SensAble · teaching
Designing school and teaching for inclusion
Teacher-training seminar EW-SEGY-BW4 · TU Dresden
The digital learning environment for the seminar – itself designed according to Universal Design for Learning. Those who plan accessible teaching should experience it while doing so. The learning environment is in German.
- 14 sessions as learning paths with reading, exercises and a summary
- Six simulations – from braille to hearing in background noise
- Portfolio: groups develop accessible learning modules for OPAL
How a session is structured
- Seven steps with a progress indicator: learning goals, reading (text as PDF with page references), exercises such as matching, and at the end a summary to read, print or have read aloud.
- Display of your choice: light or dark, five font sizes, four typefaces – Atkinson Hyperlegible (default), Poppins, OpenDyslexic, Arial.
- Assessment: groups of four to five students develop two multimedia OPAL learning modules for secondary-school teachers on a pair of topics and document the process in a portfolio – starting with a barrier analysis: a classroom situation, functional needs rather than diagnoses.
Simulations
All six run in the browser, without logging in.
- Habitus and grading How social background unconsciously affects grades
- Stimulus filtering and overload Working with visual and acoustic distraction
- Vision and contrast Viewing teaching material with a visual impairment
- Braille trainer Reading and writing the six-dot system
- Hearing in background noise Hearing loss and reverberation in the classroom
- Dyslexia simulator Reading under time pressure – with and without UDL
In the learning workshop, SensAble Vision (checking your own materials with the phone camera) and the Inclusive Classroom VR (room situations) are added.
The 14 sessions
- Inclusion as a human right
- Concepts of inclusion and the meritocratic paradox
- Special educational needs and diagnostics
- The social dimension of inclusion
- Evidence-based practice and formative assessment
- Neurodiversity and executive functions
- Learning-space design and classroom management
- Special needs: vision
- Special needs: hearing
- Reading and spelling difficulties (dyslexia)
- Multi-professional cooperation
- Learning workshop: assistive technologies and accessible educational media
- Presenting the learning modules and peer feedback
- Synthesis, evaluation and final discussion
The sessions are unlocked by date during the semester; the simulations are open at any time.