About UDL

Universal Design for Learning is the brain-based brainchild of Harvard educators David Rose and Anne Meyer.  Like Universal Design in architecture, a UDL curriculum builds in supports for diverse student needs as part of the original design, rather than adding these supports in afterwards.  UDL uses multiple means of representation in teaching to support the brain’s recognition networks.  Students in a UDL classroom use multiple means of expression in demonstrating their learning, which supports the brain’s strategic networks.  UDL classrooms also stress the importance of multiple means of student engagement, which support the brain’s affective networks.  Digital materials, which are highly flexible, current, and engaging, are used extensively in UDL classrooms

CAST website at www.cast.org/index.html

The single best resource for learning about UDL is the CAST site at Harvard, where UDL originated.  Highlights include an interactive online version of the book “Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age:  Universal Design for Learning” by David Rose and Anne Meyer (2002) which provides an excellent introduction to practice and theory.  The CAST site has a UDL lesson builder, sample lessons, a book builder, and a new module called UDL self-check to help you critique the lessons you design.  There are also downloadable workshops to help you train teams in UDL principles.

BC UDL Project Website at www.setbc.org/setinfo/BCUDL/

Here you will find information for the current BC UDL project, a project timeline, blogs, resources, the BC UDL Learning Object Repository, current project updates, UDL Café announcements, application, and contact information.

Experience UDL-Based Teaching and Learning at www.setbc.org/setbc/curriculum/bcudl_spectrum.html

These are a series of interviews with teachers who participated in year one of the BC UDL project.  In these interviews, the teachers describe their lessons and the impact that UDL has had in their classrooms.  To view and download their lessons, go to the BC UDL Learning Object Repository. 

BC Learning Object Repository at www.setbc.org/bcudl/

This website contains a lesson builder and sample lessons created by teachers in the BC UDL project.  The lesson format is based on the CAST model but is not exactly the same.  The UDL lessons and attached resources are downloadable.  Registered users can upload lessons or clone an existing lesson, modify it, and add more resources.  The first year of the project emphasized lessons in Language Arts, but the emphasis will be expanded in the second year to include Social Studies and Science.

Patins website at www.patinsproject.com/universal_design_for_learning_project.htm

Model UDL units have been posted on the Patins Indiana UDL pilot project site.   You can view lessons already developed and taught by teachers.  Many of these include downloads and/or links to the resources they used in their lessons, and you can contact the teachers directly by email.  The lessons follow the general principles of UDL design, and the teachers all appear to be using the same lesson template, but it is a simplified version of the one used at the CAST site.

Differentiated Instruction and UDL at www.k8accesscenter.org/training_resources/udl/diffinstruction.asp

The Access Center is a national technical assistance center funded by the US Department of Education.  At this site, you can download a research paper on the similarities between differentiated instruction and UDL.  The left hand sidebar contains links to other resources.  The bottom link takes you to 14 more links, specifically on UDL.  These include two videos about UDL principles and practices.

Kurzweil and UDL at www.kurzweiledu.com/files/udl.pdf

This document shows how specific features of Kurzweil can be used to support the UDL principles of multiple means of representation, expression, and engagement.

 

The Jordan School District site

If you haven’t seen their signature video, Pay Attention, you need to.   You’ll find it at the top of the page under Popular Items.  In general, this is a great website for information on teaching with technology.

Preparing for the future

His challenge begins, “Let’s have a little competition at school and get ready for the future.  I will use a laptop and you will use a pen and pencil…”  It’s downright scary when you see it presented like this.

Ian Jukes Understanding Digital Kids

At the Committed Sardine blog, you can download a number of handouts including a great 80 page paper called Understanding Digital Kids on how kids today have been changed by growing up in a digital world.

Mark Prensky’s site

Futurist Mark Prensky coined the term Digital Native to describe students who grew up using technology.   He explains how the use of digital media has changed not only the students’ preferences and approaches, but how it has rewired their brains.  His classic paper on Digital Natives/Digital Immigrants is downloadable from this website, along with many of his other presentations and writings about how to design education for digital students.

The Shifthappens wiki

If you get hijacked by an advertising page, go to http://shifthappens.wikispaces.com/Other+presentations and then you can navigate back to the home page.   The Other Presentations link on this site contains a treasure trove of videos and great conversation starters by education tech gurus such as Karl Fisch, Scott McLeon, David Warlick, Ian Jukes, and Willard Daggett.   The medieval training video, Introducing the Book, is hilarious.

 

 

Marco Polo (Thinkfinity)

Now called, Thinkfinity, this phenomenal free site has resources in every subject.  If you click on the Educators tab, you can search not only by topic and curriculum area but by the type of resource you want:  lessons, worksheets, interactive, reference, media, and assessment.

eThemes

The folks at eMINTS have already searched over 1,000 themes for kid-friendly links.  Wow!

