PhotoPedagogy
  • Home
    • About
    • Contribute
  • Threshold Concepts
    • Threshold Concept #1
    • Threshold Concept #2
    • Threshold Concept #3
    • Threshold Concept #4
    • Threshold Concept #5
    • Threshold Concept #6
    • Threshold Concept #7
    • Threshold Concept #8
    • Threshold Concept #9
    • Threshold Concept #10
  • Resources
    • Teaching Resources >
      • KS3-4 Resources
      • Post 16 Resources
    • The RPS >
      • Squaring the Circles of Confusion
      • In Progress
      • Science and Photography
      • Exhibition Visit Activities
      • Sugar Paper Theories
      • Space Steps
      • Altered Ocean
    • Representing Homelessness
    • Blog
    • Class Photobooks
    • Starting a new course?
    • Photo Literacy
    • Photography writing
    • Articles
    • eNewsletters
    • Newspaper
    • Links
  • Shop
  • Contact

Blog

Very occasional musings about
photography education

Setting my sights: my experience of establishing a GCSE photography course

4/7/2016

6 Comments

 
By Deborah Dodsworth, Art & Photography teacher, Oaklands School, Waterlooville.
Picture
Year 10 Destroy & Distort project
By rights it shouldn’t have been too difficult for me to start up a GCSE photography course. I have taught art since the beginning of this century and specialised in art photography during my degree. I then went on to work work as a photographer’s assistant in London. I am (or at least I was) well versed in Susan Sontag, Roland Barthes and fascinated by Claude Levi-Strauss, construction and de- construction of the image, semiotics etc. However, I haven’t truly picked my camera up, with serious intent (other than capturing those familiar precious family moments) since having children. I allowed life to take over. My work has taken a backseat and in the meantime photography became a futuristic digital minefield and I was left a floundering dinosaur. My camera knowledge is good. My Photoshop knowledge needs working on, to say the least, but is improving. To top it all I have been on the lighter side of part-time for the last 7 years, so light in fact that teaching GCSE level or above has not been a requirement on my timetable as it simply would not have been realistic.

As a team we are brand new: 1 part-time (myself) and 2 full time teachers with 4 GCSE groups across art and photography in a school with around 1200 on roll plus a 6th form. We have just one technician who has to facilitate art, textiles, food-tech, resistant materials and photography. This has not stopped me from wanting to have a course that is all singing and all dancing, despite there being very little money left in the singing and dancing pot in schools in the south of England.
Picture
Year 10 Destroy & Distort project
Picture
Year 10 Destroy & Distort project
We have made a great start. I have worked closely with my current colleague (I say current as she will leave soon after covering a maternity), without whom I doubt we would have got so far. We are still a long way off where I would like to see our department in the future. I decided that due to lack of money in education and, in particular, the arts, the best way forward would be to create student ePortfolios. Not only would this reduce printing costs, sketchbook costs and so on (Nooo! I hear some of you scream), but it would or should make things easier for students. Many of the problems of teaching GCSE - late coursework or homework - would be eased as research would be much more straight forward and, of course, the students would be excited to put together their websites and upload their images!  Minimal printing is necessary, therefore speeding up the production of the final outcome. 

I was, of course, wrong. There are as many pitfalls as there are advantages to ePortfolios and I am still working part-time making it just that little bit trickier to chase things up as quickly as I would like. I began by marking the work and giving feedback to my students directly on their sites. Do not do this – it doesn’t look "cool” and the students delete it! I have now ascertained that this is recoverable but I didn’t realise it at the time and so lost evidence of my valuable advice and the time I spent doing it was wasted. I have kept the websites password protected so that only those with the password can see them. I am now rethinking this approach since a public site will mean students are publishing their work to a real world audience and possibly feel more accountable for its content.

I now realise how very unrealistically optimistic I have been. Coursework and homework is still coursework and homework regardless of the fact that it's online. Students love doing the practical work- the photography, the dark room – always have. But scanning, uploading, evaluating and analysing is still considered to be a chore. 


​I have felt regularly that I am out of my depth and the reason I am faced with these problems is because the students think that I am too. I am now though beginning to recognise that I am doing everything I can with what I have and that, although I am continually behind with chasing, marking and technology, we are getting pretty good results, so much so that I have now been approached by another school for advice on how to set up their new course.

