Chapters 6 & 8

My initial impression of chapter 6 was that it would be really cool to attend a early 20th century school, like the one in Little House on the Prairie. But anyways, I really agreed with the notion of learning centers infusing "teaching practices that have been called "culturally responsive," "culturally appropriate," "culturally compatible," and "culturally relevant." Because I think that understanding the culture of the classroom and the students is one of the most aspects of pedagogical proficiency. In addition, community centered learning environments are just as important, because teachers need to know where their students come from and what the true essence of the neighborhood is.

Chapter 8 reaffirmed some conclusions that I had already made in this class. Specifically the idea, that creating a UDL environment in one's classroom was contingent on the support of the schools administration. As such, an effective technological infrastructure and support system is also needed, as well as teacher training and support.
Because, theoretically a teacher could implement a UDL approach without this support, in the same manner that Michelle Pfeiffer or Hilary Swank saved minority students from a doomed fate, but in reality the notion of doing this on your own, is as realistic as those movies.

Chapter 6 UDL

I really enjoyed reading this chapter because it was well organized and highlighted key points that made a lot of sense to me. For instance, I was in total agreement with the authors statement that "recognition networks need exposure to multiple examples. By seeing, hearing, smelling, or touching many instances of a pattern, recognition networks can extract the critical features that define that pattern and identify new instances that share those features. Thus, exposure to multiple examples supports bottom-up recognition processes." This idea also applies to the manner in which students express what they have learned. As such, UDL needs to be implemented in these situations because as the article states "another essential part of teaching a strategic skill is providing learners with chances to demonstrate that skill. Demonstration challenges learners to consolidate and apply all parts of the process. It also elicits feedback from a broader audience...In this way, demonstrating skills and knowledge can factor powerfully into motivation, helping learners experience the "why" of learning."
Furthermore, the chapter also pointed out how multimedia needs to used in order to make individualized approaches to teaching feasible, and I completely agree with that statement and point of view because of what I have experienced in this class. Using multimedia in the classroom really does facilitate a complete UDL approach.

Chapter 4: What is UDL for learning

Seriously, what is Universal Design for Learning? It makes perfect sense, but I find it very complicated to totally comprehend in a practical sense. To be more specific, how does one make a total UDL environment? In a sense, and quoting directly from the chapter "UDL opens the door for rethinking how we teach". I am not inferring that this is a bad thing, but rather an extremely challenging task. As such, UDL seems like its a state of mind(LOL)and in all honesty, I think its a leap in the right direction, somewhat revolutionary and cool. The chapter used really good analogies and classroom scenarios to illustrate what UDL is all about, hopefully, I'll be a master at it one day.

Summary of Techies MacArthur and Edyburn articles

The TC Techies interpretation of the MacArthur and Edyburn Article’s was extremely insightful and examined the benefits and drawbacks of assistive technology and compensatory assistive technology vs. remediation.
In general the group agreed as Kimberly Simon pointed out, “there is merit in using assistive technology even in situations where it is being used as compensation. Any disagreements with in the group came up regarding how often the technology should be used, and whether it was truly beneficial when many students were not learning their target skills.
The majority of the group believed that there should not be a greater emphasis on either assitive technology as compensation or remediation. Rather, most members pointed out the benefits and weaknesses of both approaches, and for the most part, concluded that a mixture of both would be the most effective approach.
I have also included some interesting thoughts that I thought I should share.
Marielle wrote that “maybe remediation will be more effective for a student with a learning disability; the student may not need a certain technology to get by in school, that it is not their only way to function in a classroom. Rather, interventions with remediation will work better; by using alternative teaching strategies”.
And Kristen Schwarz added, “Technology…should be used to reinforce regular instruction. These computer technologies can help children practice skills that they learn in the classroom, but I do not think that they should be used to teach actual skills. But, of course, every student is different and if you are at the end of the road with a student (you've tried all other options) then, trying something is better then doing nothing.
Overall, everyone in the group made great points and it was a really interesting discussion.

Alternate format

In all honesty, I wasn't impressed with the Kerzweil program. I found it very sterile and not very user friendly. However, I really don't know too much about the program and it's capabilities, therefore my initial impressions are probably not that important.

This is The End....

Greetings and Salutations,

I have seen the 'low tech' light! My original idea for my final UDL project involved making a video, and then using a portable DVD player to show my student a more concise picture of what the instruction was. However, while I was making the video at my house, I had an epiphany, a revelation, on how to make my instructions easier, more fall proof, and lastly, low tech.

Initial Idea for Final Step

Initial Set of Instructions.

PEC Board

Step.11- Turn on water & rinse vegetables for 10 seconds while moving colander from side to side. (This is the written set of instructions that I follow on my task analysis sheet when assessing his performance).

Step.11 (which student uses)- Digital picture still (about size of matchbook) depicting a colander filled with salad, running under water. However, because it is a still photograph, it cannot show the desired action of moving the colander from side to side.

PEC of Step.11

New Set of Instruction.

Step .11- Place vegetables in "Expanding Colander" and rinse for 10 seconds.

Why?- Because this takes all the problems out of the equation. The design of an expanding colander ensures that all of the vegetables will be saturated with water. In addition, the student will no longer experience difficulties manipulating the colander under the water.

