UDL for the Uninformed

Before today I had never created a formal lesson plan. My plans simply consisted of notes to myself that I hoped to accomplish with my lecture. Though I consider the fact that I have a classroom full of people that have different learning styles, I have not ever had to put in writing how I plan to address this fact. Universal Design for Learning makes it easy to consider each individual student in your class. The UDL Lesson Builder at http://lessonbuilder.cast.org helps the instructor to build lesson plans that consider all of the UDL principles which will ensure that each student has the ability to be successful with every lesson.

The lesson builder site serves as a checklist of sorts. Using the UDL principles is the key to a learner-centered lesson plan and classroom. A lesson plan that uses the UDL principles will have goals and objectives that consider both the curriculum that needs to taught and the students that are learning. The principles guide the instructor as they consider the methods of teaching in the classroom and help them to give the proper background to the student while ensuring that the students have various ways to express their level of understanding. The instructors are also reminded that there are multiple tools at their disposal that can be used to present the material. Finally, the UDL principles help to ensure that the assessment techniques used are thorough and varied as well. A teacher that implements the UDL principles in the classroom, and uses the UDL Lesson Builder, will surely see the results in the level of acheivement in the students.

Texas STaR Chart

Uploaded on authorSTREAM by LauriArnold | Upload your own presentation

2020 Ain't So Far Away

It seems like we have a great deal of time to accomplish the goals set forth in the Long Range Plan for Technology. After all, that's over 10 years away. Realize, however, that we don’t have 10 years to learn today’s technology because we also have to learn tomorrow’s. This is why I have decided to talk about the Educator Preparation section of the LRPT.
I know we don’t have the time that we would like to learn all that we would like to learn. I only need to read the postings from my fellow classmates to see that time, or lack of it, is our biggest barrier. The Texas Statewide STaR Chart indicates that 74.2% of campuses are lacking the time and/or support needed to rise above the Developing Tech level. The Educator Preparation area of the LRPT measures a teacher’s involvement with technology, how they are using it in the classroom, the budget allowed for technology and whether teachers are meeting the SBEC standards.
So, what can be changed? What can I do, as a college instructor, to reach out to the public school instructors in my city, who indicated on their STaR Chart that Educator Preparation is the area with the greatest need? I have the ability to offer training to these instructors. I can tailor trainings to their exact need, train on their campus or mine, and I can, at the same time, learn from them. I encourage all of my classmates to reach out to their closest higher education campus to see if they might have the same opportunity. To really be ready for 2020 it will require effort at every level of the education system.