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.