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  • Hi, everybody, and welcome to today s webinar. Even though the university

  • is on spring break, Jenny and I are still here and we are still going to do a webinar

  • for today. Today is going to be Universal Design for Learning Principles and we kind

  • of frame this around universal designs regarding the higher education setting and then we ll

  • point out aspects and ways it can be implemented in a K-12 setting as well. My name is Jim

  • Stachowiak. As always, I will be guiding you through this today and hopefully you will

  • get something out of it. So, here we go. What we will talk about today is what universal

  • design is first, because I do have to lay that groundwork before we talk about universal

  • design for learning. We will talk about UDL accommodations and implementing UDL into courses.

  • So what is universal design? Universal design is the design of products and environments

  • used by all people to the greatest extent possible without the need for adaptation or

  • specialized design. This is a concept that came out of architecture in North Carolina

  • State University in the 70 s. A guy named Ron Mace kind of looked at things and said

  • instead of building buildings and then having to add on these handicapped accessible ramps

  • later on that do not really look good in the flow of the building and maybe somewhere around

  • the corner that s not at the main entrance, why do not we take a look at trying to build

  • this kind of thing on the front end and making buildings and making environments accessible

  • to everybody on the front end. When they started doing this, they found that even though you

  • think and aim towards people with disabilities, you design toward that, you are going to have

  • something that benefits everybody in the long run, and I think that is probably where it

  • is used to the greatest extent possible. When we are looking at folks with disabilities,

  • we are kind of getting folks on that outer end and outer edge of mobility level, so by

  • doing that, by getting to those edges, we are making things that benefit everybody.

  • There are some examples on this slide of some classic universal design examples, the go-to

  • examples, I guess. Whenever anybody talks about universal design, it is probably the

  • curb cut and you are all familiar with those. Curb cuts are on every street corner and they

  • basically ramp into the streets so that somebody doesn t have to go over the curb to get into

  • the street to cross, and that benefits not only people in wheelchairs but also people

  • pushing strollers, people on roller blades, people riding, bikes, older people that might

  • struggle with taking a step down to cross the street that befits all those folks. We

  • are starting to see a new aspect of universal design added in that to be used by the greatest

  • extent possible. You kind of see it on there; it is that rubber pad with bumps on it. That

  • is there for folks with visual impairments that might be using a cane that are not quite

  • sure when they are about to hit the street. That raised bump areas gives them an idea

  • that they are getting pretty close to the street. Below that, you see a house that s

  • hard to tell there but there is a ground level entryway so even though there is no step up

  • to the front porch, it just kind of goes right into the door, and this is just an example

  • to show you that that can be done without making it look like it s an accessibility

  • thing. I mean, that is still a pretty nice looking entryway to the house and it is accessible

  • as well. Next to that, you can see a fire alarm. Fire alarms did not used to be universally

  • designed. Not that long ago a fire alarm code was just to make sure it made noise so that

  • people got out of the building when it went off. You would hear a loud beeping noise and

  • that was about it. If you look at it now, this one has a strobe light on it and anywhere

  • you look now you are going to see that. s code now to have a strobe light on your fire

  • alarm, because with just the noise how would somebody that was deaf know what was going

  • on? How would somebody that was deaf know how to get out of the building or get out

  • of their dorm room or whatever when a fire alarm went off. That strobe light indicates

  • the alarm is going off for somebody that might be deaf of hearing impaired. If you listen

  • to those now, they do not just give a loud beeping noise, either. If you listen to them,

  • they typically give you instructions on what to do. I know in our building when the fire

  • alarm goes off it says there is an emergency, get to the nearest exist, and get outside.

  • That might help people that struggle with panicking when they just hear loud noises,

  • giving them some idea of what to do and to get out of there. So, it has really become

  • a universally designed tool. If you look next to that, universally designed signage is helpful

  • as well. That is a sign obviously for a women s bathroom. If you just had the word women

  • up there somebody who is blind, somebody that has a learning disability, somebody that doesn

  • t speak English isn t necessary going to know what that word says, and that could lead to

  • some big issues if somebody happens to go in there. But if we put a symbol on it that

  • s universally recognized as well as braille underneath the word, all of a sudden we ve

  • made signs that are accessible to just about anybody. The case of the universal design

  • it to design environments to make them universal to everybody, so kind of keep that in mind

  • when we talk about universal design for learning and what universal design through learning

  • is. Well, this is what it is. It is a goal. It is a processed focus on planning. Really,

  • the key to universally designing something is just thinking out ahead of time what issues

  • people might have with accessing the class and then designing workarounds around those

  • issues, I suppose. It is the idea that not everybody learns the same way and that multiple

  • approaches might be needed to reach everybody in your class. It is a proactive process that

  • can be implemented in steps. The key to this is also that it is accessible to use and it

