Understanding by Design, Differentiated Instruction, Web 2.0

Educators around the world consistently emphasize the importance of following the tenets of Grant Wiggins' "Understanding by Design." I recognize why this curriculum development framework has attained such a large following. It makes a great deal of sense. There's no sense in "teaching" something if students don't understand it. In fact, if understanding does not develop real teaching could not have occurred. Like other educators, Grant Wiggins argues that students both develop and reveal their undersanding of complex issues when they are "provided with complex, authentic opportunities to explain, interpret, apply, shift perspective, empathise, and self assess."

To advocates of Web 2.0 the tenets of "Understanding by Design" are nothing new.
When students use the tools of Web 2.0 they have no choice they must become engaged learners. For one can't use Web 2.0, or any tools for that matter, and remain passive. Chances are likely that students using Web 2.0 tools will be called on to "explain, apply, shift perspective, empathise, and self assess." For Web 2.0 is about authentic communication with others. When people meaningfully communicate with one another they are called on to take each of these actions.

Backward mappping calls on teachers to begin with the objectives that they want to achieve and then develop activities to fit the objectives. Though Wiggins packages this concept nicely, it's nothing new. Objectives are placed in the beginning of lesson plans because teachers should begin thinking about their lessons by identifying objectives. Once these objectives are identified the tools of Web 2.0 can be used to enable students to engage in meaningful collaboration with others in which they discuss ideas related to these objectives. For example, if an objective calls for students to understand the culture of Latin American set up a collaborative relationship with a Latin American class in which students develop a social network to compare their own real lives. Students can share music with one antoher, develop pictorial tours of their communities and simply chat. (Talk about the potential for learning to empathize.) Imagine studying the Holocuast, in which the objective calls for students to develop an understanding of anti-semitism after the Holocaust: I recently read about a collaborative relationship between an Israeli school with numerous grandchildren of Holocaust survivors developing a relationship with a Polish school. While the Israeli children shared their families' Holocaust stories, the Polish children invetigated and took pictures of the areas from which the Jews had been expelled on their way to death camps. (Talk about learning to shift perspectives.) Don't approach Web 2.0 without objectives because it will prove overwhelming. Bring your objectives to Web 2.0 and it will be awesome.

Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe talks about importance of differentiated instruction. Some students are verbal learners; they'll do very well on Web 2.0. Web 2.0 can be used to promote thinking in each of the multiple intelligences that Howard Gardner discusses.


I'm looking forward to what Vicki Davis refers to as Web 3D. This part of the web will include virtual places such as Second Life. Kinesthetic learners will be able to use these virtual places to walk through the streets of ancient Rome or fly in outer space. They'll use these spaces to develop their own businesses or strategize as to how to avoid World War III. If you are reading this, you likely know that these virtual sites already exist. As educators increasingly develop them kinesthetic learners will encounter incredible new learning oppotunities suited to their learning styles and domains of intelligence.

To conclude, the concepts of "Understanding by Design" and "Differentiated Instruction" are incredibly important to high quality learning. It's time that we begin to talk more about fusing these concepts of curriculum development with Web 2.0 and the developing Web 3D.

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