Takeaway's - Class 3 - May 9th, 2020

Three takeaway's from the entire class:

• Universal Design for Learning is a pretty neat concept. Katie Novak is a great speaker and advocate for UDL. I shared the website with my coworkers since we will be heading in this direction. UDL is different from differentiated instruction (DI) and the dinner party activity that we did made the differences stand out a bit more. DI has been a popular term in schools for a while now, but UDL seems to be new. A lot of my coworkers had no idea what it was and they really appreciated having that information. I like how it accommodates all learners in the classroom. This is so important, especially now when we are learning online. A lot of things are changing and we need to be prepared for that type of learning and environment. Check out Katie Novak's video below and the website with the details to the dinner party here: https://www.novakeducation.com/udl-vs-di-dinner-party-analogy/

Katie Novak and the UDL Dinner Party Analogy

• The UDL Journey powerpoint was very informative. It showed how much things have changed over time which is really amazing to see how far we have come. Assistive technology is constantly changing and adapting to our needs. UDL includes all learners, not just those with disabilities. There are so many different apps out there now on most all devices that make accessibility easy for people. Instead of having to apply for these devices, it is automatically there for them, which is great. This reminded me of a picture I seen a while back that I have posted below. It has a great message I think.

Comic With a Message About Equality

UDL Examples

• Google Read and Write is an amazing program. At my current school, we use this for all testing accommodations. I have become quite familiar using this program over the past two years. It has so many great functions that really help students with all accommodations. We use it a lot for students who need a document read to them. They can listen to the file and then type their answers. This frees up a lot of our time and makes us available to help with questions instead of reading the document to them. We have a lot of students who use the testing room frequently so this program makes all of our lives a lot easier. The video below shows an introduction to Google Read and Write.

Read and Write for Google Introduction Video