Examples of Technology to Support the Affective System

The adjustability necessary to engage students with varied skills, needs, styles, and interests can in our view only be provided through the use of technology in support of universal design. The flexibility inherent in digital media, when employed to provide customizable options in software, and the almost limitless possibilities offered by the World Wide Web support our ability to individualize the teaching and learning of writing.

Drawing upon research in neuropsychology, education, and psychology, we find five key dimensions of instruction for which the adjustability of technology can be pivotal in engaging students in learning to write. These dimensions are:

1. Adjustable level of challenge
2. Varied supports
3. Timely and relevant feedback
4. Material that sparks personal interest
5. Variable learning contexts.

Enthusiastic writers work at an appropriate level of challenge, find the supports they need, get prompt, relevant feedback, write on subjects that are personally relevant and interesting, and find a context for writing that excites their interest.

One might argue that because learning to write is especially difficult for students with learning disabilities, and because it takes such a long time, supporting engagement for these students is particularly critical (Heyman, 1990; Meyer, 1983a; White , Moffit, & Silva, 1992). In addressing the key affective dimensions and how to support them, we assume a supportive learning environment using meaningful writing tasks within a framework of process writing (Englert et al., 1994; MacArthur, 1996; Palincsar & Klenk, 1992).

Equally critical are "universally designed assignments," that are themselves customized to fulfill the particular purpose a teacher has in mind and to adjust to the affective needs of different students. Teachers who clearly define the purpose of their assignments can individualize students' means for completing the work, enabling them, for example, to select a medium of expression that suits their own style and preference.

For example, if the teaching goal is to help students learn to create narratives, teachers can offer varied media options including sequences of images, sounds, words, animations, or a combination of media. Students who have difficulty with text but who love to draw or work with sound can become engaged in the assignment via their medium of choice. If, however, the goal is to create textual narratives, the ultimate expressive medium must be text, but scaffolds to support text generation and monitoring (such as word prediction or voice recognition) can be differentially provided to adjust to individual skill levels. In both cases, the teaching goal dictates the kinds of flexibility that are appropriate, and the principles of universal design for learning can be applied.