UDL and Learning with Blogs and Wikis

For me, the information and scenarios presented in Nancy Firchow's article about Universal Design and Bill Ferriter's article regarding professional development represents the kind of valuable, productive use of new technologies that eases my occasional discomfort with the brave new world.

I tend to be a bit skeptical when I hear a claim like Will Richardson's (in "Teaching in a Web 2.0 World"), that "authors young and old [coming] to publish new chapters to their favorite books or new episodes...for their favorite TV shows" on a web site like FanFiction.net represents an educational environment and that "300,000 Harry Potter stories" qualifies as a productive use of one's time and passion. However, I cannot agree more with Ferriter's characterization that professional development for teachers is "usually spent in sessions with experts pitching the latest silver bullet," and that teachers "rarely get to self-select learning opportunities, pursue professional passions, or engage in meaningful, ongoing conversations about instruction." I found it particularly moving when Richardson described how blogs and wikis allow teachers to "spend significant time pushing their own thinking--and having their thinking pushed by others." This sounds to me like the textbook definition of a "reflective practitioner," an age-old concept in teaching to which I have always subscribed. In this way, it seems new technologies can indeed enhance the past.

Ferriter described other applications of the virtual classroom: bloggers responding to comments and linking to other writers, establishing connections to and creating new ideas, collaborating with others to develop curricula and other instructional materials, reviewing resources and debating the merits of teaching tools and instructional strategies, engaging in philosophical conversations about anything and everything from homework and grading practices to school and district policies, etc. Oh, and Ferriter points out that most of this takes place without cost. It's an impressive list, and it's hard to argue that time and logistical constraints alone would prohibit someone from ever gathering this much information and cultivating this much knowledge in the corporeal world, in such a short amount of time.

Like many in class, I was also motivated and inspired by Nancy Firchow's article regarding Universal Design. Although I am familiar with the concept of Universal Design, I have honestly never heard its potential and possible applications described so succinctly and laid out so clearly. What's interesting to me is the possibility that maybe this has something to do with Firchow's background and experience in the virtual world. In other words, she seemed to accomplish in three pages what often takes entire semesters here in the traditional classrooms of Bank Street College. Maybe this is what Ferriter is referring to when he talks about "school structures" that make "learning for adults unlikely at best and nothing short of impossible at worst." Perhaps the need for brevity and clarity in a digital world can actually be a good thing.

This being said, I did find Ferriter's use of Richard Elmore's assertion that "schools are hostile and inhospitable places for learning" a bit off-putting, to say the least. I guess it's important to remind ourselves that a scant few years ago they were all we had, and we seemed to find a way to make the best of them. I think of we do the same thing with new technologies, we might just be okay.

Jeff Kulick