PATINS Project: UDL Resources

Technology is changing the face of education and making many activities more accessible for more students. This article offers some very good suggestions for making a launch of 1-to-1 iPads for students a successful endeavor. The authors are from schools in Delaware and Florida who have already done it, so they are speaking from experience. They suggest that there are six critical areas to consider when undertaking this kind of a change, including:

• leadership
• cost
• network function
• security
• philosophical frameworks
• pedagogy

To read the full article, go to 

http://thejournal.com/articles/2011/12/14/launching-an-ipad-1-to-1-program-a-primer.aspx

Are you ready to try using hand-held devices in your classroom? This article, 7 myths About BYOD Debunked,  might provide some reasons to encourage you to try it! Your kids will love you for it and it can lead to improved access for everyone.

http://thejournal.com/articles/2011/11/09/7-byod-myths.aspx

The newly released, free app, UDLinks, provides support for teachers, students and parents who are interested in Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Along with explaining the principles of UDL, the app allows you to create a class profile and then suggests online resources that match your selected preferences.

The resources provided are searchable by content area, by category (lesson plans, simulations, practice, tutorial, collaborative tools or games) and by grade level. You can save your favorite resources in the Favorites area so they are easily available.

Check it out in iTunes.

A private school in Miami is using Skype, the free, online phone and video-conferencing application, to connect with a class in Jerusalem. This connection if allowing material to be presented in a new way for students and teacher and both classes are learning from each other.

Read more about this exciting use on online resources at:

http://thejournal.com/articles/2011/10/26/skype-learning-lab-puts-global-perspective-on-u.s.-history.aspx

The Kahn Academy web site has a goal of changing education for the better by offering free world-class education to anyone anywhere. If your students need additional explanations of curriculum materials this is the place to go. This site offers over 2,600 instructional, educational videos dealing with math, science, economics, history and civics, health care and medicine, finance, art history and much more.

http://www.khanacademy.org/

Check out this brief TED lecture by Dan Meyer on how to teach students to formulate their math problems as well as how to solve them. He argues that we give students too much information and deny them the opportunity to define the problems and get creative and intuitive in finding solutions.

http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_meyer_math_curriculum_makeover.html

Collaborize Classroom is a free online learning platform where teachers can start or extend classroom discussions in a private, structured location online.  A variety of discussion and question types can be used as well as multimedia, images, video, and PDF files.  Engagement for all students will be enhanced as students interact with online activities and assignments in their own time.

Watch a video demonstration at http://www.youtube.com/user/CollaborizeClassroom#p/a/u/0/glAlsP_031I

Go to http://collaborizeclassroom.com/ for more information and to sign up.

A great way to encourage and support student writing, this site allows users to create online stories with their own illustrations (use online drawing tools or import photos or scanned pictures) and their own recorded words. Once created the stories can be shared with others via email or on a web page. Writing digital books can be fun and engaging.

Check out this web site for really engaging your middle and high school students in algebra!!

Get The Math uses videos and online interactive challenges from the music, fashion and video game industries to help students realize the importance of understanding algebra concepts and have fun while they learn.  Help in solving problems is available if the students need it.  The site also has support for teachers with lesson objectives, learning materials, and samples of evaluation questions.

Getting students to WANT to learn algebra is always difficult, but  Get The Math does it by making algebra applicable to things kids like!

Check out this web site that reviews many of the e-book readers that are available now. A couple of devices that can certainly be used to read e-books, the iPad and iPod Touch, are not included….not sure why…but, otherwise it is a good resource.