Universal+Design+Handout+Project

Explanation of The Newsletter ** Aim:  ** The intension of this newsletter is to provide an overview of the ideas of universal design including suggestions on its implementation. It is intended to support a brief presentation on the same topic and act as a launching point for someone who wants to incorporate these ideas in their classroom. Universal design in the classroom is a huge topic so this newsletter is intended as a very broad overview and launching point to encourage the listener to seek further information. ** Design Principles Description:  ** ** Legibility:  ** I wanted to make this handout as easy to read as possible while still being informative so I selected fonts that are paired in Arial Bold for the headings and Arial for the body. The contrast between the two makes it easy to determine the difference between heading and subject while still being very easy to read. In order to keep the newsletter simple to read I selected a larger text font for both headings (18) and the body (16). This should accommodate visually challenged learners while still allowing me to cover the desired information. To further emphasize the distinctions between sections I included a division line. This should allow the viewer to focus on the desired section while following the presentation and assists with maintaining organization between the text and the associated pictures. ** Alignment:  ** I aligned the elements of the newsletter using the boarders setting I found on the provided “create a Newsletter in MS word” handout provided in class and decided on a portrait layout as I felt it was the best way to organize my information. Most text is aligned to the left and I used round bullets. The only text items that are not aligned to the left are the title and the caption under the curb cut picture. The reason that this text is centered in its text box is because of the sizing of the picture that shares the box caused the words to float in space and I think it is clearer and better organized by being centered under the image. The title heading is also centered from esthetics. ** Grouping:  ** I made sure that grouping would be obvious by placing division lines between grouped items. I had three heading groups that I wanted to address that are substantially different from each other in the history, UD for learning and teaching UD sections. The difference between the last two is that Teaching UD focuses on implementation while the UD for education focuses more on classroom technology and general information. ** Balance:  ** As this work is intended as an overview I thought that it should be as engaging as possible so I wanted to keep an informal tone throughout. I believe that as an overview the amount of jargon should be kept to a minimum to promote the ease of understanding and encourage further inquiry. ** Unity:  ** This criteria will be up to the reviewer to decide, I feel that everything fits in a logical progression. ** Content:  ** I selected the information that I did for a variety of reasons, but the biggest is that this work is intended as an overview so I didn’t want to get too far into the many different points associated with this topic. There is an entire course of study on universal design so there is a virtually endless amount of information and detail and hopefully this newsletter will encourage the reader to look into this topic further. The history section is intentionally brief and includes a statement on how the discipline started and then branched into education. I included the picture of a curb cut because I think it provides a clear example of the types of changes that universal design incorporates and also because it is a small change to the design of that curbing that has a big impact and I wanted to portray the idea that small changes can have enormous consequences. The universal design for learning is again just a short description of what can be involved in applying universal design to the classroom, particularly in the inclusion of technologies. The three pictures I selected for this section are intended to represent the three tiers or levels of technologies that are available. I wanted to include the book stand because I think it’s a great example of a low cost way to impact a students learning. The other two pictures, the audio rover and the student at the visual representation station, represent the middle and higher cost brackets respectively. The final topic I wanted to include is the three guidelines for teaching universal design that I paraphrased from the text. I thought that the fact that there are only three points and that they are pretty easy to interpret made them a better inclusion over the seven basic principles of universal design that can also be found in the text. The smaller number of points also makes them a better topic geared for the short presentation format we are expected to follow. ** Works Cited:  ** Lever-Duffy, Judy, McDonald, Jean, Lever-Duffy, Judy, & McDonald, Jean. (2010). //Teaching and learning with technology//. Allyn & Bacon. [] [] [] []

Actual Handout media type="custom" key="6653567"

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