It’s been far too long since writing a post. And I find myself in a very different place to where I was six months ago.
I finished university and immediately embarked on teaching Phonar-Nation to a group of 7-10 year olds. I adapted the course originally written for teenagers and worked with children in a primary school. This meant that one week I was teaching them camera techniques, the next we were looking the light and light painting. Eventually the children worked together to make a story of a day in the life of a primary school student.
I found that it was great to be able to teach new skills to people and learn more about their perspective of the world. I learnt a lot about teaching to that age group and how I might plan the sessions. The only issue I found that the work I did in the school stayed in the school. Phonar and Phonar Nation are connected courses with audiences and collaborators from all over the world having conversations about photography online. But connected courses does not necessarily have to be online; I think there could be a lot of potential to make primary and secondary school courses open and connected.
I guess being both a student of courses like Phonar and also a facilitator has helped me get my job working in the Disruptive Media Learning Lab at Coventry University. The new lab seeks to challenge higher education’s conservative teaching methods and experiment with new methods and technologies. I am just about settled into my job now and I’m feeling inspired to make some positive steps forward in terms of photography, collaboration and education. Stay tuned.