RE: A "one size fits all" personalized web page?

Scott and Marja,

I have copied the text from our CAST website below to outline what we mean
by Universal Design for Learning or UDL (note the learning focus). None of
this is fixed and continues to evolve. The text is copied from:

http://www.cast.org/concepts/concepts_summary.htm

The problem identified as "one size fits all" is referenced twice. UDL
requires that digital content be flexible and dynamic or personalized pages
seem to hold promise for obtaining that goal for both accessibility and
improved learning. "One size fits all" seems desirable to some but we have
pretty much set that idea aside since it seems to imply fixed, inflexible
and not quite right for anyone.

Related pages on our site further the distinction between access and
learning.  I hope this is somewhat helpful to your discussion.  I should
also add that we will be releasing a new version of the CAST Website in just
a couple of months that is far more dynamic both with regard to the delivery
of content and the use of various tools and supports that begin to exemplify
UDL.

Chuck
=====================

Underlying Premises

The basic premise of universal design for learning is that a curriculum
should include alternatives to make it accessible and applicable to
students, teachers, and parents with different backgrounds, learning styles,
abilities, and disabilities in widely varied learning contexts. The
"universal" in universal design does not imply one optimal solution for
everyone, but rather it underscores the need for inherently flexible,
customizable content, assignments, and activities.

Technological advances in three arenas have made possible CAST's conception
of universal design for learning: new tools in cognitive neuroscience, new
digital multimedia learning tools, and new network technologies.

New Tools in Cognitive Science

Powerful imaging technologies such as PET scans provide a window on the
learning brain in action and help us understand individual differences in
new ways. Involved in learning tasks are three brain systems, each a network
of distributed processors: systems for recognizing pattern, systems for
generating pattern, and systems for determining priorities. New information
about role of these three brain systems in learning and the variations among
learners informs CAST's concept of universal design.

New Digital Multimedia Learning Tools

Two characteristics of digital multimedia are critical for universal design:
its versatility and its flexibility.
Versatility: With appropriate software, a computer can emulate a book, an
audio CD player, a video game, a phone, a VCR, a spreadsheet, a drafting
table, an editing studio, or even a battlefield. Through a computer we can
control and combine many of these separate tools to create hybrids of great
power: books that talk, a database that dials the phone, a video with an
audio and a text track, a virtual reality.
Flexibility: Teachers know that students vary in the strengths and
limitations of their sensory, motor, motivational, and emotional makeup,
their amount of exposure to literacy, their languages and cultural
backgrounds, and their preferred learning styles. Unlike print, where "one
size" is supposed to "fit all," digital media are malleable and can be
adjusted for different learners.

New Network Technologies

Increasingly powerful, fast, and ubiquitous, networks form a third building
block for universal design. Like neural networks in the brain, electronic
networks comprise distributed information and resources, processed in
parallel by individuals who form nodes of related concepts through clusters
of links. Networks facilitate "just-in-time" resource selection and
delivery; alternative pathways to information and throughout the system;
connections to experts and mentors; access to current, continually updated
materials; opportunities to publish work on-line and exchange feedback; and
placement of widely varying content into structured curricular frameworks.
Without a viable electronic network, true universal design would not be
economically and practically feasible.


__________________________________
Chuck Hitchcock
  Director, National Center on
  Accessing the General Curriculum,
  and Chief Technology Officer,
CAST, Inc.,
39 Cross Street, Peabody, MA 01960
Email chitchcock@cast.org
Voice 978 531-8555
TTY   978 531-3110
Fax   978 531-0192
<http://cast.org/>
<http://cast.org/bobby/>

Received on Tuesday, 28 December 1999 11:26:44 UTC