#54 The Importance of Universal Design For Learning (UDL)

 Universal Design for Learning is a framework for designing course instruction, materials and assessment that offers all learners equal opportunities to learn without adaptation or retrofitting.  Today's episode gives parents and educators information about the origins of UDL, along with a basic understanding of the three learning networks of UDL.  You will learn why UDL is especially important for students with disabilities, and how the concepts of UDL can apply to any student at any age.  You will be able to access a free module explaining the concepts of UDL and sharing UDL methods, materials, and assessments.

Center for Applied Special Technology cast.org

Free downloadable UDL Guidelines Graphic Organizer  from Cast

Free UDL module with resources

Free Ebook, “Insights from a Disability Specialist: 9 Critical College Concerns

Transcript

Mickie  0:00  
Have you ever seen the early outtakes of Star Trek?  You know, the ones where Captain Kirk or Spock are going through the automatic doors, and instead of the automatic doors opening, they walk straight into them? Well, there's a reason for that. When they film Star Trek, they didn't have automatic doors. They had two people behind the scenes pulling the door opened in perfect timing, with Spock and Kirk and the other characters walking through the door, and sometimes their timing was just a little bit off. Automatic doors didn't really become popularized until 1960s and 70s, automatic doors are just one example of Universal Design. Other examples include curb cuts, accessible restrooms, Braille signs, fire alarms that blink, and so many other things that are designed specifically for individuals with disabilities and yet are usable and applicable and desirable for the rest of the community as well. Today, we're going to take Universal Design one step further. We're going to talk about Universal Design for Learning or commonly called UDL. And UDL is a process where the technology that is used to support a student with a disability is actually technology that is accessible to everybody. Whether that person is an elementary school child, a high schooler, a college student, or an adult learner, everybody should have access to Universal Design for Learning, UDL. So welcome to College, Disabilities, and Success, Episode 54: The Importance of Universal Design for Learning, by Mickie Hayes. The opinions in this podcast are my own, please reach out to your college physician or legal services for additional information.

