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Speaker: OTAN, Outreach and Technical Assistance Network.

Karin De Varennes: Hi, everyone. Thank you for joining me for our intro to Universal Design for Learning. This little presentation is just to get you excited about how UDL can work in the adult education classroom. Before that, I'd like to plug OTAN-- Outreach and Technical Assistance Network.

If you go to OTAN.US, you will find just an amazing, incredible amount of cost free resources to help you in your classroom or in your agency, everything from cost free professional development, lesson plans, teaching with technology videos to show you how to access that technology. Just a ton of amazing resources that I hope you'll tap into if you haven't already.

So my name, again, Karin de Varennes. I'm a project specialist with technology at OTAN and I wanted to share with you my contact information if you ever have the desire to email or have any other questions not just about UDL, but anything in general that can help you with. And I wanted to share with you my lifelong learner profile limit today and that align with this UDL introduction to practice 1C that lifelong learners build digital literacy. We continue to learn and we adapt to ongoing changes related to the future of our work.

And also, feature three, Digital Citizen Practice 3A, and that's where digital citizens like you and me expand our perspectives, develop greater empathy, and support more inclusive and equitable workplaces using digital tools and resources. So that is why I am here and that is why I've been lucky enough to learn so much while I've been at OTAN. So thinking ahead about barriers.

So really, UDL-- Universal Design for Learning, in a nutshell is just a thinking forward about the barriers that all of our students bring to the classroom for learning. And I like to equate this like having a dinner party. So if I invite my community of friends over and I'm thinking that I want to make a meat lasagna with cheese, I'm using UDL or something like UDL when I'm thinking about the barriers that happens when I invite my friends.

For instance, one of my friends has such bad celiac disease that whenever she has gluten of any kind, her tummy, it just makes for a really huge problem. And I want to make sure that I don't serve anything with gluten. And that means anything in my sauce, anything in my in the pasta itself, so anything that has just a touch of gluten will hurt her.

So in advance, I'm going to make sure that I get rid of my semolina pasta, my wheat pasta, and instead, I'm going to bring in a rice pasta. And she can have that. And so OK, that's good. And then I have a daughter-in-law who's coming, and she is so much fun and I want her to be able to eat, but I realized that she has lactose intolerance for cheese, and her belly just bloats and her face bloats when she gets cheese. So I'm going to maybe try a cashew cheese, something like an almond milk cheese that might help in ricotta that might help with her tummy.

And then, Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, my other friend, he's allergic to-- and doesn't prefer meat, but he just doesn't prefer eating meat for specific reasons. And I like to honor that because when I go over to his house, he'll even make me meat. So when he comes to mind, I will be meatless. So perhaps instead, I will of the meat. I'll make a meatless sauce or vegetarian sauce, and those are the three barriers.

Other than that, everyone else can eat my meatless cheeseless gluten free pasta. But those three people would be excluded if I didn't change it. So that's my analogy to the classroom. UDL is about thinking about the variability that all learners bring, and thinking ahead as to how my lesson or what I'm doing with teaching can help them access the information. That's it in a nutshell. See? So easy.

So perhaps you already know, but there are over 61 million people with some disability. Sometimes it's an invisible disability where you can't see it on the outside, or it is a visible disability. Probably about 73% of those disabilities do not use assistive devices like wheelchairs or walkers, and 96% of Americans with chronic illness suffer from an invisible type of disability.

So an invisible disability is a physical, mental, or neurological condition that is not visible from the outside, yet can limit or challenge a person's movement, maybe their [ INAUDIBLE ] or maybe their activity level or how they're able to integrate in into a community of learners.

So today's outcome is really that you'll be able to convey the big ideas of UDL to a colleague, or maybe you want to share it with your family or friends at the dinner table. Today's main topics, again, we're going to be very brief. We're going to just chat up what is UDL, and UDL and brain science. So just the big nuggets, just the introduction.

So here I have a word bank because I'd like to define what Universal Design for Learning is in an interactive way. And for some of us, that would mean-- because I'm presenting this in a Universal Design for Learning environment, I will go ahead and read the words from left to right-- environment, research, learners, framework, and these words are going to fill in the definition of UDL.

So let's read it together with you there at home and me here, and I will put my laser beneath each word so that we can track and read it together. Universal Design for Learning, UDL, is an educational blank. So one of those words up at the top in our word bank is going to fill in that blank.

Based on decades of neuroscience blank, UDL supports teaching all blank in an inclusive learning blank. You'll notice for folks that do work with students who speak additional languages other than English and are learning English, that I've chosen all nouns for this close activity. So let's go back and see if we can figure out what words go in there.

Universal Design for Learning, UDL, is an educational framework-- It's a framework, based on decades of neuroscience research. UDL supports teaching all learners and an inclusive learning environment. If you need to pause and reread that again just to get the kernels out of that information, please feel free. I'll read it one more time just to make sure that those that need that help with listening can hear it.

Universal Design for Learning, UDL, is an educational framework based on decades of neuroscience research. UDL supports teaching all learners in an inclusive learning environment. Just about making sure everyone has what they need, isn't it? So let's think about what is UDL as far as what you think the truth is or not.

So while you're here watching and listening, let me read the statement. And to yourself, thumbs up thumbs down what do you think? UDL is included and explained in every California educational framework, including the California Adult Education Digital Learning Guidance. So you can find mention of UDL in every framework. True, got it. And it's in chapter 2 page 41 of our own California Adult Education Digital Learning Guidance. So again, it's for all. What do you Think

The goal of UDL is to create expert learners. Yes, true. You're correct. The goal of UDL is to create learners who are purposeful, motivated, resourceful, knowledgeable, strategic, and goal oriented. So yes, that is the goal of UDL, to create expert learners. UDL is the same as differentiation. What do you think? true? False?