Eduscapes

Go directly to the 4 t2 Explore tab, search by curriculum unit, and you’ll be hooked.  The articles in the Activate: The Journal of Technology-Rich Learning tab are also great.

100 Helpful Web Tools for Every Kind of Learner

This is a fantastic collection of Web Tools organized by type of learner:  visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. 

Paul Hamilton's Education Blog

Free Resources from the Net for Special Education. Paul Hamilton, a consultant at SET-BC, has found some real gems.  Paul’s detailed commentary and screen shots of the sites help you decide which ones you want to explore further.

The Ed-Tech Solutions site

In Karen Janowski’s excellent collection you will find links to free text readers, curriculum organizers, online collaboration tools, reading tools, math tools, study skills tools and more.

Education Oasis

Free downloadables here include graphic organizers (some can be filled in online), bookmarks, calendars, colouring pages, worksheets, and posters.  Their links to Terrific Teacher Sites and Super Sites for Students are organized by curriculum topic and will keep you busy for hours.

Rubrics

This site contains a great rationale for using rubrics, advice on how to write good rubrics, and links to sample rubrics and rubric generators (Try the Rubistar  generator and storage link).

The Web English Teacher

If you want to bookmark only one site for teaching English, this would be a good choice.  The sidebar on the left takes you to an incredible number of resources in drama, grammar, ESL, literature, Shakespeare, children’s literature, and more.  The resources include lesson plans, related websites, webquests, study guides, tutorials, activities, quizzes etc.  Whether you are doing a novel study or studying a particular children’s author, start here.

Reciprocal Teaching

Dade County’s Project WebSIGHT is based on Reciprocal Teaching which uses the five strategies prediction, clarification, visualization, questioning, and summarizing in teaching reading.  This site gives you the lesson plans and resources to implement this cooperative learning method in your elementary or middle school classroom using downloadable, printable scripts, cue cards, and bookmarks.  The UDL-based Thinking Reader series was modeled on Reciprocal Teaching strategies.

Into the Book Interactive Reading Site

This amazing site was presented by the Coquitlam team at the UDL conference.  Into the Book focuses on eight reading comprehension strategies for elementary students. All of the activities are educationally sound and extremely engaging with phenomenal graphics.  The site is free, but you need to sign in if you want to save your work.  You drag one of the tools into the book to get started.  The kids’ area has interactive activities for each strategy; the teacher area features teacher guides, lesson plans, posters, video and audio clips, downloads, and more.

Shelfari

Shelfari is a social book-sharing site with great possibilities for educational use.  The attractive and engaging interface is a bookshelf to which you add thumbnails of the books you have read.  You can review and rate the books.   For example, I have used it to show books recommended for the BC UDL project here.   A librarian in the BC UDL project used it to elicit student comments about Oliver Twist.  This would also be a great way for a teacher (or an entire class) to keep a list of recommended books. Although your bookshelf is displayed online, you can change the privacy settings to restrict comments completely or only allow certain people to comment.  This is a great fit with the UDL principle of Multiple Means of Engagement. 

Google Lit Trips

This site uses the power of Google Earth to create annotated map tours of the locations associated with picture books, novels or social studies units.  For example, a Lit Trip can track a character’s progression in a book such as Paddle-to-the-Sea or Underground to Canada.  Teachers can download lit trips already created or they can create their own lit trips using the Getting Started tutorials.  There are even some examples of student work posted on the site.  You have to download and install the free Google Earth to view these files.  This is a good fit with the UDL principle of Multiple Means of Representation.

SEEC Toolkit

SEEC stands for Supporting, Engaging, and Enhancing Comprehension for Students in High School.  This site contains practical ideas for teaching vocabulary and comprehension skills according to UDL principles for 8-12 students.  The site includes sample lessons and downloadables such as student comprehension cards and posters.  The list of comprehension strategies taught includes predictions, summarizing, clarifying, visualizing, questioning, and making connections, personal connections, and reflection.  This UDL Toolkit contains an excellent summary of Recognition, Strategic, and Affective Supports specifically related to teaching vocabulary and comprehension.

Schmoop Literature

This is a great resource for secondary students.  Click on a book title and find summaries, notes, guides, and analysis of themes and characters for English Literature homework.  There are also links to websites, video, and other media.  The aim of this website is to make learning more relevant and fun for students in the digital age.  Graduate students have compiled some excellent units here.

UDL-Designed To Kill a Mockingbird Unit

SET-BC consultant Maureen LaFleche has created a great model for designing a novel study according to UDL principles.

