Module 3: Universal Design for Learning and Digital Citizenship

UDL

This week, I learned about UDL and why it is important in the classroom. In simple terms, UDL allows students to learn things in the way that is most beneficial to them. It allows all students an equal opportunity to succeed in the classroom. This is very important. I believe every student deserves the opportunity to succeed and grow when they are in the classroom. UDL helps each student become successful in their own way. There are three main domains for UDL, and there are several different technologies that can be used to help with each of these.

The first domain is engagement, also known as the "why" of learning. This helps teachers keep their kids interested and motivated when it comes to learning. One way they can do this is by making learning fun. Teachers can make learning not seem like something that is boring or something that is like a chore. Instead, they should make it like a game or some other fun activity. One website that could help them do this is Kahoot. Kahoot is an online resource that allows you to make trivia games for people to play along with on their phones. Teachers can give their students a lesson or a lecture, and follow it up with a game on Kahoot. This will allow teachers to test their students' knowledge, all while giving the students a competitive game to help reinforce what they've learned. 

The second domain is representation, or the "what" of learning. This is when information is presented to students in a variety of ways, allowing them to learn in the way that best suits them. Students learn in all different ways, so they should not be restricted to just one way of learning. There should be videos and audio clips for visual and auditory learners, as well as hands-on activities for kinesthetic learners. One online tool that could be used for this would be YouTube or TeacherTube. These websites have different videos that cover all sorts of information. They can be used by visual or auditory learners to learn the information. They can also be used by kinesthetic learners to follow along with an experiment or other hands-on activity to help them learn. 

The third domain is action and expression, or the "how" of learning. This part of UDL is to allow students to share what they know. They do this in all different ways. One way would be tests and quizzes. This is one of the more common forms of assessing what students know. Another way to find out what your students know would be for them to draw a picture or make a video. You could do things like this on websites like YouTube or Pixton. Both of these websites allow for alternative ways for students to share what they have learned, instead of writing it out or taking a test.

I also learned about digital citizenship this week. Two examples of digital citizenship are digital access and digital commerce. Digital access is just having access to technology and using that to fully participate in society. Digital commerce is the buying and selling of goods electronically. There are many other ways you can be a digital citizen, but these are two that relate to me the most.

 Module 2: Social Bookmarking and Networking

Visual Learning

This week I learned about Diigo and Pixton. I also used Twitter, but I was already familiar with it. I had a lot of fun learning about these technological tools and how they work. While I was learning about them, I kept thinking of different ways I could incorporate them into my classroom.

 Diigo would be very helpful in the classroom. If I had my students doing a paper or some other activity that required research, I would recommend Diigo to them. Diigo would allow them to bookmark websites so they could come back to them later. This would be extremely helpful if they needed to go to several different websites. They would also be able to highlight and annotate these websites so they wouldn't forget any important information or thoughts they had. 

Twitter can also be a useful tool in the classroom. I could get my students to follow and keep up with other people who were doing research and work on whatever topic we were covering in class. I could also make them post updates as we worked so that other people could follow along and make suggestions as they learned. Twitter is also a more common form of social networking, and my students may be a little more comfortable using this than some of the other tools that I might have them use.

Pixton was probably my favorite tool to use and learn about. Pixton allows you to create characters and comic strips/stories through their website. I could use Pixton to help my students understand and retain the information we have learned in class. I could also get my students to make their own comic strips to display their understanding of the content we are covering. Having my students make these comics would be a fun and unique way for them to communicate their understanding and questions about the content we were covering in class, and I could use this information to help my students learn and understand everything better.

While these tools can be very helpful, there are some challenges that could arise when using these technologies. There is likely to be a learning curve with some students. Some of my students may be very tech-savvy, while others aren't as familiar with the technology. Also, there might not be access to technology in some of my students' homes, so they wouldn't be able to work with these technologies outside of school. Another challenge I might face would be keeping my students on task. Pixton and Twitter can be very fun and useful tools, but they can also be very distracting. I would have to closely monitor my students to make sure they were staying on task.