More on NECC and Universal Design for Learning

My days at NECC were filled with new terminology and resources to explore. I've spent the last few days delving into a little bit of the CAST website: Center for Applied Special Technology. Here's the opening paragraph at their website: "Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework for designing curricula that enable all individuals to gain knowledge, skills, and enthusiasm for learning. UDL provides rich supports for learning and reduces barriers to the curriculum while maintaining high achievement standards for all."
I came to understand that UDL is helping to focus technology accessibility on people of all ages and abilities who have had difficulty learning in a traditional educational setting. To learn more about the concept of UDL, as well as some WONDERFUL resources, go to Dr. Dave Edyburn's handout for his NECC session about making text accessible.
One of the more intriguing concepts that Dr. Edyburn demonstrated was that of Cognitive Rescaling. In today's world of so much text to try to digest, he suggested that using Microsoft Word's AutoSummarize tool might help. Try it out: open a text document (or copy and paste paragraphs of expository text from a website), then click on Tools--AutoSummarize. The window offers several choices, including highlighting key points, or creating an Executive Summary, along with the percentage of the text to use. AutoSummarize does just that--summarizes the text. Imagine the possibilities for students who struggle with reading information at a more complex level than they can understand, and who are then just tuning out or turning off. In Dr. Edyburn's handout you'll find a clearer and more eloquent description of Cognitive Rescaling.
One website that was referred to often during discussion of UDL was Windows to the Universe. The About the Site link states: "Because we have users of all ages, the site is written in three reading levels approximating elementary, middle school and high school reading levels. These levels may be chosen by using the upper button bar of each page of the main site." Go take a look.
I walked away from NECC feeling eternally grateful that there are so many people out there who have a passion for a certain aspect of technology, and spend all their time focused on learning about that one aspect. For someone like me, who tends to feel overwhelmed by all the potential of the web, and often doesn't know where to begin, I just need to go to my del.icio.us bookmarks and find that one site that can help me with what I need to know today. I'm so grateful not to have to reinvent the wheel; the challenge is just to know where to find the tools to put the wheel together.