Cliff’s Notes

Get free help with homework and tests on literature, Shakespeare, science, math, and history. Each literature note includes a book summary, analysis, essays on theme and plot, character analysis, quotes, quiz, and more.

Sparks Notes

Students can read many of the Sparks Notes guides online for free.
A Review of Technology-Based Approaches for Reading Instruction at http://www.cited.org/library/site/docs/AReviewTechnology-BasedApproaches_final.pdf
This 2004 online review contains comprehensive information on text to speech, alternate format, and electronic resources.  Their Table 1 on pages 16 and 17 links specific reading skills and strategies with existing technologies.

Reading Online

This site hosts a huge collection of articles about teaching reading and redefining literacy competence in the digital age.

 

Picture Word Induction Method

This page describes how to do a PWIM lesson, which is proving to be a popular tool for vocabulary instruction.  Basically, you begin with an interesting poster and “shake” the vocabulary out the visual.  You then use the vocabulary in a variety of ways such as sorting by meaning or morphology, combining, using in sentences, etc.  This strategy can be used from K-12 and is very easy to implement on the SMARTBoard.

Webster’s Visual Dictionary online

Enter a word to look up or just explore by theme.  The definitions are constructed as pages with a small amount of text and labeled drawings on which the labels are also clickable links.  This is a great fit with the UDL concepts of Multiple Means of Representation.

Visuwords Thesaurus

This is a free online thesaurus which uses Princeton University’s open source WordNet.  The links between words are colour and shape-coded to show the type of relationship between words.  This is a very colourful and interesting tool that works great on the SMARTBoard.

Multi-language Core Vocabulary Instruction

Choose your language (English, French, etc.) and then click on a core vocabulary topic such as "body" .  You get a diagram, and when you hover over each part the program spells and pronounces that item in a human (not computer) voice.  This is a great core vocabulary site for English as a Second Language or Core Vocabulary Teaching.

Wordle

This is a very useful and engaging toy for generating colourful and interesting word clouds from text. This text can be typed, copied and pasted from another source such as a .txt document or fed directly from a blog or podcast.  You can tweak your Wordles with different fonts, colours, and layouts.    Teachers are using Wordles for brainstorming, getting the gist of an article, paragraph writing, practicing spelling words, introducing key vocabulary, character sketches for novels, and all about me activities. See my WebSlide list of sites with ideas for using Wordle in the classroom.  Take a screen shot to save your creation as there isn't a way to export as a jpeg.  I have occasionally seen some inappropriate content on Wordle, so you might want to control what students see by skipping the home page and going directly to the create your own Wordle section.

Free Rice Vocabulary Game

Give free rice to hungry people by playing a simple word game.  This would be a fun activity for upper elementary and high school students.  If the words are too difficult, you can reset the level to 1.  Warning...it's completely addictive.

PhotoSoup

This is a super-fun word-search game on the tags associated with Flikr photos.  Just type in a word (you don't need a Flikr name unless you only want to use your own photos) and the puzzle is created instantly.  The 14x14 grid of letters is surrounded by 17 Flikr photos that serve as hints.   This works great on the SMARTBoard.  The photos and tags come directly from Flikr, so there’s a chance you would get some inappropriate content.  You might want to delay projecting your screen for the class until you’ve had a quick look on your laptop.

Spelling City

This is an amazing spelling site recommended by James Hollis (Teachers Love SMARTBoards).  Input a list of spelling words and click test me, teach me, or play a game.  The teach me section spells the word orally and uses it in a sentence.  The play a game section instantly generates games such as word search, crosswords, hangman using the spelling words.  The test me section gives the word orally, uses it in a sentence, and the student spells it and gets feedback. 

 

The Web English Teacher

This would be a great place to start planning any writing lesson.  The many different kinds of writing listed here all point to annotated collections of links.

UDL in the Writing Classroom

On this site you will find suggestions for incorporating UDL in a writing class and in writing assignments.  There is also a very nice case study showing how Professor Robbin Zeff modified an annotated bibliography assignment using UDL principles.

Great Source iwrite

These are excellent online student and teacher resources for different types of writing, suitable for secondary students or advanced upper elementary.  The different types of writing covered are narrative, persuasive, expository, research, and response to literature.  The student can choose a type of writing such as "narrative" and then receive help in four different categories: the subtypes of narrative writing (biographical, fictional, personal), graphic organizers which will guide their narrative writing, detailed templates for each part of the narrative, and good examples of narrative writing.  There is a tremendous amount of scaffolded help available here and some of the resources are downloadable. 

