Universal Design for Learning

I liked this quote from Chapter Four of Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal Design for Learning:

Non-educators often make the mistake of equating access to information with access to learning. In reality, these are two separate goals. In fact, increasing access to information can actually undermine learning, because it sometimes requires reducing or eliminating the challenge or resistance that is essential to learning.

The chapter goes on to explain that teachers should overcome this challenge through proper goal setting.  Instructional technologies and curriculum adaptations can only adequately serve special-needs children if teachers set goals wisely.  As an example of how to accommodate more students, the authors show how the goal "Every student will be able to write an essay in cursive" is perhaps better stated as "Students will write an essay."

The first goal is obviously too specific--cursive writing is only useful to people who can already write normally, but who simply wish to write faster.  A person needing to use a special device for writing does not need to learn cursive.  However, I would also argue that the latter goal is also problematic.  It doesn't challenge a physically disabled child the same way that the first goal challenges a non-physically disable child.  The goal would be better stated as "Students will be able to write a well-organized essay summarizing and analyzing subject content."  This more specific goal maintains a high standard for students of all types.

This goal also accommodates students who prefer to communicate using digital media rather than simply written text.  Although almost all students would probably need to produce some form of "written" work, they could also be encouraged to enhance their project using video, audio, images, etc.