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"The Advisory Commission on Accessible Instructional Materials in Postsecondary Education for Students with Disabilities, established by the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008, has brought together government leaders, representatives from the publishing industry, individuals with print disabilities, representatives from two-year and four-year institutions of higher education and leaders in accessible technology. The Commission will study the current state of accessible materials for students with disabilities in postsecondary education and make recommendations to the U.S. Congress for improving access to and the distribution of instructional materials in accessible formats. This is the first commission in history charged with examining accessible instructional materials for postsecondary students with disabilities. "

"Welcome to the Center on Instruction, your gateway to a cutting-edge collection of scientifically based research and information on K-12 instruction in reading, math, science, special education, and English language learning. Part of the Comprehensive Center network, the Center on Instruction is one of five content centers serving as resources for the 16 regional U.S. Department of Education Comprehensive Centers. Explore the links to the left for topic-based materials, syntheses of recent research, and exemplars of best practices. "

Differentiating instruction is a time-tested way of thinking about meeting students' needs as they make progress toward achievement or learning targets.  Differentiation is an elegant mindset that suggests to teachers a framework that permits them to engage students while focusing on learning results, and digital technologies offer many opportunities to differentiate instruction in meaningful ways.  However, differentiating instruction takes a concerted planning effort on our parts as teachers and teacher educators

"For years, students with significant support needs (SSN) received little or no literacy instruction as their education programs focused on life skills, social skills, and vocational training. The little literacy instruction they did receive relied on teaching methods that we now know helped them learn simple component skills in isolation. For example, students matched upper and lower case letters or learned a limited set of sight words. Unfortunately, this instruction never helped students with SSN learn how to read or write to gain or convey meaning. A series of changes in education laws, along with the efforts of students, families, and educators, have raised expectations for academic achievement for students with SSN."

There are no instructions on the site and there are some good reasons for that: most people, even adults, do not read instructions, children who cannot read will ignore written text anyhow, but most importantly for us, there is no need and in fact, instructions get in the way of the experience : the navigation through the various sections of the site is purposefully simple and intuitive, the functionalities within games are carefully thought out to afford a maximum of possibilities while keeping that special relationship to the real World. When small children pick up objects, they invent new ways of holding and using them. Thus there is no right or wrong way of using anything on this site. It's up to the children to find what they want and to grow their naturally exploring mind. We found that what they don't discover straight away, they'll find later, what they don't know how to do at first, they'll learn when they are ready and, as many of you know and/or have found out, that is extremely powerful and confidence building. Having said that, we also found out that adults were quite confused by all that. What? No text? So we have finally decided to give parents who do not have the time to explore - and teachers who are preparing lesson plans - a quick guide to all the games, activities and animations on the site (for those who are wondering there are over 200 of them!). But remember, these pages are for adults only!

"The Special Education Assistive Technology (SEAT) Center at Illinois State University is a community of people working together to help individuals with disabilities realize the democratic ideal through assistive technology (AT). The SEAT Center was approved as a Center by the state legislature in 2001. The SEAT Center focuses on teaching preservice and practicing professionals the skills they need to meet the technology needs of people with disabilities through instruction that is practical, "hands-on", and performance-based. Instruction provided at the SEAT Center emphasizes developing competence in both AT and other types of technology (e.g., instructional technology, adaptive equipment) that can improve the education and quality of life for persons with disabilities. "

Integration of 21st century goals into teacher education programs requires attention to diversity, technology, and instructional supports in terms of how content material is presented, students are engaged, and learning is documented. Faced with barriers such as disparities in access to curriculum and technology, as well as differences in background experiences and prior knowledge, teachers in today's classrooms face unique challenges as they struggle to meet the diversity of needs within a single classroom setting. As a result, educators need innovative approaches to address the diversity of available resources, student characteristics, and other environmental challenges. One approach is the integration of Universal Design for Learning principles with instructional planning. By using a wide lens approach to initial instructional planning and then narrowing the focus through the integration of Universal Design for Learning principles to meet individual needs within lessons from facilitation through assessment, teachers are able to address individual needs while also facilitating planning for the entire class.

"College STAR professional development modules are organized around the three principles of Universal Design for Learning. Many of these modules originate from a direct attention to hearing student voices on the college campus. Students identify and describe examples of effective teaching practices, strategies, resources and routines used by faculty members across campus. These nominated instructional practices become the topics for some of these modules. Each module contains an alignment of the instructional practice with principles of Universal Design for Learning, a description of how the practice has been implemented by university instructor(s), a brief summary of professional literature that supports the instructional practice, and additional resources for viewers."

