USING TECHNOLOGY TO TRANSFORM THE NATURE OF THE CURRICULUM

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USING TECHNOLOGY TO TRANSFORM THE NATURE OF THE
CURRICULUM A Professional Development Project
forEnglish Language Arts (AND ?) at
CENTRAL MEMORIAL HIGH SCHOOL
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• AGENDA
• Introductions
• Goals for this evening
• Understanding our Context Learning for a New
  Century
• Who is ILS and Why would we care?
• Understanding Differentiation
• Understanding Technology
• Targeting Professional Development
• A Plan

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ETL Newsletter
WHO IS
AND WHY WOULD ANYBODY CARE?
ILS Community of Practice
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Write down as many ways as you can to describe
the learning challenges your students bring with
them to their schooling the diversity among
your learners you encounter in your classes.
DIVERSITY
In your group, write in the centre a summary of
your groups analysis.
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The Challenge(s)
The Opportunities
ESL ADHD Sequencing information Organizing
information Managing information Reading Discourag
ed and defeatist Accessing traditional
learning Lack learning strategies Motivated,
interested, sense of humour Need challenge worldy
Motivation - Not critical thinkers Lack a
framework for their thinking Worksheet kind of
people Disinterested Transferring creativity Not
engaged Lack of empathy and understanding
different points of 10 IPP Time
challenged Outside engaged Family (re-defining)
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USING TECHNOLOGY TO TRANSFORM THE NATURE OF THE
CURRICULUM Differentiating Through Universal
Design for Learning
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Whats Driving the Agenda(s)

• Changing Landscapes
• Placing greater demands for 21st Learners to
  master 21st century skills

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2. Brain Research
New insights into the learning brain shed light
on learner differences and effective uses of
technology.
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3. Differentiation
Differentiation is essentially giving students
multiple options for learning. This includes how
information is presented, how students build
concepts and how they choose to demonstrate their
understanding. As one can imagine, this
dramatically changes what we understand as the
"traditional classroom."
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• 4. The Role of Digital Media in Differentiating
  for Instruction
• To help select the most suitable medium or use of
  multiple media simultaneously
• To convert material from one medium to another on
  the fly
• To modify the appearance of information within
  one medium
• To delve more deeply or connect laterally to
  other concepts through links
• To communicate with many different people through
  networked computers

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Universal Design for Learning

• argues the divergent needs of special
  populations increases usability for everyone.
• argues for helping ALL learners achieve by
  building in three kinds of flexibility
• Representing information in multiple formats and
  media
• Providing multiple pathways for action and
  expression
• Providing multiple ways to engage - connecting
  interest and motivation

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Teaching Using UDL

• Challenges us to rethink the nature of our work
  and provide the FLEXIBILITY necessary to serve
  diverse needs.
• Challenges us to re-think HOW we provide content
  in differentiated ways, how we
• Provide Individual supports
• Provide challenges differently and appropriately
  for each learner
• Set Goals
• Assess progress with effective and ongoing
  assessment
• Measure progress
• Adjust our work after evaluating the methods and
  tools being deployed

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Flexible Media - Content-Free and Content-Rich
Resources
Content-free resources. (productivity tools) -
Are software applications, which are programs
developed to solve a particular problem or to
perform a particular task or function and that
allow us to "access, retrieve, store, organize,
manipulate, and present information by electronic
means. Content-free resources also include
communication tools, which can be used to
transmit, receive, and transform data, content,
and conversations and can be synchronous or
asynchronous .
Content Rich Resources - Are resources that are
high interest, relevant, informative, and
visually engaging and that make connections with
and motivate and challenge the learner. These
resources that have a clear learning intention or
support a learning process (sometimes referred to
as "learning objects") Content-rich resources can
also include discrete video and audio clips,
images, animations, and text documents ("digital
assets"), which can be used individually or can
be sequenced and combined by teachers to support
their learning intention. Include interactive
CD-ROMs, learning objects, digital assets,
databases, and websites.
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Flexible Media - Content-Free and Content-Rich
Resources
SOME EXAMPLES SOME MORE EXAMPLES
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Conclusions
UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR LEARNING
The three UDL principles share one common
recommendation to provide learners with a wider
variety of options. Access to these options is
tied directly to the use and management of
technology.
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UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR LEARNING

• How are you assessing the needs of your learners?
  
