EDLD+5364+-+Week+4

This week in Teaching with Technology, our primary focus was on designing a curriculum that is student-centered and which successfully integrates technology in meaningful ways. Through the videos, reading, and assignment we explored the meaning of a teacher-facilitated, student-centered classroom and the effective strategies and methods for meeting the needs of a variety of students through technology and project-based learning. This week built upon the ideas presented in Week 3 through the CAST website. The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) lessons that we studied and created in Week 3 proved to be an exemplary model for creating the learner-centered classroom and curriculum that we were focused on in Week 4. The Universal Design for Learning stresses the importance of reaching students on all of their brain network levels (recognition, strategic, and affective) by providing flexible means of expression, collaboration, and presentation. The one-size-fits-all classroom is no longer adequate for truly understanding our students or meeting their needs. Through the UDL model of lesson planning, teachers are better able to create lessons that support students' differences in backgrounds, abilities, and interests to make the curriculum differentiated and individualized.

Two of the readings this week stressed that if the learner-centered classroom is to become a reality, teachers are going to have to learn to adapt and professional development will have to occur inorder for tachers to have the tools to make this shift. In __Web 2.0__, Solomon and Schrum stress the importance of opening and promoting communication among teachers in order for the classroom to become more student-centered, diversified, and technology enriched. They argue that it is essential for teachers to trust one another and to share their ideas so that education can continue to evolve in meaningful and successful ways. In the __McRel Technology Initiative__ reading, the idea of professional development and teacher communication was echoed, this time backed by data that showed an increase in success when teachers collaborated and strategies were shared. All of this is, of course, the purpose behind education. Sharing information and strategies that work and that will improve our world is why many of us became educators in the first place. Let's not forget to practice what we preach!