people do not know that there are issues and therefore they cannot help come up with solutions

i love this, i think listening to the voices of students as to how to improve a class or a curriculum is so important especially because the students are the ones being served

UDL is not just for people with disabilities, it is helpful for everyone. many people do not know how multiple means of participation can help them because they have never had the opportunity to explore this

the whole system of public education is invalid if it is not accessible to all students

public education is a right in our country and to make it so that some students cannot fully participate is an issue of injustice

we want to make sure we are appropriately challenging each student, each student comes in with different knowledge and experiences so this such a good point

as we try out new methods of teaching and learning, we get more knowledge as to how to best accommodate all students' needs

i love this! we can all have the same goals but the way we get there can be on a student-by-student basis

education is often looked at something that will pull people out of poverty and being low income, but when we make education inaccessible, this is impossible and the cycle repeats

this is how schools help socially construct disability -- just because a student cannot participate in the classroom in the traditional way does not mean they are disabled, they just need to participate in a way that works for them

this shows that this author/website is serious about UDL, UDL wants multiple means of participation so by having an audio of this article, it helps people who have trouble reading, especially off of a screen, for any reason

technology is made by people to enhance the social institutions that are already a cornerstone of our society so it makes sense that there are such nuanced social dimensions of technology

when there is no precedent as to how to be critical of technology, it is hard for people who are not well-versed in technology to look at it with a critical eye, especially when they are always being told that it is such a wonderful and innovative tool

I wonder what kinds of biases are weaved into the technologies we encounter on a daily basis

this makes a lot of sense as a reason why the government would not explain the more negative advantages of technology -- capitalism is built on innovation, for better or worse

i have never thought about technology like this but it makes sense, we saw this with claims about election fraud in the past two elections

something i learned in middle school which has stuck with me throughout my academic career has been the idea of media literacy and how to tell when a source is trusted, this is so important when media is all around us, we want to make sure that the media we are consuming is reliable and unbiased

this is so important! learning can become a chore when you are doing it just to complete a worksheet and get a good grade, we want students to understand what they are learning, why it is important, and how it can apply to them outside of the classroom

artificial grading tools are so difficult because although they do help lessen the workload of a teacher, they provide automated and impersonal feedback for students

this is such an important classroom, especially when thinking about accessibility and disability. we want tools that are going to be able to be used by all students, regardless of whether they can see, hear, or speak english fluently

as educators, it is so useful to have a rubric like this because it is a familiar format of evaluating tools and performance

i remember when my elementary school switched from chalkboards/white boards to smart boards which i think added value to the class because we were able to see websites and other online tools on the board

this is so true, we do not want technology to take away from the actual content of lessons

love this, it allows for students to express their learning in a variety of creative ways to keep assignments accessible and exciting

social learning is really important in early childhood development

this is so interesting, it reminds me of the project i did about play-based learning

this makes a lot of sense -- in a lot of my classes we talk about how each student comes to the classroom with unique experiences and identities and i like how this theory recognizes and address that

behaviorism does not seem like it would work as well for open-ended assignments like essays or projects which allow for more creativity

i wonder how learning theories apply to special education and teaching students with disabilities

making privacy policies is so difficult because they are not standardized, each state has their own regulations

privacy policies are too long and the language is not accessible to people who are not educated in legal speak or do not speak english fluently

i did a project about surveillance laws after 9/11 and how the government increased their watch on people, i wonder how this changed internet privacy laws and regulations

i wonder what kinds of laws are in place to protect user privacy? is there more legislation that we should pass in order to keep people's information personal or is this just a natural tradeoff of making services free?

you never realize how many sites and sources that you are submitting your information to, i did not until we started this privacy unit

it is so important to protect the information and identities of students because of how young and formative they are, they should not be exposed to potentially devious digital tools which is why we as teachers need to be careful about which tools we use

what are some examples of ways that AI can make learning more inclusive and diverse?

all of these examples show the benefits of having real, human teachers in classrooms -- they bring the emotion, humanity, and higher level thinking to their students which can not be replicated by AI

i know a lot of people who think that AI is not a valuable tool in education, especially when thinking about plagiarism and cheating on assignments. what are the benefits of using AI in schools?

i wonder why the algorithms are not disclosed to users, this reminds me of the hidden things written into privacy policies that we have been talking about in class.

it is so important to analyze data collected through a critical lens, as a teacher you know your student as a person while the computers do not so it is important to look at each child holistically

understanding privacy policies is not accessible to people unless they have a deep understanding or an in-depth education about legal terminology

this is so crazy, why would a game app need access to all of this information! i did not know that when you sign into a website with google, this is what you are doing

this is so interesting, i never realized how much these websites were actually tracking!

this makes me think about students i worked with who had ASD and would get overstimulated easily watching videos or using technology, we had to turn off the volume and make the ipds black and white sometimes in order to help these students feel less overwhelmed

this is something that i see in a lot of my work here at umass, some of the articles we are assigned to read are overly academic and very difficult to understand, even as someone without any disabilities whose first language is english

who creates these accessibility standards? how do we know if they are credible or not?

