Vygotsky and the Zone of Proximal Development Universal Design Universal Design for Learning Flexible Instructional Materials

Vygotsky and the Zone of Proximal Development

 Berger, A.E. (2003). Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development. Encyclopedia of Educational Technology. Retrieved June 12, 2007, from http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/articles/vygotsky_zpd/index.htm.

Doolittle, P. (1997). Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development as a Theoretical Foundation for Cooperative Learning. Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, 8(1), 83-103. http://ject.lib.muohio.edu/articles/pdf-to-text.php?article=137 (plain text version)

http://ject.lib.muohio.edu/articles/pdf-to-pdf.php?article=137 (Adobe Acrobat version)

Universal Design

The Center for Universal Design: Environments and Products for All People http://www.design.ncsu.edu/cud/

The Center for Universal Design (CUD) is a national information, technical assistance, and research center that evaluates, develops, and promotes accessible and universal design in housing, commercial and public facilities, outdoor environments, and products.  Our mission is to improve environments and products through design innovation, research, education and design assistance. 

Universal Design for Learning

The Center for Applied Special Technologies (CAST): Transforming Education through Universal Design for Learning  http://www.cast.org/index.html

CAST's work is inspired and informed by learners who struggle in traditional education settings. CAST prepares educators at all grade levels to meet the challenge of teaching diverse learners and assists stakeholders at the national, state, and local level to understand the practical implications of UDL.

Flexible Instructional Materials

National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS) Development and Technical Assistance Centers http://nimas.cast.org/

The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs has awarded CAST two five-year Cooperative Agreements to establish two national centers to further develop and implement the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS). The NIMAS guides the production and electronic distribution of digital versions of textbooks and other instructional materials so they can be more easily converted to accessible formats, including braille and text-to-speech.  Version 1.0 of the NIMAS was developed in 2002-2004 by the National File Format Technical Panel, which was comprised of forty technology specialists, educators, disability advocates, and publishers, and is based on the DAISY/NISO Z39.86 (DAISY 3) specification. The final NIMAS was published on July 19, 2006 (71 FR 41084) and was included as Appendix C to Part 300—National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard—published on August 14, 2006. Technical specifications for both version 1.0 and 1.1 are available in the About NIMAS section of this Web site.