The National Center on Accessible Instructional Materials and PACER Center are pleased to announce the release of our new video explaining Accessible Instructional Materials in easy to understand language. This fully-captioned video is designed to increase awareness of AIM. We invite you to view and share this video with your colleagues and the families you serve.

"Out of Print highlights the sea change underway in the multi-billion dollar U.S. K-12 instructional materials market enabled by recent technology and intellectual property rights innovations. With a focus on the ultimate impact on student learning, the report provides examples of lessons learned from recent digital and open (OER) content initiatives by leading states and school districts and offers comprehensive recommendations for government, industry, and educators to ensure that the inevitable shift to digital instructional materials improves student achievement and engagement and efficiently uses scarce resources."

"Dr. Caroline Musselwhite adresses the topic of overall good literacy instruction. She presents information about how to teach students with significant disabilities using fairly common literacy instruction strategies. There are 11 short video posts to help you get started. She discusses the issues of AAC and suggests strategies that are easy to implement and highly effective."

"Universal Design for Learning: Critical Elements & Instructional Planning Process"

"As a framework, UDL requires educators to think proactively about the variability of all learners. In consideration of the UDL Critical Elements, educators implementing UDL should use a backwards design instructional process that incorporates the following five steps. "

" Drawing upon research and an extensive collection of evidence from multiple sources, the Common Core State Standards were developed to reflect the knowledge and skills that young people need for success in college and careers.  Those standards impact teachers in several ways, including to guide them "toward curricula and teaching strategies that will give students a deep understanding of the subject and the skills they need to apply their knowledge" (Common Core State Standards Initiative, FAQ section).  For many the standards require changes in how mathematics is taught, thus they will influence instructional strategies that educators use"

One of the major benefits of using technology in the classroom is the ability to differentiate instruction to meet the needs of every student in every lesson. Just as every student grows and develops at different rates, they learn in different ways and at different speeds. Technology makes it possible to pace lessons appropriately for each student's learning level and can be used to promote learning in the multiple intelligences. Below you will find website suggestions that address the different learning styles in your classroom with the help of technology:

"The Center for Learning and Inclusive Practices (CLIP) is a non-profit organization committed to promoting inclusive practices in education. CLIP provides professional development services and web-based instructional resources to facilitate the integration of technology as an instructional tool to eliminate barriers for special education and at-risk students, as well as for English Language Learners and economically disadvantaged students."

"While some may think high school or junior high math classes today still need to be relegated to paper and pencil and rely on the use of a expensive, dedicated graphing calculator to boot, think again! Used effectively, math instruction is something that very easily " rethought" using the iPod touch as a part of the instructional mix"

Make Pictures and Text Come Alive and "Talk." small recorder (1.67" W x 4.48" H x 1.44" D). How It Works Attach a special sticker to any book page, worksheet, game board, or flash card, scan the sticker with the MiniTR Recorder and begin recording. When you have completed the recording, it is ready for instant playback. Record pages of text, test questions, classroom instructions, or any materials that need to be read back to students. The MiniTR can hold up to 25 minutes of recordings. Each student will be empowered to read along, hear instructions in your own voice, and interact with individualized lessons. Support students who are nonverbal by prerecording words, phrases, and sentences. Then let the student use the MiniTR playback feature as a "voice." Features The MiniTR Recorder is ideal assistive technology for students with special needs. It is USB compatible, allowing you to backup or download your recordings. It has a built-in, high-quality speaker and comes with a headphone jack for private listening."

Why? * To increase participation and achievement for ALL students including those with significant disabilities * To position ALL students to take advantage of emerging educational technologies in inclusive learning environments. What? * The integration of interactive white boards (SMART Boards), SMART Solutions (e.g., SMART Table, SMART Document Camera, SMART Sync) and other mainstream technology (IPADS/IPODS, Nintendo DSi) with assistive technology for use during whole and small group instruction in all educational settings. The key is including ALL students using a Universal Design for Learning Toolkit (technology, traditional teaching methods,pedagogy) in their current educational setting to ensure meaningful academic and social participation. How? * By using SMART Boards and other mainstream technology as well as assistive technology to facilitate Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Differentiated Instruction (DI) so that learning environments, opportunities and activities are accessible by diverse groups of learners. Understanding how the Participation Model can extend UDL and DI so that the learning and participation of students with the most significant learning challenges are increased and enhanced.

Edutopia article on using the 'video game' model for planning instruction.