• In what ways are you meeting the diverse needs of
  your learners?
• How do you know that you are being successful?

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UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR LEARNING As a model to
drive our PD Agenda(s)

• Challenges us to rethink the nature of our work
  and provide the FLEXIBILITY necessary to serve
  diverse needs.
• Challenges us to re-think HOW we
• Provide Individual supports
• Provide challenges differently and appropriately
  for each learner
• Set Goals
• Assess progress with effective and ongoing
  assessment
• Measure progress
• Adjust our work after evaluating the methods and
  tools being deployed

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UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR LEARNING

• SOME Suggestions
• Select the most suitable medium or use of
  multiple media in simultaneous ways,
• Allow for conversion of material from one medium
  to another on the fly
• Modify the appearance of information within one
  medium
• Provide opportunities to delve more deeply or
  connect laterally to other concepts through links
  and
• Allow for communicate with many different people
  through networked computers.

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UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR LEARNING
shifts our practices and our structures. It
challenges us to rethink the nature of our work,
building in inherent flexibility necessary to
serve diverse needs.
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UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR LEARNING Some Resources
CAST http//www.cast.org Centre for Leadership
in Education http//www.centernet.org/udlproject
.htm UDL David Rose Column http//jset.unlv.edu/1
5.4/asseds/rose.html HOW PEOPLE LEARN
http//www.nap.edu/html/howpeople1/ HOW TO BEGIN
LAYERED CURRICULUM http//help4teachers.com/how.
htm
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The purpose of this project is
To explore the principles of Universal Design for
Learning through an expanded, action research
driven pilot project in ELA classrooms at Central
Memorial
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Goals through incorporating the principles of
UDL into ELA classrooms at Central To employ
technology to make education more flexible and
accessible to all learners. To enhance the
capacity to plan for diversity and accommodate
diverse learning needs To enhancing learning of
students with learning disabilities with the goal
of accommodating diverse learning needs of all
students. To enhance the capacity to engage in
action research To identify and disseminate
understandings of best practices gained from this
project
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Key Activities

• Enhance student achievement
• Describe promising practices relative to the
  deployment and use of technology enhanced
  differentiation strategies in ELA classroom
  settings
• Explain the impact of technology enhanced
  differentiation in assisting teaching and
  learning in Senior High School ELA classrooms
• Provide students with more flexible and
  accessible teaching and learning environments
  enhancing the education of all students through
  technology.
• Describe implications of technology enhanced
  differentiation for school and system technology
  infrastructure
• Describe effective professional development
  strategies for employing technology enhanced
  differentiation in Senior High School ELA
  classrooms

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Key Activities

• To represent information in multiple formats and
  media
• To provide multiple pathways for students
  actions and expression
• To provide multiple ways to engage students
  interests and motivation
• To engage in action research.
• Demonstrate changes to organizational and
  institutionalized frameworks that direct and
  support learning.

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Key Activities

• RESEARCH
• Examining current understandings of technology
  enhanced differentiation curricular outcomes and
  technology enhanced teaching and learning
• Designing research strategies
• Examining teacher practice to address
  differentiation and technology issues in
  classroom settings
• Identifying current resources available to
  teachers identifying current professional
  development provided or delivered to teachers
• Generating and analyzing teachers anticipated
  and perceived successes and challenges of using
  learning objects and technology enhanced learning
  environments
• Generating and analyzing teachers anticipated
  and perceived successes by engaging students in
  learning.
• Sharing information between teachers and
  administrators within a technology enhanced
  community of practice.
• Interviewing teachers, ILS and ITS to understand
  technical specifications of hardware

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Key Activities

• TEACHERS IMPLEMENTATION
• Using and integrating technology enhanced
  differentiation into the teaching and learning
  environment
• Developing and implementing technology enhanced
  teaching and learning opportunities -collecting
  reflections, resources used, impacts on
  professional practice as part of the process
• Assessing increased student learning through
  measures currently existing or through new
  understandings emerging from this project.
• REGULAR SCHEDULED PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
  ACTIVITIES face-to-face and online

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