Assistive Technology and Accessibility: Week 2 Blog

In discovering Assistive Technologies while studying Accessibility for students in a library media setting I have become sincerely intrigued by certain benchmarks. I have always been a proponent against 'one-size-fits-all' models of learning in any capacity, be it sports, music, or academic learning. One of the utter downfalls of the 19th and 20th century learning sets were the beliefs centered around traditional European methods as well what could be considered common sense principals.

I stumbled upon an interesting blog entry in my search for the basics when it came to the 20th century teaching methods:

http://edleaderlounge.blogspot.com/2011/04/carry-overs-from-20th-century-teaching.html

Not one of the 20th century teaching principles, at least according to Dr. M Walker Buckalew, dealt with special needs children, kids with learning disabilities, or catering to those students who might need enhanced learning methods. The blog link asks which of the-20 principles from Buckalew's text should be carried over into the 21st century. It seems fairly obvious that most are outdated and should be enhanced...and maybe Accessibility should be one aspect that is attacked first.

(On PBS.org I also found a time line of teaching methods, techniques, issues, and landmark court decisions in the United States that made up the DNA of schooling until the present.)

While reading both articles, “UD and UDL: Paving the way toward inclusion and independence inhe school library," and the CEC's "Embedding Technology in Education for All Learners" I have been entranced by the Universal Design for Learning, or, "a research-based set of principles that provide a practical framework for using technology to maximize learning opportunities for all students." (Blue, Elfreda V & Darra Pace, 49) I also took a screen shot of the Cast article that described the UDL in picture form as according to the corresponding neuroscience studies:

(http://www.cast.org/udl/index.html)

As a whole, the UDL method exposes the faults that exist in past teaching strategies employed by our student's educators. I do feel that is necessary to say that these educators, board leaders, school administrators, and education directors are necessarily at fault. Special needs students have been meandering their way through the education system for decades; they were just never addressed in a meaningful way. The UDL appears to defeat the belief in a one-size-fits-all method to teaching. That in itself is a feat that is clearly beneficial to students of the present and future.

In the "UD and UDL" article the authors state, "The true value of [media and library] resources can be realized only if they are accessible to users." (Blue, Elfreda V & Darra Pace, 51) We as students developing our methods, beliefs, and practices involving the profession of information and school library education are now called forth to discover and provide the most up to date learning methods. These methods, with the right amount of luck, research, and practice will hopefully become set in stone as an educational principle in the future. With the right integration of libraries and SLMS then perhaps we can rewrite what has been reinforced unbeknown to our forefathers (and foremothers).