Whenever a new educational technology tool became the topic of conversation online or in my district, I would push aside the 170+ essays I had to grade in the measly 60 minute prep period I had and play around with the new tool until the bell brought me back to reality. So when my district adopted the learning management system (LMS) Canvas, I jumped in head first. I posted my daily class schedules with available materials so that I wouldn’t have to deal with “What did I miss when I was absent?” I assigned essays through Canvas so I wouldn’t have to take home stacks of papers and so I could use voice dictation on my Mac to leave comments. Do you see what I did there? I did it for me.

Now, most the time when I adopted educational technology, I did it because it enhanced my abilities to implement a teaching best practice and made learning more visible. And this is how I approach being an educational technology specialist: Learning first. Everything starts with content standards and pedagogical moves. There’s just been one exception, and that’s Canvas. I’ve been promoting Canvas as a way for teachers to address some of their needs and pet peeves. Hate that “What did I miss?” question? Then focus on the calendar and posting your materials. Can’t stand students claiming that you lost their work? Start assigning through Canvas. You get the idea.

Recently, I started my ISTE Certification and had to do some work surrounding universal design for learning (UDL). UDL is “a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn” (www.cast.org). Instead of making accommodations for some students, it’s about implementing the principles of UDL so that learning is accessible to all students. For an example outside of the realm of education, ramps alongside stairs accommodate wheelchairs, but they also provide access for people pushing strollers, people with bad knees or uncertain balance, people carrying heavy loads, etc. They benefit anyone who might need them. More specifically, the UDL principles, as outlined by CAST, are:

• Engagement: Stimulate interest and motivation.
• Representation: Present knowledge and content in different ways.
• Action & Expression: Provide differentiation in the way students can demonstrate their understanding.

This is where my “Aha!” moment came in. We shouldn’t be adopting an LMS to meet teachers’ needs. This provides an easy excuse to not use an LMS because it is a lot of up-front work. We should be adopting an LMS because of how it makes access to content more equitable. By hosting content and assignments online, it is easier to provide a wider variety of content resources (e.g., videos, articles, educational games, etc.) that have accommodations built in (e.g., closed captioning and subtitles, text-to-speech extensions, etc.). It is easier to provide choice in product (e.g., an essay, Adobe Spark video, Canva infographic, Google Slides presentation, etc.). And it is easier to stimulate interest and motivation by linking to authentic resources, providing a more authentic platform for communication, and promoting student collaboration in a safe environment.

In short, there is nothing wrong with adopting an LMS that improves your workflow as a teacher (so long as it doesn’t hinder learning). But it is even better practice to adopt an LMS because of how naturally they support universal design for learning and therefore make student access to learning more equitable.