Literacy Goes Digital: Web. 2.0 applications for UDL instruction
By Sarah McPherson, Ed.D. and Elfreda Blue, Ph.D.
Abstract
Classroom teachers are charged with preparing students for the future in both traditional
literacy instruction - reading, writing, listening, and communicating, and new literacies
which is the use of technology to expand literacy skills to digital applications (Leu,
Kinzer, Coiro, & Cammack, (2004). Technologies, which have emerged as web 2.0
tools, afford all learners opportunities to develop digital literacy skills for learning
required to meet challenging standards requirements. Given the power and promise of
instructional technology, twenty-first century teacher preparation programs are
compelled to provide opportunities for pre-service teachers to gain expertise in
technologies for teaching and learning.
Introduction
Research–based strategies for supporting literacy development for school-aged students
with learning disabilities center around sound/symbol relationships, fluency, vocabulary,
comprehension and motivation (Roberts, Torgeson, Boardman, Scammacca, 2008;
Spencer, 2010). Research for best practices that address reading needs of adolescent
students with learning disabilities affirms characteristics of expert readers – their
competence with cognitive strategies, dexterity with text structures, and experience with
cooperative learning (Faggella-Luby & Deshler, 2008). These practices are consistent
with reading research scholars who recommend comprehension instruction that includes a
focus on text structure, vocabulary, prior knowledge, cognitive strategies, and
engagement (Berry & Goatley, 2005; Morocco, Cobb & Hinden, 2002; Snow, 2004).
Twenty-first century technologies provide all students the opportunity to develop
technological know-how and demonstrate effective communication, social, and problemsolving skills. With the advances of technology there are increasingly more dimensions to
twenty-first century than traditional reading and writing, including: a) proficiency with
technology; b) collaborative and cross-cultural relationships for problem-solving; c)
global communities for the design and sharing of information; d) multiple streams of
information; e) multimedia texts for creativity, analysis, and synthesis; and f) an ethical
responsibility for use of technological environments (National Council of Teachers of
English). The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) National
Educational Technology Standards (NETS) for Teachers (2008) and Students (2007)
provides standards and guidelines for integrating digital technology into teaching and
learning. The National Technology Education Plan (2010) calls for applications of
principles for personalized learning and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to
instructional technology so that all learners, even those marginalized by disabilities have
opportunities to learn. Digital tools provide all students opportunities to read and write,
communicate and collaborate never before available in the learning environments. The
new literacies of the interactive web 2.0 tools empower students providing them a
channel to be heard, seen, and published.
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In the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and adopted by 48
states, define what students should understand and be able to do by the end of each grade
(Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) & National Governors Association
Center for Best Practices (NGA Center), 2010). These standards are intended to develop
students’ understanding and working knowledge of print, the alphabetic principle, and
basic conventions of the English writing system. These foundational skills are designed
to develop proficient readers with the capacity to comprehend various types texts across
all disciplines. Standards address increasingly complex skills and processing at each
grade level. The reading standards include a range of reading contexts, such as
foundations of phonics, word recognition, and fluency, literature, and informational text;
writing addresses narrative opinion pieces with supporting details, providing information
and explanations, descriptions of experiences, research, and the production process
(editing and revising); listening and speaking focuses on comprehension and
collaboration through presentations of knowledge and ideas; and the language section
delves into the conventions of standard English, knowledge of language, vocabulary
acquisition and word usage.
The Common Core State Standards notes that “new technologies have broadened and
expanded the role that speaking and listening play in acquiring and sharing knowledge
and have tightened their link to other forms of communication. Digital texts confront
students with the potential for continually updated content and dynamically changing
combinations of words, graphics, images, hyperlinks, and embedded video and audio” (p.
22). Web 2.0 technologies are the 21st century tools that students use for communicating
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and collaborating and are essential to students meeting the Common Core standards
whose purpose is to prepare our young people to be successful in college and in the
modern workforce.
Federal legislation, No Child Left Behind (2002) and Individuals with Disabilities
Education Improvement Act (2004) has paved the way for unprecedented access to
standards-based learning and instruction for all. The new standards and technologies hold
great promise for student learning but key to that success is the application of Universal
Design for Learning (UDL). Twenty-first century learners have differing strengths and
abilities and need varying degrees of support. Brain-based research has lead to the
development of the principles of UDL. The scientists at the Center for Applied Special
Technology (CAST) pose this definition “UDL is a framework that can help you turn the
challenges posed by high standards and increasing learner diversity into opportunities to
maximize learning for every student. Drawing upon new knowledge of how the brain
works and new technologies and media now available for teaching and learning, UDL
frames a systematic approach to setting goals, choosing or creating flexible materials and
media, and assessing students accurately” (Teaching Every Student, 2009).
