Give free rice to hungry people by playing a simple word game. This would be a fun activity for middle and high school students. Warning...it's completely addictive.
This is a super-fun word-search game on the tags associated with Flikr photos. Just type in a word (you don't need a Flikr name unless you only want to use your own photos) and the puzzle is created instantly. For more info see Paul Hamilton's review at
This is the main blog for the PATINS Indiana UDL project. They have developed their own template for presenting whole units of UDL lessons. Their downloadable lessons and resources are posted here.
This is the Harvard UDL site, the best place to begin learning about UDL. Start by reading the online version of "Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age".
This is SET-BC consultant Paul Hamilton's list of udl resources. These are mostly free applications such as text readers and digital story-telling resources that are a good fit with udl principles.
This is the classroom blog of John Mundorf, a fifth grade teacher with a universally designed classroom. He presented a fabulous session at Harvard's 2008 UDL summer institute.
The Access Center improves students' access to the general education curriculum. The Access Center assists students with disabilities as well as students with other needs. There are links to videos about UDL and many great resources on this site.
SET-BC consultant Maureen LaFleche has put together a wiki about a UDL approach to To Kill a Mockingbird. This is a great template to use for any UDL novel study. Maureen will be presenting at our January 8, 2009 Breeze meeting.
The CAST UDL Editions are a set of free public domain novels that have been engineered with UDL principles. They contain leveled supports for text-reading, vocabulary and comprehension as well as story elements such as character and setting. These inter
SET-BC consultant Paul Hamilton's blog on AT resources. Paul finds the latest Web 2.0 apps, tries them out, and reviews them. He provides a screen shot and enough info that you can usually tell which apps are worth further investigating. I've invited Paul to join this group. He's definitely your goto guy if you're looking for a particular app.
iLearn Technology is one of the best blogs I've seen for teaching educators about integrating technology and computer curriculum into the classroom. Kelly Tenkely presents the latest Web2.0 gadgets but also writes about how she's using them in her grade 5 classroom.
Excellent online timeliner recommended by iLearn website. See her July 22 2008 review for comments about using Capzles in the classroom to keep a log of your students' reading progress through the year! This timeliner has an extremely attractive interface and is easy to use. You have to upload photos, videos, and audio files that you want to use. You can add short captions and descriptions easily to those files. The descriptions box looks small but expands as you add more text. Once you're out of edit mode a person clicking on the picture sees the whole block of text. If you want to create a longer text entry, you can blog directly on the timeline. It's unfortunate that you can't create a blog entry and have a picture, too, as the text graphic is kind of plain. Very slick feature grabs the date from your uploaded photos and adds them to the correct place on the timeline. Ideal for classroom use if kids don't spend too much time fiddling with the themes options. The only problem for classroom use is that you can't embed live links which is necessary for linking to sources used or other important sites. Or maybe I just didn't figure it out.
Dipity is a free online timeliner tool . I've looked at several and think it may be the best for intermediate students to use. It's easy to create a free account and start working. The interface is very simple and requires no tutorial. Basically, each new event gives you boxes for title, date, upload a picture or video, url link, and description. You can share timelines out by email or automatically to popular online sites such as Diigo, Facebook, etc. iLearn website has a review of this timeliner and ideas for using it in the classroom in the July 22 2008 entry.
I have worked in the field of Assistive Technology for SET-BC (Special Education Technology of BC) for the past 20 years. I was the provincial coordinator of BC's Universal Design for Learning Project.