Making Individualization Work with Flexible Media and Tools

1. Making Individualization Work with Flexible Media and Tools • Analyzing the potential barrier inherent in current curriculum materials can help us plan for the additional media and tools we will need in order to reach all students. • UDL Classroom Template 2, provides a structure for analyzing these barriers in light of particular learning goals and students' learning profiles. http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/tools/curriculumbarriers.cfm • Once you have an understanding of the barriers to learning posed by available materials, you can investigate the digital media and networks available to support differentiated teaching approaches.

2. growing collection of adjustable software tools, digital content, and World Wide Web resources • Multimedia composition tools such as HyperStudio, Kid Pix, and PowerPoint. • Web-capable electronic graphic organizers (see Figure 6.2) such as Inspiration and Kidspiration. http://www.inspiration.com/Kidspiration • Programs that support the translation of content from one medium to another (e.g., text-to-speech and text-to-image) such as CAST eReader, Pix Reader, Pix Writer, and Intellitalk II. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtxEj2ESIBo&feature=related • resources such as these expand their options for presenting information, scaffolding students, and offering choices for student expression

3. Designing Instruction to Support Strategic Learning • Different learners aiming for the same goal generate different plans and steps for getting there. • Individuals have their own optimal pathways for learning strategic skills so teaching approaches and tools need to be varied. • Based on our knowledge of how strategic networks function, we can recommend the following teaching methods to support strategic learning.

4. Teaching Method 1: Provide Flexible Models of Skilled Performance • Learning to generate patterns (how to do something) requires developing a mental model of the pattern in question. Developing internal models requires exposure to external models of expert performance and to counter-examples that demonstrate incorrect execution. • Consider learning to play tennis and for the sake of this example, just learning how to serve. Before the aspiring tennis player can serve well, she must first have a mental model of skilled serving • What does the complete stroke look like when an expert does it? • Where must the ball land to be counted "in"? • What are the most effective placements and bounces for making the serve difficult to return? • Important counter-examples include what a poor serve looks like and what kinds of mistakes contribute to one.

5. Teachers can present models of processes in a variety of contexts • one-on-one instruction • in small groups or as a whole class • live or at a distance • online or in person • using a variety of media • Video • Speech • Text • Diagram • animation Exposure to multiple models showing different, effective ways to do something helps learners distill the critical features of a process, different ways it can be accomplished, and where the opportunities exist to inject their own creative means to that end.

6. Teaching Method 2: Provide Opportunities to Practice with Supports • To achieve complex strategic goals like playing tennis, driving a car, or writing a research paper, a learner must automatize, or over-learn, the individual steps in the process until each is automatic. • when the subcomponents come automatically can a tennis player concentrate on game strategy, a driver concentrate on destination and route, and a student concentrate on the style and clarity of the research paper. This requires extensive practice. • complex strategic patterns are impossible to learn all at once, teachers usually direct students to practice individual subcomponents of the process. • practicing skills in context is more effective than practicing skills in isolation.

7. To support contextual practice, teachers can scaffold some parts of the process so that learners can focus on strengthening their abilities in other parts. • Scaffolds reduce the degrees of freedom in order to focus the learning in specific areas. • Examples • Training wheels or parental hand on the back of the bicycle that supports a beginning bike rider's balance • The passenger-side steering wheel a driving instructor can use to monitor a new driver's steering • Atennis instructor's practice of guiding the arms of the novice server through the motion of the overhead stroke.

8. Electronic media are ideal for providing scaffolds in the context of learning. • Features includes • text-to-speech "translation" supports decoding so that learners can focus on strategic reading or content learning • spell checkers support mechanics so that learners can focus on expressing their ideas and improving their writing fluency • built-in calculators scaffold math facts so that learners can focus on mathematical reasoning. • Ideally, scaffolds should be optional and assignable to individual students, the better to accommodate individual progress and differences between learners.

9. Teaching Method 3: Provide Multiple Media and Formats • Delivering ongoing, relevant feedback is critical when teaching skills. • Learners need to know if they are practicing effectively, and if not, which aspects of the practice process they need to change. • Feedback can come in many forms and is most effective when it is provided in an ongoing fashion; supporting course corrections and building learners' confidence about things that are going well. • helping learners develop self-monitoring skills may be the very best way to ensure ongoing feedback for all practice. • Software tools and digital networks can be an excellent source of ongoing feedback, particularly if students are shown how to take advantage of everything these tools offer.

10. Teaching Method 4: Offer Flexible Opportunities for Demonstrating Skill • Another essential part of teaching a strategic skill is providing learners with chances to demonstrate that skill. • Demonstration challenges learners to consolidate and apply all parts of the process. It also elicits feedback from a broader audience. • Demonstrating skills and knowledge can factor powerfully into motivation, helping learners experience the "why" of learning. • Digital media offer widely varied supports and opportunities to help students demonstrate knowledge and skills. Publishing on the World Wide Web or on a class home page invites feedback from an expansive audience and can provide a sense of accomplishment. • In sum, approaches for teaching skills must be flexible and must reflect the way strategic networks learn.