The participants: Large district: Dr. Daryl Diamond, Director of Innovative Learning, Broward County Public Schools, FL. How do you approach purchasing education technology tools? They not only look at how the product would fit with their learning standards and curriculum, but the product must also work within their LMS. What role do learning goals play when searching for the best edtech? Then, learning goals drive the decision. MORE

Matt Huenerfauth (right), director of the Linguistic and Assistive Technologies Laboratory at the Rochester Institute of Technology, records video and motion-capture data from someone performing American Sign Language (ASL). Sign up for our Blended Learning newsletter. MORE

New report highlights 10-step plan to applying Universal Design for Learning online. The authors note that while, ideally, UDL allows students with disabilities to access courses without adaptation, it can also help to improve learning—and, therefore, retention—among all students. MORE

But a common problem prevented that: some faculty have been slow to catch up with technological advances, and many wait until students ask for accomodations rather than having accessible materials from the start. “I I think the onus is still placed on the student with a disability” to ensure they have learning materials that they can benefit and learn from, says Kwong. That’s especially concerning to her, given assistive technologies alone won’t always help. MORE

“A lot of people worry that technology will take the place of the teacher, but I think it’s exactly the opposite,” said math teacher Kaswell. Kaswell’s class is known as the STEAM lab, for science, technology, engineering, arts and math. Sign up for our Blended Learning newsletter. MORE

In a recent post I touched upon the subject of designing for accessibility in e-learning. The things is, there are millions of people out there who are living with some sort of disability, and they all should be able to access online learning content the same as everyone else. MORE

Not only did Caleb never return to his local school, but he learned little throughout his elementary, middle and high school years — which included hundreds of hours struggling through computer lessons in math, science and social studies. At school, he uses an online program called MobyMax. MORE