UDL and Social Anxiety

I was so excited to read the part of Klopfer’s “Instructional Power” article in which “John,” a teacher experimenting with social media, witnessed a student with social anxiety take an increasingly active role in the class’ online discourse. I really related to this because as a teenager I absolutely hated participating in class discussions. I was prone to tangling up my words and/or forgetting what I wanted to say as soon as I opened my mouth. Responding to anyone who challenged my viewpoints was even more difficult, as I found it nearly impossible to construct a coherent response without time to mentally prepare myself. As a result, I played a marginal role in most of my high school classes and was truly engaged on very few occasions. On the other hand, I routinely engaged others in dialogue (and even arguments) through emails, IMs, and on message boards, where I was able to carefully choose my words before I submitted them.

      What a difference it might have made if I could have merged these two worlds in high school! At the very least, I could have contributed my ideas online; it is not difficult to imagine that carving out a space for myself in the “digital classroom” might have translated into increased comfort in the “real-life” classroom as well. When we have spoken of UDL in this class and others, often we tend to think of our children who are diagnosed with learning disabilities or difficulty with certain academic skills. This article reminds us that we must also consider those with mental health issues – diagnosed and undiagnosed – as well as those students who are simply not comfortable participating in classroom discourse in “traditional” ways.

      A quick note on the first two readings for this week - I really enjoyed that they included an article (the MacArthur report), a response to an article (in Richardson's blog) and then a huge array of replies to that response. I found this to be a great illustration why young people (and many not-so-young people as well!) are more apt to turn to the internet for information than to more static and one-sided sources that have been traditionally valued. This is especially relevant in light of an article I just read in the Times today about the latest happenings in the Texas textbook "wars" (check it out here). When a considerable chunk of the history textbooks American students are reading have been influenced by a board of politically-motivated Texas teachers, we should be thankful that the internet provides a space for sharing alternative opinions and debating the merits of all sides of an argument.