Tonight’s CAST UDL Symposium session was “Cheating, Or Empowering Learner Voice with Reading and Writing Tools In The Digital Age?” by Luis Perez, Tracy Hall, and Joni Degner. They shared a handout at: bit.ly/SymposiumJTL Perez explained that the document shared had links to the slides, back channel, and resources. Luis Perez described the Accessibility Commitments, including live captioning, alternative text and long descriptions, accessible digital handout, and multiple methods of interaction (chat and Mentimeter). Perez explained that while they used GoogleSlides, their PowerPoint file was more accessible. Luis Perez has been at CAST for the last five years and is a Technical Assistance Specialist. Tracey Hall has been at CAST for 20 years and is a Senior Research Scientist. Joni Degner has been working with TextHelp for a long time. The session objectives were shared, and importantly, Degner explained the purpose TextHelp and others have: “we want to help everyone understand and be understood.” Degner and Hall asked: what are the barriers for learners and in the learning environment? Participants shared access, background knowledge, spelling, text access, physical act of writing, and organization. Perez explained that they use Menti because it gives participants an anonymous way to contribute and is accessible. Perez also explained that they try to speak about de-stigmatizing. Degner shared a phrase: “For so many, learning remains gridlocked by biases & dispositions around assistive technology.” Degner explained that text-to-speech helps all learners, and there is evidence for it. Degner talked about the Zone of Proximal Development and connecting work to community activities. They talked about digital reading and writing. Paper and pencil examples of writing assignments were shown along with an analysis of alternatives. The act of writing could be laborious. I found it interesting to think about the effort and time for reading and writing from the perspective of new learners. Degner explained how Read&Write tools helped her son read, write, and understand texts. I have been using Read&Write and learned today how students in K-12 can benefit from different tools available in the toolbar. Hall described how the toolbar provides scaffolds for the process of writing and an opportunity for users to self-regulate and interact with texts in multiple ways. This presentation tied into some of the discussion we’ve been having about executive functions and self-regulation. The tools available for Read&Write suers are very powerful. I will now share this tool with students so they decide whether to use it too.