  • is inclusive, so if you universally design a class that is accessible to everybody, everybody

  • can use it and everybody is included as well. It is also a way to extend some of the benefits

  • and accommodations that are pretty common for folks with disabilities to everybody in

  • the classroom. There might be some people in there that do not have disabilities but

  • learn a little bit differently from others and can benefit from some of those accommodations,

  • so we can extend the benefit of accommodations through UDL. Also, it allows for students

  • to use their strengths to access the class. That s also another key about this is tapping

  • to the strengths of an individual and giving them the opportunity to use those strengths

  • to maximize learning and maximize understanding of things as well. One universal design for

  • learning is not groundbreaking and nothing that we are going to talk about here is groundbreaking

  • stuff. It is not a single solution. There could be multiple solutions here. In the college

  • thing, we talk about UDL. The folks think it might be a means to low quality or standards

  • or a means to life accessible to unqualified students. That is not the case here. There

  • are standards to get into classes that need to be met. What we are doing with universal

  • design is once you have qualified for those classes, we are making it easier to use your

  • strengths to benefit from those classes. So we are not lowering any quality or lowering

  • standards and we are not making it accessible to unqualified students. Universal design

  • is not necessarily completely required in every class. There are still some things that

  • are accommodation based that the student will still have to work with student disability

  • services or something else to get that taken care of. For example, it is not practical

  • to have a sign language interpreter in every classroom just in case you run into a student

  • that has a hearing impairment that might need a sign language interpreter. That is still

  • something where that is on the student, that is on the university, that is on the school

  • to get that accommodation when necessary. Finally, universal design for learning is

  • not a replacement for good teaching. It is really a complement for good teaching. It

  • is a way to help extend the good things that a teacher is doing in a classroom. Universal

  • design for learning comes out of some brain research that was done in the Center for Applied

  • Special Technology out of Harvard, and what this looked at was three primary brain networks

  • in learning. There is the recognition network, the strategic network, and the effective network.

  • What they saw with this when they looked at these networks with different individuals

  • is that with different people, networks work a little differently. The recognition network

  • is a network in the brain where we take in information and what we saw here is that people

  • take in information in different ways. What the folks that came up with the concept of

  • universal design for learning said that was because everybody takes in information differently,

  • what we need to provide to our students is multiple means of representation of the materials.

  • Some people might take in information by listening to a lecture, others by reading, and others

  • by watching a video. If we provide all of those potions, that gives users a choice to

  • be able to actually see information the way that best benefits them. The middle network

  • there is the strategic network. With the strategic network, that s the area where we kind of

  • plan and demonstrate what we ve learn, and everybody does that a little bit differently,

  • so the universal design for learning calls for providing multiple means of expression

  • for students. Not everybody is great at writing an essay, but you are going to have to do

  • all these at one time or another. Not everybody displays what he or she learns best by writing.

  • Other people might do it better by presenting. Other people might even do better by singing

  • a song about what they learned. What the strategic network and having multiple means of expression

  • indicates is that we should provide multiple ways for students to demonstrate what they

  • learned. The third area is the effective network and that is kind of where we are engaged in

  • learning, and again, everybody is engaged a little bit differently. So to provide multiple

  • means of engagement to students, we provide multiple ways for students to get interested

  • in learning and just really sit down and dig into things. One of the examples that is given

  • in something like this in maybe a K-12 setting is maybe if you are doing a report on different

  • states and everybody s got to take a state and do a state, instead of approaching it

  • in terms of learning about a state and giving a report, approach it as you are going to

  • be the expert on your state and you are going to teach others about that, and that gives

  • the student a little bit of a sense of ownership in what they re doing and that might be one

  • of those ways that engages them a little bit differently. Thinking about things in terms

  • of that, in terms of engaging students would be the third way to implement universal design

  • for learning. So those are you three hallmarks for universal design for learning: multiple

  • means of representation, multiple means of expression, and multiple means of engagement.

  • This image comes from the Cass website here. Why is it necessary? Well, I want to talk

  • about why it is necessary at a college level why universal design for learning is necessary

  • at a college level. When you come to college, the IEP does not come with you. If you are

  • a student in special education in a K-12 setting, the IEP listed all your accommodations and

  • teachers had to follow those accommodations and make things accessible to you and your

  • classroom. When you come to K-12 level, that is no longer the case. The teachers do not

  • have to follow IEP. At this point, the student becomes responsible for self-identifying that

  • they have a disability and working with student disability services in getting the accommodations

  • that they might need. Here at the University of Iowa, we did an accommodations needs assessment

  • a couple years ago where we basically distributed a survey to everybody on campus and we asked

  • them if they had a disability, and we had 10 to 12 percent indicating that they had

  • a disability, which is about what we d expect because that kind of flies with the national

  • average. Part of the reason we did this is because when we talked to student disability

  • services and asked how many people they had signed up with them, we were hearing things

  • like 400, 415, and that is certainly not 10 percent of the population of students at the

  • University of Iowa. We were wondering what the issue was, and so when we asked about

  • the disability, the next question was if they were registered with student disability services,

  • and we found out that almost 60 percent were not registered with student disability services.