putting the needs of disabled or disadvantages students at the top of a priority list does not mean that other students are not getting the attention they need, in fact making things accessible can positively impact students of all abilities

this is something i learned a lot about in my intro to special ed class, UDL is not something i knew about before but it is essential to creating an inclusive classroom and some of the changes that need to be made for accessibility are so simple but have such a huge impact on students' learning

accessibility does not only have to do with ability and disability, it can also have to do with age-appropriate learning, financial accessibility, and so on

this is so important, we want to make sure that all our students feel comfortable and represented in the tools we are using in our classrooms

some students may only have a moblie device or only a laptop, it is important that as teachers we keep that in mind when utilizing digital tools, this is another part of accessibility

canva is such an amazing digital tool that i use a lot for my classes. i think it is designed so well and allows for a lot of good creativity

to me, this question is the most important. instructional time is already so limited to taking time from that to learn how to use a new tool may not be worth it

the point of using digital tools in the classroom is to enhance learning about the curriculum, when we add in tools that take a long time to learn in themselves, they are counterproductive

this is such a valid critique, even as a college student new technology can be very intimidating and overwhelming. when looking for tools to use for young children it is important to make sure that they are accessible and age-appropriate

it is so important to ask for as implement feedback in anything you do, if you want a website/digital tool to be a positive thing for users, you need to make their experience and opinions a priority

for people with learning and intellectual disabilities such as ADHD, dyslexia, downs syndrome, etc. this is a huge factor in user experience

this looks a lot like how our canvas page is organized, it is very straightforward and makes it easy to find the assignments we need to complete

i feel like efficiency and usability seem to go hand in hand, if something is easy to use then it is most likely efficient

so important, digital tools should enhance learning, not the other way around

i definitely saw this when my high school first switched to online learning in 2020, i remember a lot of websites and online assignments has so many unexpected kinks and barriers which made doing work very difficult

it is great that they provided a live link so teachers can save this to their computers and access it more easily

metacognition is so important in classrooms, especially for students to develop a sense of self-motivation

creating so many accounts on different platforms can be annoying for students so it is always nice when you do not have to keep track of log-ins for so many different websites

this is an amazing point, as college students we are already paying tuition and it is so disappointing to then have to also pay for online tools that simply allow us to access our homework, while for some students paying for textbooks and online learning tools is mindless, for others it can be a real burden

this is great, i think that e-learning tools should be used to augment the curriculum, not the other way around

this is great, as educators we love to give our students examples of what is expected of "acceptable" or "good" work which is often done through using a rubric so i think that this is a very relevant way to show educators what they should be looking for

I definitely see this as true, especially since many of my teachers went to school before some of the major online learning tools were widespread, they often had a hard time utilizing these tools in the classroom. now that we are going though school studying education when technology is a necessary tool, hopefully the next generation of teachers will better know how to use technology

it makes me sad to see that many companies do not actually care about making their materials accessible to everyone, they are making them accessible just to satisfy a guideline.

i wonder what the differences are between the rehabilitation act/ADA and the convention are. which is more comprehensive?

in some ways, disability is socially constructed. because our society was built for able-bodied people, it is inherently inaccessible but if things in our society were built for people with disabilities we would not necessarily need to be having any discussions about accessibility

i never thought of having english as your second language as a disability, this is so interesting

it is so important to include people with disabilities in the conversation about disability and accessibility, if we want to make things accessible for people with disabilities, we need to let them give ideas and suggestions about what would work best

i never knew this! people do not talk a lot about disability and it can be considered rude to address someone's disability, even in a gentle way but being that disability, in one way or another, is so widespread, we need to stop making it a "taboo" topic

social media is a great way to develop a PLN because the more you engage with your feed, the more personalized it is. this means that you will find more content that is relevant to you as an educator

as teachers, we should always be learning and growing our practices in the classroom, it is important to take out time for self-evaluation which will end up benefitting everyone

this is such an important point! i am learning about social justice education in my other classes and i think it is really important to add a diverse set of viewpoints to your classroom when building your curriculum in order to make sure that everyone including target groups feel seen and heard.

i think that this could be super valuable for connecting teachers with other teachers internationally so that they can share diverse methods of education and classroom management

many teachers are quitting the profession because they feel like they are not receiving support from their colleagues and administrators so i think that PLNs help teachers feel a sense of community and work through problems they face in their classrooms

such an interesting idea, I never thought of this

I think it is so interesting that in this article, Twitter is advertised as a learning and connection tool for educators because in my life, I have only seen it used as a social media site. I think again that when using Twitter for education, we need to make sure that what we are consuming is factual and credible

Love this! It is important to immerse yourself in sources from different countries, religions, and view points in order to make up your own, well-rounded opinion

This is a great idea. It is so valuable for students when they get to learn using methods that are different from their culture's

PLNs sound like a great way for teachers to collaborate and share resources. I wonder how people go about creating PLNs.

Where would someone find these databases? Who makes them and how would a teacher know that the materials they are finding are appropriate for their classes?

Making sure that a website is up to date is so important. There are new findings every day and in order to get the most accurate information, you need to make sure that your source is recent

Using these search engines can always be iffy because it is hard to identify which sources are reliable and which are not. I have learned a lot about media literacy both in high school and here at UMass so I have an understanding how how important it is to make sure your information is from a credible source.

I wonder how PLNs go about filtering misinformation or bias. We know that the media is full of this so it is important to be critical of the sources that you are consuming from.

For neurodiverse educators, this could be amazing. They could pick and choose which kinds of information are compatible with their abilities and access it in the best way for them.

I think this is a great form of learning. It allows professionals to learn and absorb information at their own pace which makes implementing their knew knowledge much more effective.

Using social media and other platforms to connect with other education professionals would make sharing content, skills, and strategies internationally much easier. I think it would be very interesting for educators to integrate international practices within their classrooms.