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The podcast discusses the concept of multiple means of representation in education. It explains that students have different learning styles and abilities, so providing lessons in various ways can help them understand and learn better. The podcast gives three instructional scenarios and strategies to address specific learning barriers, such as decoding math symbols for a student with a hearing impairment. It also discusses a blended learning model called the rotation model, where students go through different stations with various activities to accommodate different learning styles. The podcast emphasizes the importance of using technology and digital tools to support all students, not just those with disabilities. It concludes by highlighting the benefits of multiple means of representation in helping students overcome learning challenges and achieve better comprehension. Hello and thank you for joining. My name is Deborah and I will be your host. Today we will be discussing multiple means of representation which is one principle of universal design for learning or UDL. Let me give you a quick rundown of what we will discuss today. We will define what multiple means of representation is, talk about three scenarios, a blend of classroom, student accessibility, and how multiple means of representation can help. Let's get started. First things first, what is multiple means of representation? Multiple means of representation is a way to instruct your students by starting from their level of knowledge and understanding. We then build on that understanding by providing our students with their lessons in numerous ways. Having multiple ways to view and learn information increases their understanding. Your students knowledge, understanding, and life experiences shape how they learn and this is the reason we need to use multiple means of representation. For example, a student that has a hearing impairment will learn differently than a student with a vision impairment. Therefore, providing the lessons in several ways will allow better understanding for all students. The student can choose which representation fits best with their learning style. The recognition center or network is the portion of the brain that is activated with representation. The recognition network is where the information is retrieved and then categorized in a way that is meaningful to the student for easy retrieval. Each student's recognition network is different and that is why every student does not learn the exact same way. Now that we have discussed what multiple means of representation is, let us go through a few scenarios that might happen in the classroom. Scenario number one is a student, we'll call Mary for the purpose of this podcast, that struggles with decoding math symbols and the next lesson you're going to teach in math uses math symbols. The learning barrier for Mary is decoding math symbols. One instructional strategy you can use for Mary is to provide her with a list of the mathematical symbols that will be used in the next lesson, a description of each one and how they are used. Allow Mary to have a printed sheet with symbols in their description aligned with the language and symbols guideline under the multiple means of representation. This allows Mary to keep the explanation sheet with her for when she is completing her math assignment so she does not get confused about each symbol. In our second instructional scenario, we will talk about Jeff. Jeff is a student that has a visual disability and struggles to see the images when you're presenting content or when he is working on a document with images. From the information provided, we can identify his learning barrier as having a visual disability. Jeff's learning barrier is a visual impairment. One instructional strategy that you can use for Jeff is to make the images larger and change the background of all images to one color. This will allow Jeff to view the images better. The base color will allow his eyes to adjust to just one color rather than focusing on a different color with each image. The instructional strategy for Jeff aligns with the perception guideline within the multiple means of representation because you are altering Jeff's perception of how he sees the images. This alteration helps Jeff better see the imaging so he can better understand them. Juliana is our third student we will discuss today. Juliana's difficulty determining what information is essential and what information is of less importance when learning new content. Juliana's learning barrier is a cognitive one. She has trouble determining the importance of information that is provided to her. One instructional strategy that we can provide for Juliana is to provide her with a fill-in-the-blank handout. The handout will include the most important takeaways from the lesson. Juliana will first pay attention to the lesson and fill out the missing items on the handout. This aligns with a comprehension guideline of multiple means of representation. In providing Juliana with a template to follow, we increase her ability to understand the most essential information from the lesson. Now that we have discussed three different instructional scenarios and strategies to help the students, we'll turn our focus to a blended learning model for the classroom. There are four blended learning models discussed in technology integration for meaningful classroom use, a standards approach based approach by Sanamo, Ross, and Arthur. The four models are rotation model, flex model, a la carte model, and enriched virtual model. Today we will discuss the rotation model. A rotation model is a form of teaching that sends students through a series of stations with a variety of different activities. The rotation model can be beneficial to many types of learners. Each station can be equipped with learning materials for each type of student. The same information can be presented in numerous ways to support every student in the class. The rotation model fits with multiple means of representation by allowing students to choose which learning material will help them learn the content of the lesson best. Each station has several different learning tools that explain the lesson in several ways. Each situation can build on what the student already knows by allowing them to choose the word what works best for them. Technology can aid in learning by allowing students to work at their own pace. Digital tools can have embedded hyperlinks that can help students with learning. Embedded links can take the student to a different, to a definition of a new vocabulary word or math symbol. If the student needs to review the word or symbol, they can click on the hyperlink. If they do not need to review it, then they just simply move through the lesson. We now have wrapped up our discussion on blended learning models and we'll discuss article about how technology can help all students. The article by Noah in 2013, the importance of teaching all students about the accessibility features, explains that digital tools are not just for students with disabilities. Digital tools can be helpful and useful for all learners to have the best learning experience possible. There are features in all digital tools for each type of student. It is important to have this technology available to all students because even students without evident disabilities could have trouble with the lesson. Sometimes students just need a little reminder about things that can be taken care of with digital technology. Digital technology can provide closed captioning for videos or lectures. Closed captioning features support multiple means of representation by providing an option for perception for those with visual impairments. One thing that I've learned about multiple means of representation is that there are so many ways to help our students get the most out of their learning experience. There are so many ways to help students today. Teachers should be able to find ways to provide the lessons to all students. I hope to teach nursing students one day. By understanding and using multiple means of representation in the classroom, I can build on the knowledge that my students bring to the classroom and make sure to provide each student with the help they need to overcome any disability. Medical terminology is hard to remember when students are starting out, so being able to use digital technology with embedded hyperlinks for those terms is a fantastic way to increase a student's understanding and comprehension. For me as a learner, this principle reminds me that there are multiple ways to learn something. I can recognize when I'm not understanding something and know that there are different ways for me to learn. Thank you so much for joining me today. I hope this information was helpful and educational.
