UDL Lesson Reflection

Designing a UDL lesson was fun and a little daunting. Universal design for learning is an educational concept based on architectural universal design. In architecture, universal design creates buildings that are more accessible for all people. Education has taken this concept and come up with universal design for learning, which similarly gives better access to educational concepts and curriculum to all students. It not only will help struggling students to close their achievement gap, but it will also provide enrichment and growth opportunities for higher-achieving and gifted students.

The lesson created in this week's assignment is something I am wanting to go and do at my school, even though I do not tech that subject or that grade level anymore. I got really excited about it. Our group was doing a 6th grade social studies lesson. We decided to create a unit where students work in groups to present a mock-G8 summit. Students are divided into heterogeneous groups by teacher and are assigned a country from the G8 membership that their group will represent. Within the groups, students will divide up roles and responsibilities. They will be responsible for researching and being able to present on the government, geography, economy, etc., of their assigned country. They will also choose from three options a final product to turn in demonstrating their group's research and learning. Groups will be able to turn in a power point presentation, a photo story, or a digital poster. Students will be given rubrics to know how their learning will be assessed for both the final products and summit presentations.

This is a complex project and learning unit, but it does allow for lots of differentiation for students. They will be able to pick what type of product they would like to turn in. Students will be in hgeterogeneous groups, allowing for stronger members to help those who need it. Students will have access to print, electronic, and audio resources for their research. Groups will be able to divide up roles on their own, so that students can be matched to a role within the group that is most suited to their own strengths.

Week 5 of EDLD5363

During our videography course, we formed groups to create a PSA. We took this from pre-production, to the production phase, and published a finished, edited product in post-production.

Our group worked well from beginning to end. We each submitted several ideas for our PSA, then voted from those and decided to do a mock-PSA on Powerpoint overuse. We submitted ideas to our group's wiki and arranged times to meet on the wiki for chat. We divided up roles and each team member really weorked to their own strengths. We worked up a shot list and edited that on the wiki as the project moved forward. We decided to put our video on YouTube.

We had ideas about costumes for the players in the PSA, but due to time constraints, no costumes were used. This is the main thing that I would want to change in order to improve our PSA. I am really pleased with our final product.

We used music in the public domain, which was: Prokofiev, Sergei. (1960). “Peter and the Wolf.” On Macmillan/McGraw-Hill Spotlight on Music 1st grade CD. Columbia Records. Edited by Norm Sands. 2009.

Our interactions as a group were always positive and constructive. We did not always agree, but we really worked well and worked to make the final product better, while always maintaining respectfulness. Since we all worked to our strengths, we were able to put together something that really worked. We also shared much with each other, learning from each other as we went through the process.

I had to download a video conversion software, as well as use Movie Maker to finish this project. It is rough, to say the least, but I have learne a lot in the process. Wanting to be good at this and that actually happening are two very different things. In a separate note, I had to take my daughter to the emergency room because we thought her foot was broken. On the way to the ER, we were rear-ended, so I put her on my back and gave her a piggy-back ride the rest of the way. It was just under a mile, but it was hot. The rest of the family stayed with the car to wait for the police. Things worked out fine, the car is drivable, the person who hit us took responsiblity and has insurance, and my daughter has a sprained ankle, rather than a break. With all of that said, my evening was eaten up by things and I feel pretty rushed to get all of this on here. I love technology and all of the things that it can do for us and our students in the classroom, but I am feeling like I am not a videographer.

This week's assignment is frustrating me... I have found some editing soft ware (Wax), and I have downloaded three video segments from a PBS site. I could not get them loaded from my computer into Wax, so I downloaded them from PBS in a different format. They still will not cooperate with downloading into the WAX software. I know that the problem is with me, not the computer or the software. It is just frustrating. I am going to a friend's house tonight to get some help with this so I can actually turn this thing in on time. Even though it is an ungraded video, I want to do well. This particular course in my master's is the one that intimidates me the most. I want to be good at this, but apparently I have a steep learning curve.

This week in my master's program, we had to create a personal video story. It was to be a maximum of three minutes long. It was an intimidating assignment for me. I had never done anything like this before, but I was aexcited about learning how to do it. I am also looking forward to finding ways to use this skill in the classroom. As I thought about this assignment, I had no idea what the subject of my video should be. I came up with a list of things, but I did not really get excited about any of them. I was getting worried, because I had to leave town for some family events. It was my grandmother's eightieth birthday, and the day after her party, our immediate family was going to the site of their old lake house to spread my grandfather's ashes. As we were cleaning up the party and making plans for the somber events of the following day, I finally realized that I knew what my personal video story should be about. I began to write my script, and spent time interviewing several family members on my grandfather. I got out many of my grandmother's old pictures of her husband, and used them to create a story board on her breakfast table. I worked with my family members to edit it and get their feedback. Then I made a trip to Kinko's in the middle of the night with my mother to scan in our old photographs, most of them sepia tone. I burned the scanned images onto a CD, then got a friend to help me learn the ins and outs of Story Maker 3. We found some great jazz cd's to use as the soundtrack, as that was my grandfather's favorite genre of music. This project that had started out being so intimidating became so personal for me. Even though this was not the medium that I would have first chosen for expression of my tribute to my grandfather, it turned out to be a very personal and fulfilling way to go about it.

The blind leading the blind...

So, I am getting my Master's degree right now in educational technology leadership. And yet, I just committed the HUGEST technology snafu. I am so frustrated with my self and hope my professors and academic coach have mercy on me. I saved my assignments onto my computer, instead of into the school's software. So when I submitted them electronically, I submitted blank templates, rather than my work, which had taken me hours. There were three things that I had done this way. I feel so foolish. Now I am just waiting to hear back from my professors and my academic coach. Feels more like waiting for the grim reaper...

Week 2 Assignment

One of the websites I evaluated was Tech and Learning, found at http://www.techlearning.com/. The website features best practices, blogs, contests, "webinars," a tech forum, hot topics, a magazine, links to partner sites and resources, as well as tech tips. The best practices section has many articles on a wide range of technology education subjects. There are some that speak to classroom teachers, others that are geared toward technology facilitators, and many other subjects and audiences. The tech forum is divided up by region. There are online "webinars" and face-to-face training programs throughout the country. These serve to keep educators up to date on educational technology topics. The Hot Topics section of the site is divided into data management, security, elearning, copyright, funding, mobile/wireless, assessment, and curriculum sections. Each of these has several current articles on these subjects.



The site is very easy to navigate and loads quickly. It is user-friendly and visually appealing. Links are well-labeled and easy to understand. There are pictures and graphics with most links that make the content they are describing that much easier to understand, as well as making it more visually appealing. Sections of text are broken up by white space, boxes, and pictures. This keeps the page from being overwhelming visually. One of the only things that might be a down-side on this site for me is that it covers so much information. The sections focus some of the information, but it still covers a huge scope of information.


This site would have many uses and applications for technology education. It exposes educators to new technologies and supplies a forum where they can discuss new technology and ideas. The site gives training opportunities both online as well as information on training classes happening throughout the country. I would recommend this site to other educators and will be referencing it myself in the future.