Learning - Not Just For All Ages, But Also All Minds

One of my favorite parts of our class this semester has been the focus on Universal Design for Learning. I happen to be a more traditional learner in that I easily comprehend concepts that are spoken about or that I write down, but there have been times in my classes where I simply don’t understand what is put in front of me until I have tried several different methods of thinking about it. It reminds me of finding my way through routes I traveled in my childhood – I didn’t know to pay attention to the names of roads or buildings we traveled by, and I would be hard-pressed to find my way solely through those names now. But I have very vivid memories of what the route looked like, where we turned, and how long it took to get there. So for traveling, I use spatial and visual learning. Imagining what would happen if I had to take that very clear mental map and write a set of directions using only street names, and for a grade, makes me sympathetic towards students who have a hard time translating a lecture into solid ideas.

The Common Core Standard #5 in Speaking and Listening - CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.SL.5 Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express information and enhance understanding of presentations – most succinctly states the need for UDL principles and the ways in which digital media can help accomplish them. Despite the tendency to fall back on PowerPoint slides and lectures, there are as many ways to express information as there are children to learn it, and varying those ways of expression is the best way to ensure all the students in a class can follow your lesson. Even more, the various tools available can help students organize and present their own ideas in a way that makes sense to them. Using tools like Popplet to make intricate concept maps or Scoop.it to collect their resources can encourage students who have a fear of the blank sheet of paper to be confident in what they are planning. I was especially excited to see all the games and animations that were presented, because there are many people who learn by doing things and taking ideas apart to see how they work. To a first-grader who is very tactile and would rather be playing with LEGOs, the idea that you can make an animation in Scratch by moving around colored blocks of text is revolutionary. And getting up to move around and film things with Videolicious successfully captures the attention of children with ADHD and kinesthetic learners.

Overall, I have enjoyed the many and various tools I learned about in this class. I am not likely to go into education any time soon, but everybody winds up in the role of teacher or student at some point, and I often end up teaching the use of technology to various people at the public library where I work. When I do, I keep in mind the principles of UDL and try to teach the person in a way they can understand. I hope to take these ideas through the rest of my career.