ReadWriteThink: Student Materials

These are educationally sound interactive activities with great graphics.  The online graphic organizers provide scaffolding for many types of writing activities.  For example, the animal studies graphic organizer prompts the student to choose a subtopic such as "baby animals" and then answer three questions about that subtopic.  The only drawback was that content could be printed but not saved.  It is a bit frustrating that searches cannot be narrowed down further but otherwise a great site.

Grammar Girl podcasts

Grammar Girl provides downloadable podcasts in answer to both common and unusual grammar questions.  There is a short commercial for online meeting software at the beginning of her podcasts but otherwise these are great tips.  You can search the archive for past tips and students can also send in their questions.  These verbal explanations are a great example of Multiple Means of Representation.

More Ideas than you’ll ever Use for Book Reports

Three teachers list 341 ideas for responding to literature.  This is a perfect fit with the UDL principle of Multiple Means of Expression, and you should find a wealth of choices here for every type of learner.

Learn to Write a Sentence or Paragraph

This excellent user-friendly tutorial for kids uses oranges and apples to introduce a simple formula for writing sentences and paragraphs.  This is a great example of Multiple Means of Representation.

Online Rhyming Dictionary

Type in a word and get a list of rhyming words.  This would be a great scaffold for a student who has trouble thinking of rhyming words when writing poetry.

Nine Video Story Starters

To scaffold for students who have trouble coming up with story ideas, try a video story starter.  This is one long video with 9 different sequences, but people have posted the title and time of each new sequence in the comments section.

Write a Collaborative Novel

Ok, this is an out-there idea, but collaborative novel writing sites are springing up all over the web.  Here is a free site for posting an idea for a novel and receiving suggestions or collaborating on the actual writing with others.  As a kid, I would have spent all my spare time on a site like this!

 

Jason Ohler’s Guide to Digital Storytelling in the Classroom

This witty and thorough explanation of digital storytelling is aimed at the classroom teacher.  Ohler begins by showing that while we may engage more students by moving to more visual media, a lot of writing will still be required.  He explains the characteristics of story first and then moves on to the possible technology you may use.

Paul Hamilton’s Digital Storytelling Wiki

When Paul presented to our group, he created a wiki to organize his presentation and house the resources so we could browse and share it later.

Tar Heel Readers

If you want to create an accessible book that can be housed online or downloaded, try this site.  You may write your own books using pictures from the huge collection at Flickr or pictures you upload. Each book can be speech enabled and accessed using multiple interfaces (i.e. switches, alternative keyboards, touch screens, and dedicated AAC devices).  The books may be downloaded as slide shows in PowerPoint, Impress, or Flash format.  This is a collection of free, easy-to-read, and accessible books on a wide range of topics. (1000 and growing)  Some of the books may be inappropriate, so have students select from your favourites.

Create your own Tikatok book

There are many sites springing up on the internet where students can create their own books and store them online.  Some of these sites also allow you to sell your book or to order a soft or hardcover copy.

Create your own Big Universe book

Big Universe is another site where children can read and create books.  They can also connect with others on this site.

Xtranormal Animated Movies

Create an animated movie with speech just by selecting one or two avatars, a background, and typing in the words you want the character(s) to speak.  Even the most reluctant writer would have trouble resisting this medium.

Comiqs:  Create & Share Your Comic Stories

This is a great free site for kids to create and share stories in comic form.  It has a very simple interface.  You select a page layout and can add your own pictures or pictures from the web.  You add your choice of talk balloons and double click to add the text.  You can also add text for titles.  There are some good examples of student work on the site, e.g. on the French Revolution.  There are many comic-generating sites, so you should be able to find one that works for you.

Create a PicLit

Select a picture background and then create a caption for your PicLit by dragging words from a word bank organized by parts of speech.  You can also type in your own words.  This would be ideal for creating posters, slogans, title pages, single sentences or short paragraphs or Haiku.  The creations can then be saved, emailed, or shared to a blog.  There are many of these “poster” sites springing up that are ideal for students who are writing short amounts of text.

Glogster for Educational Use

This special version of Glogster allows you to create private poster galleries and might be safer for educational use than the mainstream version of Glogster, where students might be exposed to inappropriate content.  The site’s slogan is “Poster Yourself” but there are many ways that Glogster can be used.  Glogster allows students to create an interactive poster using online or uploaded pictures, videos, text, and effects.  The difference between this poster site and others is the ability to link objects in the poster to other photos, videos, websites, etc.

Become a Character in a Virtual Pop-up Book

You begin by creating an avatar and selecting whether you'd like to play games during your adventure.  When the story begins, your character walks through a virtual pop-up book interacting with the other characters.  (Hilarious when MY character announced her name and age to the cook!) The graphics are phenomenal and the games are engaging.  You can even play the story in different languages and email it to friends.  I am not sure whether there is any real educational value here but it is totally mesmerizing and would be a way for a student who absolutely cannot write to participate in the joy of creating a book.

