Chapter 6 Revisited

Have you checked out http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/tools/ lately? What a great resource that can help you to grasp the benefits of Universal Design for learning and teaching. The website is the perfect guide to compliment the sixth chapter of Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age, Chapter 6: Using UDL to Support Every Student's Learning. As the author goes into detail about how to individualize lessons with flexible media and tools, we read about the success stories for several of the students. Teaching methods are examined and diverse affective networks are explored.

Within the specificities of the 'Multiple Example' method, we read how multiple examples suppor a bottom-up recognition process. The benefits of digital media are uncovered as a way to cater to the students individual needs. One student might get more out of a video of a hyena, while another could learn more from hearing their crys, yet another student might benefit from having an article read to them via a computer program like Kurzweil, etc...

The second method, one of highlighting critical features allows students to 'zoom in' on any part of the material. "Even more significant for individualizing, with the flexibility of digital tools, we can select different sets of highlighting options for different learners and show or hide these scaffolds depending on the student and his or her particular stage of learning." (Rose & Meyer, ASCD, 2002) I feel that this 'Critical Features' method, is duly appropriate in the electronic version of this chapter as the reader can click on concept map, full content, summary or Universal Design Edition.

The other methods mentioned, of equal importance are 'Provide Multiple Media and Formats' and 'Support Background Knowledge.' These methods also detail the importance of catering to the needs of individual students so that information gaps are filled and ultimately, the "Demand for this versatility will increase the speed with which it becomes ubiqitous." (Rose & Meyer, ASCD, 2002)

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