“Universal Design for Who?”

“The Center for Leadership in …What exactly do you folks do out there in Lorain County, Ohio?”

Listen and Learn:

In late November 007, Jerry Skully interviewed me for his AM Radio Show, Building a Caring Community on WOBL 130 AM in Oberlin, Ohio. The interview played on the air December 9th.

It was a great experience for me to talk with Jerry about The Center for Leadership in Education, about Universal Design for Learning, about the role of technology in education and a little about myself as an educator. Plus, I learned some interview helpful techniques from Jerry! Now I can officially say that I am a radio celebrity. LOL.

Thank you for listening.

The Strategic Network

• Learn about UDL through videos, reading or activities.
• Watch the video clip, The Brain Research
• Read about the Strategic Network in Chapter 2 : Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age - on-line at CAST.

• Provide students with models of skilled performance
• Allow students to practice with supports
• Provide ongoing relevant feedback (descriptive)
• Allow students to demonstrate skills in multiple modes

• Ohio Treasure Chest Podcasts
• NCCS Technology Tutorials http://www.northcanton.sparcc.org/~technology/Tutorials/index.html

I attended a class last Thursday, Podcasting with Garage Band. Sorry PC Friends, Garage Band is only for Mac users. *Windows/PC users see note below.

Anywhoo… Using Garage Band to create my very first solo podcast was SO SUPER EASY - it was like, click, click, speak, WHALA!

Seriously.

I text-messaged my hub from the class and said, “I want an Apple laptop.”

I could tell he was laughing at me when he replied, “You have one at home.”

… I have a 5-year old Apple laptop at home that I use only when traveling -Apple laptops are very sleek and have superior batteries.

I said I want a “new one.”

No response.

We were given a script for the class and I had to whisper into the laptop mic as there were others in the class recording their audio at the same time. We inserted images to compliment the story for an enhanced podcast. Since I had to leave class early, I only managed to e-mail this audio file to myself. I saved the Garage Band file to a jump drive and hope to snag Jeff’s Mac to complete my project later. It took less than 5 minutes to get into GB and record my audio - organizing and writing is the difficult part about podcasting. That’s why you don’t hear more out of me on “Teacher Feature.”

Oh, btw this podcast isn’t much to listen to,�although I am very excited about experimenting with this Super Friendly piece of software, Garage Band -�Go Apple!

*Windows/PC users, try a program called Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ - other UDL members report using it and say it is very easy. I’ve been told that is isn’t as slick as Garage Band. You’ll also need to download and install the LAME MP3 encoder http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/faq?s=install&i=lame-mp3. Funny name isn’t it.

*Don’t forget to visit the Educational Podcast Network (EPN) http://www.epnweb.org/index.php 

Strategic Network: Practice w/ Supports

First, visit CAST to learn about or review the Strategic Network.

• Learn about UDL through videos, reading or activities.

• Watch video clip, The Brain Research

• Read Chapter : Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age on-line at CAST.

• Explore a model UDL lesson plan (science, grade levels 3-5) - be sure to click on the UDL features.

All of the selected resources that were shared during this Network Meeting have been moved to our website and are organized by content area. Visit the Web Resources page to find these links.

During the PD I attended last week, our presenter asked how we provide students with descriptive feedback.

As I looked around the room, observing grade-level groups of teachers, huddled around chart paper, listing techniques used - I couldn’t help but wonder, “Do stickers count as descriptive feedback?”

Since I don’t have a grade-level, I decided to create a quick list of some technology ways that teachers can provide students w/ feedback. Here’s what I jotted down in under 5-minutes:

• Student Responders (Clickers)
• Websites w/ interactive challenges and built-in answers (also serves as practice w/ supports)
• Comments inserted into electronic documents
• Progressbook or other online grading-program that allows student and parent access
• Technology to display answers/comments/prompts (ticker tape, electronic messaging boards)
• PowerPoint or other presentation software for lectures w/ cloze activities or quizzes at end w/ answers built in
• Audible books - chapter summaries w/ quizzes and built-in answers
• Adding audio files to computer activities/electronic documents (Inspiration & Kidpsiration, Websites, Promethean Board software has the audio feature that allows for voice recording) 
• Phone calls - phones are still a very usable mode of communication  technology
• Blogs, Wikis, E-mail, Chat, text messaging, IM

What else?

What did you do over the holiday?

I spent the last two days sitting in mandated professional development workshops. During the introductory rah-rah meeting with the entire district staff, the presenters showed us the Shift Happens video. We’ve all seen it already, haven’t we?

We have it linked on the blog here and have used it for UDL sessions in the past. You can perform a basic Internet search for Shift Happens or Did You Know and you’ll find it - no problem - there are probably 30 versions.

Anyways, the main presenter repeatedly repeated the statement from Shift, “We’re living in Exponential Times.”

What does that mean, exactly? Exponential Times.

Did she honestly know what she was saying by using the phrase, Exponential Times?

The Shift Happens video doesn’t do much for me.

Am I supposed to be frightened by all the data?

Alarmed?

Confused?

Am I supposed to question the U.S. world view, i.e. suddenly realizing that The United States is not at the center of the globe - similarly to the commentary in the video that England was once the most powerful nation in the world with the highest standard of living … in 1900.  

Is the music supposed to stir a deep sense of eminent doom?

Well… That’s probably the only part of the video that I think about (mostly w/ amusement) -I think about the music. The music used in the Shift video is a score from an Academy Award Winning soundtrack from a film about a war of men, the death of a way of life, the peril of a continent, love that shouldn’t be, lovers slain and the last remaining members of an indigenous tribe: The Last of the Mohicans.  

I wonder if the Shift creator used that particular piece of music because it is from that film and they wanted to emphasize a point or simply b/c it sounded good? 

I do sort of get annoyed when people call it, Did You Know? Did they totally miss the bad pun?

I don’t know if I even think all of the stats and data are 100% accurate. I don’t know if it truly is that big of a deal to me. Yeah, so what - Shift Happens. Obviously.

And in the scope of technology, the video is already dated.

Hello UDLers! Linked here is the Technology Time PowerPoint Show from our November meetings.

Underlined text in the show serves as hyperlinks to referenced resources on the web. We used the Double-Entry Journal for note-taking during the presentation and a review of the basic UDL Principles is built into the show.

As always, please lmk what you need for future sessions.