Integrating Universal Design For Learning Concepts Into Secondary General Education Instructional Methods Courses

Because many general education teachers feel unprepared to provide students with disabilities with appropriate instruction, changes to teacher education programs are needed (Burdette, 2007; Smith et al., 2010). Teacher education programs need to integrate content regarding instructional methods for teaching and accommodating students with disabilities in secondary, general education classrooms (Burdette, 2007; Smith et al., 2010). The results of the research should provide insight (1) to determine if integrating instruction on UDL into preservice SGE students\u27 instructional methods courses will increase students\u27 knowledge of UDL and (2) to determine if integrating instruction on Universal Design for Learning (UDL) will affect how secondary social studies (SS) students design lesson plans, particularly, content delivery and student assessment, in regards to the three principles of UDL. The research design was a quantitative, quasi-experimental design. The participants in the research study were students enrolled in four content specific SGE instructional methods courses: Social Studies (SS), Language Arts (LA), Mathematics (M) and Science (S). Research question one\u27s data were analyzed both within content area, Wilcxon test for matched pairs, and between content areas, Mann-Whitney U test for independent samples. The results from research question one indicated a significant difference (p \u3c .05). between pre and post UDL Knowledge test scores within the SGE SS participants. Within the other three SGE content areas, M, LA, and S, subjects\u27 UDL Knowledge pre to posttest scores did not significantly change. When each content area\u27s difference score for the UDL knowledge pre and posttest were calculated and compared between content areas, only the SS and S pairing demonstrated a statistically significant difference score (p \u3c .05). Data from research question two indicated no statistically significant difference (p \u3e .05) between pre and post intervention UDL lesson plan rubric scores. The study provides impetus for future research regarding effective delivery of UDL content in teacher preparation programs. The study also provides suggestions for future researchers who may be interested in designing a similar research study. Finally, the study provides teacher education leadership with questions regarding how the three principles of UDL planning, instruction, and assessment align with the current teacher and student educational evaluation practice of standardized assessments

Enhancing Patient Portal Usage

Abstract The patient portal was created to offer the opportunity for patients to become more involved with their health care outcomes. However, it has been identified that patient portals are not being widely used. The portal can increase a patient’s knowledge about their health care and provide significant communication exchanges with their health care providers to help improve and understand their care needs. This quality improvement project was implemented to evaluate whether using an educational intervention of the benefits of the portal would increase usage of the portal and patient-provider communication utilizing the portal. Each patient, upon checking in with the front desk were given education on accessing and using the portal. Pre-intervention data were collected from the portal prior to the educational intervention. The pre-interventional data showed that in 2019 patients were sent 12 messages, 59 people accessed their records and 19 messages were sent to the patient from the provider. The post intervention data showed 190 patients had an educational intervention with an increase to 118 messages being sent by the provider, 113 patients accessed their records, and 85 patients electronically sent patient communication messages to the provider in the office. The framework model used for evaluating the project was Imogene King’s goal attainment theory. Through realization of goals, better outcomes in healthcare can be achieved with using the patient portal for guidance. Keywords: patient portal, patient communication, patient outcomes, quality improvemen

The Senhora Who Doesn\u27t Speak Portuguese: Following Francisco de Orellana Across the Amazon Jungle

Pawling, Colleen Lynnette. MFA. The University of Memphis. August 2014. The Senhora Who Doesn’t Speak Portuguese: Following Francisco de Orellana Across the Amazon Jungle. Major Professor: Dr. Kristen Iversen.In 1542, Francisco de Orellana was swept down the Amazon River on what would become one of the most incredible—and unknown—journeys in history. Nearly half a millennium later, a 52-year-old American lawyer left everything behind to follow Orellana’s trail across the Amazon to see what changes 500 years of western intervention had caused. She discovered three different Amazonias—the first was a land of indigenous peoples torn by conflict with outside forces wanting to exploit the oil that lurked beneath the forest; the second was a remote area almost untouched by the outside world; the third was the mighty Amazon River itself, long since industrialized during the rubber boom and firmly rooted in western culture. Using public transportation and finding shelter as she went, Pawling stayed with local residents and learned the realities of life in modern Amazonia. She witnessed the impacts of the petroleum industry, border disputes, and the rubber boom of the 19th and 20th centuries. She also faced her own limitations as a middle-aged American woman without the strength and energy who once had—not to mention reliable knees. Oh, and there was also that pesky language problem

