This idea of "differentiation" stems from a goal over the past 20 years of maintaining inclusive, heterogeneous classrooms that contain a variety of students, ability levels, and needs. Although there are many benefits to this, it is easier said than done! This means that an average class of 20-35 students will likely contain special-education students, gifted and talented students, and even among the remaining "normal" population, students vary wildly with regard to their strengths, weaknesses, learning styles, personalities and attitudes.
As a result, the idea of "differentiation" stems also from standards-based instruction, or the idea that the same core standards of learning should apply to the multitude of students in the same class or grade. As such, differentiation attempts to define ways to impart the same set of knowledge or skills to students, even if the products, processes, or systems of delivery vary from student to student.
In theory, this sounds wonderful. In practice, nearly every teacher -- from the overwhelmed rookie to the seasoned veteran -- will tell you that it is a Herculean task! Designing alternative lessons and locating (or *gasp* creating) the variety of materials to accommodate various groups and types of learners obviously takes much longer than "teaching to the middle." Yet the benefits are also clearly visible, as "teaching to the middle" leaves some students in the dust while shackling and boring speedier, more capable and gifted students. Is there a way to differentiate without overworking as a teacher?
Yes... and technology can play a critical role in that process. For as long as there have been federal mandates regarding special education, there have been provisions for technologies to assist those students -- from wheelchair ramps and mobility tools, to personal planners and modified classroom tools, to cutting-edge electronics. But the fact is that differentiation takes into account that not only "special needs" students are special; every student is unique and can benefit from tailored instruction.
So we need to get away from the view that technology as merely "assistive" for the disabled or "challenging" for the whiz-kids. The fact of the matter is that modern technology may be the single most effective means of making truly differentiated instruction a reality -- and this means for all students.
The Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) prescribes a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework "for designing curricula that enable all individuals to gain knowledge, skills, and enthusiasm for learning."
It simply makes sense to design lessons, projects, activities, and classrooms such that they use multimedia, multi-sensory stimuli, multiple streams and sources of information and support, a variety of collaborative or independent opportunities, and tools to support student self-planning, organization, goal-setting, independent scaffolding, and other meta-cognitive tasks. By doing so, you reach not only "subgroups" of students, but you actually enable individually differentiated instruction that can meet the needs of every student -- whose profiles are as distinct and unique as fingerprints and snowflakes.
This seems like a daunting task, but through use of modern technologies it is actually much easier on the teacher than trying to do this with traditional tools, and management of students becomes much more hands-off as student/community autonomy develops. Here are some examples:
- By using audio-video tutorials/demonstrations, students are able to get direct instruction as usual... but are also able to repeat the lesson as needed on an individually self-assessed basis. This frees the teacher to monitor and manage other tasks and saves the teacher valuable time that would otherwise be spent tutoring or re-teaching.
- Interactive tutorials in the computer can act like "super texts" by extending textbook information with audio narration, animated or guided examples, and practice with immediate feedback. Not only that, but adaptive systems can determine student needs and provide immediate tailored intervention. Students benefit from the guided instructions, while teachers save time to provide more personal assistance.
- Likewise, computerized practice and assessment tools allow students to immediately gain awareness of their academic strengths and weaknesses and, with some correct procedures instilled, can seek their own remediation or challenges accordingly.
- Social networking and digital communication tools allow students to contribute to the class community, to share resources with each other, and to have equitable access to discussions, regardless of time constraints or personality types. Teachers no longer need to worry about the ticking clock, as students can contribute "on their own time" in asynchronous discussions... and even shy students can feel empowered to contribute their thoughts, ideas, and knowledge. All of this means much less stress and classroom management by the teacher. And by locating, evaluating, and sharing resources themselves, teacher planning time for preparing and providing materials gets drastically cut, while students gain 21st century information literacy and evaluation skills that will be critical in their lives.
- Creativity and productivity software allows students to create the same types of professional products the pros and experts do -- while allowing for easy corrections, sharing, and storing. Students get the benefit of motivational real-world skills, potential vocational training, and tools that make up for possible artistic or motor-skill weaknesses. Meanwhile, teachers save time, headaches, and money by not having to deal with acquiring, distributing, managing, cleaning up, and storing physical products and materials.
- Assistive technology for disabled students automatically mitigate a variety of handicaps, and may often be beneficial for "in-between" students on the spectrum. For example, magnification/zoom features and text-to-speech may not only benefit the legally blind, but also those with merely poorer-than-ideal vision, or students which reading difficulties.
References
Dinnocenti, S. T. (1998). Differentiation: Definition and Description for Gifted and Talented. Storrs, CT: University of Connecticut.
Roblyer, M. D. (2006). Integrating Educational Technology Into Teaching (4th Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
No comments:
Post a Comment