YOUR BRAIN ON COMPUTERS: Digital Devices Deprive Brain of Needed Downtime
Time without digital input can allow people to learn better or come up with new ideas.

http://nyti.ms/9C8ulK

Today we see multiple devices with multiple uses. I carry a laptop, an iTouch, and iPad and a smartphone. Each has a multitude of features and functionality that offer convenience and flexibility for the ways that I work. And, over the years, these tools have continued to include a great deal of what I call “smart” technologies that help me (and probably many others) work. For example, my LG Ally smartphone allows me to use my voice to write a text message, search a Google term or find a location in my Google maps. Within my maps, the location can then provide step-by-step directions and the ability to choose navigate to drill down to voice direction points through a GPS. These tools and the developments that they contain assure me that we will continue to see technologies that are developed with all users in mind. A recent article in the Washington Post confirms how important the design of electronic devices needs to be to meet the needs of all users. The more developers embed these features into technologies, the more universally designed they become and, the more users who can benefit.

As a smartphone, the Ally has many of the same features as many such as a touchscreen interface with a slider keyboard, access to the Droid operating system of Apps, a nice camera a video recorder, and a 4 gb removable memory card. But what I find impressive is the speech recognition quality. Without even training my voice, this phone was able to understand my commands for a Google web search, a text message and a map destination. For me that is a wonderful design and saves my normal sized hands and fingers from trying to adapt a keyboarding style to a minature keyboard….let alone trying to thumb type! I also like the fact that this phone has raised keys on the keyboard so they serve as good tactile orientation points for anyone needing that assistance. Hats off to LG — life is good!

Indeed, so much has changed and evolved in the field of UDL since our first offering of this course in 2003. Texts have been written, websites have debuted, the UDL principles have been clarified and expanded, and legislative references to UDL have helped to anchor a definition and direction. These are exciting times. Unfortunately, so many educators still need to understand the what, how and why of UDL.

As students left our institute this week, I was impressed with their ability to grasp the big picture. To quickly identify the differences between UDL and assistive technology and why each are important. To recognize the effective design of an online course portal and why this design helps to highlight the critical features of a course, offer multiple means of representing the course information, and encouraging multiple avenues that engage the learner.

Every educator hopes that their students will assimilate new knowledge in their classes. As they practice their craft, they become true guides on the side in this learning process–recognizing the strengths and interests of the learner, sharing the vast array of information and resources and, designing an instructional setting that can reach and meet learners through their multiple neural channels.