Section 13

SECTION 13 Teaching at Universities during Lockdown

Case Studies

Fig. 1 Consultation of an environmental project in virtual class using Microsoft Teams platform

Fig. 2 Dressing the wind (author Iva Veškrnová)

Fig. 7 Spruce bark beatle (author Martina Formanová)

Fig. 1 Consultation of an environmental project in virtual class using Microsoft Teams platform

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Karel Řepa

Department of Art Education, Pedagogical Faculty, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, Czech Republic

Creative Escapes: Moderating Environmental Art Projects during the Coronavirus Crisis

The paper reflects the course of distance learning of the Environmental art – one of the few seminars for future art teachers, which was realized due to its relatively safe characteristics, despite the ongoing coronavirus crisis. Besides the formal description of an improvised platform for virtual communication with participants and moderation of their creative work in the landscape, the text also narrates the genesis of partial artistic concepts / environmental projects. In addition, the aim of the paper is also to cover other aspects of the situation, primarily the pedagogical effects and limitations of distance leading and ignition of individual creativity in the open landscape during general quarantine measures and lockdowns.

"I must stay alone and know that I am alone to contemplate and feel nature in full; I have to surrender myself to what encircles me, I have to merge with my clouds and rocks in order to be what I am. Solitude is indispensible for my dialogue with nature."

Caspar David Friedrich

The emergency situation, which suddenly affected all school institutions in the first quarter of 2020, had a significant impact, among other things, on the tertiary education sector. Students of the Master's degree program in Art Education at the Faculty of Education in České Budějovice also had to resort to an improvised study regime, while the sounds of sirens announcing the arrival of an unknown threat. From the first week of widespread quarantine, it was clear that intensive studio teaching had ended indefinitely. The school premises were empty for two months, until the beginning of May that preventive measures gradually began to be more relaxed.

Milan Cieslar,
Tereza Čapandová
& Tomáš Koudela

University of Ostrava, Czech Republic

Virtual plein air workshop

It has been decades since the Department of Art Education of the Faculty of Education of the University of Ostrava started to organize summer and autumn plein air workshops, where students consolidate theoretical and practical knowledge and skills acquired during their studies in the field. The plein air workshops, as a traditional part of teaching art education at universities, was unfeasible in its usual form this year due to the global pandemic situation. As it is an indispensable part of teaching, teachers and students had to look for another alternative. The chosen solution was a virtual plein air workshop, which took place in the form of electronic communication in MS Teams. The paper will be an evaluation not only of the operating conditions, but also a reflection on the inputs and the achieved results of the chosen teaching form.

Jiří Kaspar

Rugao International Academy, Longyou Lake Foreign Language School affiliated to Beijing Foreign Studies University; China

Case study of Rugao International Academy during the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Importance of Active Art During the Pandemic.

This paper lays out the context of Beijing Foreign Studies University affiliated Rugao International Academy (RIA) and the way it has tackled the COVID-19. The health and safety measures brought about a number of issues, such as isolation, frustration and boredom, often leading up to conflict and divorce, all stemming from the lack of social contact. At a time of online learning and general frustration and lack of motivation caused by the psycho-social factors, it was the active role of art that offered a means of mitigation of the negative effects of the isolation. Particularly the lack of access to resources and the absence of social contact is what made the students and the audience of UK’s show Taskmaster turn the disadvantage into an advantage.

1 Challenges to Educational Methods in the Time of Coronavirus

2 Challenges to Educational Methods in the Time of Coronavirus

39 Challenges to Educational Methods in the Time of Coronavirus

1 Challenges to Educational Methods in the Time of Coronavirus

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Kateřina Dytrtová

Department of History and Art Theory of the Faculty of Art and Design and at the Department of Fine Arts at the Faculty of Education, UJEP Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic

Challenges to Educational Methods in the Time of Coronavirus

Using a number of examples, the presentation shows solutions to significant questions arising in the discipline at the topical time of a seemingly remote crisis. The Coronavirus threat of what are, to most of us, still unknown consequences and the quarantine, which had never before taken place to this extent, determined very naturally and very quickly an existentially exacerbated situation in the spring of this year. This has posed fundamental questions regarding the meaning of our efforts in the realm of work and leisure; the effectiveness of disciplinary methods; and the media’s agility and capacity for action. We have been trying to answer questions relating to reasons as to why share and not withdraw into uncertainty. This is to say, the context of instruction has changed so fundamentally that the merely “remote” and different quality, medialised teaching of “what I would have taught anyway” became insufficient.

The topics and the way we look at things have changed. A significant amount of reflection and an effort to understand have deepened the methods used. Expert communication has been enriched with a large amount of personal information. Topics related to ecology and ethics have become strengthened. An existential threat and the resulting questions concerning meaning have not been brought about by the viral disease only, but also by the ecological imbalance, the threat of drought and over-population on the one hand and by the disappearance of entire biological species on the other.