You can easily search for photos in Google by clicking on the Images tab.  However, be aware that some of these photos will be copyrighted.  It is possible to snag almost any photo or clip art from a web page by right-mouse clicking on the item and choosing “save target as” from the context menu that pops up.  Just be aware that some of these images may also be copyrighted.   Photos and clip art designated as public domain or creative commons are copyright free.  You should always use public domain photos and clip art for any projects that you intend to share with others. 

Creative Commons

You can search for Creative Commons photos, music, etc. on this site by clicking the CC Search link in the very top green area next to the magnifying glass (Easy to miss!!). Once in the area, you can choose to search on Google, Yahoo, Flickr and other sites and your search will return only public domain materials. You can also find out how to license your work here in a way that protects copyright but allows for sharing. Creative Commons licenses provide a flexible range of protections and freedoms for authors, artists, and educators.

Flickr:  The Commons Library of Congress Section

This section of Flickr teaches social studies by inviting viewers to comment or tag historic photos. I searched for "Titanic" and found some very poignant images with comments by people who had viewed the picture already. Some of the comments had been made by very knowledgeable history buffs and others were personal responses to the photos. This could be a very powerful learning tool. The photos are all creative commons, so you can use them in projects without violating copyright.

Everystockphoto search engine

This is a search engine that looks for free photos.

Pics4Learning

This large library of free photos was contributed by students, teachers, and amateur photographers.  This should be a safe place for students to search photos.

Flikr Creative Commons

This is a special section of Flikr in which photographers have granted various levels of permission for use in advance e.g. just credit the photographer and use the photo for non-commercial purposes.

The Internet’s Morgue File

The morgue is the place where newspapers and magazines traditionally kept old photos and materials they had already used.  The photos here can be used for free.

Stock.xchng

Over 350,000 free photos here.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration photos

These free photos (over 10,000) are useful for science topics such as different kinds of storms, oceanography, fisheries, space.

US Fish and Wildlife Digital Library System

This is a large collection of public domain photos in a searchable database. 

Clip Art

This is a large collection of links to free clip art sites.

It is possible to snag almost any audio or mp3 clip from a web page by right-mouse clicking on the item and choosing “save target as” from the context menu that pops up.  Just be aware that some of these items may be copyrighted.   Audio and music designated as public domain or creative commons are copyright free.  You should use public domain audio and music for any projects that you intend to share with others. 

Jamendo

On Jamendo, artists allow anyone to share and download music.  This is probably not a good place for kids to browse but handy for finding copyright free soundtracks for your projects.

The Freesound Project

Creative commons sound effects.

Soundsnap

This site contains many sound effects and music loops organized by category.  The interface is easy to use.  Recommended by PC magazine May 2008.

Director in the classroom free sounds links

This site lists numerous sources of free sounds and medleys.

Garage Band

This free sound editor is included with Mac OS.  For information about how to make audio recordings or podcasts on the Mac platform using Garage Band click on Tutorials.

Sound Recorder (Windows):

This basic sound recorder is included with Windows OS.  Go to Start Menu/Programs/Accessories/ Entertainment.

Audacity

This free sound editor works on Mac and Windows; in Windows you need the LAME add-on to export in mp3 format.  I have used this for a number of years to change tempos and edit dance music.

WildVoice

Click on Learn More for a great lists of ideas for using voice recordings.  You can export directly to mp3 with this Windows only free app.  Recommended by PC magazine May 2008.

PRCVI e-text

The Provincial Centre for the Visually Impaired has already converted many of the recommended textbooks and novels to e-text.  These are available free of charge in text or Braille format to students with a visual impairment.  The same materials are also available to any student designated as having a print disability for a handling charge.  These are text versions only and contain no graphics, so the sighted student still needs a copy of the textbook to access pictures, charts, maps, etc.  Click on the Print Disability link to check the definition of print disability and download the designation forms at this site.  You can also search their catalog online. 

ARC BC

The Provincial Centre for the Visually Impaired and SET-BC are cooperating to create e-text versions of novels and textbooks in text and Kurzweil format.  ARC BC is currently being beta-tested by 8 school districts and will be ready for roll-out in January 2009.

Publisher Provided E-text

Many publishing companies will provide a free electronic copy of textbooks purchased from their company.  When placing textbook orders, request a CD copy or electronic file.   The electronic copies, if available, are provided for any student with a designated disability.  The textbooks must be for classroom use, and the school must have purchased a print copy for each student.  Most companies have permission request forms.  The four companies listed below do provide electronic copies.  (Thanks to Set-BC consultant Jane Rondow for this information!)

