Reaching and Engaging All Learners Through Technology: Course Reflection

The course, Reaching and Engaging All Learners Through Technology, has taught me a lot about UDL, differentiation, and integrating technology to make it all come together. Teachers can use technology as a tool to organize and implement differentiation in their classrooms. Differentiation is a way of thinking. Every student has his or her own way of learning. There are several different classroom elements that teachers can differentiate, including content, process, product, and learning environment. Throughout this course we have had the chance to practice creating differentiated lessons and plans to use in our classrooms. We have also created a Ning web site to share resources and work. Creating the Ning was a positive experience for me. I am glad I have had the opportunity to create different web sites with my classmates at Walden. Doing this has helped me become more familiar with them and how they can be beneficial to learning. I will be more prepared to use educational sharing sites with my students.

There are several ways that I can use the Differentiation Station (Ning site) to implement the principles of Universal Design for Learning and Differentiated Instruction. I can always look back at the UDL/differentiation presentations my group members and I created to refresh my memory. I could also use the ideas from these to show other teachers that I work with. Our Ning site has been an amazing tool for sharing resources. I will most definitely be returning to the site to use resources that have been posted. I like how on the Ning site there is the option of contacting someone individually or the group as a whole. We can also use the chat feature to discuss what we are learning or how we are using differentiation in our classrooms. The Ning site itself is supportive of differentiated learning in that it offers multiple ways to share information. For example, there is a blog feature, option to post photos or video, and a discussion forum. I will use this site to connect with my Walden classmates and perhaps even more colleagues in the future to share resources and experiences.

Adjustments I will make in relation to integrating technology to customize instruction as a result of this course include: matching technology the closest I can to learning outcomes or students' personal needs, using technology to differentiate assessment, and looking in to different types of technology (digital cameras, Ipods, response systems, different types of assistive technologies, etc..) that I am not as familiar with. I think a lot of our focus in our class at Walden was different resources offered online or from a computer, such as wikis, Ning, blogs, screen recording software, photo story and creating videos. I want to try to extend my knowledge to other types of technology. I'm glad that I now have a better understanding of how to design and organize educational resources, projects, collaboration, and assessments online.

Implementing UDL and differentiation strategies, while integrating technology as well, requires a teacher to be flexible and have a flexible classroom design.

*Links*
My group's Ning at Walden: http://waldengroup2.ning.com/

Dare to Differentiate (a wiki with tons of useful resources!) http://daretodifferentiate.wikispaces.com/