"The pandemic has shined a light on how big the issue with digital equity is." This statement is all too familiar, and many, educators can relate to this. In this blog post, I will share what Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is and how we can use UDL to give all students digital equity through ways we can present lessons and how they express what they have learned. What is UDL and what does it have to do with Digital Equity? UDL is a way to give students the ability to share their knowledge of their understanding of the content in flexible ways and by giving them choice. When I first started teaching with UDL, I was overwhelmed because one of the first thoughts I had was, "I don't have time to make all of those lesson plans!" But I realized that the students helped me to come up with UDL lessons due to their personalities and their own needs. Just knowing the students and what interests them, helped me paint a picture of different lessons and ways to assess them, and how this can benefit their learning. Digital equity comes into UDL when we give students the same access to their learning and assessments with the same access to technology and the curriculum. 1. How can I Engage my students using UDL?
2. How can I Represent the Material to the Students in Different ways? This can be tricky, because I often overthink and get overwhelmed on how I can best represent the lessons to the students in ways that will reach all of my students. This is giving the students the "what" they are learning. Here are some ideas!
3. How do the students show action and expression? This is where they students show "how" they are learning the content. There are so many possibilities on how students can show what they have learned! What makes this impactful to them, is that they make the choice on how they want to express to you their knowledge.
How do I get started? Get started by giving your students simple options. Don't overdue it! You will begin to see your students' engagement and how giving them choices empowers them. If we ever go back to virtual learning, we can also apply UDL to digital learning as well as in-class learning! This will help us close the gap in the issue in digital equity! Below is a picture of a post that I made in August of 2020 when we were teaching virtually due to the pandemic. I wanted to share because it is a reminder to me on how much the students have learned to become digital literate.. This social media post makes me smile because students made the best out of virtual learning, and I am so proud of them!
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