http://udlguidelines.edublogs.org Thu, 05 Jun 2008 15:14:25 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Students differ in the ways that they can navigate a learning environment and express what they know. For example, individuals with significant motor disabilities (e.g. cerebral palsy), those who struggle with strategic and organizational abilities (executive function disorders, ADHD), those who have language barriers, and so forth approach learning tasks ... http://udlguidelines.edublogs.org/2008/04/15/principle-ii-provide-multiple-means-of-action-and-expression/ Students differ markedly in the ways in which they can be engaged or motivated to learn. Some students are highly engaged by spontaneity and novelty while other are disengaged, even frightened, by those aspects, preferring strict routine. In reality, there is no one means of representation that will be optimal ... http://udlguidelines.edublogs.org/2008/04/15/principle-iii-provide-multiple-means-of-engagement/ Information that is not attended to, that does not engage student’s cognition, is in fact inaccessible. It is inaccessible both in the moment - relevant information goes unnoticed and unprocessed - and in the future: relevant information is unlikely to be remembered. As a result, teachers devote considerable effort to ... http://udlguidelines.edublogs.org/2008/04/15/guideline-7-provide-options-for-recruiting-interest/ Many kinds of learning, particularly the learning of skills and strategies, require sustained attention and effort. When motivated to do so, many students can regulate their attention and affect in order to sustain the effort and concentration that such learning will require. However, students differ considerably in their ability to ... http://udlguidelines.edublogs.org/2008/04/15/guideline-8-provide-options-for-sustaining-effort-and-persistence/ While it is important to design the extrinsic environment so that it can support motivation and engagement (see guidelines 7 and 8), it is also important to develop students’ intrinsic abilities to regulate their own emotions and motivations. The ability to self-regulate – to strategically modulate one’s emotional reactions or ... http://udlguidelines.edublogs.org/2008/04/15/guideline-9-provide-options-for-self-regulation/ At the highest level of the human capacity to act skillfully are the so-called “executive functions.” Associated with prefrontal cortex in the brain, these capabilities allow humans to overcome impulsive, short-term reactions to their environment and instead to set long-term goals, plan effective strategies for reaching those goals, monitor their ... http://udlguidelines.edublogs.org/2008/04/15/guideline-6-provide-options-for-executive-functions/ There is no medium of expression that is equally suited for all students or for all kinds of communication. On the contrary, there are media which seem poorly suited for some kinds of expression, and for some kinds of students. While a student with dyslexia may excel at story-telling in ... http://udlguidelines.edublogs.org/2008/04/15/guideline-5-provide-options-for-expressive-skills-and-fluency/ A textbook or workbook in a print format provides limited means of navigation or physical interaction (e.g. by turning pages with fingers, handwriting in spaces provided). Many interactive pieces of educational software similarly provide only limited means of navigation or interaction (e.g. via dexterously manipulating a joystick or keyboard). ... http://udlguidelines.edublogs.org/2008/04/15/guideline-4-provide-options-for-physical-action/ The purpose of education is not to make information accessible (that is the purpose of libraries), but to teach students how to transform accessible information into useable knowledge. Decades of cognitive science research has demonstrated that the capability to transform accessible information into useable knowledge is not ... http://udlguidelines.edublogs.org/2008/04/15/guideline-3-provide-options-for-comprehension/ Students vary in their facility with different forms of representation - both linguistic and non-linguistic. Vocabulary that may sharpen and clarify concepts for one student may be opaque and foreign to another. A graph that illustrates the relationship between two variables may be informative to one student and ... http://udlguidelines.edublogs.org/2008/04/15/guideline-2-provide-options-for-language-and-symbols/