Mickie  2:01  
I mentioned in the intro how the concept of Universal Design evolved into Universal Design for Learning, and Universal Design for Learning can trace its roots back to 1984. In 1984, Ann Meyer, David Rose, Grace Mio, Skip Stall, and Linda Mincing, five clinicians from the North Shore Children's Hospital in Salem, Massachusetts, got together over pizza one night and discussed how they could use a $15,000 Anonymous grant to enhance the ability of a student with a learning disability to access information more easily. And that goal quickly extended to children with physical and sensory disabilities. So the goal of this group of five was to figure out the best way to equalize access to the curriculum using technology. And from that meeting in 1984, cast.org was born. Cast is the Center for Applied Special Technology, and cast is the premier resource for all things that deal with using UDL, Universal Design for Learning. And this has been their mission since 1984. And it is not only getting stronger and better, but it is becoming the common way that we teach children to learn. So it's important that parents and teachers understand the concept of Universal Design for Learning, how it works, and how they can best use it in the classroom. When I worked at the university on the federal grant for students with intellectual disabilities, one of the tasks that I was assigned was to design a module, an online module, so that college professors could become familiar with Universal Design for Learning and use it in their classrooms. And so I sat with an expert. Her name was Mary Ann Gorman and Marianne was the actual writer of the content in the module. And we worked in partnership with the Florida Center for interactive media and the project manager Leslie Klein, and they did the fantastic tech on this module. The module is called Post-Secondary Education and Universal Design for Learning. You have free access to it, you can go through the entire module as often as you want as many times as you want to get as much information as you want. I think that you'll find it a very valuable resource, no matter if you are a parent and you want to know more about Universal Design for Learning, or a teacher in elementary school, high school ,college professor. We designed the module intentionally to be accessible to anybody and usable by everybody and you will have access to it via a link in the show notes today. The module is in five sections. We talk about introducing UDL and what they are means so you can understand exactly what's happening with Universal Design for Learning. We're going to talk about network-based goals and what those mean. We're going to talk about the methods that you can use, what kinds of materials you can use, and how to assess students using UDL, Universal Design for Learning. And when we wrote the module, we intentionally wrote it, so that we could demonstrate concepts of UDL, within the module itself. So you will see a lot of things in the module that are examples of Universal Design for Learning, UDL, as you go through the module. Anytime you see a term in this module that's in red, and you're not sure how to define it, if you click on it, the definitional pop right up on the screen. Every section has a table of contents, it has the objectives in every section, there's audio built into the system, there is a way to print the pages, there's lists of resources and references, and there is a site index at the back anything that you want to look up, you don't have to dig through the module, you can go to the site index, and it is linked automatically to the page within the module that you need to go to. And that's a very handy tool to have. Every page goes back and next, so you can manage your movement through the module very easily. Now, the first thing I want to talk about are the goals that you need to establish in Universal Design for Learning. The goals or the expected result of your learning activity. What exactly do you have in mind when the student completes the assignment? What goal Do you want them to have met? Be very, very careful that you separate your goal from what they call the means toward attainment, and means toward attainment is exactly that. What means what methods do you expect the student to use in order to reach that goal? Because what are you grading on Exactly? Are you grading on the students knowledge of that goal, what they learned from that goal? Or are you grading on their ability to show you what they learned from that goal? Let me explain that a little bit more. If your goal is for the child to write an essay, then of course, that's what you would require them to do, because that is your end goal, to see if they can write an essay. However, if your end goal is for them to show you that they are aware and understand points A, B, C, and D, and it doesn't matter if they tell you that in the form of an essay, then it shouldn't matter how you offer them the ability to share that knowledge. Because the bottom line is you want to find out if they know the information. So be very careful when you are writing goals. And you have assignments for the students in your classroom to make sure that you are grading on the goal having been met and not the means of attainment to that goal. Because that's where kids with disabilities struggle. And that's where you are testing them on their disability and not on their knowledge. And that makes a difference. And that's one reason why UDL concepts are so very, very critical and important for students with disabilities. The next thing that you want to know about goals is that they should align with the learning networks. So let's talk about learning networks for a few minutes. The human brain has three learning networks, the Recognition Learning Network, the Strategic Learning Network, and the Affective Learning Network. And you want to design goals and lessons that align with each of those networks. When you're teaching using Universal Design for Learning, the goals that you set, the methods that you choose, and the materials and the assessments that you use should all align with those learning networks. When you're designing an activity, a learning activity, you should ask yourself what the goal relates to. Does it relate to the what, the how, or the why of learning because those questions tap into different parts of the brain and different networks in the brain. So when we align a goal with a specific learning network, we call it Network Based Goal. So we're going to look at the Network Based Goals real quickly here. The what of learning is the recognition goal, and recognition learning involves receiving and analyzing information, the what of learning. The second type of goal is a strategic goal. Strategic goals are the how of learning. Strategic goals involve the planning and the execution of actions. The how. The why of learning involves the affective goal, and affective learning is the emotional connection, the why of learning. The personal value. Why is this important? Why is it relevant? So, questions like this have to do with affective goals and the why of learning. If you go to the UDL module that we created, you can see, specifically, what those goals are and what areas of the brain they tap into. We have some really good interactive displays on the parts of the brain. Let's look at a couple of examples. The recognition learning network would involve things like to identify the phases of a process. Something was sequencing, where you're sequencing in time, those are what questions, and that taps into the recognition goal that you're writing. And that taps into the recognition goal center of the brain. Strategic learning, which is the how of learning, would be things like how to create a model, how to design a flowchart, how to write a narrative, those are strategic goals, and those tap into another part of the brain. And then some assignments tap into the affective goal and the why of what we're doing. And those goals would be used in lessons like how you're talking about your own values about a topic or the benefits of something, how could you take a topic that you have, and build on it from what you previously learned? Those are all skills that involve the affective goals, and the affective network. I have given you a lot of information in a very short time. But in order to do it justice, take a few minutes and check out the UDL module. When you go to that UDL module, you can explore several things. We have written in methods, materials, and assessments that all align with the three learning networks, the Recognition Learning Network, the Strategic Learning Network, and the Affective Learning Network. And you can go through each of those sections, and pick out the activities and the materials that you need to teach the necessary information. And you will be doing that using very specific methods to tap into the best ways that students learn. UDL, Universal Design for Learning offers you alternatives. It offers you ways to teach the children that makes sense to the way the child needs to learn it. And by offering choices to your students, you're allowing them to choose the types of approaches that work best for them. I like the UDL module that we created, because it takes what could be a very complex subject and breaks it apart into logical, reasonable, segments that are easily digested and understood. And it was hard for me to do it justice in today's podcast. So I hope that I was able to teach you enough about UDL so that you could go on and look at it a little bit deeper on either the cast.org website, or the UDL module that we created. Both of those links will be in your show notes. And any other materials that might be available to you will be in your show notes as well. CAST has a free handout that they offer on guidelines to the learning strategies that we talked about. And so if you want more information and more clarification on those, there'll be a link in there for those free guidelines, also. 

Mickie  14:07  
Today's podcast was all about Universal Design for Learning. And Universal Design for Learning makes a huge difference for a student with a disability. And it's one of the ways that we can help our students learn and understand and show what they know. Because if you use it correctly, you're not tapping into and testing the student's disability, but you are finding out what the student knows in reality. Thank you for joining me today. If you have any more questions, you could send me an email at Mickieteaches@gmail.com. That's MICKIEteaches@gmail.com, or stop by my website, mickieteaches.com and check that out there as well. I'll have a link on the website for the UDL module and I will put some pictures up on the website too for that, so you can see some of the examples that I was talking about today. In the meantime, have a great rest of the day, and I'll talk to you next time. Bye. 

Mickie  15:12  
The information contained throughout this podcast has been gleaned from my own personal experiences, but to ensure accuracy, please contact the Disability Services at the college of your choice to have firsthand information and the most up to date policies and procedures followed for your particular institution of higher education. The content in any of these podcasts is not intended as a substitute for information from legal, educational, or medical professionals. Always seek the advice of your attorney or qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have with regards to legal, educational, or medical concerns.