Case Study Workplace design for a trainee teacher

The employer is a state government or a teacher training college for the 2nd state examination.

The man has right hemiplegia with spasticity as a result of a cerebral hemorrhage. A right-handed person proper, he has had to learn to use his left hand for activities such as writing with a pen or keyboard. The hemiplegia leads to restrictions in handling objects as well as in speaking and to a low physical resilience, which already leads to exhaustion after 2-3 hours when performing a light activity. The physical exhaustion can, however, be compensated for by an appropriately long break of two hours. The man should not be used for activities that require him to stand for long periods as well as walk and handle objects manually. Despite the hemiplegia, he can walk at a slow pace without forearm crutches, climb flat stairs to a small extent and communicate verbally. The GdB (degree of disability) is 80.

The man successfully completed his teacher training studies with the 1st state examination and is completing his two-year preparatory service or traineeship at a study seminar for special schools and in a school for physically disabled people.

The trainee teacher has to develop the blackboard pictures with his left hand or write on them with chalk. The assistive products (compass, ruler, etc.) and media (e.g. wall board which is difficult to handle) necessary for the development of the blackboard pictures must also be handled with the left hand due to the disability. The development of the blackboard pictures is very time-consuming and demands a lot of the teacher, so that already early after the beginning of the lessons the teacher gets exhausted. In addition, the typeface or handwriting on the board is difficult for the students to see. The middle board in the classroom was therefore replaced by an interactive whiteboard, speakers and a beamer were permanently installed and the teacher was equipped with a laptop and a document camera. The contents of the lessons can thus be prepared on the laptop at home and projected onto the whiteboard in the classroom via the beamer. As with an otherwise standard whiteboard, content can be changed directly via the laptop or interactively via the surface of the whiteboard (as with a touchscreen). It is even possible to convert handwriting into digital text through handwriting recognition and save the whiteboard image via the laptop so that it can be retrieved and further edited in subsequent lessons. In order to be able to show and explain student work written on paper, the teacher records it with the document camera and presents it on the whiteboard via laptop and beamer - saving is also possible.

The trainee teacher teaches his 15 lessons a week only in the classroom with interactive whiteboard, which can be reached by him via a lift. As a state of exhaustion sets in after long teaching sessions, the trainee teacher has been provided with a lounger in a separate room near the classroom for recuperation. His timetable is organised so that he has time off or an appropriately long break for recuperation after long teaching sessions. During the traineeship, discussions take place with the training teachers and the subject and main seminar leaders, which the trainee teacher records with the aid of a dictaphone for later evaluation, as he is too slow to take notes and make notes.

Accessories for audio/video and visual systems (document camera)
Computer visual display units and accessories (whiteboards)