TEACHING EVERY STUDENT IN THE DIGITAL AGE: UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR LEARNING

ByKatie BurdgeKara DanielsLaura Eigel& Kelly Jackson

CHAPTER 2

WHY RESEARCH THE BRAIN:EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS

The brain is “the most powerful tool that a student brings to the classroom”

If we can learn how each individual student processes information, then we as educators can find the best methods to assist our students and help them reach their full potential.

QUESTIONS TO ADDRESS How does the brain work while we are

learning?

What conditions help us to learn best?

Why do some people learn differently than others?

Is everyone’s brain built the same way?

UNDERSTANDING THE LEARNING BRAIN Compared to a telephone or a computer

network

1 trillion neurons in the cortex linked to about ten trillion connections

This one large network is made into many smaller networks that are specialized for performing particular tasks

THE THREE BRAIN NETWORKSRecognition Networks

Strategic Networks

Affective Networks

RECOGNITION NETWORKS Sense and assign meaning to patterns

Enable us to identify and understand information, ideas and concepts

STRATEGIC NETWORKS Generate and oversee mental and motor

patterns

Enable us to plan, execute, and monitor actions and skills

AFFECTIVE NETWORKS Evaluate patterns and assign them emotional

significance

Enable us to engage with tasks, learning and with the world around us

ACTIVITY

Please sign your full name on the

notecard.

ACTIVITY In order to sign a birthday card, you have to

understand the concept of a birthday. You have to be able to identify the car, the pen/pencil you are using, your hand as you write, and your signature. All of these tasks require your recognition network.

Your goal of signing the card, which includes picking up the pen, moving it to produce your signature requires use of your strategic network. You were given a very tiny piece of paper to sign your name, making small corrections such as reducing letter size so you do not run out of space also requires your strategic network.

The motivation to sign the card comes from your affective network. You are using your feelings that connect you to your friends to stay on track and sign the card.

RECOGNITION NETWORK:DISTRIBUTED PROCESSING Different types of stimuli are recognized in

different parts of the cortex

Example: Listening to a word and reading a word will use two different parts of the brain

http://old.cast.org/tesmm/example2_3/brain.htm

Everyone’s brain is unique and uses different parts depending on the task

RECOGNITION NETWORK:HIERARCHICAL PROCESSING Bottom Up processing: going from using less

complex regions of the brain to more complex regions of the brain to interpret information

Top Down processing: using more complex regions of the brain to make sense of less complex regions

CONCLUSION: every student processes information differently

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-4CAqXlVXo

PROBLEM: Although research has proved that students

learn best with different learning techniques, teachers continue to ignore the research and present information in one way.

SOLUTION: Teachers need to understand their

students’ strengths and weaknesses so they can provide proper support

EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS

EXAMPLE: Mr. Costa and Sophia

7th grade English Weaknesses: legally blind, uses a desktop magnifier

to help see with residual vision Strengths: Good ear for music and language

recognition Teacher’s Approach:

Make text and images available in digital form Text-to-Speech translation Voice Recognition On-Screen text and image enlargement

EXAMPLE: Mr. Sablan and Paula

3rd grade literacy Weaknesses: reading comprehension, limited

fluency, and context recognition, top-down processing

Strengths: single word decoding, spelling, bottom-up processing

Teacher’s Approach: Reduce focus on word decoding and help Paula develop

strategies to understand the content of reading

REFERENCES http://

kathrynvercillo.hubpages.com/hub/Two-Faces-or-a-Vase-10-Simple-but-Wonderful-Optical-Illusions

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-4CAqXlVXo

http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/ideas/tes/chapter2.cfm