Christine Soring

EDT 517

31 March 2019

Dr. Penny

Stephanie Vie wrote ​Effective Social Media Use in Online Writing Classes Through

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Principles​ to explore how UDL principles can be used

with social media in online environments. The purpose of the article is to explain how social

media integration in online writing classrooms can be fully accessible and challenges, engages,

and meets the needs of all learners. Vie examines how UDL can be used to incorporate social

media in online writing courses and offers practical approaches that educators can use to

incorporate social media for the purpose of enhancing classrooms and engage students. She

argues that digital technologies like social media has the potential to include students with

disabilities in learning. Vie argues that literature is limited in its study of social media so she

offers a look into social media’s contribution to further the conversation.

Vie conducts research and focuses on social media use within higher education settings in

the United States and refrains from looking at this study globally due to differing laws and

technologies. With the popularity of social media in the 21st century, exploring this area of study

seems relevant and engaging. Vie first explores user-centered design, UDL, and accessibility,

drawing on definitions from the International Organization for Standardization. The definition of

usability is “the extent to which a system, product, or service can be used by specified users to

achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of
use” (ISO 2017). Vie then draws from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to compare

definitions of usability. The W3C defines usability as “designing products to be effective,

efficient, and satisfying.” After conducting research on usability definitions, Vie found it

necessary to also define accessibility primarily because some technology can be usable without

being accessible. After examining the definition of accessibility in both the International

Organization for Standardization and the World Wide Web Consortium, Vie concluded that the

UDL framework connects usability and accessibility because it emphasizes creating products

that can be used by everyone without having to adapt the ways in which students access it. To

further her conversation, Vie refers to Shannon Walters’​ Technical Communication Quarterly

where she explored how the UDL framework allows for more flexibility in the technology

classrooms. Walters said that UDL “changes curricula and pedagogies to include the widest

range of students, both disabled and nondisabled” (Walters 432). Vie reminds the reader that

although the literature is limited in its study of social media in the writing classroom, designing

courses focused on usability and student-centered design can help bring focus to the discussion.

Vie explains that articles primarily focus on accessibility and her study serves as a valuable

contribution to a larger discussion of accessibility, usability, and UDL in the field.

Rather than simply drawing from other literature, Vie offers three ways that educators

can mesh the UDL framework and social media in the classroom. By offering ways that

educators can implement changes to their classrooms to incorporate social media, Vie gives

readers a takeaway from her study that can be used in the classroom. The first way Vie offers is

to give students choice when incorporating social media into a classroom setting. For example,

rather than require students to make a Twitter account, teachers can ask that students limit a
response to 140 characters in a different technology to mimic what Twitter users do on the social

media platform. Students still get the same effect of using social media, but are given the choice

to do it outside of the social media platform. Vie draws on a 2016 journal article by Julie Moser

titled ​Assumptions, access, universal design, and you: The Mindful Use of Social Media

Technology in Course Development ​to emphasize the importance of choice in the classroom.

Offering choice “encourages self-direction and social collaboration among diverse learners, and

it provides multiple means of engagement, representation, action, and expression-- all core UDL

guidelines” (Moser 2016). Building off of Moser’s thoughts regarding choice in connection to

UDL guidelines, Vie reminds readers that not all social media platforms are accessible for all

learners. She uses blind users as an example and refers to Sushil Oswal and Beth Hewett (2013)

whose chapter on accessibility challenges criticizes the use of social media in the classroom. Vie

offers a response to Oswal and Hewett by explaining that educators need to choose social media

tools that have been designed from a UDL perspective to avoid those accessibility issues. Vie

mentions a program called “Easychirp” that makes all aspects of Twitter accessible to the blind.

By offering a social media platform that can avoid what Oswal and Hewett argued, Vie shows

readers that no matter student challenges or disabilities, there are social media tools that can be

accessible and used by all.

Vie’s intent was to integrate findings of literature that have already been written with her

own opinion of social media in the classroom. By offering ways in which educators can

incorporate social media in the classroom, Vie shows how the UDL framework can help scaffold

this implementation. With the emphasis placed on social media in the 21st century, it is

important to remember that if we do it in the right way, we can use it successfully. Vie’s study
helps add to our knowledge of UDL and how the framework can be applied to help scaffold any

kind of learning in any environment. By offering names of social media tools that can be used in

the writing classroom, Vie connects UDL and social media in a sensible and practical way. Vie’s

study adds to the understanding of UDL and will help educators use tools that give students the

opportunity to work with new technologies and challenge themselves in unfamiliar ways. This

study is valuable in bringing practical 21st century skills to the classroom while aligning it with

UDL guidelines to ensure both accessibility and usability while also reminding us that universal

design is a process.
References

Moser, Julie A. (2016). Assumptions, access, universal design, and you: The mindful use of
social media technology in course development. ​The New Hampshire Journal of
Education.​

Vie, Stephanie (2018) “Effective Social Media Use in Online Writing Classes through Universal
Design for Learning (UDL) Principles.” ​Computers and Composition​, Vol. 49, 2018, pp.
61–70, doi:10.1016/j.compcom.2018.05.005.

Walters, Shannon (2010). Toward an accessible pedagogy: Dis/ability, multimodality, and

universal design in the technical communication classroom. ​Technical Communication

Quarterly, 19​ (4), 427-454.