Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal Design for Learning by David H. Rose and Anne Meyer (Chapter 4: What is Universal Design for Learning?)

I decided for this entry to briefly reflect on the selected reading and then discuss the research topics of group four. Since the goal of the blog is to generate discussion for the online class I will comment on the broader scope of the reading, strategies and assessment for the design of accessible learning, and relate that to the topic descriptions and presentations of Tushar, Michele, Tom and Marc. I know I will be stretching somewhat to fit the whole of the group under the single umbrella topic of design but the goal is less about me trying to define your topics and more about generating class discussion around your topics. Basically I am opening up a dialogue to get the creative juices flowing.

The chapter I selected the authors work to define Universal Design for Learning. What I found interesting was that the authors not only explain what Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is they also talk about the concept of access. What is the difference between access to information and access to learning? I think the author’s sum up this concept well when they state that

[…] although access to content and activities is often essential for learning, access to information is neither sufficient for nor synonymous with learning. Knowing the instructional goal is essential for determining when to provide support and when to provide resistance and challenge.

I thought that idea would be good for all group members to consider because the differentiation between access to information and access to knowledge is useful when designing strategies and assessment for instructional technologies (Tom) or eLearning (Michele). The authors point out that

Only when goals are clear can we select and apply flexible materials to support and challenge each learner. Similarly, clear goals help us focus our assessment of student progress in an accurate and useful way.

Why this is important general design concerns is because, as suggested in the reading

The practices we recommend should be familiar to you, because these are the very same practices good teachers use when they can. The difference is that UDL […] drawi[s] on the versatility of digital media and its capacity to be transformed and networked […].

I think the members of group four should be able to see the relationships between their work and this idea of access to knowledge over access to information. Of course with Marc and Tushar the relationship appears more straightforward as their work is focused on the discourse concerning variously-abled learners. With the work of Tom and Michele the relationship to UDL is possibly less obvious but it is there. As Marc noted in his topic description

[…]course design begins with assessment [and] it seems to me that creating a ‘universal assessment’ would go a long way to creating the foundation for a course that follows universal design.

All of you are trying to uncover a universal whether it is a universal design, strategy or assessment. With Tom it is finding literature that will suggest

[…] a model of instructional strategies for the use of instructional technology that corresponds to different types of courses within the medical curriculum

And Michele is focused on literature that looks at the fact that

While many corporations have jumped on the e-learning bandwagon […] many seem to be struggling when it comes to measuring the effectiveness of that training.

There is however no universal assessment within the literature that explains

What measurement data is meaningful?

As part of the goal behind the literature review is for you to be able to speak with an expert’s voice on a contemporary issue of your choosing I would be curious to hear what group four thinks of my categorization of their topics. I would also be curious to hear what the rest of the class think of the idea of the elusive universal and if you are finding it as a thread within your own research.