McGraw-Hill Publishing at http://www.mhhe.com/catalogs/cust_serv/electronic_education.mhtml

• Nelson-Thompson Publishing at http://www.thomsonrights.com/permissions/action/start
• Pearson Education Publishing at http://www.pearsoncanada.ca/permissions_school.html
• Nelson Science Probe Electronic copies of Teacher’s resources at http://www.nelson.com/nelson/school/elementary/science/bcscienceprobe/otr.html

Kurzweil Classic Literature CD

The Kurzweil Classic Literature CD ships with Kurzweil.  The CD contains over 3,000 titles of books which are now in the public domain.  This link contains the index to the CD.  These titles are also available online at sites such as Gutenberg, but using the CD saves having to download them.  You can import these to Kurzweil using the KESI Virtual Printer.  It is recommended that you bookmark the chapters for ease of use.

SET-BC Accessible Books Collection

Go to the Learning Centre and then “A” for Accessible Books.  Here you’ll find over 500 popular children’s books that have been converted into electronic form and narrated by live readers.  Most are in PowerPoint form and can be played with PPT Player if you don’t have PPT.  If you live in BC, you can request these books on CD free of charge if you have a hard cover copy of the book in your school library and are using the CD for student with access issues.

Wikijunior Books

This is a collection of free open-content non-fiction textbooks suitable for K-7 students.  They have finished a dozen titles such as Solar System, Big Cats, Dinosaurs, and Ancient Civilizations. You can view these online or download them as .pdf files.  The ones I looked at were well-written with great colour graphics.

CAST UDL Editions

The CAST UDL Editions are a set of free public domain novels that have been engineered with UDL principles.  They contain leveled supports for text-reading, vocabulary and comprehension as well as story elements such as character and setting.  These interactive texts are also linked out to other web-based resources including maps and background information which help the student understand the story.

Thinking Reader

Thinking Reader is a series of novels (for purchase) in electronic form that were created using UDL principles.  The program can read the novel to the student and also prompts the student to use reading strategies such as summarizing, clarifying, visualizing, reflecting, questioning, predicting, and feeling.  Students can keep a reading log, and teachers can monitor their progress.  Thinking Reader titles are pricey but fabulous.  Teachers who used Thinking Reader in year one of the UDL project reported that the comprehension skills transferred over to other reading materials.

Don Johnston’s Start to Finish Books

The Start to Finish Books are interactive books (for purchase) that have been modified for high interest and low vocabulary readers.  Each set includes the text copy, the audio cassette, a CD version, and teacher resources.  Students can have the story read to them and then complete cloze or multiple choice questions.  The complete title listing link is in the left sidebar.  Also check out the SET-BC demo and suggestions for using these books.

Librivox Audio Books

Volunteers at Librivox have produced human voice recordings of many of the classic literature titles in the public domain.  These are available for free download.

Robert Munsch Audio Books

Why not have Robert Munsch himself read books to your kids?

Kurzweil is an integrated scan/read/write program. It can be used as a teaching tool or to scaffold student learning. Kurzweil is ideal for quickly scanning a handout or worksheet in class. It is time-consuming to scan and edit larger amounts of text, so it is better to acquire the e-text versions of novels and textbooks if possible. You can import any Word, .txt or .pdf format document into Kurzweil.

You can use Kurzweil tools to read a document (or the web) and look up definitions and synonyms of words. You can highlight vocabulary or notes on the page and extract those to a separate file. You can also scan in a worksheet, test, or curriculum organizer and add text, highlights, or voice notes to the page. Kurzweil text files can be quickly turned into audio files. Kurzweil provides writing supports including spell-check, typing echo, word prediction, and custom vocabulary lists. Teachers can annotate Kurzweil documents with bubble notes, text notes, or voice notes to guide student learning.

Kurzweil 3000 and UDL at http://www.kurzweiledu.com/files/udl.pdf

Kurzweil will be an important application in the BC UDL project.  This handout describes features of Kurzweil which support students’ recognition, strategic, and affective networks.

ARC BC at http://www.setbc.org/setinfo/arcbc/

The Provincial Centre for the Visually Impaired (PRCVI) and SET-BC are cooperating to create e-text versions of textbooks and novels in text and Kurzweil format.  This is currently being beta-tested by 8 school districts and will be ready for roll-out in January 2009.  Available to BC educators only.

Kurzweil Classic Literature CD at
http://www.kurzweiledu.com/files/classicliterature.pdf

The Kurzweil Classic Literature CD ships with Kurzweil.  The CD contains over 3,000 titles of books which are now in the public domain because their copyright has expired.  This link contains the index to the CD.  These titles are also available online at site such as Gutenberg, but using the CD saves having to download them.  If you want to use the Kurzweil Study Tools with these files, make sure you convert them to KESI format by running them through the KESI Virtual Printer.  If you simply open them in Kurzweil using the Open Button, some of the Study Tools will be grayed out.

