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No Such Thing: Education in the Digital Age

Universal Design for Learning CS

Ep. 81

Universal Design is a practice born out of architecture, and the late Ronald Mace, whose approach was to consider every body in the design of the built environment, not to design for some and amend or "adapt" for others. Guests in this episode discuss Universal Design for Learning, which shares this ideology as it relates to pedagogy and the design of learning environments.


Maya Israel, Ph.D. is an associate professor of Educational Technology in the School of Teaching and Learning at the University of Florida. She is also the research director at the Creative Technology Research Lab. Dr. Israel’s research focuses on strategies for supporting students with disabilities and other struggling learners’ meaningful engagement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) with emphases on computational thinking, computer science education, and Universal Design for Learning (UDL).


Meg Ray is the Teacher in Residence at Cornell Tech. She is responsible for the implementation and design of the Teacher in Residence program, a coaching program for K-8 teachers in New York City schools. An experienced middle and high school computer science teacher and special educator, Meg directed the design of the Codesters Python curricula for middle school students and served as a writer for the Computer Science Teachers’ Association K-12 CS Standards and as a special advisor to the K12 CS Framework. She lives in New York.


Ron Summers is a nationally recognized educator and the Executive Director for NYC Department of Education's Computer Science 4 All. He is an expert in developing computer science and entrepreneurship programs for special project initiatives that focus on youth education using the design processes and computer science principles.


Covert art for this episode: Giulia Forsythe


Links from this episode:

Ronald Mace: https://projects.ncsu.edu/ncsu/design/cud/about_us/usronmace.htm

Universal Design for Learning: http://www.cast.org/our-work/about-udl.html

Creative Technology Research Lab: https://education.ufl.edu/ctrl/

Direct link to the UDL and collaborative discussion framework section of the lab website: https://education.ufl.edu/ctrl/projects/tactic/

UDL in CS crowdsourced document: https://education.ufl.edu/ctrl/files/2020/05/Copy-of-UDL-and-CS_CT-remix.pdf

Cornell Tech: www.tech.cornell.edu

CAST: http://www.cast.org/

Thompson Education Consulting: http://tectalksolve.com/

Thompson Education Consulting on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TECtalkTECsolve

Thompson Education Consulting on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tectalktecsolve/

New Event Details for the Black Women in Ed Talk: file:///C:/Users/mlesser/AppData/Local/Temp/BlackWomenEDflyerLink.pdf

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