Universal Design for Learning

Hello. My name is Gregory Krasick. I'm a junior special education major at Illinois State and we are discussing UDL in our assistive technology course.

I'm curious, what does UDL mean to you? What does the "Design" mean when we talk about UDL?

Tags: UDL

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Permalink Reply by Heather Koren on July 14, 2011 at 11:55am

I see UDL as a way to teach every student no matter their skill or knowledge level. Allowing students the opportunity to learn about a topic in multiple ways (visual, auditory, tactile) and demonstrate their gained knowledge in ways other than just pencil/paper tests.

Teachers need to "design" how they present a topic so that all students have equal access to the curriculum. If they are reading a story, some students may prefer to read the book while some may prefer to have it read to them (by teacher or text-to-speech). The students should then have the opportunity to show their comprehension of the story by talking about it, writing about, drawing a picture about it, etc.

Just like curb cuts, elevators, automatic doors are universally designed for all users in our environment our curriculum also needs to be designed to make sure every student is learning.

Permalink Reply by Gregory Krasick on July 18, 2011 at 7:47pm

I agree with this. It is the 'design' that makes UDL unique. Each student has different needs and learns differently from others.

For example, some students may require subtitles when they watch a film whether it is in class or simply watching TV at home. This could be because of a language issue, hearing impairment, or just the fact that the student can comprehend better when they read along as well as listen to what is happening on the TV.

I remember when I use to read books for school and while reading the book, I would follow along by listening to a tape recorder with a narrator in the background. This was much easier to follow along in the story.

It is examples like these that make the 'Design' in UDL possible for students to learn better.

Permalink Reply by Susan Oxnevad on July 19, 2011 at 7:21pm

I am a regular education tech facilitator who spends a lot of time teaching gen. ed teachers to incorporate UDL into their teaching and planning.. I start out by sharing the video below to introduce them to the concept, then as we work together I continue to teach them how to design lessons to help all learners succeed by introducing them to a wide range of Web 2.0 tools to provide students with multiple ways to acquire information and express learning. Many of the tools can be found on my blog: Cool Tools for 21st Century Learners