The 2008 UDL Institute
As the summer months come to a close this week,
I wanted to share mythoughts about this year’s UDL institute. We kicked off this summer class in late June — spending a very long five days together — exploring an array of UDL articles, books, resources, and techniques. As with each class over the past six years, this one was no different. Students were eager to learn, enjoyed the time together, and were amazed at how much sense a UDL approach makes. In fact, in emailing with one student about her final project, she shared with me a conversation she was having with her 80 something father and the components of UDL. His reply, “well that’s how everyone should learn”. My late father had the same feeling and, I suspect many a learner would appreciate the flexibility that is borne out of a UDL classroom. This year we shifted our class design a bit by infusing more instructional
technology time on the tools that students might use or include in their final projects. As with other classes, some students found a final paper to be their favorite route to take while others chose to create a movie in Movie Maker or Photo Story. Regardless, the final products were great to see. We even hear that a new video on You Tube may be debuting soon. We’ll let the student blogs be places you can learn more about their work and interests…should they wish to share.