  • Most of the people that indicated they had a disability indicated that they had an invisible

  • disability of some type, whether that be a learning disability, emotional disability,

  • something that a teacher wouldn t be able to look at them in the classroom and understand

  • why they might be having some issues. We found kind of what we suspected, and that is that

  • on campus here there are several students with some type of disability running around

  • on campus that are not getting help from student disability services and we have no idea if

  • they re struggling, if they re doing well, or ways that we can reach them right now to

  • make things easier for them. That is why we decided to focus on universal design for learning

  • here on campus. If we can universally design classes, it should not matter if these students

  • are going to student disability services. The accommodations for most people with high

  • incidence learning disabilities ought to be built right into class. What about universal

  • design for learning? We are focusing a lot on disabilities and obviously it helps students

  • with disabilities, but it can also help all students. It can be beneficial to students

  • with language differences. We talk about multiple means of expression, multiple means of representation.

  • If we had students with language differences and all we are doing is speaking and there

  • is not some kind of text that they can take a look at, maybe we are speaking too fast.

  • Maybe they cannot keep up with class that way and maybe they might do better taking

  • in information in a different medium, so that universal design for learning could help those

  • students. Students with cultural differences in a college setting, you may find that some

  • culture students do not want to go ask for help if they need help because they do not

  • want to sit face to face with an instructor and ask for help. This can provide different

  • ways for them to access instructor s time through maybe an online chat. That might be

  • something they can do and that would benefit all the students. Students with learning differences

  • again, universal design for learning provides multiple ways to learn. Some students might

  • be visual learners, some students might be auditory learners, and some people might learn

  • by doing things. We are providing access to all those different types of learners. This

  • is especially the case in a university setting. Students might need to miss a class for various

  • excused reasons. Not every religious holiday is taken off by the university. There is Veteran

  • s Day, there might be a lot of veteran students that need to miss class and if they miss a

  • class that is a universally designed class, they should be able to not miss too much information

  • and be able to get things back in order when they re available to do that. At this point,

  • I would typically show a video that kinds of shows some of the importance of multiple

  • means of engagement, multiple means of representation, and multiple means of expression, but I m

  • not going to s in the YouTube archives here, so if you would like to take a look at this,

  • it is a very good video put out by Kansas State University. It is starting to get maybe

  • a little bit dated now. I think it came out in 2007. There is a link for you right there

  • and if you go on and type that whole thing in, you go to YouTube and search for a vision

  • of students today you will get the video that we typically talk about here and take a look

  • at what students are looking for. This really kind of hits on the need for engaging students

  • using the technology that they re familiar with of the day, engaging students a little

  • bit differently in going beyond what s in a textbook in the class, and just providing

  • a meaningful experience for students. To some instructors, it comes off as students being

  • a little bit whiny and wanting the instructor to come all the way and meet their demands.

  • It may come off a little bit that way, but it really just shows different ways to implement

  • things in the classroom. It brings up issues in a classroom that instructors need to work

  • with today, especially when it comes to technology and it comes to basically having students

  • that have had the computer and access to internet their whole lives and the ability to get information

  • very easily and it wants instructors to start thinking about ways to incorporate that kind

  • of technology to the classroom and go behind what a standard lecture might entail. It is

  • a good video. Check that out and take a look at that before going on any further in this

  • webinar. Let me talk a little bit about incorporating universal design for learning into college

  • classes, and we ll also hit a little bit on doing that in K-12 settings as well. In college

  • settings, we talk about three areas where you can implement UDL, and that s in the classroom

  • environment, the class presentation, and what we call the class materials, which is kind

  • of a catchall for everything else including supports, assignments, assessments, and so

  • on and so forth. In the class environment, there are two big areas that we can hit there.

  • It is kind of the general feel of the class as well as the physical environment. With

  • the class presentation, we kind of talk about first of all determining what s essential

  • to the class so that we can prevent things in different ways and varying methods, and

  • in class materials we talk about providing supports to our students as well as assignments

  • and assessments and how we are going to kind of address those in a class. Let me talk first

  • about the syllabus. Why is this important? Well, typically it is your first contact with

  • students in your class. What we suggest instructors do with this is provide information in at

  • least two formats, so we could provide information typically a syllabus is just when you list

  • the things that need to be done or things that happen throughout the class, but maybe

  • also providing a visual calendar with the dates things are due so somebody that s more

  • of a visual student can kind of see that laid out and be able to better organize things.

