Introduction Universal Learning Design: A View from Conceptual - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Introduction Universal Learning Design: A View from Conceptual Goals to the ! Universal Learning Design Actual Implementation is a set of principles for curriculum and teaching tool development that gives “all” individuals equal opportunities to Arthur I. Karshmer learn. University of San Francisco San Francisco, USA akarshmer@usfca.edu Monday, February 11, 13 University of San Francisco Slide Number 2 Primary Principles Primary Principles of ULD of ULD ! But! ! How close can we get? ! How do we verify their validity? ! It seems VERY hard to achieve the ! Well distributed and well accepted principals at a high level implementation, ! If, instead, how can we be sure that all of ! Interpretation of the guidelines is not the low level implementations as a absolute dogma, but open to some “system” meet the principals? discussion Monday, February 11, 13 University of San Francisco Slide Number 3 Monday, February 11, 13 University of San Francisco Slide Number 4

Introduction Introduction ! The discipline provides a blueprint for ! Unfortunately the complexity of the creating instructional goals, methods, problem tends to make the goal a materials, and assessments that work for target, but most likely not achievable. everyone--not a single, one-size-fits-all ! The diversity of the teaching, learning solution but rather flexible approaches that and helping devices represent a huge can be customized and adjusted for and disparate group of teachers, individual needs parents, students and tools ! As we say in the US, this is a “tall order.” Monday, February 11, 13 University of San Francisco Slide Number 5 Monday, February 11, 13 University of San Francisco Slide Number 6 Introduction Teaching & Learning Domains Other ! Matching all of the possible Other Other combinations and permutations of the Disabilities participants “probably” can not be Hearing Other achieved on the macroscopic level Vision Other ! Having said all of this, let’s look a bit Others ... Motor Other more deeply at a more microscopic domain associated with the general Math concepts associated with ULD. Student Teacher Parent Monday, February 11, 13 University of San Francisco Slide Number 7 Monday, February 11, 13 University of San Francisco Slide Number 8

Our Specific Micro The Disabled Population World will be … in the Educational System ! Having left the macroscopic world, and entering a microscopic world of Math education of the disabled, we find that ! We have entered another macroscopic world Student Teacher Parent ! For today’s talk, we will use our zoom lens to focus more deeply in our new macroscopic domain – students with disabilities Monday, February 11, 13 University of San Francisco Slide Number 9 Monday, February 11, 13 University of San Francisco Slide Number 10 The Disabled Population The Disabled Population in the Educational System in the Educational System ! Remember one of our basic goals is to: ! We’re not done yet. Our zoom lens is ! Create a set of principles (and / or tools) for taking us even deeper in the curriculum development that give “all” macroscopic world of ULD individuals access to opportunities to learn ! If our efforts work well in the micro world, ! We need to be able to select sub we should be able to integrate our product domains in which we can meet the into the next higher macro world challenge and actually reach our basic ! For our micro world we will look into mathematics (actually arithmetic) and the mission severely vision impaired. Monday, February 11, 13 University of San Francisco Slide Number 11 Monday, February 11, 13 University of San Francisco Slide Number 12

Why Math? Starting Early ! The longer we wait to educate students ! Actually we will start with arithmetic. with visual impairments, the better the ! This domain of education is one of the chance that we will have a lower level of most challenging in the educational world success. ! For blind students, math is too often a ! Failure at this level is exacerbated by two dead end other issues. ! Failure in arithmetic leads to failure in ! These two issues have been documented higher math, which restricts blind students in the U.S. education system – especially true in math and science from careers in STEM disciplines Monday, February 11, 13 University of San Francisco Slide Number 13 Monday, February 11, 13 University of San Francisco Slide Number 14 Starting Early Starting Early ! Students ! In the US and many other countries we don’t have teachers ! Teachers ! Parents ! That are well versed in teaching arithmetic, math and science to any group ! Mainlining has mandated this approach ! That are familiar with tools and methods in their ! Special schools, with advanced teaching teaching domain - namely visually impaired students. skills, are disappearing ! Many parents are also not equipped to do this job ! The result is clear: we need to develop a ! To achieve best results, we need tools that serve tool that will help young (sighted and blind) all three members of the teaching/learning team students learn arithmetic and beyond which includes Monday, February 11, 13 University of San Francisco Slide Number 15 Monday, February 11, 13 University of San Francisco Slide Number 16

Now for a Case-in-Point Now for a Case-in-Point ! The case we will analyze is called the ! We have run numerous usability studies AutOMathic Blocks project that affirm this hypothesis ! Designed primarily to help young blind ! The hypothesis stems from a famous , students in their effort to learn arithmetic. and well known illusion concerning the ! The general principle is based on the length of straight lines assumption (hypothesis) that math is more easily learned when manipulated in a two dimensional space Monday, February 11, 13 University of San Francisco Slide Number 17 Monday, February 11, 13 University of San Francisco Slide Number 18 Now for a Case-in-Point Now for a Case-in-Point ! The Müller-Lyer Illusion ! Another interesting finding is in the domain of tactile input and the effects ! Visual presentation on reading Braille by blind/dyslectic ! Tactile presentation students ! This along with the Muller-Lyer illusion, hints at the general concept of tactile input and connection with the visual cortex (or equivalent) area of the brain. Monday, February 11, 13 University of San Francisco Slide Number 19 Monday, February 11, 13 University of San Francisco Slide Number 20

Now for a Case-in-Point Case-in-Point ! The results tend to indicate that ! Traditional Braille-like systems only multidimensional information can be offer a single dimensional view of math. transferred via touch as well as vision ! Any “second dimensional” view of math is achieved through special codes that ! The systems we will examine uses this this premise as its key feature help the student in building a two dimensional mental model from a one ! Bottom line : we will be able to give dimensional presentation tool visually impaired students a two dimensional view of arithmetic and math Monday, February 11, 13 University of San Francisco Slide Number 21 Monday, February 11, 13 University of San Francisco Slide Number 22 Case-in-Point Case-in-Point ! On a much simpler level, the problem shown in the slide above is also a problem in simple arithmetic. 1234 + 899 versus 1234 + 899 Monday, February 11, 13 University of San Francisco Slide Number 23 Monday, February 11, 13 University of San Francisco Slide Number 24

Case-in-Point Case-in-Point ! Our initial usability studies clearly indicated that young blind students ! Regularly reduced their problem solving time by an average factor of two (half the time) ! Reduced their error rates by similar percentages ! None of our subjects had ever used the system before their participation in the study ! These findings should improve with practice Monday, February 11, 13 University of San Francisco Slide Number 25 Monday, February 11, 13 University of San Francisco Slide Number 26 The HyperBraille Case-in-Point System ! Refreshable Braille devices, on the other hand, are basically single dimensional ! Refreshable multi-dimensional Braille devices are becoming available, but at VERY high prices ! The HyperBraille system with a resolution of 120x60 refreshable dots costs in the tens-of-thousands of Euros ! Monday, February 11, 13 University of San Francisco Slide Number 27 Monday, February 11, 13 University of San Francisco Slide Number 28