E3T Student Page
Macomb County's
Universal Design for Learning Project

What is UDL?
Universal Design for Learning means that you will:

• Learn new things in a lot of different ways. Your teacher may use digital videos, pictures, books, books that talk, websites, podcasts, studycasts, mind maps, Google maps and so on to help you understand new information.

• Show what you know in a lot of different ways. Your "test" may be in the form of a podcast, digital story, book report, blog post, written test, clicker test, multimedia presentation, or a video clip. Often, the choice will be up to you.

• Learn in a way that's interesting and motivating. UDL lessons often include a choice of materials, topics and assignments. They are designed to be relevant to your life and the things that are important to you. Lessons often include ties to contemporary culture including popular music and other media.

How does it work?
Technology plays a big role in UDL. Having access to electronic information, whether it's text or pictures or video or a combination of all three, makes it easy for you and your teachers to adjust the way ideas are presented. That flexibility means its easy to find just the right combination to meet your needs.


What's your role as the student?
When you are enthusiastic about learning, learning comes easier. You need to know how you learn best and be able to make the choices that are right for you. In other words, you need to take responsibility for your learning. To help you do that, there are several links below that will give you the tools to help you study, learn and succeed in school.

Student Resources:

Math:

Web Math
Are you stuck on a math problem? Web Math can help you solve it. Just plug in the numbers and they'll show you how to solve the problem (including all the work to get to the answer!).

PRIME: Platonic Realms Interactive Math Encyclopedia
Math Encyclopedia and Dictionary

Graph Paper
Print your own graph paper.


Science:

The Physics Classroom
Physics Tutorials and Physics Multimedia. Must have for all physics teachers and students.

Why Files
Science in the News

How Stuff Works
A wonderful site that looks at the science of the world around us.

Alien Earths
Web Activities that look at the nature of life and the possibility for life on other planets.

Exploritorium: The Meuseam of Science, Art and Human Perception
A great resource for all things science. Has links to activities, science information, web applications and more.


ELA:

Read Write and Think: Story Map
Use this map to create a map of a story you read or as a tool to plan your own story.

Spark Notes:
Spark Notes is an electronic version of Cliff Notes. Use this site to get literature plot summaries, character analyses, chapter summaries and study guides.


Thinking and Studying

Mindmeister
This is a free, cooperative tools for making a concept map. Share it with your classmates, convert it to an outline or print it out as a study tool.

Diigo
Google Notebook
Use either of these tools to bookmark and take notes while doing research or reading Internet sites. You can save your notes all in one place and get instant website references for your papers.


Research:

Citation Machine:
Use this site to create accurate citations for all types of sources used to create research papers.

Infotrack Junior Edition
This on-line data base is designed for middle school students. It lets you search your topic and gives you access to full text versions of newspaper articles, magazines, journals and links to other kinds of media. (You will need to enter a Michigan Drivers License number or your library card number to access this site from home)

Infotrack Student Edition
This on-line data base is designed for high school students. It lets you search your topic and gives you access to full text versions of newspaper articles, magazines, journals and links to other kinds of media. (You will need to enter a Michigan Drivers License number or your library card number to access this site from home)


Text to Speech

Natural Reader
Have all of your electronic documents read out loud. With Read Naturally, you use the “Miniboard” to read right on the Internet or in any other document. Natural Readers comes with several voices.

Read Please
Read Please is another free text to speech program. Cut and paste any document into the Read Please window and you can turn your text into talking text. Read Please provides a few voice options, adjustable font size and highlights the words while it reads.


Creating Videos

Planning your Video

SchoolHouse Video
Use this link to think about and work through the steps for making a successful video.
There are tips on script writing, lighting, camera angles and a lot more.

Storyboards
Use this link to print out or complete on-line your story-boarding ideas.


Shooting your Video

Atomic Learning Video Tutorials
This is an awesome site to learn about making videos. It uses both text and video to introduce you to video making basics. Topics like framing your shot, good editing, camera angles are included. Anytime you see words that are blue and bold on the site, click it, it's a video tutorial.


Editing your Video

Jumpcut.com
Check out this new web based video editing site. Its associated with Yahoo. All you need to do is sign up, upload your videos and take advantage of the editing tools to create, slice, mash-up your video. For a quick introduction to the site, click here.

Windows Movie Maker
Movie Maker is a free download from Microsoft. It's easy to use. You can add titles, effects, transitions and more. For a tutorial using Movie Maker click here.

Sharing your Video

TeacherTube
TeacherTube has a student project section. Sign up is free. All you need is an email account.