  • That might be a positive thing as well. You want to clearly explain the goals of the class

  • so every student knows what is coming up and clearly explain the assignments. We also talked

  • about providing multiple contact points, and that gets back to the fact that we need to

  • operate within the technologies that students use today, but we also need to operate in

  • the manner that students feel comfortable operating, and if we look at some of the ways

  • our students communicate now, email isn t all that popular anymore. There are not a

  • whole lot of students that would send an email as their preferred method of commination.

  • Most students would prefer that we communicated through social media or through text message,

  • there are ways that we can incorporate some of that into our classroom to provide ways

  • that everybody can reach the teacher, and one of the things that we suggest is to continue

  • to have office hours, continuing to provide phone numbers, email addresses and so on and

  • so forth, but also maybe having online office hours where students can sign into a chat

  • area, whether that be trough the icon course management system or through something else,

  • and they can type questions to the instructor and the instructor can answer them that way.

  • Not only does that help our students that might be more interested in technology that

  • feel more comfortable texting or typing, but that might benefit some of our students with

  • disabilities that might not want to come to the professor s office and interact with him.

  • Maybe you have a student that has a hearing impairment that might struggle with communicating

  • face to face. Communicating via text might be a little bit easier. Opening that up and

  • providing that access to everybody provides multiple ways that students can message you

  • using their preferred means of technology and allow them to use their strengths to reach

  • you. We thought about providing information on helpful resources as well, and that is

  • typically a list that we give instructors on free or inexpensive assisted technology

  • tools that students can download to help students access their class. A lot of students are

  • not aware that some of these things are available so if the instructor incorporates that in

  • his syllabus and says if you struggle with reading and would rather listen to text, here

  • is a tool that can allow you to read or allow you to listen or here is a tool that can allow

  • you convert things into an MP3. That is the first step in providing awareness to students

  • that some of these things are available. We also talk about well, at a college level you

  • have to include a disability accommodation statement on your syllabus. As part of that

  • survey that we showed you before, one of the questions we asked of the faculty is do you

  • include a disability statement on your syllabus? That is required by the university, and we

  • only found about that about 75 percent actually do, so there are some folks that we need to

  • get this in front of to make sure that they re doing what they need to do in terms of

  • providing an accommodations statement. When we talk about that, there is university language

  • that you need to include, but we also say to include personal values into that as well.

  • You can add to what the university has in their statement, like I appreciate diversity

  • in learning and am willing to work with a student that has a disability. By doing that

  • and providing that kind of language, what you are doing is setting up a student to feel

  • more comfortable to work with you and open up about some of the issue that he might have

  • in class. Here is an example of what we would include in a disability statement: In an appreciation

  • for diversity and diversity in learning, I understand that some of you may have difficulty

  • accessing pieces of this class. Provide an invitation to meet in a timely manner. You

  • are basically saying that you d like to hear from anyone that has a disability or requires

  • some accommodation in terms of seating, testing, or other class requirements as soon as possible

  • so that appropriate arrangements may be made. You certainly do want to make sure it is done

  • in a timely manner. Give a date and give a time give some kind of timeframe there. You

  • want to encourage your students to register with student disability services so that they

  • are definitely getting all the academic accommodations they need. Reiterate an invitation to meet

  • by maybe saying, Do not hesitate to see me before or after class or contact me using

  • the information provided on the top of your course syllabus. That really just opens up

  • and creates a welcoming environment for all of our students in the classroom. Although

  • having a disability statement isn t necessarily enough, another way to signify that it s important

  • to you is through discussing that statement, so what this does is it emphasizes that it

  • s important to you and it speaks to your acceptance of their disability, indicates a willingness

  • to work with your students, creates a trust with students, and it can also be used as

  • an open invitation for discussion with your students. It really does make it more likely

  • that the students are going to approach you and work with you on issues. Another thing

  • you can do to create a welcoming environment early on in the class, maybe the first day,

  • is to hand out a card and just say, Let me know anything you think I need to know that

  • might affect how you access this class or might affect what you do in this class. That

  • way you might find out that somebody with a disability needs accommodations or you might

  • found out that student that comes in late every day and you might think is just lazy

  • or running behind is coming in late because they have to pick up their kids from daycare

  • and drop them off at home before they can get there. There are a lot of valid reasons

  • for these things that getting that information card can help you see some of the issues the

  • student might be having and find a way to work with those. In the physical class environment,

  • what we talk about, and you kind of can extend this to some of the K-12 settings as well,

  • is take a look at your class. Here is a checklist that we have that we give out to instructors

  • to kind of go through their class in a planning process and make sure that different things

  • can be done to make sure the room is accessible. You can make sure the entrance to the building

  • is accessible. There are a lot of these things that a teacher cannot necessarily physically

  • change, but if you didn t have a physical entrance to the building for somebody with

  • a disability that you are in, then you need to let higher ups be aware of that so they

  • can go about making changes. That is not really something we should see as an issue anywhere,

  • but you want to make sure the entrance to the room is accessible to anybody, that there

  • is not a garbage can that is propping open the door that somebody cannot work their way

  • around. You want to make sure there is not a desk right in front of the door. You want

  • to make sure that there are clear paths for everybody to walk around. You want to make

  • sure there are choices for students about where they are going to sit, including those

  • who have disabilities. You want to make sure the chalkboard or the whiteboard can be seen

  • from every seat. You want to know emergency procedures allowing everybody to exit the

  • room, too. What do you do if you have a student in a wheelchair when there is an emergency?

