March 1 Weekly Meeting Notes

This week we discussed the idea of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). This concept was presented to the CEEO staff at a Febrauary seminar by David Rose from the Center for Applied Special Technologies (CAST). To summarize, UDL looks as how to make materials accessible to all students in the classroom. This includes how sudents recieve information, how they work on lessons/projects/etc, and how they report or share what they know. While it stems from Universal Design which was an architectural movement to provide better access to facilities for people with dissabilities, UDL presents us with concepts that should be applied to every classroom. For students with dissabilities are not the only ones that benefit from representing material in many different ways. One of the examples used in the meeting was Andy's design process assessment. He as allowed the students to present the steps of the design process and the reasons for them in any media they feel comfortable. This can take the form of a paper, presentation, skit, rap or anything else. By allowing students to present what they know in a method most comfortable to them, you are providing greater access to the classroom for the entire body of students. We also discussed how the actual "doing" can be considered when designing lessons. Perhaps providing the students with input on how they'd like to solve a problem or complete a project. Ask them how they would like to tell you what they know. Getting input from students like this makes them feel more involved in the classroom while also providing better modes for students to learn and share. The discussion went very well, in my opinion, and I think there were some great ideas that were passed between fellows. We will most likely revisit this topic later in the semester.