Using Technology to Engage Diverse Learners^†

Teachers of all technical abilities will benefit from this graduate-level course that features practical strategies for empowering and engaging diverse learners through technology. First discover how technology can help differentiate your instruction to support a wide range of learners, including gifted students and students with disabilities. Then explore a variety of technologies, such as blogs, Wikis, podcasts, and social media, that can contribute to student learning and motivation. You will also discuss the many factors that influence learning and the uses of technology that can help you gather key information about your students including interests and learning styles.

This course also examines two frameworks for meeting the needs of diverse learners: Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Differentiated Instruction (DI). You will have the opportunity to explore their similarities and differences in order to customize your instruction. Be inspired to use these frameworks and a variety of technologies to increase learning and achievement for all your students.

Teaching Tangibles

• Examine your personal beliefs about the role of assessment and technology in a diverse classroom.
• Survey your students’ interests, learning styles, multiple intelligences, and learning profiles.
• Develop a lesson plan that incorporates technology and elements of DI and UDL.
• Create a personal plan for implementing technology-supported differentiated instruction in your classroom.
• Build a toolkit of online resources for learning about and implementing the guidelines of UDL.
• Learn the importance of effective planning and management for a successful differentiated classroom.

This course requires Microsoft^® PowerPoint^® software.

^†Credits for up to four of these courses may be applied toward a Walden University M.S. in Education program. Please call 1-866-492-5336 and speak to an Enrollment Advisor for more details.

More Information

• Overview
• Featured Experts
• Materials
• Requirements

Download a course fact sheet to share with your supervisor, principal, and other teaching colleagues who may be interested in learning more about Canter graduate courses. The overview includes a description of the course as well as information on:

• Course topics and outcomes
• Course assessment criteria
• Course format and materials
• System requirements (online format)
• Featured education experts
• Accredited partner universities

Carol Ann Tomlinson, Ed.D.

Dr. Carol Ann Tomlinson is Professor of Educational Leadership, Foundations, and Policy at the University of Virginia's Curry School of Education and co-director of the university's Institutes on Academic Diversity. Special interests throughout her career have included curriculum and instruction for struggling learners and advanced learners, effective instruction in heterogeneous settings, and encouraging creative and critical thinking in the classroom. Dr. Tomlinson is a prominent expert on the concept of differentiation and provides professional development throughout the United States and abroad. She is the author of more than 100 articles, books, book chapters, and other professional development materials, including the text How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms..

Carol Ann Tomlinson has also authored books available through Canter’s partner, Corwin press.

Grace Smith, Ph.D.

Dr. Smith received a Ph.D. in Instructional (Educational) Technology from Wayne State University. Her experience includes 10 years as a teacher and reading specialist in public and private schools and eight years as a technology curriculum coordinator for a school district of 10,000 students. She has also worked as the director of continuing professional education at a business college, as an educational consultant, and as an adjunct professor at two universities, where she taught writing and technology courses.

Stephanie Thorne, Ph.D.

Stephanie Throne received a Ph.D. in Spanish Literature from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. She has extensive experience in developing online educational materials and at one point was the first instructor at her institution to offer online foreign language classes. Assignments necessitating the use of technology have always played an important role in all of her classes. She currently works as an independent contractor for adult, high school, elementary and preschool Spanish classes and as a private tutor for students of college level Spanish, elementary reading, and math.

The following course materials are included in the cost of tuition and will be delivered directly to you:

• Textbook: Technology and the Diverse Learner: A Guide to Classroom Practice, by M. Bray, A. Brown, and
  T. Green
  
• DVD: Using Technology to Engage Diverse Learners
  (Provided as backup to streaming video online.)

Articles, other reading materials, academic policies, and other course information will be provided in your online classroom.

Prerequisite

This is a graduate-level course; therefore, you must have a bachelor's degree or above to enroll and receive credit.

Earning Graduate Credit

Total coursework for this course is equivalent to a 45 contact-hour course. Graduate credit will be issued when you successfully complete the following course requirements:

• Collaborate with study partner(s) (Print & DVD format only).
• Collaborate with colleagues through discussion boards (Online format only).
• View video segments.
• Complete required text/journal readings, assignments, and the final paper.

Course Completion Deadline

Online format: coursework must be submitted online on or before June 30, 2012.

Got a question about this course?

Frequently Asked Questions

Give us a call 1-800-669-9011 .