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At Vision Expo East last month, Opticon and the National Federation of Opticianry schools combined efforts to provide free American Board of Opticianry basic exam review courses. I had the pleasure of teaching the American Board of Opticianry basic exam review course at Opticon in Orlando, Florida, and then in New York.
You are probably asking yourself, what does Universal Design of Learning have to do with an American Board of Opticianry basic exam review course? Well, I am going to tell you. We all know the feeling of sitting in a boring class, where most people in the room are scrolling through facebook or Instagram, and others are just thinking about what is being served for lunch. Inattention is common in our fast-paced society. The average attention span for a presentation is seven to ten minutes. Therefore, educators must think of ways to keep students engaged and active in their learning.
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During the course, we had large Post-its all over the walls, where students were able to practice transposition, calculate oblique meridians and prism. They worked in groups, so they were not only learning from me they were learning from each other and working together to complete a task.
This is a great way for participants with more experience to share and “teach” participants with less experience. One student said, “This is great! The best way to see if you know something is to teach someone.”
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Being an educator is a rewarding career. The feeling of helping someone gain new insight and become excited about their learning is an unexplainable feeling, especially in a career I love, Opticinary. Every time I teach a course on the national level, I want someone to learn something, to be excited about what they have learned, and share what they have learned with others. Opticians are a community of amazing people who can grow and learn from each other.