Without the PHOTOPEDAGOGY contributors, advice from Jon, Chris and ALL of their collaborators I would not have found my feet. Thank you all. I hope to add some lesson plans of my own and continue the “Pay it Forward” (and hopefully back) culture you have generously created. 
​
6 Comments
chris link
4/7/2016 03:32:56 pm

Thanks Deb for this honest and and reflective account. Great Year 10 examples too. When ready it would be wonderful to share lesson resources here also.
C

Reply
Jon Nicholls link
4/7/2016 03:42:27 pm

Thanks from me too Deb. It's always useful to hear from colleagues, the challenges they've faced and the successes they've experienced. ePortfolios are no panacea but they can work well on a tight budget once you've got your systems and processes in place (and if the school WiFi is reasonable). Looking forward to seeing all the great work your students do next year.

Reply
Katy
12/7/2016 11:05:10 am

Thank you for writing this. I think many people can relate, it is fantastic to have these online communities to get support and ideas.

Reply
Suzanne Davies
29/9/2020 10:51:56 pm

'I have felt regularly that I am out of my depth and the reason I am faced with these problems is because the students think that I am too'. This exactly describes me! Thanks for sharing that.

Reply
Corine Harris link
18/2/2021 07:32:40 am

The side interest of keeping recollections is very old. At one time people only did photography as a side interest, however with the difference in time, individuals' reasoning has changed. Presently numerous individuals have picked Photography as their calling. This is our Online Photography Course orchestrated with a High level conversation of Photograph Altering, Shading Revision, and Gap, how could the lighting be in Wedding photography, what ought to be the camera point in Movement Photography. So for the individuals who need to learn photography as a diversion or for their calling, this fascinating photography course has thought of the worldwide honor winning Dream Weaver. Join the course now and learn DSLR photography. <a href = https://ghoorilearning.com/courses/photography-basics/> Photography Course </a>

Reply
Corine Harris
18/2/2021 07:34:04 am

Side interest of keeping recollections is very old. At one time people only did photography as a side interest, however with the difference in time, individuals' reasoning has changed. Presently numerous individuals have picked Photography as their calling. This is our Online Photography Course orchestrated with a High level conversation of Photograph Altering, Shading Revision, and Gap, how could the lighting be in Wedding photography, what ought to be the camera point in Movement Photography. So for the individuals who need to learn photography as a diversion or for their calling, this fascinating photography course has thought of the worldwide honor winning Dream Weaver. Join the course now and learn DSLR photography. <a href = https://ghoorilearning.com/courses/photography-basics/> Photography Course </a>

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Blog

    Guest blog posts by members of the photography teaching and learning community. 

    Archives

    August 2022
    June 2021
    January 2020
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    July 2018
    February 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015

    Categories

    All
    Advice
    Aesthetics
    Alevel
    Alexschady
    Annalucas
    Art
    Artanddesign
    Arthistory
    Assessment
    Audio
    Auschwitz
    Autographabp
    Books
    Bookshelf
    Bush
    Camera
    China
    Communication
    Concepts
    Conference
    Contemporary
    Course
    Cpd
    Cultures
    Curriculum
    Dafnatalmor
    Damoward
    Danielrose
    Democracy
    Design
    Desire
    Development
    Document
    Ebacc
    Editing
    Education
    Eggleston
    Elliottwilcox
    Enquiries
    Essay
    Ethics
    Event
    Eventbrite
    Examination
    Exchange
    Experiments
    Film
    Framing
    Frank
    Freedom
    Game
    Gcse
    Gertbiesta
    Guest
    Homework
    Howiseethings
    Identity
    Images
    Indeterminacy
    Instructions
    Internet
    Interview
    Kit
    Knowledge
    Language
    Learning
    Leiter
    Lies
    Linear
    Literacy
    Marysadowling
    Materials
    Memory
    Meyerowitz
    Notknowing
    Nsead
    Openness
    Padlet
    Pedagogy
    Pedgaogy
    Performance
    Philosophy
    Photobooks
    Photofilmpingpong
    Photographersgallery
    Photoliteracy
    Photopedagogy
    Photopingpong
    Photoworks
    Planning
    Pointing
    Practice
    Production
    Programme
    Projects
    Questioning
    Red
    Relationships
    Research
    Resistance
    Resources
    Review
    Risk
    Shore
    Skills
    Socialmedia
    Specifications
    Statement
    Steam
    Stem
    Stephenshore
    Street
    Study
    Subjectification
    Summerschool
    Tate
    Tateexchange
    Taxonomies
    Taylorwessing
    Teaching
    Text Exchange
    Theory
    Threshold
    Tickets
    Time
    TLR
    Traditions
    Training
    Truth
    Unhomework
    University
    Walkerevans
    Website
    Welcome
    Wessel
    Winogrand
    Workshop
    Writing
    Yashica
    Year13

    RSS Feed

Social

Contact

photopedagogy@gmail.com