Another night, another challenge. Barb was excited about her
iPad mini and I have to say that I want one. My Home and School are considering
purchasing 25 iPads or iPad minis. Just so happy that it is an Apple product.
Amazing things can be found in the iTunes store. Tonight we saw iTunes
University. I had noticed it before but hadn’t taken the time to check it out.
You can learn more about here: iTunes University
Great opportunity to
receive professional development on a variety of subjects. It is very easy to
access and of course, free to users. We continued to discuss Universal Design
for Learning and noted that iTunes University has a lot of information on this
subject. As we learn more about UDL we are challenged to consider the learning
needs of all students. Do the assignments we give our students meet their
needs? Not always. Do they deserve the best opportunity to learn in the most
appropriate manner, and be able to share their learning with us? Of course, but
it calls for a reconsideration and change in the way we help children learn. We
are more knowledgeable about how students learn, the multiple ways for learning
and sharing of that learning within the classroom. Combining UDL with assistive
technology offered by iPads and iPods provides opportunity for all students.
“CAST
is an educational research & development organization that works to expand
learning opportunities for all individuals through Universal Design for
Learning” and you can learn more about it at www.cast.org Lots of information on UDL is available at
this site, including learning modules, research and professional development
which can be shared with staff simply by downloading the info.. This site is
well worth a visit.
Another
site worth checking out is the Maine Learning Technologies Initiative at http://maine121.org More information is available
here in areas such as Digital Citizenship, UDL and Making Meaning for students.
Moving
along to tonight’s assignment, we are challenged to consider how we create
appropriate learning opportunities within our classroom. Barb shared several
apps with us:
-Scan to PDF which
allows you to create PDFs using the camera function in the Apple product. The
document created can them be emailed to a student who is able to write on the
image and return it by email.
-Prizmo, an app which
allows you take a picture of a text which puts it into a text document. Using a
text to speech app the students can hear the information captured by Prizmo.
Now off to work on the assignment.
WOW! you've nailed the concept of UDL and AT. Thanks Bill!
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