CoSN 2025: Universal Design for Learning Applies to Tech, Too

When the U.S. Department of Education updated its National Education Technology Plan for the first time in seven years in early 2024, one of its main recommendations was that schools use ed-tech tools that adhere to principles of the Universal Design for Learning (UDL), a concept in education that says learning materials and environments should be designed to accommodate differences in how kids learn. Later that year, a survey of state education and technology leaders from 46 states found that nearly half of them offered no guidance to schools to ensure ed-tech tools adhere to UDL principles.

To help address this gap between recommendation and practice, the Consortium for School Networking’s annual conference this month featured Nick Williams, director of technology innovation at Indiana’s Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation (BCSC), to talk about his implementation of the UDL framework.

BCSC was featured in the 2024 National Education Technology Plan as an example of how to procure ed-tech tools based on the UDL framework, and Williams told conference attendees that implementing those principles requires some flexibility. For starters, he said BCSC has a one-to-one device ratio for students, but those who have trouble working on standard laptops have the option of choosing tablets or laptops with larger screens or touchscreens instead.

“Student device flexibility is a piece that I think, if we didn’t have that UDL lens, we probably wouldn’t even think about,” Williams said. “We’d probably just fight for standardization.”

As far as specific ed-tech investments, he said the district uses a UDL-based resource adoption rubric to evaluate each one and provides that rubric to vendors up front. BCSC also developed a separate UDL-based rubric for learning management systems, Williams said.

The district chose Canvas for its LMS because it has UDL features such as accessibility checkers built into its course tools, he said. Other key ed-tech tools BCBS uses include Read&Write, Equatio, Screencastify, Pear Deck Learning, Canva and Book Creator, all of which adhere to UDL principles, according to Williams.

In terms of how artificial intelligence will relate to UDL, he said BCSC teachers are already using the technology to convert speech to text and text to speech, create graphic organizers, change reading levels and provide language translations.

“In early testing that we’ve seen, AI tools perform better than Google Translate in translation,” Williams said, “so our teachers are using AI to translate things, especially in some of our hard-to-get dialects.”

He added that the district received a state grant to help pay for SchoolAI, which helps educators create content and provides AI-driven activities for K-12. Williams said this, too, was chosen for its UDL features.

“We really don’t purchase anything as a technology department unless it supports every student through the UDL framework and has a purpose there,” he said. “Thinking about students with the most barriers for learning, if these systems don’t support them, then we’re probably not going to invest in them.”