A Different Perspective, Teaching and Learning the Arts Online


Poly’s photography teacher, Jennifer Godwin-Minto, opened up to PolyNews about the challenges she has experienced during the move to distance learning. What does teaching and learning photography look like when you have to mediate everything through a computer? How can practicing the arts balance the new normal of online meetings and collaboration?

Godwin-Minto says, “At first it was challenging to think of interesting assignments we could all do remotely that continued to teach them about lighting, composition, camera functions, and image editing. But once I started doing it myself, it helped me understand the hurdles presented, and I was then able to walk them through it. It was humbling to try new things and fail, then try again, and again, and again until I did it! To show them how many attempts I made to get that one good picture, I set up my iPhone on timelapse to record my whole session. As funny as it looked, it showed them my set-up and the effort it took to get one or two really good images. I wanted to add some humor to it, so that hopefully they would feel inspired and get a good chuckle, even if it was at my expense. All of my colleagues in the Visual Arts Department have worked very hard to think of creative ways to motivate and inspire our students remotely.”

The arts provide a much-needed redirection for students to take a break from the added screen time of online meetings and really flex their creative muscles. In Godwin-Minto’s class, they are learning to express their emotional state of mind through photography. Godwin-Minto reflects, “I can tell that my students are overwhelmed with the amount of screen time they are having to do these days, so I keep my Zoom lessons short and to the point. I always tell my students to go have some fun with their camera. The hands-on creative outlet of the arts is a stress release for all of us and gives our students time to just breathe and create. Mentally, this has been really good for me too!”


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