The advances in neuroscience have provided evidence that three neural networks are
involved in learning – recognition, strategic and affective (Rose and Meyers, 2002). The
recognition network deals with the ‘what’ of learning. That is, the specific content.
Following the principles of UDL, teachers use multiple means of representation of
concepts so that students have a variety of modalities for learning the concepts, text,
visuals, auditory or multimedia. Multiple means of action and expression are key to
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addressing the strategic network so that student can demonstrate what they know and
have learned using strategies that reflect their learning styles. The affective network is
concerned with the motivation and self-regulation of learning. Diverse learners,
including those with special needs such as learning disabilities, are much more likely to
experience successful learning if their opportunities to learn follow the UDL principles.
Web 2.0 technologies can provide many of the features describes in the UDL framework.
New literacies in the twenty-first century require students’ to have access to and agility
with interactive technologies. However, today’s learners have differing strengths and
abilities and therefore need varying degrees of support. The framework for UDL
supports students at multiple levels for access, participation and progress in the
curriculum for all students. The principles of UDL are: multiple, flexible means of
representation, expression or action and action. Each principle is comprised of three
principles (see Figure 1).
Insert Figure 1 here
Web 2.0 tools are the web-based read-write technologies on the Internet. They allow
users to publish on the web in a variety of formats and media. Examples include blogs,
wikis, YouTube, and Facebook. They have become commonplace technologies that
support social networking with the peers, teachers, families, and friends. There are many
advantages to using web 2.0 tools including students’ motivation and interest in authentic
participatory technologies.
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Authentic publishing to a real audience is highly motivating for reading and writing. It’s
informal, personal, and non-threatening. Participatory allows all students to interact on
the web posting their original thoughts and ideas. The comment feature facilitates the
interaction, which provides students increased opportunities to read and write over paper
texts, worksheets and non-web based printed materials. Boss and Krauss (2007) describe
essential learning functions as the ability to make things visible and discussable or to
foster collaboration. These authors emphasize functions such as understanding,
discussion, research, higher order thinking, and expression as essential and stable
functions necessary for basic literacy of all students, even though the tools for these basic
functions are rapidly changing. The inherent interrelated connections of Web 2.0 tools
for reading, writing, research, and communication with online collaboration and
knowledge exchange is a great motivator for struggling readers and writers.
These interactive web-based resources provided students opportunity to read and
communicate with their school-aged peers, parents and family around the world. The
principles of UDL are represented with content presentations through multimedia
formats, actions and expressions with the read-write features for students to post
information and comments to the blogs, and the engagement factors of using technology
creatively for communication and learning. As a result, students are motivated to read
their comments added weekly. Students also gain valuable experience with reading,
writing, listening, and speaking with an authentic audience for their writing and
videos. Their writing provides evidence of the various phases of the cumulative
emergence of literacy. They use the language arts collaboratively in class, independently,
and with assistance from the teacher or peers.
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Blogs
Two examples of how to create a collaborative learning community are student-used
blogs the Duck Diaries blog and Mrs. Cassidy's Class Blog. The Duck Diaries blog was
created by a second grade class to describe a duck building a nest on their
playground. Children wrote comments on the blog documenting their observations of the
duck, her eggs, and activities around the nest. Other children in kindergarten, first and
second grade classes, who had experience with egg hatching and observing ducks, shared
their observations (including digitized drawings). The blog includes written exchanges
about what to do with duck eggs when the mother duck, Daisy, goes missing from the
nest. Children and adults from around the world joined in commenting on the blog and
shared their knowledge and concern for the duck.
The second example is Mrs. Cassidy's Class Blog which acts as an electronic portfolio for
first graders learning to read and write. The theme of the blog is a trip to the Terry Fox
Run. The students use graphical representations of patterns, invented spelling and
emergent literacy in their blog posts. Mrs. Cassidy communicates frequently with parents
about what students publish on the blog. Mrs. Cassidy has embedded videos of students
demonstrating how to work independently, how to add a blog entry, what they learned
about alphabet, books, and words. The blog includes video of the class meeting a new
friend in Australia using Skype. Skype is an online communication mechanism that
allows people in two different places to talk using video and audio through the Internet.