Modeling and Simulation of the Military Intelligence Process

There is concern within U.S. space and intelligence organizations that the current Tasking, Processing, Exploitation, and Dissemination processes may be insufficient to support current and future Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance systems. As part of a larger intelligence process, more detailed analysis becomes critical to determine what portions need to be improved. This analysis can be accomplished by simulation, which is appropriate due to the complexity of the process and the ability to compare variations in the process. We construct a high level model of a generalized military intelligence process based in part on the Intelligence Cycle outlined in Joint Publications. Using the Arena process oriented simulation software, our modular simulation can be used for quick turn studies on changes to the process, specifically with respect to classical measures such as quality, quantity, and timeliness. A sample study using the basic framework of the intelligence process with statistical analysis is also conducted

Seeing arrangements as connections: The use of networks in analysing existing and historical ship designs

A growing trend in computer aided ship design, particularly in the early stages, is the utilisation of approaches and numerical methods developed in other disciplines. Examples include genetic algorithms, financial methods of risk assessment and the use of network science. Networks can provide an abstract mathematical representation of many types of connected features, properties and information, such that the associated network analysis metrics and approaches can offer new ways of investigating and evaluating ship designs. This paper reports on ongoing UCL investigations into the application of network science in assisting human analysis of the general arrangements of existing ship designs. This work includes designs of complex service vessels (research vessels) as a comparison with naval ships and makes use of freely available network analysis software. This project makes use of the experience in naval vessel concept design at UCL by enabling a comparison of expert judgement and interpretation of designs with the quantitative network metrics. This paper describes the network analysis approach adopted, the findings for the arrangements analysed, and also discusses the future work required to further the approach

Concept Studies for a Joint Support Ship

While all the major NATO navies have been under considerable pressure to downsize following the end of the post-Cold War, the higher degree of political instability world-wide has led to a desire to increase the deployability of the reduced number of naval assets. Thus there has been an increased interest in providing a new generation of naval support vessels as part of each navy’s contribution to Coalition peacekeeping. These new support ships are often also required to provide a contribution to amphibious capabilities, including humanitarian tasks, in littoral operations. This means there is a challenging combination of capabilities being sought from the current replacements of traditional afloat support ships. This paper describes the design work undertaken by the Design Research Centre at UCL, as part of a bid team responding to a Canadian National Defence Department requirement for feasibility studies into a “Joint Support Ship” programme. The UCL task consisted of designing a range of possible design options, to investigate the impact of capabilities on the configuration of this innovative concept, exploring the requirement’s two levels of capability, namely, “shall” and “should” as part of designing to cost and capability. A range of concepts was designed using the UCL Design Building Block approach, using the SURFCON module of the Graphics Research Corporation PARAMARINE ship design system. The advantage this approach gave in designing these novel solutions is shown through the ability of the DBB concept approach to balance both technical and configurational features, thereby enabling significantly different ship styles to be readily produced and compared

Appendix : 1820 Treaty Negotiation between the Penobscot Indian Nation and Maine from Wabanaki Homeland and the New State of Maine: The 1820 Journal and Plans of Survey of Joseph Treat

In late September 1820, hoping to lay claim to territory then under dispute between Great Britain and the United States, Governor William King of the newly founded state of Maine dispatched Major Joseph Treat to survey public lands on the Penobscot and Saint John Rivers. Traveling well beyond the limits of colonial settlement, Treat relied heavily on the cultural knowledge and expertise of John Neptune, lieutenant governor of the Penobscot tribe, to guide him across the Wabanaki homeland... The groundwork for cooperation between Treat and Neptune [was] laid during the 1820 treaty negotiations in which both men participated and which were successfully concluded just over a month before their expedition departed from Bangor, Maine. -- Description adapted from University of Massachusetts Press Edited with an introduction by Micah A. Pawling, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of History and Native American Studies, University of Maine. Appendix : 1820 Treaty Negotiation between the Penobscot Indian Nation and Maine posted in DigitalCommons@UMaine with permission of the author and of University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mainebicentennial/1078/thumbnail.jp