DIFFERENTIATION+&+UDL

Another student benefit of our 1:1 deployment is that these tools and some of the approaches that incorporate them can support and challenge our students in healthy ways, resulting in higher performances and lower discipline and drop-out rates.

There have already been studies asking if 1:1 initiatives are educationally sound. Through this deployment we can MEET STUDENTS WHERE THEY ARE AT and PERMIT and sometimes accelerate OPPORTUNITIES FOR SUCCESS and GROWTH. __Having devices for all of a class' students affords us flexible instructional delivery methods__ including the embracing of a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) model and differentiated learning.

The UDL model has revealed that supports that we thought were good for just for one group can actually benefit many unintended groups. Think of a wheelchair ramp that also helps strollers, bicyclists, the elderly. Our computing devices can read to our students, at the press of a button can show word meaning, or enlarge text. They can provide remedial support as well as provide challenging extensions.

In effect, these tools can provide rich learning experiences and multiple means of expression for struggling learners through ones that present as gifted and talented. I deliberately use the word “present”, because all of our kids have gifts and talents, and it is only fair that we look for ways and tools that help them reveal them.

When we use these tools, shifts in how we are teaching and learning are also quite possible. When each student has a tool that is empowering, the classroom learning environment can shift from teacher centered to student-centered, a paradigm which sometimes is more appropriate. Other educational paradigms can be re-evaluated such as reinstating the promotion of divergent thinking. If a take-home policy is developed that permits a student cohort to take these devices home, or at least provides that all have access to the internet outside of school, further interesting options open up such as the having flipped classrooms.

Barriers for our students can be reduced so that each can progress. Fewer barriers emboldens risk-taking. All of these in turn fuel our fourth reason – the tools provide multiple means of engagement.


 * Bottom line -- our devices and practices can help students go at their own pace, find supports where needed, find chances to go "deep." **

Learn more about UDL by viewing this video and by following this link. media type="file" key="UDL At A Glance.mp4" width="300" height="300" align="center"