EDLD 5364 Week Four

This week's enlightenments consisted of the importance of equitable testing of students, cooperative learning techniques, team teaching, and how to create professional development programs.

I learned that without in-depth planning and consideration of all students’ needed support systems in place, we are doing them an injustice when assessing.  This is true especially if the student has relied on the support to remove barriers during the learning process. The UDL blueprint gives guidelines for creating assessments that are fair and accurate. Learning differences, media characteristics, supports, and poorly integrated curriculum all confound efforts to accurately assess. Flexibility appears to be the key to generating fair and accurate assessments.

Cooperative learning is certainly not new. But, the use of technology and multi-media tools in order to deliver lessons, create products, and assess makes it seem like it. I subscribe to the thought that technology should be used as often as possible.  With cooperative learning, it is almost a must-have. The ability of team members to journal, interact, plan, and revise using tech tools makes cooperative learning almost unlimited. Students have built-in support. It can be carried out within a single classroom, across a campus, statewide, and internationally.  Cooperative learning techniques with technology engages, tracks student progress, assesses, and can highlight where remediation is needed.

Team teaching is not practiced much anymore, but the example I viewed in one of this week’s videos illustrates how well it can be implemented across curriculums of different content and subject matter. This type of teaching can address the whole child. It can give a student the flexibility to choose how they want to learn or what they want to focus on while learning.

Resources:

CAST (2011). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.0. Wakefield, MA: Author.

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski. (2007).Using technology with classroom instruction that works.Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 139-154.

Rose, D., & Meyer, A. (2002). Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal Design for Learning. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Available online at the Center for Applied Special Technology web site, http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/ideas/tes/

Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. (2007). Web 2.0: New tools, new schools. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education