About Us

Experience the Wonder of Learning

We are all designed to learn, to interact with the world around us, to acquire new knowledge, skills, behaviors, or understanding through experience, play, and study.

But sometimes we lose the wonder of learning; we experience barriers that we struggle to overcome. This is particularly true for students with disabilities. The effects of a disability do not keep a student from being proficient in state academic standards and performance expectations. But, barriers from inaccessible instructional design will result in significant achievement gaps, and that results in disengagement and a loss of wonder.

Historically, instruction has been designed for a mythical "average" student that doesn't really exist. This type of design will always result in achievement gaps for various student groups. Technology now provides many options for designing universal instruction that adapts to the learning profiles of all students.

As educators, we share a responsibility to redesign instruction and restore the wonder of learning for all students. Join us as we work towards this goal!

Your Technology & Learning Connections Team

Increasing student achievement by aligning technology, policies, and state academic standards through a multi-tiered system of supports in a general education setting.

The Technology & Learning Connections (TLC) Team is a part of the FDOE, Bureau of Exceptional Education and Student Services - funded PS/RtI Project at the University of South Florida. The TLC services support highly effective classrooms by aligning instructional technology with Florida’s state academic standards and performance expectations, enhancing access and engagement within a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) in the general education setting.

The TLC Team provides guidelines and resources to support the implementation of:

• The Florida B.E.S.T. Standards
• Assistive and Instructional Technology
• Accessible Instructional Materials (AIM)
• Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

The team provides statewide technical assistance and training support to Local Education Agencies (LEA) and their local assistive technology specialist (LATS), as well as the regional local assistive technology specialist (RLATS), who provide direct services to small and rural LEAs.

The TLC team also manages the AT and UDL Loan Library. The AT and UDL Loan Library is designed to help LEAs and schools implement a Tier 1, differentiated core performance expectations based on the Florida B.E.S.T. Standards. The assistive technologies available in this library can be used to identify which technologies will best support students with disabilities to participate and progress in the state academic standards. The Universal Design for Learning technologies can be used to identify effective instructional pedagogies that support highly effective learning environments. Accounts are available to district personnel approved by their respective ESE Director and BEESS IDEA-funded State Projects personnel.