Teaching art from a distance using YouTube and various technologies
A POSTGRADUATE art teacher in training from Bray is making videos and finding other ways to educate his students at Presentation College.
Lorcan Murphy is a former student of the school, where he studied art with teacher Clifton Rooney and now continues to work with him as he gains his qualification.
He is supposed to be on block placement now and is using his studio space in his house to make videos.
According to Mr Rooney, Lorcan is ‘such a remarkable young man trying his best to educate our students in dynamic ways with a very difficult task – teaching art remotely’.
Lorcan is in the first year of his master’s in art education.
He was also working in Pres as a basketball coach until Covid halted basketball throughout the country.
‘I began my placement in October of this school year. Prior to Christmas I was working with a number of classes in the art department. The original plan was to return to class as normal but things didn’t go to plan’
He and Mr Rooney have made the move to remote learning for now.
‘Remote learning is new to me, much like everyone else, but I think Pres are very proactive and trying to get everyone online and keep things as smooth as possible. All the staff seem really bought in which is good to see,’ said Lorcan.
‘Different departments within the school are sharing information and techniques that can translate well across the whole school. In the art department, we’re trying our best as well to keep things exciting and beneficial for the students.’
Art being a practical subject, there are some limitations as to what teachers can do online, including equipment available to students at home.
‘We have attempted to tailor lessons to suit this and make the most of the time at home,’ said Lorcan.
‘Myself and Mr Rooney will use Google Meets to get in touch with our classes and discuss work that has been completed, as well as update the students on current progress.
‘We also have a Google Classroom set up where students can submit and discuss work and have their assignments and support work available to them at their convenience.’
They are providing private feedback to each student. ‘ The tasks we assign to be completed throughout the week could be anything from researching an artist that you have particular interest in to constructing a collage exploring your theme and creating a drawing from this.
‘Art is very hands-on and usually you’ll be there with the student to help them through their creative process,’ said Lorcan.
‘ This is an obvious hurdle we had to overcome in the art department so luckily enough Mr Rooney set up a station with a tripod and a mobile device that we can patch in from while simultaneously video calling the students.
‘On this device then, we can either do digital drawings using Procreate or Photoshop or we can use the camera function to cast the visual of us demonstrating the task we are asking the students to complete.’
Aware that students may be working on their projects and art at other points during the week, Lorcan has tried to adapt to this unusual circumstance by creating YouTube videos of step-by-step demonstrations on how to complete their assigned task.
The videos are about 10 minutes in length and he spends a considerable amount of time editing them so the information is clear and concise, with the goal in mind of keeping it fun and engaging while also enabling the students to learn and grow their skills.
‘ This video process also allows the
students to pause and play the video and catch up or replay if needs be,’ said Lorcan.
‘Well at least I hope this is how the students are making use of it. Perhaps they are just enjoying having a good laugh at me in front of the camera! Either way, if they are learning I am happy.’
Lorcan said he is extremely grateful for the guidance he has received from Mr Rooney.
‘He is a truly gifted artist and the students are lucky to have him as a teacher. Ideally this approach will help and benefit every student, aiding them through this difficult time, but I think we would both share the view that even if all this work being put in to get up and running in an engaging, beneficial and enjoyable manner only helps a handful of students through this lockdown then that is an incredibly positive contribution.
‘We are adapting and attempting to be innovative given the current situation in an attempt to make the remote learning experience as beneficial, enjoyable and easy as possible for every single student.’