Rationale

Tumbling Away is an online prototype of curriculum designed for Universal Design for Learning (UDL). It is intended to teach students in grades 3-5 about erosion. As an example of UDL, it draws upon the principles of universal design in architecture and product design to create learning environments and curriculum that are more accessible to a greater number of learners. Digital media makes UDL possible because it allows for both flexibility and versatility. Learners have more control over the content that they need to learn, and media is more easily accessed by a greater number of learners regardless of ability.

This example of UDL specifically targets deaf learners using American Sign Language or other types of natural sign language. These learners face many challenges in their learning. Because deaf learners do not have access to much of the information that hearing learners gain through listening, they are at a serious disadvantage in both background knowledge and communication. According to recent research by Terezinha Nunes and Constanza Moreno,"deaf youngsters lack access to many sources of information (e.g., radio, conversations around the dinner table) … some concepts hearing children learn in everyday life have to be explicitly taught to deaf pupils in school" (Nunes 2002). They are also less likely to get this additional information in the traditional classroom. In a study of several inclusive classrooms, deaf learners received significantly less attention - sometimes half as much - from their teachers than hearing learners (Cawthorn 2001). This attention is also more likely to involve simpler exchanges than the exchanges that occur between a teacher and hearing learners.

Because of these disconnects both inside and outside of the classroom, deaf learners are at a disadvantage in many academic subjects. Hearing impairment is seen by some as a risk factor for difficulties in math and science: for example, "… deaf pupils were approximately 3.4 years behind in mathematics achievement when compared to their hearing counterparts" (Nunes 2002). While further research is needed, several strategies have been found that might help overcome this risk factor. Despite the many academic hurdles that deaf learners face, they tend to be better at visual and spatial tasks than their hearing counterparts (Milner 2002). This advantage can be used to increase their understanding in these deficient areas. Drawings, diagrams, tables and graphs can be useful tools to aid in understanding and comprehension (Nunes 2002). It is possible that providing deaf learners with access to such tools can help them can help overcome potential deficiencies in previous knowledge by utilizing their existing skills.

Another interesting strategy is that of writing-to-learn activities in science instruction. While deaf learners tend to be a disadvantage in literacy, practice of reading and writing skills can help them to both overcome this disadvantage and better understand science content. According to Larry Yore, "If we wish to promote science literacy among deaf learners, we must address how we can help our learners become members of a language community and better communicators, especially science readers and science writers" (Yore 2000). Potential suggestions for this kind of activity include creating concept maps to understand a topic or a reading, writing a reaction paper to a reading or experiment that incorporates both summarizing and reflection, and collaborative essays that explore scientific ideas and concepts. Such activities should be embedded in the curriculum and should be supported so that the science content remains central to the writing.

In creating this piece of curriculum, these strategies were used to keep learners, particularly deaf learners, engaged and able to retain the curriculum content. Tumbling Away is available in the form of a Web site with various embedded media. This format allows for customized supports to ensure that the vast majority of learners can access the necessary information. It is composed of two main parts: a reading section and an activity section.

The first portion of the curriculum incorporates the traditional text that would be found in a typical textbook. This is supported by several features to help users who may not be as good at reading text:

• Summary: This provides users with a list of key points from the text to help them better follow the material as they read.
• Concept Map: Concept mapping is a powerful tool to help learners understand "causality, functionality, application, and hierarchical relationships between concepts" (Nunes 2002). For this reason, a concept map is available to provide an alternate summary of the text.
• Take a Note: Because writing can play an important role in understanding, users would be able to take notes as they read online. These notes could be filed and sorted to be accessed as the learners explore their future readings. Learners would also be able to take visual notes with a simple drawing tool. Like the written notes, these could be filed for later use.
• Hear It: This feature would make use of LifeFX technology, which provides narration in a talking head format. Learners would be able to choose their narrator. Narrators could also be added by having a photo specially scanned; for instance, the teacher or a student could become an online narrator. For deaf learners, video of a sign language interpreter delivering the textual content would also be available. Because deaf learners often read at a lower level, this feature could help them to access the material in a more comfortable fashion.
• Print It: Because not all learners enjoy reading on a computer screen and this is not always possible in the classroom, all text would be available to print out. Users could print out the plain text or they could include the summary and concept map.

Additionally, the text would be supplemented with images with in-depth descriptions and a glossary hyperlinked into the text.

The other key piece of curriculum is the online activity. This activity involves existing educational technology currently being paired by the Concord Consortium: NetLogo and Pedagogica. NetLogo is a modeling tool that uses Logo programming to create simulations of various phenomena in math and science. NetLogo is typically used by more advanced learners and researchers to explore emergent phenomena, but it can be used to create visual representations that could help learners better understand various processes in science. To make it more accessible to younger learners, it could be paired with Pedagogica which overlays various programs and tools to provide additional scaffolding for the user. In this case, an erosion simulation would be simplified and guided according to the learning goals. This incorporation of a visual model could help deaf learners to better understand the content and might more easily engage them than more text-heavy activities.

Understanding that deaf learners are typically better visuo-spatial learners and are often at-risk for problems in math and science, this curriculum prototype attempts to use visual activities to help deaf learners understand science curriculum. It also incorporates additional features that can help students to better understand the textual content.

References

Cawthorn, S. (2001). "Teaching Strategies in Inclusive Classrooms with Deaf Learners." Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 6(3), 212-225.

Milner, J. (2002) "The Deaf, Sign Language, and Spatial Cognition." <http://www.boolearn.com/harvard/t560/project1/>.

Nunes, T. and Moreno, C. (2002) "An Intervention Program for Promoting Deaf Pupils' Achievement in Mathematics." Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 7(2), 120-133.

Yore, L. (2000) "Enhancing Science Literacy for All Learners with Embedded Reading Instruction and Writing-To-Learn Activities." Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 5(1), 105-122.