  • How do you help that individual? There is a video out of Cal State Northridge where

  • they were talking to a student in a wheelchair and there was a fire drill and everybody just

  • ran out of the room and didn t even think about her and in their panic to get out they

  • knocked over some desks and moved something in front of the door and she couldn t get

  • out. So if that had been a real emergency, she would have been in trouble. You want to

  • know what the process is to make sure the student gets out of the classroom. You want

  • to make sure that markers or chalk are thick enough, you want to write in a color that

  • everybody can see, make sure mechanical noise is not an issue, and you want to make sure

  • the temperature is comfortable. I have been a victim of this myself. I have summer institutes

  • every year and I used to do them over at the Union, and the first year that I did it I

  • did not bother going ahead of time and checking what the temperature was. It was in the middle

  • of summer and I thought everything would be okay, but one of the rooms we were in had

  • the temperature set at 55 degrees, so half of my class is standing out in the hallway

  • shivering and not getting anything I had to say because they were more focused on how

  • cold they were. The next year I sent out an email saying bring a sweatshirt because last

  • year we had this issue. Well, everybody shows up in long sleeve shirts and it is 76 degrees

  • in the room and everybody is sweating. There can be a big problem if you do not have temperature

  • set the right way. And this is the kind of thing that we want you to look at and just

  • think about. It just helps you think about and make sure that the classroom is physically

  • accessible before all your students get there. I will tell you this as well. We do have a

  • website, education.ui.edu/universalaccess, which has a lot of this information including

  • this checklist that you can take and take a look at and actually download right from

  • there and use it in the class. What are we talking about with universal design in the

  • class presentation? Well, when we talk about this there are a couple things that we hit

  • on, one of them being in the preparation format you want to determine essentials of the class,

  • you want to reflect on the message that you are going to use, and you are going to vary

  • these messages so that you are providing that multiple means of presentation. You want to

  • incorporate supports wherever possible, and try to incorporate familiar technologies for

  • your students as well. When we determine the essentials, what we talk about here and when

  • we are goal writing is we want to talk about what the student has to know and has to be

  • able to do by the end of the class and then how can the student demonstrate that knowledge.

  • For example, if you are in a history class and you were learning about the civil war

  • and you wanted a product to show that the student understood the issues around the civil

  • war, your goal probably would not have to be by the end of the class the student is

  • going to write a report on the civil war. When you do something like that, when you

  • say write a report in the goal, it is not a very universally designed goal because you

  • are locking the student into one mode of demonstrating what they learn. If you are really looking

  • at universal design for learning, a more appropriate goal might be something like by the end of

  • the class, students will demonstrate an understanding of the issues leading to the Civil War. By

  • leaving it vague enough like that, by saying demonstrate an understanding, you are allowing

  • for multiple pathways in doing that. It could be via writing a report. It could be some

  • other type of project. It could be giving a presentation. Really, that is where we need

  • to look at what are the essentials of this class, and in that first goal, is it essential

  • that the student knows how to write a report? In some cases, that is the case and that is

  • fine. But it is essential that the student understands and has knowledge of the civil

  • war. In this case, the essential is an understanding of the civil war, so we want to make sure

  • they can demonstrate that in multiple ways, multiple means expression at working the goals

  • there. We also want to look at varying methods. Again, we talked about multiple means of representation

  • and not everybody benefits well by sitting and listening to lectures. You can lecture

  • and incorporate videos and incorporate multimedia presentation, giving students choices in how

  • they re going to access things, having discussion sections, having discussions about things,

  • doing group work, doing simulations, if possible all of those things provide multiple means

  • of representation of material and you are more likely to cast a wide net and get the

  • information that you want out to your students if you are doing things like this. Although

  • this is kind of a game for the higher education setting, the same thing falls into place in

  • a K-12 setting as well. The more different ways you provide information, the more students

  • are going to benefit there. We talk about class materials, and this whole thing is just

  • introduction to UDL, just giving you some ideas and some idea of what it is. When we

  • talk about materials, we are talking about providing supports in the class, and that

  • kind of start by having digital text. The reason we want to have a digital text is because

  • it really is accessible to everybody, because there is so much that we can do with it. If

  • you think about a physical textbook, that is inaccessible to people with visual impairments.