The crisis has uncovered, again and more personally, the modernistic topic of profit and short-term horizons of carelessness. That is also why I see this process as a major chance for the future that could bring about not only cooperation between and among disciplines, better awareness of important things but also personal moderation and interest in transpersonal topics with an ethical dimension.

English version

Czech version

Pavel Trnka

Univerzita Hradec Králové, Faculty of Education, Department of Art, Visual Culture and Textile Studies, High School and College of Applied Cybernetics, Czech Republic

Experiences with Some Distant Teaching Methods: Video Tutorials and Drawing on a Graphics Tablet

In the distance learning, I consider it beneficial for the teacher to create own video tutorials. Video tutorial is currently the most popular method of self-study. The free video tutorials on the Internet often lack the quality and content that the teacher requires and cannot rely on it fully. Therefore, it is better to create our video tutorials also to show some effort that sets as an example to students. Furthermore, distance learning is much more effective with the use of a graphics tablet, which allows the range of possibilities of teaching. It is more advanced than classic whiteboard writing.

1 Object Art and Artistic Jewellery [online]

Fig. 1 A view of the Art Studio of Metal Works, Object Art and Jewellery, in which there are 12 goldsmith's tables equipped with basic tools. Furthermore, the Studio has a place for soldering, drilling, as well as beating, surface treatment and machining of metal and plastic materials.

2 Object Art and Artistic Jewellery [online]

Fig. 2 A print screen of the Camtasia environment. In the upper left corner, you can find tools for inserting various media content, text, animations and transitions, etc. In the middle at the top of the image, there is a window for playing the emerging document. The lower part consists of a timeline with different levels of layers into which you can insert various media imports – you need to specify the length of playback, the length of display, and also the layer in which they will be displaye

8 Object Art and Artistic Jewellery [online]

Fig. 8 A print screen of a completed video. At the bottom of the image we can see several levels in which the imports are located – sounds, spoken word, still and moving images. The narrative of the plot and the dynamics of the video can also be deduced from them.

1 Object Art and Artistic Jewellery [online]

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Timotej Blažek

Faculty of Education, University of Ostrava Department of Art Education, Ostrava, Czech Republic

Object Art and Artistic Jewellery [online]

The paper presents one of the options for substituting contact teaching of the subject titled the Art Studio of Metal Works, Object Art and Jewellery, which has been transferred to the online environment. Using software that has helped produce videos with instructional elements, it was possible, at least partially, to overcome the irreplaceability of contact teaching of the given subject, which is commonly based in the demonstration of techniques and work procedures while students work on their half-year artistic assignments. The paper analyses the processing of the videos and the available software tools, as well as the nature of the videos with instructional elements, which relate to technological procedures and working with tools. The conclusion of the paper points to the demands placed on the teacher and a brief confrontation of the classic lesson with the videos, that is, a direct demonstration of the techniques and procedures on one hand with the instructional videos on the other.

The Art Studio of Metal Works, Object Art and Jewellery (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Studio’) is one of many subjects that are part of the education at the Department of Art Education, Faculty of Education, Palacký University Olomouc (CZ). Just as in other studios – printmaking art, computer graphics, sculpture, ceramics, textile art, drawing, painting, intermedia art, photography, also here students acquire both practical and theoretical foundations related to the concept of the Studio, which are consistent with the focus of the given study field and the profile of the graduate.

The Art Studio of Metal Works, Object Art and Jewellery is, after all, a little different and specific, in that, in addition to object-making, it focuses also on artistic jewellery and its various overlaps. It is a rarity of the Department of Art Education in Olomouc that it has an art studio with such a specialisation, but it is also an evidence to the fact that the Department follows the concept of Bauhaus and its pedagogical and artistic legacy, which is evident from the long-term direction of this workplace.

Cristina Ferreira

Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Oporto, Portugal

Stay Safe and Make Design" in the Design and Visual Communication course of the Degree in Communication Sciences, University of Oporto, Portugal

In this second half of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced a sudden and necessary reshaping of the way students are taught and contacted. To this end, a work proposal was launched in the Design and Visual Communication course unit, in which students had to apply the content learned during the semester to graphically and imagetically translate the message that in recent months proved to be most essential. Thus, it was proposed to the students to design a graphic composition that would translate the idea of "Stay Safe". In this way, while performing a graphic exercise using shapes and colors, images and typography, they could process their emotions and experiences – sometimes difficult and restless - during such a new and peculiar moment. This proposal was embraced with great enthusiasm and the answers are in sight in the compositions they have elaborated. But the best experience was the working process itself, which, although stressful, was rewarding. The technology allowed to explore a new interactive way of teaching in a Design class, while requiring the students to communicate in a more visual than oral way. It also made it possible to search for references more quickly, use online resources, and make live notes on the work itself. All this contributed, in a holistic way, to the enrichment of each student's individual path, and in the end it was possible to observe a great evolution that might not have happened otherwise. Whenever the camera turned on and we shared a common space, even if it was virtual, the leitmotiv was "Stay Safe and Make Design".

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Teaching at Universities during Lockdown