Greater than average

Ted Rose and the Myth of Average at
TEDx SonomaCounty

Today we explored the concepts of The Myth of Average and Universal Design for Learning.  Education has been, for many years, a 'one size fits all' program.  If a student falls outside the neat boundary box of what is being delivered in the classroom, teachers have, in the past, been too often limited by what solutions are available. In another class, my reading discusses how a true solution to any given problem cannot be a cookie cutter one borrowed from a 'similar problem'.  A true solution must be custom fit to solve the problem at hand.  For our diverse learners, a true solution must fit the unique needs of each student.   There is great potential for the various solutions for each problem to grow out of control.

How then can one teacher manage a classroom and all the unique solutions required for all of our individual learners? Universal Design for Learning (UDL) ; that is we use one device, with one stunningly simple design to act in a huge range of ways, covering a series of scenarios.  This allows us to solve problems that are unique, with a single tool, used in different ways.  By utilising Universal Design, and keeping our solutions as simple as possible, we teach the student (or, in today's age, the student often teaches us!) one way of doing a task, in a few steps as possible.  Keeping steps as simple as possible means that we are empowers to do more, in a shorter period of time.

Universal Design for Learning uses a single device in
an endless range of ways

within, and yet maintain some semblance sanity?  Keeping solutions as simple as possible is essential to helping to maintain one's sanity.  Solutions are kept simple by utilising
Once we empower our students with simple tasks, using Universal Design, we release within them the presumed competence which is masked by challenges unrelated to cognitive ability.

Here in is my "big take away" from today: I need to do better, to work with my students whose barriers to productivity are less important than the gains we will find when my students are no longer encumbered by the historic relics of the classroom of yesterday.  I need to use the tools of the classroom of tomorrow to help my students find new, exciting ways to show me what they are truly capable of.  Failing to improve, is simply no longer an option.