  • People with physical disabilities cannot turn the page. Sometimes it is inaccessible to

  • people that speak other languages. Sometimes it is inaccessible to people that prefer to

  • listen as opposed to reading. If we have digital text, we can take that and we can do just

  • about anything we want with it. We can print braille from it. We can turn it into audios

  • and we can listen to it. We can make it large print. We can have it read out loud on the

  • computer. We can change the colors, we can change the background colors, and we can manipulate

  • it in any way to make it accessible to just about anyone else. Also, it is sustainable.

  • It is something that we do not have to kill all kinds of trees to print out huge textbooks

  • if we are using digital text. Also, if we have digital text, students that prefer to

  • print something out and read it can still do that. It is very, very versatile. We are

  • talking about choosing textbooks. If you choose textbooks that are in a digital form, that

  • gives students a choice and that is a way of means of multiple means of representation.

  • If the student wants to buy a textbook, they can. If they want to download it and access

  • it on a computer, they can. In college you want to choose your text and readings early

  • so that students who need to get it converted can do that. I guess it is the same in a K-12

  • setting because in Iowa, if you are using the Braille School or the Iowa Department

  • for the Blind to create braille or to create alternative text formats, they do need it

  • six months in advance. You can provide the learning supports in digital text forms as

  • well, so if you are providing class notes or a syllabus or handouts having that in a

  • digital form that people can access on a computer or print out if they would like to. Along

  • those same lines, when you are choosing text, another concept in universal design here with

  • the multiple means of representation and multiple means of engagement is to give students a

  • choice of the textbook they want to use. Find multiple books that provide the same information.

  • You do not necessarily have to assign a chapter then, but find the concept that the student

  • needs to have access to. That can go a long way to kind of provide multiple means of engagement

  • as well. We talked about providing supports. Some of the things we talked about were providing

  • outlines, class notes, PowerPoint, and these are all common accommodations for students

  • with learning disabilities and those who struggle with not taking in class. But if you are providing

  • class outlines, then the students, every student, is going to understand the organizational

  • structure of the class, and then you will have a framework for taking notes if you are

  • doing that. All of these things, including class notes, will free up students and they

  • will pay more attention and participate a lit bit better in class while still getting

  • the main information down. So this is a big help and this is something that is real important

  • to your students with learning disabilities that might struggle with sitting here and

  • taking notes in class. But it is also just going to help free up everybody for better

  • discussions, better participation, and a better understanding of what is going on in class.

  • When you do this, you provide class notes, it s also going to challenge you as a teacher

  • a little bit to give the students a little bit more than what you might be providing

  • directly in notes to generate a little bit better discussion and to generate a different

  • types of class that then leads to your multiple means of representation as well. We talked

  • about implementing technologies that students might want to look at in class or using some

  • of the everyday technology in your class as well. One of the ways to do this that we are

  • starting to play around with a little bit is through the use of QR codes, and a QR code

  • is what you see on your screen there. You see these all over the place now. Basically

  • what it allows you to do is if you have a smart phone or tablet and you have a picture

  • of that thing, it is going to take you to whatever you have linked to it. Students are

  • using iPads in the class, maybe you can provide a QR code that links directly to your notes

  • or your slides or your syllabus. They are very easy to make. They are free to make.

  • You go to qrcode.kaywa.com, all it asks is for a link, so if you have your notes you

  • put them online and you can link it on there and then you can save that QR code and put

  • it on a PowerPoint slide in the beginning of class and students can snap a picture or

  • you can pass around a piece of paper with it on there, and then students can get their

  • notes directly on their mobile device. It is certainly a way to engage students a little

  • bit differently using technology. Another way to engage students is through a tool called

  • polleverywhere.com. Polleverywhere.com allows us to create response polls and embed them

  • directly into our PowerPoint and what this will have on it is the texting codes, so a

  • student would text the number and the answer that they would choose on the screen to whatever

  • number is up there as well, this is all provided through this PowerPoint, and what you are

  • going to see that s cool is if you have internet access, you are going to see the students'

  • responses starting to appear on the screen. It is a way to tap into using the technology

  • with which they are already familiar using the technology that they have in classroom

  • for a good purpose, to be able to take in information about what they understand. There

  • are multiple ways to use this. You can have a multiple-choice poll where you can ask a

  • question about something you just lectured about and you can see the understanding that

  • the students have there. You can have a free response poll and that is a nice way to say

  • does anybody have questions, and some of the students that might be embarrassed to raise

  • their hand and ask a question can type that question out and then it can appear on the

  • screen at the front of the class. It s really neat tool and I have used it in several lectures

  • I have given here on campus. It is free up to 30 responses. That does not mean you start

  • paying beyond 30 responses, it just shuts off at that point. So again, there is the

  • free version of word find and you just go to polleverywhere.com or pollanywhere.com,

  • they will both take you to the same spot, and you set up your own account and you have

  • got these polls that you can run. There is a paid version where you can get more responses

  • out of it or you can cut some nice key words which might be a little bit easier, but the

  • 30 free response things works pretty well for just about everybody. Again, it is a nice

  • way to have that multiple means of engagement for students and also to incorporate common

  • technology to the classroom. I do want to take a second to show you a website. This

  • is aimed more at K-12 learners. It is called the Cass UDL lesson builder. What this is

  • going to do is provide educators with models and tools to create adept lessons to increase

  • access for all. Lessonbuilder.cass.org I am going to take you there really quick and I

  • am just going to show you what this is all about. Again, it is lessonbuilder.cass.org.

