UDL Inspiration Map

 The above Concept Map of the Universal Design for Learning is the second map I made.  The first one I made was the diagram version of a far-too-long outline of our readings from chapters three and four of Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age.  Once turned into a JPEG, the concept map was so small that the content of the diagram was impossible to see.  I include it below:

Yikes!  You can tell that this diagram is inaccessible and therefore useless.  The outline was seven pages when I converted it to a Word document, far too many words to fit into a concept map.  My myopia about the content distracted me from the overarching goal of posting a visible image on this blog.  The mind map at the top of this post is a more succinct representation of the essence of UDL.    

One thing I greatly appreciated in the UDL reading is that CAST practiced UDL in its presentation of the content, particularly with "top-down" networking through hyperlinking and sections labeled as "background knowledge".  In addition, the writers of this "curriculum" embed multimedia presentations and videos.  Often, educators of educators do not practice the methods they endorse, but CAST does.

Inspiration is a program that supports standard 3 of the CT language arts curriculum guide, which focuses on the writing process.  For prewriting, Inspiration mind maps and diagrams allow students to plan and rehearse using images and words in a spatial web.  The feature which transforms the data from an outline form to a diagram form and vice versa is particularly useful.  

UDL is a pedagogy that seems to work best "in the clouds"--on the internet.  One fear I have about CAST's approach is that it is so dependent on internet access that students who lack a home computer and network become disadvantaged.  Ideally, in-class instruction that attempts to maximize options will extend outside of the class.  How do we bring UDL into the home of a student who lacks the technology?  For instance, suppose a student has a personal laptop supplied by his school for in-school use only.  Suppose that student receives support for his reading through e-books that have text-to-speech features and hyperlinks to the definitions of challenging words.  This level of support is warranted and deliberately employed by his teacher in the class.  

What happens though when he goes home and wants to read independently for pleasure or complete his homework using the same support system?  Several of his classmates become self-reliant with e-books and their parents purchase e-book readers for them.  Where does that leave our student who must, for instance, manually and rapidly flip through a dictionary to comprehend a text, while his counterparts simply enter words into dictionary.com or move the cursor over the word in their e-reader and a footnoted definition magically appears?  UDL obviously favors those who have home technology to match the supports offered at school.  This does not undermine UDL's pedagogy and I'm sure the creative teacher would be able to overcome any home obstacles.  However, to use the architectural analogy, having a ramp at home would make having a ramp at school less of a tease.