Mrs. Cassidy's Class Blog used her class YouTube.com channel to create videos to
scaffold the blogging experience. One video is a seven-year old demonstrating how to
add a comment in his blog. It reflects the child's organization and articulation of specific
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steps necessary for success. Peers see and hear a clear and succinct "how-to" guide in his
video. The model video remains available through Internet access.
Incorporating 21st Century Literacies using UDL
A variety of web 2.0 resources can be used in a classroom context to support student’s
background knowledge, clarify misconceptions, and….. Three web resources are
presented here.
American Rhetoric (www.americanrhetoric.com) is a website which acts as a repository
of over 5,000 important speeches made by thought leaders in America, Hollywood
movie stars, sermons, interviews, and a range of media events. Each speech is presented
in multiple formats (i.e., speech text, images of the speaker, along with audio and video
files, as available). Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech offered on the steps of the
Lincoln Memorial is presented with a digital image, a video of the event, and mp3 file of
the speech, and the text version of the speech. Classroom teachers can use these
resources to support students’ understanding of the civil rights movement, the “March
on Washington,” and important events of the 1960s in America.
Storyline Online (www.storylineonline.net), sponsored by the Screen Actors Guild
Foundations, provides online streaming video of actors reading children’s books aloud.
Closed captioning provides an alternate presentation of the read aloud for students who
cannot hear or for individuals who focus better when what is spoken appears in text on
the screen. As James Earl Jones reads, To Be a Drum, he tells listeners that because he
was a stutterer, he is reading the book because he needs practice. The video switches
intermittently from Mr. Jones to the two-page layout of the pages being read. Related
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activities and printable activity guides to accompany the book are also available. In
addition, books are available for purchase.
In New York, classroom teachers seek to scaffold student learning by using 21st century
technologies for information gathering, response, critical analysis and social interaction.
NYS standards provide appropriate performance indicators which guide instruction
toward success relative to English language arts standards.
NOTES
Examples:
Blogs
Interactive web resource
Virtual classroom
ETS – Digital Transformation: A framework for ICT literacy
Collect and retrieve information
Organize and manage information
Interpret and present information
Evaluate the quality, relevance and usefulness of information
Generate accurate info through use of existing resources
[Insert Chart of Web 2.0 apps and how they support literacy]
Web 2.0 descripti literacy
applicati on
support
on
research- examples
based
interventio
n
blogs
metacogniti
on;
reading and
writing for
social
interaction,
interpretatio
n, and
critical
response
authentic
reading,
writing,
listening
and
speaking
scaffolded
shared
EB
wikis
Student blogs available at
http://www.shambles.net/pages/students/st
udblogs/
Two examples:
● 2nd Grade: Duck
Diaries http://duckdiaries.edublogs.
org/
● 1st Grade: Mrs. Cassidy's Class
Blog
http://staff.prairiesouth.ca/sites/kcas
sidy/
9
EB
shelfari
voicethre
ad
Wordle
writing and
organization
clarification
of ideas;
cross-check
of
information
and ideas
writing;
coconstructi
on of
ideas,
opinions;
social
networki
ng for
schools,
teachers,
and
principal
s
reading and
writing for
information,
information
sharing,
social
interaction,
interpretatio
n and
critical
analysis
collaborati http://www.twiducate.com/
on with
peers;
share and
record
personal
ideas;
practice
with
writing
a social
network
for
people
who love
books
reading and
writing for
information,
critical
analysis,
and social
interaction;
information
sharing and
interpretatio
n;
book
http://www.shelfari.com/
reviewing;
reading
and
writing for
informatio
n about a
book;
publishing
and
commenti
ng on
reviews
reading and
writing for
information,
response to
current
events,
critical
analysis,
social
interaction
www.voicethread.com
www.wordle.com
10
Diigo
Story
bird
Gloglster
Prezi
Bubbl.us
Comic
strip
Professor
Garfield
Google
earth
wikis
description
literary support
example
voicethread
description
literacy support
research-based intervention
example
wordle
description
literacy support
research-based intervention
example
11
References and Resources
Center for Implementing Technology in Education (CITEd)
http://www.cited.org/index.aspx
Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the National
Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center)
Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/
Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects. Retrieved May 26,
2011 at
http://corestandards.org/assets/CCSSI_ELA%20Standards.pdf.
Leu, D. J., Kinzer, C. K., Coiro, J. L. & Cammack, D. W. (2004).
