628 Week #7 - UDL (Universal Design for Learning) IRL (In Real Life)

How do I feel I “did” thus far in my “first stab” at instructional design in relation to UDL?  Well, I feel this is not my first stab at instructional design in general, it is however my first stab at instructional design that digs this deeply into the preparation steps.  I’ve designed lots of units but I’ve never gone through this process before, so in that respect I think I did pretty good.  I have multiple elements to my summative assessment, I have tons of formative assessments, students have many opportunities to make choices about the work, there is SLT going on in multiple ways, I have tons of student reflection and I have feedback coming to students in multiple ways.  I also think my unit scaffolds pretty well; it gives students lots of background information and build skillsets that culminate in the final artifact they produce.  All the activities are UDL friendly and there is room for assistive technology to be utilized with little to no modification.  UDL was definitely on my mind when designing this unit in a way it never has been before and I believe that’s a good thing!  As for what elements that we’ve learned about so far will I bring with me into the next and final course, SAMR (which really should be RMAS according to the graphic hehe) is an area where I think I’ve made lot of growth and I have a new ease of mind when considering how to bring tech into my practice.  Even now I’m using MOTE to give feedback to my students as they navigate their SDP projects (student driven project) and I’ve added the creation of a collaborative slide deck into my existing Fallen Stars activity which has made it MUCH better, MUCH more interesting, MUCH more UDL friendly and much more engaging.  These things will be sticking around and I’m pretty confident that I’ll continue to seek out and experiment with technology in my practice.  All in all what I’ve learned in these courses has made me a much better facilitator of learning experiences and has awaken my mind in a way that has been very transformative.  Ed.D. I’m comin’ for ya!