: Audio books, some for free.

The point is, technology is very much part of our lives, but as a middle school student back in the 70′s I could never have imagined any of this. What will the world be like when our middle school students are my age? I cannot even start to predict,  I do believe, however,  that technology is part of their life outside of school and has to be in school, especially considering the leaps and bounds technology will take in their lifetime.

Still people are questioning if the investment in technology in the classroom is worth it, they are asking if  technology will lead to improved student achievement. This was the topic  in the New York Times Sept. 3 front-page story. It takes Kyrene School District as an example of a district who have embraced technology but have stagnant test scores. Since 2005, scores in reading and math have stagnated in Kyrene, even as statewide scores have risen.

So how happy was I to read Dennis Pierce’s response to the New York Times: On ed tech, we’re asking the wrong question…..The focus should not be on whether it can help raise achievement, but how’  Dennis makes such sense, we ARE asking the wrong question.

Dennis writes:
‘…the Times got it wrong with regard to the central question it invited readers to consider. Instead of examining whether technology is worth schools’ investment, the newspaper should have focused on two other, more relevant questions: Why are so many districts that invest in technology still failing to see success? And, what are the conditions that best lead to ed-tech success?’

His opening line makes me laugh:
‘Does the use of textbooks lead to better student achievement? Somebody should do the research. Schools nationwide are spending billions of dollars each year on textbooks, with no clear evidence they improve test scores—and stakeholders deserve some answers.’

In my mind it seems pretty ridiculous to expect text books to raise student achievement , but then why do we expect technology to do this?

The most important point Dennis makes is about the supportive conditions necessary for successful implementation of technology:
‘Among schools with one-to-one computing programs, 70 percent reported their students’ achievement scores on high-stakes tests were on the rise. But this figure was 85 percent for schools that employed certain strategies for success, including the use of electronic formative assessments on a regular basis, frequent collaboration of teachers in professional learning communities, and—most importantly—strong principal and school district leadership.
‘To understand why many districts have yet to see improvement, even after investing so much money in technology, consider the size of the hurdles they face. The simple answer is that too many districts haven’t followed this blueprint for success—but there’s more to it than that. Read More…

So let’s start asking the right questions, lets look at successful strategies schools can use. Good teaching practices are what count. I don’t believe using technology to engage or inspire is enough, we need to consider the supportive conditions necessary for successful implementation.

At  BLC2011,  Angela Maiers eloquently delivered a thought provoking session on Passion-Driven Learning. Her message ‘by the time students reach secondary education, enthusiasm, engagement, and love of learning is at an all-time low’.  So what can we do about it? Her response: Passion-Driven Learning!

I was so inspired I had to read her book ‘The Passion-Driven Classroom‘ in which she advocates that engagement is the ‘what’ and the ‘where’ of learning, which will improve student learning. She recognizes we can  increase student engagement by changing the ‘what’ with the use of technology and the ‘where’ by changing the learning environment, for example with blended learning. However, when we add the ‘who’ into the mix, when we add passion, how we  learn is impacted and influenced much more than by changing the content and the environment. She continues ‘the truly defining moments in learning are those that occur on the inside, making WHO we are the ultimate contributor to learning success’. (Heidi Hayes-Jacob selected Angela’s book for the Curriculum21 Summer Book Club).

This made me think. People around me continually profess the reason we must use  technology is to engage our students, and I feel uneasy when I hear that statement. I do see technology as a means to support student engagement, but I think if that is what we focus on, we are missing a huge opportunity to transform teaching and learning. I’m concerned that we will simply change the content by making it more interactive. We will succeed in making learning more fun, and students, teachers and administrators will feel good. However, the old, traditional instructional model will remain largely untouched.

I’ve seen this happen with teachers creating blended learning units. It is not natural for them to reconsider how they teach when designing their online courses. It is more natural simply to keep doing what they have always done and transfer this online. They have to be explicitly taught how to transfer good face-to-face teaching practices, such as including the principles of UDL and differentiated learning into the online environment.

My concern about people’s reliance on technology being the answer to engaging our students is that unless it is embedded thoughtfully into the curriculum with professional development  based on how to redesign lessons to include the 21st century skills and habits of mind within a passion-driven classroom, we will lose out on the greatest opportunity to transform teaching and learning in decades.

Well I’ve done it! I’ve put my thoughts out there (this is my first posting). I’d really appreciate your comments on this topic. What do you think? How do we leverage technology to support the  transformation of teaching and learning and not miss the opportunity?