Toward a theory of new literacies emerging from the Internet
and other communication technologies. In R. Ruddell and N.
Unrau (Eds.) Theoretical models and processes of reading (5th
ed.). Newark, DE: International Reading Association. Retrieved
February 7, 2009 from
http://www.reading.org/downloads/publications/books/bk50254-Leu.pdf
National Council of Teachers of English, (February, 2008) Position
Statement: The NCTE Definition of 21st Century Literacies, Retrieved
May 22, 2011 at
http://www.ncte.org/positions/statements/21stcentdefinition.
School of Education, University of California-Riverside, Riverside, CA.
Grigorenko, E. L. (2001). Developmental dyslexia: An update on genes, brains,
and environments. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 42:1:91-125 Cambridge
University Press.
Hudson, R.F., High, L. Al Otaiba, S. (2007). Dyslexia and the brain: What does
current research tell us? The Reading Teacher, 60(6), 506-515.
James, F. (2004). Response to Intervention in the Individuals With Disabilities
Education Act (IDEA), 2004, International Reading Association. Retrieved October 18,
2009, at http://www.reading.org/downloads/resources/IDEA_RtI_report.pdf.
LD Online. http://www.ldonline.org/.
Reading Rockets. http://www.readingrockets.org/.
Snow, C.E., Burns, M. S, & Griffin, P., Editors. (1998). Preventing Reading
Difficulties in Young Children, Washington, DC: Commission on Behavioral and Social
Sciences and Education.
Southwest Human Development Services, AT and Writing, Retrieved September
18, 2009 at http://www.pluk.org/Pubs/AT_ideas_106k.pdf.
Strangeman, N., Hitchcock, C., Hall, T. & Meo, G. (2006). Response to instruction and
universal design for learning: How might they intersect in the general education
classroom? Retrieved September 12, 2009,http://www.ldonline.org/article/13002.
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Wissick, C. (2008). Web toolboxes: Free tools, 1 Stop shop for AT. Presentation at
NECC 2008, Annual International Society for Technology Conference, Atlanta,
GA. Retrieved September 18, 2009 at http://www.ed.sc.edu/caw/toolboxfree.html
Wright’s Law, What you need to know about IDEA 2004 Response to intervention (RTI):
New ways to identify specific learning disabilities. Retrieved September 13, 20009 at
http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/rti.index.htm#art.
Center for Applied Special Technology, Teaching Every Student Mentor Site, Retrieved
May 27, 2011 at
http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/content/mentors/site_mentor/site_mentor_udl_
def.cfm
U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Technology,
Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology,
Washington, D.C., 2010.
Zabala, J. S. (undated). The SETT Framework: Critical Areas to Consider When Making
Informed Assistive Technology Decisions Retrieved September 18, 2009, at
http://www2.edc.org/NCIP/Workshops/sett/SETT_Framework_article.html
Sarah McPherson, Ed.D. has a doctorate in special education with a focus in technology
for students with mild/moderate disabilities and a masters in Reading from Johns
Hopkins University. Currently she is chair of Instructional Technology at New York
Institute of Technology. Her expertise is teacher preparation for implementation of
universal design for learning and technology in literacy instruction applications in
inclusive settings. She also has interests in literacy and universal design in global
education applications.
1. Development of Expert learners EB Monday April 11
2. Use web-based technologies as 21st century resources for teaching and learning all
children. EB April 17
3. Implement instruction aligned with standards, Common core - global perspective
PISA (digital literacy) SM April 11
4. Use Universal Design for Learning to scaffold instruction SM April 17
5. Assess student learning according to UDL framework EB April 24
May 1 review, revise and examples for each component.
13
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ISTE Submission - Model Lesson
Purpose: The purpose off this session is to explore strategies for RTI in providing
effective instruction for students experiencing difficulty learning to read and write, rather
than relying on the previous discrepancy model.
Objectives:
What participants will know and be able to do:
Literacy: Reading Writing Communication Listening and new literacies.
UDL toolkit
Inteactive Writing Tools
My wiki - for literacy
Look at NYSCATE presentation
Timeline -
1. Development of Expert learners EB Monday April 11
2. Use web-based technologies as 21st century resources for teaching and learning all
children. EB April 17
3. Implement instruction aligned with standards, Common core SM April 11
4. Use Universal Design for Learning to scaffold instruction SM April 17
5. Asess student learning according to UDL framework EB April 24
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