  • We go here, you would have to set up the username and password, log in, and there are three

  • things you can do here. You can learn about universal design for learning. We click on

  • that to learn about UDL and it is going to talk about a lot of what we talked about today.

  • This is kind of cool because they incorporate UDL right into this. If you want to learn

  • more about UDL, you can watch a video on it, you can read about it, or you can try a fun

  • activity to learn more about it, so there it is built in by multiple means of representation.

  • If we head back to the main screen, you can explore what a model UDL lesson plan would

  • look like. If we look at this, here are lesson plans for students in science from pre-K to

  • grade 8, and we ll just choose one of these about the life cycle of a butterfly, so this

  • is going to walk us through and provide us with a unit description, provide us with a

  • description for the day, and then along the side over here are UDL connections and where

  • those connections might be made. If you are looking at the description of a unit and you

  • want to see where this UDL connection is made, we can tap on that and it s going to highlight

  • that up in the unit description right there where it says students will engage in several

  • activities to support their learning and they ll have several different opportunities throughout

  • the next two days to share their newfound knowledge. What this does is shows that the

  • connection is being made in the recognition network, s here it says represents information

  • in multiple formats, and students will have multiple ways of engaging in these activities,

  • and the effective network which offers students a choice of content and tools and a choice

  • of books to study from and it gives you a UDL reflection. It also has a means to listen

  • to this, so they build UDL right into this as well. If you do not want to read it and

  • would rather listen, you can click on listen and you can listen to what that UDL connection

  • is. Let us take a look we talked about goal writing before. There are goals here, the

  • unit goals, students will identify and describe the lifecycle of a butterfly, students will

  • demonstrate the life cycle of a butterfly, and students will demonstrate their understanding

  • that at the beginning of an animal's life cycle, some young animals represent adults

  • while others do not. We click UDL connections here, it is going to show just what we talked

  • about before: these goals provide flexible opportunities for demonstrating skills. It

  • does not lock you into how they are going to demonstrate understanding. It just shows

  • you that they are going to demonstrate understanding. We go down a little bit more and here is the

  • method the UDL connection within their methods. It is to provide multiple means of representing

  • what they know again. A student will ask another student for a different thought and so on

  • until the student thoughts are represented. That s kind of student led discussions that

  • could be a multiple means of engagement as well. So this is kind of what a lesson plan

  • would look like that had UDL components to it. Again, you can just click on all these

  • little UDL connections that highlight what is universally designed and how it is universally

  • designed. It goes through the whole process all the way to wrapping up an assessment down

  • here and it provides materials that you might need. Here are the books and articles of UDL

  • connections. It shows that it shows multiple types of books and articles to look at, multiple

  • price range, and multiple challenge range as well for different students. I take you

  • back here two levels here. I want to show you the last thing, which is create and save

  • my own UDL lesson plans. So we go into create our own UDL lesson plans, we can set up how

  • we want to run this. I have not put anything into this, but we can edit our lesson, the

  • title, the subject, the grade level, the duration. We go to edit a unit description, and we can

  • start typing in here and there is a little bit called the more information button and

  • it is going to provide us with what this is. If there is more than one lesson for which

  • you need to write a unit description, you might want to include the number of lessons.

  • It gives us an idea of what we are doing here. We go to lesson for the day, and we can type

  • in our thing and we have more information here and it should help us connect some UDL

  • options to this as well. Again, we can go down here as we take a look at maybe unit

  • goals. There is more information here that provides us information on how you want to

  • write these goals. It gives you a lot of information about that. Here it talks about UDL piece,

  • a goal, or objective that is confused by adding the means of achieving the goal, such as all

  • students will write about a location. It may limit how the student is going to demonstrate

  • understanding. So it gives you some of these UDL concepts and what to look for right as

  • you are building this. So this kind of guides you through writing a UDL lesson plan then

  • you can save this here, you can access it here, and it really provides a nice tool to

  • watch this step by step through the universal design for learning process in writing a lesson

  • plan. It is a really valuable tool. It is a free website. You create a free username

  • to get into that. It really can be a valuable tool for helping you to create lessons that

