Stephanie Platko

          The article I chose to read for this week’s blog post assignment is Universal Design for Learning: Scanning for Alignment in K-12 Blended and Fully Online Learning Materials (Basham, et al., 2016) details the development of an effective method for assessing accessibility in online learning programs. Unfortunately, as it stands, most online learning programs/curriculum are purchased from a developer and just used “as is” which proves to be ineffective unless an instructor takes that content and tailors that content to provide accessible instruction for the needs of all students. Because of this, researchers aimed to create an assessment tool to determine whether or not that online learning program is effective for reaching students with cognitive and otherwise educational needs. The UDL Scan tool uses the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework to evaluate how well this product promotes flexible learning experiences. The UDL Scan, consisting...

Part One      Until this week, I had never heard of the Magic School AI site and upon accessing it for the first time, I was quite overwhelmed with all the tools available. In the Lesson Plan generator, I was able to create a lesson for my English 3 class focusing on narrative writing. In conjunction with the class' reading of Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild , I wanted my students to write a narrative in the form of a blog post from the perspective of Christopher McCandless on the night before he embarked on his journey along The Stampede Trail. In addition to the narrative writing piece, they would be using what they have read thus far to create a digital map of his journey prior to April 27, 1992 after he graduated from Emory University in May of 1990. While the lesson is well aligned with the objectives and ELA standards I inserted into the generator, it is highly vague and while I enjoy the openendedness of the structure, I think I would have appreciated a bit more detai...

This week, we were tasked with creating an infographic utilizing our technology skills to the fullest in order to summarize Chapter 5 of How People Learn II: Learners, Contexts, and Cultures . Through this assignment, I was able to explore not only how prior knowledge affects the learning process as well as reasoning skills, but the list of learning strategies was enlightening. It was exciting for me as an educator to find that I used 3 of the 5 in my lesson today alone! Exploring the articles written by Mark Gura and Victor Rivero allowed me to make a list of creative tools that I am excited to incorporate into my lessons allowing my students to not only become Knowledge Constructors but also find their unlimited creativity while doing so.   References: Gura, M. (2020). Fostering Student Creativity. EdTech Digest the State of the Arts, Creativity, and Technology 2020: A Guide for Educators and Parents. p. 7. Gura (2020).pdf ISTE Standards for Educators (2017). Retrieved from: http...