I invited my students to a zoom meeting, It’s session 7 of my short course titled Travel Sketching. Ironic that now I am teaching how to travel sketch through my screens into other people’s screens at home. The isolation is what has gradually been happening since the beginning of February. A Covid-19 virus outbreak starting in China causes a global pandemic shutting down most airports and cities incrementally and Singapore shuts down as much as they can to try stop the outbreak getting worse, by slowly shutting down all non-essential businesses and schools too. Everyone is in a slow burning panic and anxiety, washing hands, wearing masks, staying home, hoarding essentials and inundating all the usual delivery services.
LaSalle college of the arts finally told all their staff to take all the courses ongoing and teach online. I have the privilege to be one of the first few to do an online class. We all join into the meeting room I hosted, and I check that everyone can see me and my other screen of hands on paper to do demonstrations, and I check that everyone can hear me. Time becomes inconsequential, and three hours fly fast. The lessons I give are not that different except showing how to do something like drawing a head of a person using a reference has to change and is based on new visuals, that is either something in a magazine/book at hand, or it is my student’s heads showing on the screen, in the case of learning how to draw people.
I also use my own travel sketchbooks as a reference, and a lot of the materials are covered through giving multiple examples and demonstrations on the screen. This seems to be a well received method, because all they have is the screen to watch, their attention becomes more focused, and they can see every strokes I make with less distractions compared to when in a classroom. With demonstration on a screen, everyone has the same view of my hands and paper. In a classroom sometimes people are obstructed or on a strange angle when I am demonstrating.
The not so good part of online class is the lack of feedback that I am getting as a teacher to what my students are actually doing. There’s a lot of silence that I feel I must fill with more examples or more talking that is not necessarily useful or effective. However I am glad we have addressed that before we ended the class, and I’ve told my students to give me a bit more feedback during the session.
In the midst of the online broadcast one of my ipad stopped working so I had to work with just one view which is of my hands, and toggle the screen when I need to show my face. It’s not the worse situation even tho this didn’t help smooth broadcast in my opinion.
I ask myself what is my expectations for this online class, and the TOP answer seem to be more interactions from the students to me so I can tailor the instructions according to their needs. The other answer is for me to give them the best lesson content that I can and showing as much as possible the techniques that I use. I realise I tend to give too much information too fast, so every so often, I check in with them if I needed to adjust.
To summarize, an online class for art lessons is better than in a classroom for the purpose of teaching and showing how to do it, but requires participants and students to give more feedback, either in sound, or in facial expressions such as a nod, or a noise. It requires the teacher to be more hands on in showing examples and for students to participate more with their voice and head body language than in a classroom, and as long as this is clearly communicated, I think the class is beneficial for all.
LaSalle college of the arts finally told all their staff to take all the courses ongoing and teach online. I have the privilege to be one of the first few to do an online class. We all join into the meeting room I hosted, and I check that everyone can see me and my other screen of hands on paper to do demonstrations, and I check that everyone can hear me. Time becomes inconsequential, and three hours fly fast. The lessons I give are not that different except showing how to do something like drawing a head of a person using a reference has to change and is based on new visuals, that is either something in a magazine/book at hand, or it is my student’s heads showing on the screen, in the case of learning how to draw people.
I also use my own travel sketchbooks as a reference, and a lot of the materials are covered through giving multiple examples and demonstrations on the screen. This seems to be a well received method, because all they have is the screen to watch, their attention becomes more focused, and they can see every strokes I make with less distractions compared to when in a classroom. With demonstration on a screen, everyone has the same view of my hands and paper. In a classroom sometimes people are obstructed or on a strange angle when I am demonstrating.
The not so good part of online class is the lack of feedback that I am getting as a teacher to what my students are actually doing. There’s a lot of silence that I feel I must fill with more examples or more talking that is not necessarily useful or effective. However I am glad we have addressed that before we ended the class, and I’ve told my students to give me a bit more feedback during the session.
In the midst of the online broadcast one of my ipad stopped working so I had to work with just one view which is of my hands, and toggle the screen when I need to show my face. It’s not the worse situation even tho this didn’t help smooth broadcast in my opinion.
I ask myself what is my expectations for this online class, and the TOP answer seem to be more interactions from the students to me so I can tailor the instructions according to their needs. The other answer is for me to give them the best lesson content that I can and showing as much as possible the techniques that I use. I realise I tend to give too much information too fast, so every so often, I check in with them if I needed to adjust.
To summarize, an online class for art lessons is better than in a classroom for the purpose of teaching and showing how to do it, but requires participants and students to give more feedback, either in sound, or in facial expressions such as a nod, or a noise. It requires the teacher to be more hands on in showing examples and for students to participate more with their voice and head body language than in a classroom, and as long as this is clearly communicated, I think the class is beneficial for all.
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