Perspectives during Distance Learning

The Cornavirus pandemic has shed a new spotlight on the power of UDL. In this new landscape, the need for digital materials has risen to the level of an imperative.  Teachers have a new motivation to leverage UDL tools and strategies.

Teachers have to consider how to instruct students in a whole new way. Because they cannot see the students interact with the lessons and activities in real time, they need to plan much more strategically. Even where virtual meetings are being used, those meetings represent a fraction of the face time that teachers had with students before.

Teachers who embraced UDL prior to this change are at an advantage. Accessible materials, which once meant accessible to those with disabilities, now means accessible to everyone - in other words - it begins with the very existence of the materials in a digital format. Teachers who already knew how to provision these materials, whether they be worksheets, books, or teacher presentations, are able to continue with barely a hitch.

Distance learning has also highlighted the UDL principle that students must be taught to be strategic in their learning. Now, there is no paraeductaor to prompt children who had difficulties with attention, executive functioning. Teachers cannot rely on a specialist to notice when students are struggling with a concepts and address it on the fly.

In the next few days, I plan to highlight specific strategies I see teachers using during distance learning that illuminate UDL strategies.

It's not what you do, it's how you think about what you do

Universal Design for Learning is not something that you do, it's how you think about what you do.  For many, an introduction to UDL consists of the UDL Guidelines.  Unfortunately, this can lead to a belief that you can "do" UDL.  I even heard a teacher reflect once that she thought UDL was a good thing to do, but not all of the time.

Don't get me wrong, the Guidelines are useful.  However, the essence of UDL is the core belief that there is a pathway for everyone to learn.  Pulling guidelines out of a hat will not ensure that each and every student will learn from YOUR presentation, will be engaged by the choices YOU have made, or will demonstrate their full potential with the assignments and assessments YOU have chosen.  The essence of UDL is building choices for students and providing them with the experiences and freedom to understand and choose what will work best for them.

What are "barriers" from a UDL perspective?

hurdle

Originally uploaded by n.kuzma

One of the key concepts of UDL is understanding the barriers to student learning that the curriculum methods and materials present. In training workshops, I often use examples of lesson materials and ask teachers to identify the barriers that students may experience. So, for example:

Curriculum material: Novel
Barrier: Student with a learning disability cannot read independently
UDL solution: Provide digital text of novel so that student can use a text reader

Simple - right?

Well, not so fast.

When I ask teachers to reflect on a lesson they recently taught and identify the barriers that were present for students, they sometimes give answers like:

• "This student is just not motivated. He refuses to work."
• "Some groups did not manage their time wisely, therefore not completing the task."

Those sound like barriers that YOU, the teacher, experience when teaching a lesson. If your analysis goes something like that, then you need to turn the concept of barriers around.

Barriers - in the UDL sense - are barriers that students experience from YOUR lesson or materials. Someone in a wheel chair would find stairs to be a barrier (and, when he doesn't make it to class on time, you wouldn't say, "well, he just isn't interested in Chemistry class.")

Think of barriers as the hurdles that you place along a race track. The height and frequency of those hurdles will affect the time it takes your students to reach the finish line. Oh, and yes, maybe even the motivation your students have to get there. If the finish line is the curriculum objective, then your job is to carefully consider the individual needs of your students and your class as a whole to determine what hurdles you have placed in front of them. For some students, a hurdle will be insurmountable and the student will never approach the finish line. For others, the frequency of hurdles will be discouraging. For some, the very same thing will not present a hurdle at all.

Another way to understand if your analysis of barriers is appropriate, is to look at the locus of control. A barrier like, "His parents don't support him in doing homework" leaves you with no action to take. You can't control a students' parents - even if you'd like to think that a phone call from you will make all the difference. What you can control is your lesson and the materials that you use to teach it. Look there for the barriers, and when you find them, do something about it.

Teaching UDL

I've been training teachers in all aspects of technology use in the classroom for more than 15 years now.  In the last five years, the foundation for everything I've taught has been the concept of universal design for learning (UDL).  UDL is a framework that helps us understand why technology integration is critical.  It provides a blue print for using technology as a tool to accomplish better teaching and learning.  The name of this blog is "Teaching UDL," which is a play on words.  It includes thoughts about how to better teach using UDL principles.  It also includes thoughts on ways to teach others how to teach with UDL in mind.

I'll synthesize observations about my experience and about what I read and learn from others.  So whether you are a teacher in the classroom, or a teacher of other teachers, there should be something of relevance to inform your work.