Although I was initially assigned a different article to read for this workshop, I struggled to grasp it in the time given and chose one that resonated with my teaching practice more since it was co-written by my senior colleague, Judy Willcocks. The article is titled The potential of online object-based-learning activities to support the teaching of intersectional environmentalism in art and design higher education and is co-written by Willcocks and Kieran Mahon.

I found this article really interesting because it made me reflect on my personal experiences of in-person vs online object-based learning, formerly as a student and now as a museum educator. Before reading this article, I disliked online learning due to the various challenges it presents for everybody involved. Willcocks and Mahon (2023) outline some of these problems in their article, including “perceived difficulties in building relationships, the risks of students getting lost, and the need for content to be parcelled up in manageable chunks.” However, with the overall student response to the Colonialism to Climate Crisis event being positive, it made me consider the ways in which online object-based learning makes museum collections and experiential pedagogy more accessible and innovative than in-person workshops.

As the Curriculum Development Curator, it is my job to organise, develop, and deliver all of the object-based-learning workshops we can offer. While I prefer in-person teaching when compared with my online micro-teaching session experience, I have also encountered the limitations of in-person object-based learning that were outlined in this case study. For example, the tedious nature of having to repeat up to four workshops in one day to get through an entire cohort, due to the space restrictions in our 15-person capacity study room. Moreover, there is a lot more responsibility and pressure on the tutor during an in-person workshop because you have to ensure all the students are handling objects appropriately as advised. This can be difficult to do with large groups and young students.

Overall, this was a fantastic article to read for my first workshop of the PgCert because it introduced me to new terms and ideas, but was accessible enough for me to feel like I could digest the material and take valuable points away from it.

References

Willcocks, J and Mahon, K. (2023) ‘The potential of online object-based learning activities to support the teaching of intersectional environmentalism in art and design higher education’, Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education, Volume 22 Number 2, pp. 187–207. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1386/adch_00074_1