In the summer semester of 2020, everything went differently than planned. Victoria Batz, research assistant in the IKKE project, prepared a bachelor’s main project for students from the Industrial Design department on the topic of “Learning scenarios for inclusive vocational training” in cooperation with Prof. Dominik Schumacher. Visions for digital, interactive learning methods are to be developed and prototypically implemented. The federal project “Inclusive Kitchen 4.0” is on hand as a practical partner. The students should be given the opportunity to visit the inclusive classes initiated as part of the project, to get to know the target groups and to experience everyday vocational training.
In April 2020, Prof. Schumacher and Ms. Batz sit across from nine students in the Zoom video conferencing tool – vocational classes canceled, schools closed, students at home in front of their laptops.
Despite this, the project is taking place. Six hours each week are spent analyzing the problems of inclusive education, previous measures, didactic strategies and the current state of the art in the field. The project collaborator Inga Lipwoski can support with professional input on the topics of special education and user studies. Prof. Michael Herzog expands the students’ horizons by providing insight into learning theory. Prof. Schumacher and Victoria Batz guide the design process along the lines of Design Science Research Methodology.
On the basis of the teaching content for the teaching modules “Egg dishes” and “A la Carte”, concepts were developed for the differentiated teaching of theoretical content for the three target groups of trainees to become cooks, specialist trainees in the kitchen and employees of Lebenshilfe with intellectual disabilities. Although all on-site appointments at the educational institutions had to be cancelled, the IKKE team was able to support by providing content feedback on the draft concepts during the interim and final digital presentations.
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The most cutbacks had to be made in the realization of the prototypes. Three project teams implemented four concepts, all of which were created remotely – a 3D model of a pig for meat cutting, a tablet application used to learn the food pyramid, a sequence trainer in virtual reality used to recreate recipes for egg dishes, and the Tommy application, which requires gamers to help him eat healthy. While the two on-screen applications could be implemented very easily from home, the teams faced a challenge with VR goggles and 3D printing. The university’s workshops are closed, and cooperative work can be far more involved when you’re not in the same room. Still, they made it work.
On July 23, 2020, the time finally came. With a delay of four weeks, the prototypes could be tested at Lebenshilfe Prignitz. It provided 8 employees of the Lebenshilfe as test subjects. At Lebenshilfe, the 9 students were well looked after with lunch, coffee and cake from the in-house kitchen. Each team had its own room where they could try out and evaluate their prototypes with the participants. The initial fear of contact was quickly overcome and curiosity and enthusiasm about the innovative learning methods spread. Everyone wanted to test the VR goggles and guide Tommy through the nutrition game as best they could. The IKKE team as well as the students were positively surprised by the open-mindedness towards the new media. The testing suggests that the modern technologies are used much more intuitively than expected. The learning concepts also meet with approval.
Two of the four learning scenarios will be further developed by the IKKE team and used in inclusive lessons. Hopefully, in November 2020, it will again be possible for all three target groups and the teaching staff to be in one classroom. Then the VR glasses and 3D printing from the pig will be used again.