New PEC of Step.11
Picture of 'low tech' Colander

UDL part 2

In the first part of my UDL assignment I discussed a specific step in a task that one of my students could not master. It involved not being able to decipher a PEC that was intended to instruct a student to move a colander filled with salad from side to side under running water.
My steps that I would implement to help the student master this task would be:
1. Create a PEC of a play button found on the many portable DVD players in the school, and placing the PEC in the corresponding spot of his PEC board of how to make a salad.
2. Shoot a video on a camcorder from a first person point of view of moving a colander side to side under running water for 10 seconds. This video clip would also contain a person off camera counting to ten and saying "side to side" while the colander was under water.
3. Placing a portable player DVD player on the window sill that is directly behind the sink, and having the DVD cued to the point where when he presses the play button the segment that I recorded starts playing.
The reason I chose this UDL approach is because it taps into the auditory and visual aspects of his brain. The still photo of a PEC did not represent a clear enough instruction of what he was supposed to do and for how long. On the other hand, the video will present a concise instruction or protocol of what to do and for how long.

UDL part 1

PEC of step.11

(note the size of the PEC

in comparison to my small

carnie hand)

Pec Board

The set of instructions that I chose to highlight for my UDL project are taken directly from my job. Which just to remind everyone is at a private school for autistic students. The school uses an ABA approach to teaching, well at least theoretically, and the pupil to student ratio is 1:1.

One of the children that I work with makes a salad everyday as part of his adaptive living skills curriculum. The method that was implemented to teach him this task was a PEC board that uses small digital pictures organized horizontally in the sequential order of the task. This method works wonderfully until he gets to step. 11, which he hasn't been able to master or move on from for about 6 weeks now.

Step.11- Turn on water & rinse vegetables for 10 seconds while moving colander from side to side. (This is the written set of instructions that I follow on my task analysis sheet when assessing his performance).

Step.11 (which student uses)- Digital picture still (about size of matchbook) depicting a colander filled with salad, running under water. However, because it is a still photograph, it cannot show the desired action of moving the colander from side to side.

Interview with Dr. Richard Keller

In terms of comparing the two different formats, I found the "points to consider" portion of the word document easier to read and more clearly organized. Perhaps it was due to the bold letters and the color of the text. On the other hand, the PDF format had the "access devices" portion of the information more clearly organized. Mostly due to the fact that it wasn't floating about in a white background. As such, all of these different factors made me realize just how important visual representations are in learning. In addition, I also thought about how I could incorporate sound and student participation into the document.
Dr. Keller's insight was extremely fascinating. I was really moved with his sense of pride. I guess I never really thought about some of things he brought up. Particularly his story about not wanting to use the cane and sometimes pretending to be drunk on the subway in order to hide his blindness. It reminded me about this one particular student that I worked with, who hated it when his para helped him in class. I always got the sense that he might be embarrassed because he was the only who had a para in a classroom of thirty students. And after hearing Dr. Keller's story, perhaps he was embarrassed.
This story also segues into the difference between using the terms assistive vs. adaptive technology. In someways, I felt that Dr. Keller was alluding to the fact that the term assistive technology had a negative connotation attached to it, not as extreme as calling him a cripple but negative and degrading nonetheless.
Finally, Dr. Keller's assertion that just because a teacher throws a piece of adaptive technology at a student that would benefit them, doesn't mean that they would necessarily want to use it. This idea made me realize how important it is to take into account yours students feelings when making a decision about their education. Because if you don't consider this, you might actually cause a lot more harm than you'll ever know. I hate to sound so dramatic, but growing up in a "white town" as one the few minorities in it, I still vividly remember a lot instances when my feelings or culture were not taken into account.

Chapter 3: Why We Need Flexible Instructional Media

In my mind, digital media is essentially progressive teaching. Not only would be a valuable and revolutionary tool in a special needs environment but in general education one as well. Mostly due to the fact that it incorporates and touches upon the three different brain networks that that one uses to learn. Therefore, this would undoubtedly benefit all the different types of learners that a teacher encounters in a classroom. In addition, the most interesting passage that I found in the article was the idea that “new media opens new doors to diverse learners. Digital capacity to combine and transform text, speech, and images leads to a more diversified palette for communication-one that accommodate the varied strengths and weaknesses of each medium and every brain.

How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School

The comparison that is made between experts and novices made a lot of sense to me and I found it extremely interesting. However, I found the article to be redundant at first because I was thinking to myself, experts are more knowledgeable than novices, tell something I don’t know. But after continuing to read on, I found that my initial impressions were a general belief that many people had of experts, which is that it “is someone who knows all the answers.” When in fact what differentiates an expert learner from a novice learner is how they notice, “organize, represent, and interpret information in their environment. Be that as it may, the most poignant piece of information that I found in the reading was that “expertise in area does not guarantee that one can effectively teach others about that area. Expert teachers know the kinds of difficulties that students are likely to face, and they know how to tap into their students’ existing knowledge in order to make new information meaningful plus assess their students’ progress…. Expert teachers have acquired pedagogical content knowledge and not just content knowledge.”

2001: An online course odyssey

The program that I am in, is multiple and severe disabilities. I graduated in May from NYU, with a degree in early childhood/special education. I have student taught in two inclusion classrooms and one self-contained classroom. In addition, I currently work 35 hours a week in a private school for autistic children.

I have never taken an online course before, but I think its actually rather exciting in a science fiction type of way. I hope by the end of the course, that I have a solid grasp and foundation on how to implement technology into all facets of my teaching.

What I bring the table is determination! Not an unrealistic "I want to save the world" determination, but one that steers me to gain the most from studies. In the hopes of being the best prepared and knowledgeable teacher that I can be. Not only for my benefit, but more importantly for the benefit of the students and families that I will work with in the future.