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

Hi, Chuck

Thanks for posting the text.  It explains quite nicely some of these issues.
(I wish I could write as well.)

The analysis that "one size fits all" means "not quite right for anyone" is
exactly right.  Here's where information engineering and building architecture
are different.  In architecture, the concept of "one size fits all"
is more likely to succeed since the needs of the various users are less likely
to be in conflict or can be resolved.  Information engineering and HCI
are very different than architecture.  To impose an approach from architecture
onto information engineering and HCI and expect the same results is
probably not reasonable.  It overlooks the many subtleties of how people
interact with information.

Is the stance of the guidelines that "one size fits all"?  Does this have
a technology basis or a philosophy basis?

Scott


> 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 Wednesday, 29 December 1999 17:33:00 UTC