Week 5 Blog Assignment

 Part 1: Digital Tools and UDL-Based Instructional Strategies to Support Students with Disabilities Online

With so many options for online and digital tools, it is often hard to pick which will help move students towards the learning target. This article helps identify various digital tools that can be used in meaningful and intentional ways to support all students, especially those with disabilities. Then it continues to tie these tools into the three principles of UDL which are: representation, action and expression, and engagement. One part of UDL is considering when and how barriers may arise and how to plan for them. We need tools to facilitate learning when those barriers are present. In Representation online, students tend to struggle with so much information thrown at them without frequent checks from the teacher. To help with this teachers can create step-by-step directions with screenshots, post screencast videos, or use an online form to offer chances for reflections (Rao et al., 2021, p. 107). To support action and expression online it is important to give students opportunities to practice and demonstrate their knowledge in a multitude of ways. We can allow students to create multimedia presentations, chunk assignments, and collaborative presentations. This gives all students way to share their learning in a way which works best for them so we can truly see what they know. And lastly for engagement there are several challenges. Students have to initiate and engage in the learning on their own and that can be a struggle. To support students with disabilities we can have digital check lists for them, have them create a portfolio, or share with us what they have done through creating a video (Rao et al., 2021, p. 110). These strategies help students with their regulation and management skills which are needed to complete work online without the help of a teacher guiding them. In my lesson I will use Padlet as a way for students to collaborate with each other which was mentioned several times in the article. This allows for collaboration and so learning is not done in isolation. Another way UDL is present in my lesson is by using the online simulation. This allows students to engage with the information and starts them thinking about what homeostasis is. It creates a sense of wonder and makes them realize how awesome and how much work their body is doing at all times to keep them functioning. 

Part 2: Consideration 7.3 is Nurture Joy and Play. This is a consideration for engagement. We all know as educators the importance of creating a safe and welcoming learning environment. Well, sparking joy is just as essential to the learning process. It can spark wonder, curiosity, and. imagination which allows students to develop new understanding. I will spark joy and play in my lesson by allowing students to explore and experiment with keeping their runner alive during the online simulation. This will also allow them in the end, to take pride in their accomplishment of keeping her going. It will give them a low stakes chance to interact with the material in a fun way which can help them get an understanding for the idea of homeostasis. 

Consideration 8.3 is Foster Collaboration, Interdependence, and Collective Learning. Learning from each other and our experiences is crucial for the learning process. Creating collaborative teams in the classroom can push students to extend their thinking and work together to accomplish a goal. I will be doing this in my lesson by creating groups for the students to design and conduct an investigation. Each person in the group will be responsible for carrying out certain steps of the investigation and their hypothesis will serve as their goal. This will create a sense of interdependence and lead to them sharing the responsibility of finalizing their investigation to learn more about homeostasis. 

Part 3: The guidance provided by the 2024 NETP wrote about using UDL to close the digital divide. This is because using the UDL framework forces educators to think about the potential barriers and how technology can be used to remove them. This will allow our students who do not usually have the same technology opportunities to use it in a more meaningful way. Similarly to what Rao (2021) and other wrote, technology can be used to close the digital divide if we follow the principles of UDL. For example teachers can present information in a variety of ways: podcast, simulation, PowerPoint, or video. This gives students the choice on how they learn and can create buy-in. Also giving the same choice when having students show what they know, gives them the chance to enhance their technology skills. The guidance did say that it is okay for teachers not to be experts in the tool the students are using (Office of Edu, 2024, p. 21). I like this idea because there are so many tools out there and if we were experts at using them before the kids, the kids would never get to use them all. This creates a sense of ownership for the students and we get the chance to learn along side them. They can then use technology that interests them. 

Office of Education Technology. (2024). A call to action for closing the digital access, design, and ... US Department of Education. https://tech.ed.gov/files/2024/01/NETP24.pdf

Rao, K., Torres, C., & Smith, S. (2021). Digital tools and UDL-based instructional strategies to support students with disabilities online. Journal of Special Education Technology, 36(2), 105-112.