Welcome to the "Universal Design for Learning" excerpt of the National Educational Technology Panel Report.
The excerpt uses pages 14 through 18 of the report to
demonstrate some UDL features. To see descriptions of the UDL
features and how they support learning, click on "Show UDL
Information. Click on each 
for feature descriptions. Our
excerpt demonstrates only a few examples of UDL learning
supports. For more information about UDL and the UDL Guidelines,
go to The
National Center on UDL.
Learn More
For more information about Universal Design for Learning watch this short video.
Digital Materials: In print materials, the display of information is fixed, permanent, one size fits all. In properly prepared digital materials, the display of the same information is malleable and can easily be changed or transformed into a different display, thus providing great opportunities to customize it. (Guideline 1)
How People Need to Learn
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Advances in the learning sciences, including cognitive science, neuroscience, education, and social sciences, give us greater understanding of three connected types of human learning–factual knowledge, procedural knowledge, and motivational engagement. Neuroscience tells us that these three different types of learning are supported by three different brain systems. (See sidebar on the neuroscience of learning.) Social sciences reveal that human expertise integrates all three types of learning. Technology has increased our ability to both study and enhance all three types of learning.(National Research Council, 2000, 2003, 2007, 2009; National Science Foundation, 2008b).
Check Your Understanding
Here is a question to check your understanding of what you have read. If you need a hint click on the image of the coach. Click the "check" button to check your answer.
The anterior (frontal) regions of the brain are most prominently associated with which aspect of learning?
Hint: Look at the "learning how" section of the Neuroscience of Learning sidebar.
Coaches or Agents: To effectively help students learn, good teachers vary the challenge to meet the learner exactly where he or she is in developing skills. UDL practice recommends that educators vary the levels of challenge and support. By embedding prompts, hints and models in digital agents of coaches, students are provided with just the right amount of challenge that changes as they develop their skills. (guideline 6.2)
Check Your Understanding: Effective teaching or learning almost always requires timely feedback or “knowledge of results.” Consequently, UDL practice recommends embedding multiple opportunities to “try out” new knowledge and skills in ways that will provide immediate feedback. (guideline 9.3) As one example, a simple multiple choice comprehension check is inserted here.
Factual Knowledge
Students are surrounded with information in a variety of forms, and specific features of information design affect how and whether students build usable knowledge from the information they encounter. For example, computers can replicate and integrate a wide variety of media for learning and education: text, video/film, animations, graphics, photos, diagrams, simulations, and more. As a result, technology can be designed to provide much richer learning experiences without sacrificing what traditional learning media offer. Technology can:
- Represent information through a much richer mix of
media types: This allows the integration of media and
representations to illustrate, explain, or explore complex
ideas and phenomena, such as interactive visualizations of
data in earth and environmental sciences, chemistry, or
astronomy. Technology can help learners
explore phenomena at extreme spatial or temporal scales
through simulation and modeling tools. This opens up
many domains and ways of learning that were formerly
impossible or impractical.
Learn More
For an example of free interactive tools and simulation environments that enable and encourage exploration and discovery through observation, conjecture, and modeling activities, visit Shodor MASTER Tools.
Learn More: Effective teachers vary the levels of challenge and support meeting the student exactly where he or she is in the process of developing skills (guideline 8.2). This helps to engage and motivate students. UDL practice suggests that educators not only provide options to activate background knowledge, enhance relevant and vary the levels of challenge for students to extend their knowledge of the content. The Learn More boxes are examples of ways to do all of this.
- Facilitate knowledge connections through interactive
tools:These include interactive
concept maps, data displays, and timelines that provide visual
connections between existing knowledge and new
ideas.
Learn More
For a free interactive concept-mapping tool, go to Webspiration.
For an example of an interactive timeline authoring tool, visit Read, Write, Think: Timeline
The Neuroscience of Learning
Three broad types of learning--learning that, learning how, and learning why--each correspond to one of three main areas of the human brain.
Copyright CAST 2002-2010. All Rights Reserved.
Illustrations: UDL practice suggests providing alternatives—especially simulations, models, or interactive graphics (guideline 1). In doing so, educators can make the information presented in text more comprehensible for any student and accessible for some who would find it completely inaccessible in text.
Learning that is associated with the posterior brain regions (the parietal, occipital, and temporal lobes within the cerebral cortex). These regions primarily take information in from the senses and transform it into usable knowledge–the patterns, facts, concepts, objects, principles, and regularities of our world. The medial temporal lobe, including the hippocampus, provides a system of anatomically related structures essential to conscious memory for facts and events, what is called declarative knowledge (Squire, Stark, and Clark, 2004).
Copyright CAST 2002-2010. All Rights Reserved.
Learning how is associated with the anterior parts of the brain (the frontal lobe, from the primary motor cortex to the prefrontal cortex), specialized for learning how to do things, and is expressed through performance (Squire, 2004). This also has been called procedural knowledge, implicit memory, and knowing-how. This type includes learning “low-level” motor skills but also high-level skills and strategies known as executive functions.
Copyright CAST 2002-2010. All Rights Reserved.
Learning why is associated with the interior or central brain regions, including the extended limbic system and amygdala. These evolutionarily primitive brain regions are specialized for affective and emotional learning (LeDoux, 2000). They contribute to learning and remembering not what an object is or how to use it but why it is important to us. These structures underlie what attracts our attention and interest, sustains our effort, motivates our behavior, and guides our goal-setting and priorities. With these regions, we learn our values and priorities: our image as a person and as a learner and the values and goals that comprise it.
Learn More
Be sure to visit “The Brain from Top to Bottom” website. It is not only an engaging and informative website, but it is also designed to support varying levels of familiarity with brain functioning.
To learn more about digital imaging of brain function, take a look at the Annenberg video on the “Organization and Evaluation of Brain Function.” When you get to this page, click on this icon to view this free video:
