Early on in this journey, I focused my attention on communication between the students and me. wanted to improve both how I communicated the information I wanted them to have and how they communicated their learning to me. Seesaw was the tool of choice to help me with this and here is why:
Seesaw is a tool that allows me to use multiple ways to give instruction/explanations/support for a task so that all students know what they are expected to do and can do it feeling as independent as possible. Seesaw has been around for a while and is constantly finding ways to improve itself, adding some great features that can help us overcome barriers for our students.
Check out the video below about some of its features:
or this infographic:
So I started my UDL journey by improving my Seesaw activities, making sure that I added visuals in my instructions (Seesaw icons), voice recording, and videos wherever I could. This gave the student the choice/support to get the information they needed to get the task done.
In my templates for their responses, for every sentence I typed, I added a voice recording of myself reading the sentence. I linked resources and added visuals as much as possible. In turn, I gave the students opportunities to respond in different ways (the only rule is that each option was connected to the learning goal). With Seesaw, students can take pictures, record videos, and their voices. They can type and draw as needed if they choose to go that route. It is a fantastic tool that really can help all students express their learning in ways that are engaging and that overcome their barriers.
In grade one, sometimes the barrier is simply not being to write as much as one wants, or not being able to spell the words one wants to use to share one's learning. The ability to record a response allows students to still show me their understanding without penalizing them for their novice writing skills.
In my next post, I will share one example of a lesson task that got a UDL makeover and uses Seesaw. I submitted this lesson to Katie Novak for evaluation and it got positive feedback. You will see that it is rather simple to add options. Some options seem kind of obvious at but if one does not take the time to think of the barriers, the opportunity to provide different pathways to the learning goals can be lost. I won't lie, it takes a bit of extra prep time (ok, maybe a lot at times), but it's worth it.
Seesaw is not the only solution out there to allow kids to learn and to share their learning of course. But it is a start.
Beyond Seesaw: Assistive technology
Assistive technology is a great way to overcome barriers. Read the article in the link below to get to know a bit more about assistive technology
Assistive Technology can help students work around their challenges/barriers
Recently, one of our colleagues tweeted his use of Assistive technology. Grade 5 teacher Matt Ives used the Google translate camera feature to help his EAL students translate their classmate's presentations as they happened. This allowed all students to be active participants as the presentations happened, not after the fact. Check his Tweet HERE.
I also learned about Mote ( extension available in the Google Chrome store) from a fellow Trailblazer, Mandala Barab. Mote allows you to insert voice recording in Google slides, Google docs, and more!! Check out his presentation on Wednesday, November 3rd during our UDL sharing sessions. Mandala introduces Mote on his first slide and uses it throughout his presentation.
If you know of any other great assistive tech and cool digital tools that can help our students overcome barriers, please let me know in a comment below.
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