CurriculumSet at www.setbc.org

From the main page, go to CurriculumSET and search for “Kurzweil”.  Here you will find a set of 30 graphic organizers, the B.C. Road Sense manual, and the Fisheries and Oceans Primary and Intermediate Salmonids in the Classroom Unit Handouts already converted to KESI format in addition to several other activities. 

BC UDL Lessons using Kurzweil at http://www.setbc.org/bcudl/

Several lessons using Kurzweil have been posted here.  Enter “Kurzweil” in the Search the Repository field and press Go.  You do not need to be a registered user to browse and download lessons and files.  However, you do need the Kurzweil program to open the .kes files.

SET-BC online demonstrations and tutorials at www.setbc.org

From the main page, go to the Learning Centre and click on “K” for Kurzweil.  There you will find a large number of Kurzweil resources.  The most recent Windows resource is a full twelve-module self-paced course, complete with demonstrations and downloadable tutorials.  Mac resources are also posted.

Trial versions of Kurzweil at http://www.kurzweiledu.com/trialsignup.php

If you install Kurzweil from any Windows CD, it will run as a demo for 30 days.  You can also request a trial Windows or Mac version CD or download the Mac version from this page.

PSAP purchase of Kurzweil at www.setbc.org

From the main page, click on the PSAP link.  Go to the Software List, and you will see the pricing for Kurzweil.  Kurzweil is available in a stand-alone, network, or USB version.  PSAP prices are available to BC educators only. 

Compatible scanners list at
http://www.kurzweiledu.com/scanner_compatibility.asp

Since Kurzweil is not able to test every scanner on the market, the easiest way to find a compatible scanner may be to ask someone who is already using one for a recommendation.  In general, we have had good luck with the portable Canon LIDE scanners that run off the USB port and also with the Epson CX series printer/scanner combinations.

Kurzweil research and videos at http://www.kurzweiledu.com/research_resource.aspx

A number of research studies have looked at the effectiveness of Kurzweil. 

Kurzweil and Provincial Testing

Kathleen Edge is the provincial contact for questions regarding the use of Kurzweil and other alternate formats during provincial test.

About PPT

PPT is presentation software that is a part of the Microsoft Office Suite.   It is available on both the PC and Mac platforms.   Thousands of PPTs are already available online.  Search for the specific subject plus the keyword PPT or PowerPoint.  For example, a search for “frog PPT” turned up 150,000 hits. 

PPT is just one type of presentation software.  Google’s Presentations is free online, which makes it ideal for collaboration and sharing.  You can also use Apple’s KeyNote or Windows  Open Office app Impress (free).  In Open Office, PPT presentations can be opened and converted to html or even flash movies.  You can also create presentations on the SMARTBoard. 

Jefferson County PPT Collection

This amazing collection includes PPT presentations and games in every curriculum area K-12, from a game template for “Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader” to a presentation on “Gel Electrophoresis”.  There are also numerous links to other PPT collections.  Check out the link to “Pete’s”.

Internet for Classrooms Collection

This general site includes many tutorials at different levels, many PPT game templates, links to other PPT collections, and ideas for PPT Integration.

PPT Sidekicks

Are you ready to move beyond bullets?  Here are some very creative PPT templates that will scaffold your students’ presentations.  Click on the sidekicks bar on the left to get started with PPT ideas (and downloads) for Book Blasts, e-stories, scrapbooks, guide books, journals, problem solvers, quests, tutorials, virtual field trips and more.

SET-BC Accessible Books Collection

Here you’ll find over 500 popular children’s books that have been converted into electronic form and narrated by live readers.  Most are in PPT form and can be played with PPT Player if you don’t have PPT.  If you live in BC, you can request these books on CD free of charge if you have a hard cover copy of the book in your school library.

PPT presentations on Teacher Tube

Go to Teacher Tube and search for “PowerPoint” (slow but worth the wait).  Examples are PPTs on Internet Safety, How to import PPTs to Smart Board Notebooks, How to put PPTs on iPods, PowerPoints that Rock, and How NOT to do PowerPoint (stand-up comedy).

PPT Magic

PPT Magic is a book of lessons suitable for using PPT at the K-8 level for different types of writing activities including narrative, research, descriptive, instruction, and persuasive writing.  This ISTE series book was recommended by Karen West, SD#71.

Tips and Tutorials

Microsoft PPT 2003/2007 online tutorials

In the Find Training area, select either Getting Started or All Training.  The All Training section includes many different online PPT tutorials from beginner to advanced, rated by users.  The amount of time needed to complete the tutorial is also listed.  I have tried several of these and found them to be excellent.

