Student Blog: Working From Home

Rebecca Blount is an Art and Design Level 3 student at North Notts College. Rebecca’s classes are normally based at Retford Post-16 Centre where she is taught by Programme Leader for Art and Design, Jon Roberts. Rebecca has put this short blog together to share her experiences of working remotely, or ‘home college’ as she calls it, and the tools that she has been able to use to stay in touch with her course mates and tutors, and continue learning whilst the College site is closed.

–

Rebecca:

Working from home, especially for an Art and Design course, is not ideal. However, it’s not entirely impossible; thanks to the internet the course has been able to run almost as smoothly as it would at College.

Google Hangouts – Perfect for Motivation and Sharing Ideas 

The first tool I want to mention is Google Hangouts. It’s super helpful because it allows me to keep in touch with other students so we can discuss ideas and evaluate each other’s work.

Hangouts also makes it possible to keep in touch with tutors. For example, we can video call and I can present my work that I’ve created at home to the group, much like we would at College.

This really makes things feel like normal as talking to each other improves motivation and idea generation.

Google Classroom – Completing Daily Tasks 

Another useful tool for keeping up-to-date with work is Google Classroom.

Our tutor uploads specific tasks each day that we must complete. Again, this is like College where Jon gives us certain tasks to work through each day. For example, on the first day of ‘home college’, Jon asked us to look at other artists and how they are adapting to the changes.

Once I have completed a task, I can add a link and Jon can give feedback on my work.

Blogger – My online Sketchbook

Lastly, there is Blogger, an online blog where I can upload anything, and my peers and tutors can see what I’m up to. This is perhaps the most useful tool for me as it becomes my online sketchbook.

I can upload pictures, videos and links to websites which I have used, making referencing easy when looking at the work.

It is also helpful as I can edit the blog as much as I need, allowing it to flow with my research and development. I can send blog links to my peers to get pointed feedback on things, which is helping my work improve dramatically.

Examples of Work I’ve Produced at Home

I am exploring the human form and performance painting. The two paintings above are experiments to see how the human body prints on to paper; I covered my face in paint and rolled it into my sketchbook to see what shapes would appear and see if it even looked like me. For the red and blue portraits, I wanted to highlight areas people are most attracted to like the lips and eyes.

The other image is a blog post where I share my artist research by linking to the videos and websites I have viewed so my tutor and peers can easily follow my trail of evidence. On the blog, I talk about the artist’s inspiration, method, materials and why I am inspired by them.

–

If you’re a learner at North Notts College we’d love to hear how you’re adapting to working from home and the tools and resources you’re using to stay on top of your college work. Share your stories with us in the comments on our social media channels.

If you’d be interested in writing a guest blog or vlogging your work from home experience contact the College Marketing team by email – marketing@rnngroup.ac.uk.

Stay safe, stay home, stay smart.