Wiki:UDL

Welcome! This blog will serve as a document of my journey of learning about assistive technology in special education. I hope to discover and share with others the various ways to make learning accessible for all students in the classroom.

This Wiki provided information on the CAST Universal Design for Learning, a set of principles that educators should follow when making learning accessbile for all students. Universal Design for Learning, when implemented, allows educators to meet the varied needs of the learners in their classrooms. The three main principles under UDL were presented on the Wiki as:

• multiple means of representation (how the learning is presented)
• multiple means of expression (how the learners demonstrate their learning)
• multiple means of engagement (how to engage students in learning)

When exploring this Wiki site, I found some web links for UDL. I chose to check out the CAST UDL books where I discovered digital books that could be easily modified for students with various learning needs. As a teacher you could choose to alter the book according to maximum, moderate, or minimum support. Students were also able to change the size of text, have it read to them by the computer, easily translate any word in the text, as well as look it up in the dictionary or conduct a google search. These adaptations could be achieved by using an easy to understand toolbar located at the top of the page. I thought that these books were a perfect fit for implementing the principles of UDL. There were only seven books at various grade levels, but I really loved this feature and wish it was available through the reading program that I use in my classroom. In my classroom, students are able to read the texts online that are in our shared reading books, but do not have access to features like these.

Click on the picture to check out the digital edition that I explored titled, "All About Coyotes"!





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