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“Why” of learning

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“What” of learning

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“How” of learning

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The UDL Guidelines are a tool used in the implementation of Universal Design for Learning, a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all students based on scientific insights into how humans learn. These guidelines are engagement, representation, and action and expression.

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Udltechtoolkit - About UDL , Writing tools , Graphic orga... by Karen Janowski

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TOUCH this image to discover its story. Image tagging powered by ThingLink

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Allowing engagement in your classroom is very important for your students. A good way to keep your students engaged is to find their interests and incorporate them into the classroom. You can help your students be able to face challenges in the classroom fully focused and determined. You can also help your students learn to stay motivated in the classroom

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In the classroom it is important to know that not all students are the same and learn the same. This means that we need to communicate with words that are easily understood by all of our students. We need to check our students' comprehension of tasks and lessons to be sure they truly understand. We also need to be flexible in our teaching and use different strategies like hands on, hearing, and seeing tasks.

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For action and expression we need to be sure that our students can do physical actions with accessible tools. Make sure to use communication in your classroom so you can be sure of what tools work and what tools do not with your students to attain their learning goals. Find these plans that work, execute them, and use them for the most effective learning.

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Graphic organizers to help students show their comprehension.

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App Organizers Popplet Lite - Great for brainstorming, organizing, mind mapping. Easy to use. SimpleMInd + - mind mapping app Chrome Extensions Mind Mup - Easy to use mind mapping/brainstorming tool, offers Google Drive or Dropbox storage Lucid Chart - collaborative diagrams for mind mapping,

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For the students that need a different way to learn.

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One of the most amazing things about tablets is the ability to easily create content or creations which offer students alternative ways to demonstrate their learning. There are many free options that take advantage of this capability.

StoryBoard That - Fun, storyboard creation site. Add scenes, props, characters with facial expressions and poses. Plan and organize your writing with this interactive graphic organizer. Teacher Guides and Resources here.

Voice Thread- capture audio for online digital storytelling.This is a great tool for reaching the needs of all the learners in our classrooms, for all content areas from K-12. The pro version is free to K-12 educators. Make sure you watch the excellent tutorials to take advantage of all the features this tool has to offer. A free iPad app is now available which is a fantastic, easy tool. It's a must have

Click the link for some examples to show you how other educators are using Voice Thread for Education.

FotoBabble examples (Click the Play button to hear the audio):

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UDL Tech Toolkit - Multimedia and Digital Story Telling Tools

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Multimedia and Digital Storytelling Tools One of the most amazing things about tablets is the ability to easily create content or creations which offer students alternative ways to demonstrate their learning. There are many free options that take advantage of this capability. iOS

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Tools for engagement like Quizlet.

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By Cary Torres & Kavita Rao

UDL Principle III focuses on providing multiple means of engagement. In the online learning environment where students need to learn on their own, strategies that increase engagement are essential for keeping students connected and motivated.

Provide Interesting Opportunities to Communicate and Interact

In person, students have various types of interactions throughout the school day. They engage in classroom discussions focused on learning concepts, they interact with peers in class and in the hallways, and they connect with teachers throughout the day. In the online environment, our interactions are very different and many of the informal discussions and opportunities for sharing are not always there. This can be isolating for students; and for students who need extra support, the reduced opportunities to check in with teachers and peers can make learning more challenging.

Tool

What You Can Do

Ideas for Use Online

UDL Connections

Messaging applications
(e.g., Google Hangout, Remind)

Allows phone calls and text messaging using an email address/app instead of personal phone number.

Asynchronous/Synchronous

Send a daily/weekend message to check in and provide updates and assignments.

Allow students and parents to text questions if they are not as comfortable with email.

6.3 Facilitate managing information and resources

6.4 Enhance capacity for monitoring progress

9.3 Develop self-assessment and reflection

Online Checklists (Example created in Google Forms)
Link to copy & edit)

Provide checklists with daily/weekly assignments and/or tasks or step-by-step instructions to chunk and scaffold projects.

Asynchronous

Create checklists with list of daily/weekly assignments for students to complete with an area for students to ask questions.

Create checklists with step-by-step tasks and instructions to chunk and scaffold projects.

Create daily/weekly check-in to see who is participating and how they are feeling.

Create daily, weekly, or assignment-based self-assessments for students or group processing assessments for group work.

6.3 Facilitate managing information and resources

7.2 Optimize relevance, value, and authenticity

9.2 Facilitate personal coping skills and strategies

Asynchronous

Daily/weekly check-in to see how your students are doing.
Asynchronous/Synchronous

Share brainstorms and post resources.

Share resources for research projects.

Create a Padlet with 3 columns for a virtual K-W-L.

Create a categorization activity by creating columns with different categories.

7.2 Optimize relevance, value, and authenticity

8.3 Foster collaboration and community

Video applications (record short clips on mobile device camera or on Mac PhotoBooth, Screencast-O-Matic, Screencastify, Zoom)

Record video messages.

Provide personal connection with communication to support students with anxiety and provides audio support for language learners.

Asynchronous

7.2 Optimize relevance, value, and authenticity

8.1 Heighten salience of goals and objectives

9.1 Promote expectations and beliefs that optimize motivation

Video conferencing

Synchronous

Meet in real time with students to provide feedback and offer students opportunities to ask questions and apply your feedback.

Use breakout rooms for students to meet and collaborate in small groups to provide peer feedback on work - Consider pairing with a task in Google Docs/Slides to monitor work and provide support when you are not in the breakout room with them.

