Universal Design

It was interesting to read about universal design and to start thinking about how these principals can improve my instruction.  I'm particularly interested in how the use of multimedia can make curriculum more accessible.  Multimedia in the classroom can be used in two ways: consumption and production.  For example, students can watch a YouTube video in order to learn about a topic (consumption), or they can create a video about a topic and post it on YouTube (production).   For a student who has difficult concentrating, either of these uses of media can be very beneficial.  Similarly, a visually impaired student might like to learn by listening and creating podcasts.  And a deaf person might benefit much from creating their own comic books or animations.  In general, bringing these types of media into the classroom is a great way to make schools more universal.