The Loudon Co. Public Schools in Ashburn, VA, has an extensive web site with many, many resources.
The have a UDL section to the web site at:
It includes Overview of UDL information as well as Planning and Technology Tools. There is a link to a pocket card with UDL information and to sample UDL Lessons and Resources.
Check it out!
Using the Tic-Tac-Toe lesson assignments designed while participating in the PATINS UDL Project, Autumne Streeval and Harriet Armstrong from Columbus East High School went to Microsoft’s U.S. Innovative Teachers Forum and took top honors. They will move on to the national competition in Brazil later this fall.
To see a video interview with Autumne and Harriet, go to:
FETC Fall ’09 Virtual Conference & Expo is coming to you live on Thursday, October 22, 2009. This FREE 100% online educational event gives you the opportunity to participate in highly informative virtual sessions from the convenience of your office, visit the Virtual Expo Hall and chat with real live exhibitors, and preview and evaluate the latest hardware and software available today.
This extraordinary online educational event delivers valuable presentations and unlimited networking opportunities straight to your desktop — all at NO CHARGE!
Attend this 100% online event to enjoy:
Attend as many sessions as you like, visit the virtual exhibit hall at any time and network when it’s convenient for you.
Register today to participate in this compelling new virtual event — invite your colleagues and staff to participate at NO CHARGE!
For a schedule of events and to register, go to:
http://virtual.fetc.org/Microsites/FETC-Virtual/Event-Home.aspx
This is a web site that combines curricula + wiki to yield Curriki. (A web site where the community shares and collaborates on free and open source curricula.) This is a project started by Sun Microsystems to develop works for education in a collaborative effort.
They are focusing initially on developing an online repository for K-12 curricula in the areas of mathematics, science, technology, reading and language arts, and languages. They want this repository to attract everyone from educators, students and parents, to programmers, instructional designers, authors and public officials throughout the world to contribute or freely access quality learning materials. (A very similar concept to Wikipedia, which most of us are familiar with.)
You can find lesson plans, teaching activities, student worksheets and more. You can contribute by sharing your favorite curriculum resources. You can collaborate with teachers in your school or educators around the world. If you join (it’s free) you will be able to collect resources in a personal collection, to modify those resources to meet your specific needs, to contribute your own resource information, and to participate in the educational community by providing feedback and comments.
Check it out at:
This is a great web site for locating open source (free) software that addresses a multitude of barriers to accessing the curriculum. http://www.oatsoft.org/
You can search the software database by the need that it meets, by the type or category of software, or see all the titles. (There are over 150 titles listed.)
You can also contribute toward projects developing new software or introduce software that you have developed. There is a forum area for discussion and a news section with the latest developments. There is something here for everyone.
Westfield-Washington Schools will be hosting a FREE Promethean Interactive Whiteboard Conference on March 13th, 2009 at Maple Glen Elementary School, 17171 Ditch Road, Westfield, IN, 46074.
Please feel free to join us for breakout sessions on uses of Promethean in the classroom, lunch, keynote speaker and door prizes.
You are welcome to bring any other staffers from your district that you think will benefit from this conference.
All that we ask is that you and anyone else attending, please register at the following link, so that we are aware of how many to expect.
https://www.eventville.com/search/groups.asp?coordinatorgroupid=1001051
Click on “Indiana” on the map and then click “register” to sign up for the specific breakout sessions and complete your registration. You will also see the conference schedule and other items.
Remember that this is a FREE conference!
Lunch will be provided free of charge from Kelties Restaurant.
Please let Eric Esterline (phone: 317-867-8034) know if you have any questions or would like directions.
The online version of Education Week has a posting of grant opportunities at http://www.edweek.org/ew/section/grants/index.html
There are several pages of grants listed with information about who is providing them, what the focus or program is, and when the deadline for applying is. If you are looking for money to support UDL, this is a great place to look for possible sources.
As your school is working to implement UDL, you will certainly find that there is technology that will help you in the process. You will need to remember your vision, consider the curriculum involved, and be sure of your technology support system and your school’s capacity for handling the technology. Don’t forget to consider how you will collaborate, communicate, and share information about UDL with others. As with any technology, collecting data on the positive or negative benefits is important so you know how to proceed further.
I’m attaching an information sheet that will help guide you through making those technology decisions. 7 Guiding Questions for Technology Decision Making
The CITEd (Center for Implementing Technology in Education) web site (http://www.cited.org/) has a technology matrix that compares various technology that might be used for math, reading, writing or assistive technology. This may help you decide what technology might be best for you.
If you have never been to the CITEd web site before, I recommend that you take the 7-minute tour of the site so you know all of the things that are available here…and there are a lot! You can save information into kits that can be distributed to others for sharing/training purposes. There is research to support what you are doing. Throughout the web site the focus is on UDL and best practices.
Also, CITEd and Don Johnston, Inc., joined forces to produce a series of webinars on a variety of topics dealing with UDL which are archived at: http://www.donjohnston.com/prof_services/VIP.html