If you guessed false, you are correct. I'm going to go back to that slide. Differentiation is what we do as educators one, if we've given a student a pretest and we differentiate learning so based on what we know from the test that they need scaffolding or they need some sort of gap filling or different pacing, different types of supports.

UDL is when we take the information and the barriers and the learner variability that we know about a person, and we design the learning beforehand for that person. So in a nutshell, that's the difference. And I'm always skeptical as a teacher about whether or not something that is introduced is just a new old thing, or an old new thing, or is this just something that someone's decided somewhere that we need to incorporate?

And so I wanted to assure you, the Universal Design for Learning has been around a long, long, long, long, long time. And let's read the statement and let's take our time thinking about and taking a guess as to when the first year UDL is mentioned with the $15,000 grant, and CAST is founded-- the Center for Applied Science technology.

And this is when three people decided to create computer technology to enhance learning for students with disabilities. So these four people founded the movement, and what year do you think it was? I know you're going to-- 1984. Some of you probably weren't even born then. But a long time ago, so it isn't a new thing.

The US Department of Ed commissions CAST-- Center for Applied Science Technology, to write a white paper for the national technology plan-- The Futures and the Margins, the Role of Technology and Disability in Educational Reform. So I'm sure you're thinking, I have no idea, Karin, but if you take a guess, 1999 was when that paper was fully commissioned by the Department of Ed.

Let's see the next one. CAST publishes Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age, Universal Design for Learning. 2002. CAST issues UDL design for learning theory and practice and is defined and endorsed in the Every Student Succeeds Act or ESSA passed with bipartisan support in Congress. 2014, it's been around. And last but not least, CAST is selected by the state of California to lead the California Coalition for Inclusive Literacy, CCIL, which was a statewide professional development partnership to improve literacy outcomes of UDL.

I was very lucky to be a part of this professional development partnership. And because of that, all the folks that went through it have now been able to share with educators and colleagues like yourself. And that began in the year 2020. So see? Has been around a while. So let's take a peek at the UDL guidelines. Remember, it's just a framework. It's not a checklist. It's a framework, and we're just going to do a little quickie overview before we really get into it at another time.

So these are what the learning guidelines look like. And you'll notice that there are three different principles that are followed here at the top. And so each of those is related to brain research. One is, providing multiple means of engagement, and it affects the effective part of the brain. The other is, provide multiple means of representation, and it's the what of learning. And you'll see here where the focus is in the brain is because UDL is grounded in neuroscience research.

And the last is, provide multiple means of action and expression. Lots of choice. And you can see this is where the brain is, and that is how we provide the how of learning. How we're going to have our folks access the learning. So those are the three principles. You'll see here that highlighted within my yellow pink box, each principle-- and it would be the purple or lavender and then the blue or lavender, have guidelines. And those guidelines are the subheadings of each of those principles.

So for instance, recruiting interest, sustaining effort and persistence, self regulation, those are the guidelines in engagement. So what would be the guidelines and action and expression? If you guessed physical action, expression and communication, and executive functions, then you understand what the guidelines are.

Also a part of it is under each guideline, there are individual checkpoints. And those checkpoints are to help us as educators guide a person along to being able to master self regulation. The point of UDL is at the beginning where we are here at the top for access, it's mostly teacher driven. We're making it exciting to learn. We're using simulations. We're using technology. We're having collaborative conversations.

Maybe we're having simulations. Something interactive, manipulative, exciting, for our students. And it's all teacher directed. But where we want and where UDL sends us-- well, my goodness, turned on me. There we go. Is where it's directing us is to get to a place where every learner is working independently.

So from teacher directed to the goal of an expert learner, which is individual or independent, which means that they're able to self regulate, they're able to set goals, they're able to comprehend on their own, they're able to use their executive functions to be able to set appropriate goals, for instance, and create their own planning and be able to have a work life and life where they can do those things. So that's UDL, the quick version. Let's chat about what UDL is and what UDL isn't.

So Universal Design for Learning is based in research. It is designed with the goal of creating expert learners. And it is established in the California Digital Learning Guideline. Remember what chapter? Chapter 2, got it. Universal design for learning is not-- it's not only for special education students because remember, our students come in with both visible and invisible barriers.

It is not the same thing as differentiation, and is not a one size fits all model of learning. So we knew that didn't work back in the day when we were all supposed to be on the same page, same worksheet, back in no child left behind dark days. That one size fits for all model of learning, as we know from our students' scores, was the first time our reading scores went down as a nation. So we know that one size fits all model of learning doesn't work, and we have evidence of it.

So you might be thinking, how can I do then-- can I still use direct instruction with-- and UDL? The answer is yes, there's room for direct instruction and UDL. And there's also room for andragogy, which is where it's based on student centered work, and that's that adult theory. And there is room for that as well. It's not just either or or no. It is a yes and how we use it is whether or not it fits for UDL.

So we just went very quickly over these main topics. What is UDL? [ INAUDIBLE ] are you able to convey it to a friend? If so, good. We just went a little bit into UDL and the brain science. Not so far, not too much, but trust me, there's lots of literature and lots of research on the brain science and its connection to inclusion for all. Thank you so much for joining me today for this quick version of UDL in the adult classroom. Take good care. Hope to see you again.