Running Head: SUPPORTING THE NEEDS OF ALL LEARNERS

Supporting the Needs of All Learners Sandy Buschardt EDU697 Capstone: A Project Approach Dr. Keith Pressey December 9, 2013

SUPPORTING THE NEEDS OF ALL LEARNERS Supporting the Needs of All Learners Supporting the needs of all learners has been a primary theme throughout the classes in the MATLT program. This paper will discuss and support my understanding of the importance of designing to support the needs of all learners, including my personal experiences. I will also include a discussion of my redesigned lesson and a discussion about my challenges in the redesign. Personal Experience As the development manager and database administrator of a non-profit a number of

years ago, I regularly trained new employees on the proprietary database software. Before I knew what multiple intelligences were, I experienced the different learning styles of each employee. I discovered quickly that some preferred to have verbal instructions, some wanted to watch me navigate the software first, and for some who needed to see it, I prepared print screens of every step they needed to complete. Im grateful for the experience of struggling to learn to teach not that I have arrived. With each course I have taken at Ashford, I have learned the vocabulary and the whys of differentiated instruction. Prior Courses and Discussions In my first course at Ashford, I was introduced to Howard Gardner and multiple intelligences. In an interview, he discussed the fact that because everyone has different kinds of strengths, education which treats everyone the same way is absolutely the most unfair education (Edwards, 2009). From different perspectives, the point has been made in every class. If it is pointless to consider tailoring instruction to each individual student, it is equally misguided to imagine that a single one-size fits-all approach to teaching can meet the needs of every student (Felder & Brent, 2005, p. 57).

SUPPORTING THE NEEDS OF ALL LEARNERS The Redesign The activity I chose to redesign is from EDU655, a Power Point presentation on Implementing E-Learning Solutions. The original project had good information, but it wasnt thorough enough. There were no speakers notes, so the information wasnt completely understandable. There was no audio narration, so learners who prefer to hear the subject matter would not get the most from the presentation. There were several slides which had too much information on them, violating the 7x7 principle (Pressey, 2013). The changes in the presentation made it more student centered. It has become a selfcontained, technology-based instruction, appropriate for self-study (Reiser & Dempsey, 2012, p 11). This activity demonstrates the cognitive information processing theory, as it uses three memory systems in the learner (sensory, short-term, and long-term memory) [which] are assumed to receive information from the environment and transform it for storage and use in memory and performance (Reiser & Dempsey, 2012, p. 37). Through the redesign of this

activity, I have demonstrated my attainment of Program Learning Outcome 3 to design learning opportunities that apply technology-enhanced instructional strategies to support the needs of all learners. Challenges An implementation challenge I experienced during the redesign was deciding what content to use from the speakers notes for the narration. I needed to edit it down in order to fit the five minute time frame limited in Jing. Years of writing for radio gave me the experience to find the important nuggets for the audio. I did not delete any of the speakers notes so that fuller explanations are available for the student.

SUPPORTING THE NEEDS OF ALL LEARNERS Conclusion Redesigning the Implementing E-Learning Solutions activity gave me the opportunity to understand more tangibly the growth I have experienced through my classes in the MATLT program. Details that I originally missed now seem so obvious to me. My personal experiences

in the workplace, and prior classes and discussions combine to give me a fuller understanding of what is necessary to apply technology-enhanced instructional strategies to support the needs of all learners.

SUPPORTING THE NEEDS OF ALL LEARNERS

References Edwards, O. (2009, April 1). An interview with the father of multiple intelligences. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/multiple-intelligences-howard-gardner-interview Felder, R. M., & Brent, R. (2005). Understanding student differences. Journal of Engineering Education, 94(1), 57-72. Retrieved from http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/Papers/Understanding_Differen ces.pdf
Hall, T., Strangman, N., & Meyer, A. (2003). Differentiated instruction and implications for UDL implementation. Wakefield, MA: National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum. Retrieved from http://aim.cast.org/sites/aim.cast.org/files/DI_UDL.1.14.11.pdf

Pressey, K. (August 24, 2013). 7x7 rule for power point. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWmzl0-KKHM#t=19 Reiser, R. and Dempsey, J. (2012). Trends and issues in instructional design and technology (3rd ed). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.