Meet individually with students to conference, provide feedback, and answer questions.

Provide online mentoring/tutoring sessions.

4.1 Vary the methods for response and navigation

8.3 Foster collaboration and community

Video Sharing (e.g., FlipGrid)

Asynchronous

Teachers can record instructions or a prompt, and students can post video replies and reply to each other.

Teachers can post video feedback modeling the correct answer or providing support. Students can then record a new video demonstrating understanding and application of the feedback.

4.1 Vary the methods for response and navigation

5.1 Use multiple media for communication

8.3 Foster collaboration and community

8.4 Increase mastery-oriented feedback

DIY.org
(costs $1 per student or $90 unlimited) DIY is an Online Social Network for learners ages 6-16.

Learners choose to develop skills by completing challenges and building a portfolio of their projects.

Provides a series of hands on interactive mini courses.

Students can comment on other student projects.

Students can make posts to express themselves via text/video/audio/photos.

iPad app or web-based interaction.

Asynchronous

There are over a hundred skills, many of the skill challenges overlap with grade-level curriculum objectives. Teachers can use skill challenges to provide additional project choices for students. Here is an example.

Teachers can use this site for enrichment activities. Students share their work as videos/photos, other students from around the world comment on it.

Teach/learn digital citizenship in real context.

Genius Hour activity.

8.3 Foster collaboration and community

4.1 Vary the methods for response and navigation

7.2 Optimize relevance, value, and authenticity

Use Feedback to Stay Connected

Feedback is essential for all learners as they develop knowledge and skills. When giving feedback online, consider ways that you can:

Give timely feedback
When students do not see their teachers daily, giving timely feedback is even more essential. Students need to know that someone is reviewing and commenting on the work they do. Provide feedback as soon as you reasonably can, so that students have an ongoing connection with you and have a sense of how they are doing.

Give students options to act on feedback
When providing feedback online, it is important to give students ways to use the feedback that you provide. Provide ways for students to use your feedback to continue practicing the skill. For language learners and students with disabilities, receiving feedback and having the opportunity to act on it can be essential to developing language and literacy skills.

Provide mastery-oriented feedback
We often give corrective feedback, especially when students do not meet targets or struggle with learning. All students can benefit from positive and encouraging feedback, but it can be especially motivating for students who struggle and students who need extra support for learning. Mastery-oriented feedback focuses on where they need to go rather than what they have done incorrectly. Students benefit from knowing what they are doing well. It is motivating to be told how to succeed towards our goals. Students with disabilities and language learners can benefit when they have specific feedback that helps them make progress towards their goals.

Provide clear feedback aligned to learning goals
Feedback is a source of input. Make sure that the feedback you give is comprehensible, clear, and aligned to learning goals. Articulate clear learning goals, align instruction to the goals, and then provide very specific and focused feedback on the learning goal. ​

Digital tools can support teachers in providing mastery-oriented feedback and provide opportunities for interactions that allow teachers to support engagement, self-assessment, and self-reflection.

Tool

What You Can Do

​Ideas for Use Online

UDL Connections

Digital flashcards

Online quiz tools allow students to check their understanding, and practice vocabulary and content knowledge.

Tools include flashcards with audio, images, and games, which are effective and engaging ways to practice vocabulary.

Provides opportunities to practice, receive immediate feedback, and practice again supports language development.

Support comprehension and recall for students with disabilities; provide language development support for language learners

Asynchronous

2.1 Clarify vocabulary and symbols

4.1 Vary the methods for response and navigation

7.3 Minimize threats and distractions

8.4 Increase mastery-oriented feedback

Digital grammar assessment and instruction

Asynchronous

Assign students to take the self-assessment and work on grammar lessons that the computer assigns.

Select common errors for students and assign the related grammar lessons.

Identify individual student's challenges, and assign relevant grammar lessons and practice.

Have students review the sentence combining lessons in preparation for revising written work.

3.2 Highlight patterns, critical features, big ideas, and relationships

5.3 Build fluencies with graduated support for practice/performance

6.4 Enhance capacity for monitoring progress

8.4 Increase mastery-oriented feedback

This provides a formative assessment tool that students can participate in and enjoy without being called out individually. The interactive format can be engaging and fun for students.

To support language learners and students who need additional processing time, extend the wait time for students to process and answer the questions.

​Synchronous

Have students meet with video conferencing software or simply log in to Kahoot at the same time for a live quiz for grammar patterns, vocabulary, or content, including math practice.

7.3 Minimize threats and distractions

8.3 Foster collaboration and community

8.4 Increase mastery-oriented feedback

Online formative assessments

Online survey tool that allows multiple formats of questions (multiple choice, matching, short answer, etc.) with the option to include images (Google Form).

Online quiz tool that allows multiple formats of questions (fill-in the blank, image labeling, cloze) and can include images (GoConqr).

​​Asynchronous

Create online quizzes that students can use to self-assess comprehension of content.

Create formative/summative assessments for students to demonstrate understanding.

8.4 Increase mastery-oriented feedback

9.3 Develop self-assessment and reflection

Citation: Torres C. & Rao, K. (2020).​ ​​​​​​​ Digital Tools for Engagement​. https://schoolvirtually.org

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By Cary Torres & Kavita Rao UDL Principle III focuses on providing multiple means of engagement. In the online learning environment where students need to learn on their own, strategies that increase engagement are essential for keeping students connected and motivated. In person, students have various types of interactions throughout the school day.

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Tools for action and expression

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Digital Tools for Action and Expression – SchoolVirtually