PPT in the Classroom online tutorial

This fun online tutorial for kids covers making a basic presentation, adding images and charts, motion, sound, timing and rehearsing, and taking it with you.  You can also download printable tutorials.

Power Talk

You can add speech capability to PPT with this utility for the Windows version of PPT.

Best Practices, Effectiveness and Assessment

Scoring PowerPoints by Jamie Mackenzie

This is a very good article that discusses best practices for student PPT projects.

Rubric for evaluating students’ PPT presentations

This is a very rigorous rubric for evaluating all parts of a student PPT presentation.

The SMARTBoard is quickly becoming a mainstay of the BC UDL Project.   Teachers immediately perceive its usefulness and find it easy to implement the wide variety of educational activities that have already been created.  The SMARTBoard is also extremely popular with students. 

The SMARTBoard requires a computer and an LCD projector, which projects the contents of the computer screen onto the SMARTBoard.  The SMARTBoard then becomes a touch screen for the projected computer image.   A touch on the SMARTBoard is the equivalent of a mouse click on the computer, so the SMARTBoard can be used with any computer application or Internet page.  Teachers can also create special presentations or lessons for the SMARTBoard using the free Notebook Software.  Hundreds of lessons have already been created and can be downloaded from various sites.

Notebook Software

The Notebook Software can be used with the SMARTBoard to create presentations and lessons.  The Notebook Software can be downloaded free of charge for both Windows and Mac.  The software can be installed on both the teachers’ and students’ computers.  After a 30-day trial period, you will need to enter a product key, which you can look up online if you know the serial number of your SMARTBoard. 

• Download the Windows Notebook Software and drivers here
• Download the Mac Notebook Software here
• How to find your serial number here
• Look up your product key here

SMARTBoard Training Materials at the Teacher’s Hub

SMART Technologies has excellent training videos and downloadable tutorials online.  This page helps you get started either with the SMARTBoard used in stand-alone mode or with the Notebook software.

Downloadable SMARTBoard Lessons at Educator Resources

SMART Technologies provides a large selection of downloadable lessons already created for the SMARTBoard using Notebook software or the Senteo personal response system.   Some lessons have been created by SMART staff and others have been uploaded by teachers.  You can search by curriculum area, grade level or by Canadian curriculum standards.

YouTube and TeacherTube Training Videos

A large number of video SMARTBoard tutorials have already been uploaded to YouTube and TeacherTube.  Search for SMARTBoard, Interactive White Board, iwb, or Notebook.  Many of these are very specific.  For example, you can find a video about “the magnifying glass trick” or the “magic pen”.

James Hollis at Teachers Love SMARTBoards

James Hollis’s blog is one of my favourite places to learn about using the SMARTBoard in the classroom.   James posts weekly challenges and teachers solve them, creating a wealth of practical ideas and downloadable resources.  He also has great picks of websites for use with the SMARTBoard, always with a very practical focus.  Check out his annotated list of SMARTBoard websites on the left hand side of the main page.  You can also browse on the right hand side by category. 

Danny Nicholson at The Whiteboard Blog

This is a great UK blog about interactive whiteboards and how they can be used effectively in education. Also includes discussion of other technology that impacts on education.  If you’re only interested in his SMARTBoard lessons, click on the SMARTBoard tag in his tag list.  You can also see who else is blogging about SMARTBoards in his blogroll. 

Teaching with SMARTBoard Videos

Two teachers in Chicago have been creating 15-20 minute video tutorial episodes about teaching with the SMARTBoard.  Many of these episodes have a grade 6-12 math emphasis, and some are novice tutorials.  They currently have 30 episodes and their videos are downloadable as videos, podcasts, or .pdf files.  The ones I watched were great.

SMARTBoard, Airliner, and Senteo Activities from USD 259

This large collection, organized by grade level, was created by teachers in Wichita, Kansas.  These look like very practical ideas.

SMARTBoard Resources at Lee’s Summit, Missouri

This is a large collection of links to other SMARTBoard sites, organized by four main categories:  interactive sites that work well with SMARTBoards, downloadable Notebook lessons, general resources, and training tutorials.

Using the SMARTBoard to support Math

This is a collection of downloadable Notebook files and a list of interactive math sites that work well with the SMARTBoard.  You can preview the Notebook files before downloading.

Webslides Tour of favourite SMARTBoard sites:

There are many more SMARTBoard sites.  Here is a slideshow of some of my favourites.  You can skip directly to the site you want or pause the slideshow at any time to explore the website.  All of the links are active.  As I acquire new sites, I will add them to the list and remove others, so this tour will change over time.