  • will be beneficial to everybody. That showed us a little bit about assignments and how

  • to make assignments universally designed by allowing multiple means of expression. Again,

  • not all students learn in the same light. This provides choice and provides multiple

  • opportunities for students that throughout the semester could be beneficial in an essay,

  • presentation, group project, and other projects. So again, there are two ways to do that, providing

  • a choice for students so they can choose how they want to do it, what type of assignment

  • they want to do, and providing different types of assignments for the class can be helpful

  • there. And then there are assessments. The idea of assessment in UDL is that you want

  • them to be more frequent and shorter. You do not necessarily just want to have two big

  • exams. By providing more frequent shorter exams and shorter in length of the test itself,

  • giving them the same amount of time to do those shorter exams could be important. Some

  • of the reason for that is one of the most common accommodations is the need for extra

  • time in taking exams, and what is shown with some of these studies have shown that if you

  • provide extra time on the exam and not a timed test, so not when you are trying to figure

  • out if everybody knows their multiple tables quickly, but in a non-timing test, as you

  • provide extra time, it s going to benefit your students with disabilities but it s not

  • going to benefit your students without. Typically your students with disabilities are just going

  • to need more time to get your answers down. For a student without a disability, you either

  • know the material or you do not. That extra time is not really going to benefit you all

  • that much. So when you are providing these universally designed assessments, instead

  • of maybe two tests throughout the course of a semester, maybe four tests throughout the

  • course of a semester, and if the student takes half the time to do each one of those or they

  • focus on less material, it s going to allow the student to show you a little bit more

  • of what they ve learned, and it also allows her to focus on less material, and thus probably

  • retain more information as well. At a K-12 level, evaluation needs to be consistent.

  • You need to be constantly following up with students, asking questions as assessments

  • throughout the project and throughout the day, and just a constant assessment to see

  • how you are doing can be helpful. That talks about how constantly monitoring is important,

  • but also soliciting student feedback and finding out how you are doing universally designing

  • the class. Monitoring student engagement is important as well. At campus here, we work

  • with our group that does aides forms the end of semester evaluations for teachers and we

  • have questions on UDL incorporated into the pool, so teachers can go in there and choose

  • to ask their students how they did with incorporating universal design for learning. So that is

  • something that a teacher can do to assess their own success also. There is a lot of

  • technology that can be helpful as well. The smart pen is really cool. We will do our next

  • webinar on that. I will just tell you what it is and a little bit about how we use it.

  • The smart pen is a pen and a recording device, so you could go into class, use a special

  • notebook, tap on record, and it records what you are saying and when you write a note,

  • it links the note to what was recorded. A teacher or student could then limit what they

  • are writing and listen more in class, because when they go back and tap it, it plays back

  • from there. We did a neat project here where we gave professors those pens, had them have

  • a different student in class take notes with that each period, and then put those notes

  • online so that everybody had access, and that was the way it was a universally designed

  • class note and it was provided in multiple formats, written and auditory, and it provided

  • that class support. I ll talk about that a little bit more next month in our webinar

  • as well. Text readers can be important in the UDL by providing that access and that

  • multiple means of representations. Nook study is a good free one out there that student

  • can download text into. They can download books from Barnes and Noble. They can download

  • PDF s into that listen to it. There are a couple of good PDF creation sites out there

  • or MP3 creation sites out there. The best on is probably yakitome.com. Students can

  • have texts, PDF s, word documents, internet sites saved on their computer and they can

  • go into that yakitome.com and they can direct the website to those works and then have them

  • turned into an auditory format, an MP3 that they can download and listen to while they

  • re on the bus or while they re working out. This is good for kids with a learning disability

  • that might help them listen to their text a little bit better than they can read it.

  • That has a pretty good voice, too. That is a nice free website for creating MP3 s out

  • of text. Another tool that is out there is the PDF tool foxit reader. That allows you

  • to annotate, allows you to highlight, and allows you to extract notes that you take

  • from a PDF. That is also free and also another nice technology that might be helpful in a

  • universal design setting. That will just about do it for me today. Here is my contact information.

  • Again, my name is Jim Stachowiak. M email is james-stachowiak@uiowa.edu. My phone number

  • is 319-335-5280. I can be reached there if you have questions on universal design for

  • learning. We also did a universal design for learning project on campus. It is called the

  • universal access project and there is our website where you can find out a lot more

  • about what we talked about in our introduction here today and where we talk about universal

  • design for learning principles. That is at education.uiowa.edu/universal access. So again,

  • this was meant to get you a little bit interested in universal design for learning and show

  • you some of the principles involved in this and maybe in the future we can go a little

  • bit deeper into some of these things. Hopefully you got a good overview and you got some good

  • tools that can help. If you ever have questions, feel free to contact me. Thank you.

Hi, everybody, and welcome to today s webinar. Even though the university

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