COVID CAN’T STOP US!
Every year at the end of term, Level 6 Photography students at Ayrshire College hold an exhibition, showing their photos to demonstrate all they have learned that year. This year has been different as Covid-19 has changed the way we do everything.
The government legislation of social distancing and no social gatherings of large numbers means that this year we have moved online with everything. Therefore, our exhibition is now online too. We will be hosting our exhibition online from Friday 28th May 2021. There will be two electronic links to our work, one for the Kilwinning Level 6 class and one for the Ayr class.
We have faced many new challenges this year, one being lack of contact with other people. It has been difficult putting together an exhibition with an entire class, when you have zero physical contact with others. Brian Woolfson, Essential Skills Lecturer at Ayrshire College Kilwinning Campus said “In these unprecedented times, I was impressed with the determination of this group of students to come together, albeit virtually, to create a product for everyone across the college to enjoy. The learners really pulled out all of the stops to ensure that despite the challenging circumstances for many of us, it is still possible to achieve success, and in a highly creative way.”
We had to come up with new ways to communicate with each other this year, one of which is Microsoft Teams which allows us to have face to face meetings with people, without leaving home. However, it has its own issues, such as glitches from too many people using it at the same time, as Kilwinning Photography student Katie Martin said, “it’s difficult to reach some people because they might take a while to respond and it’s hard to set up a meeting online because some people might be busy.”
Although we have faced a very difficult year and have had many challenges, we have come together, even if it is online to support each other. As fellow Kilwinning student Rebekah Raybould says, “we could contact each other at any time for any advice through teams or on a group chat that was set up for our class”. The exhibition helps show our work to the public, in the hopes of showing the beauty of photography in the uncertain times and to make others feel a part of something, when everyone feels alone just now”.
Brian Woolfson said in addition, “This group have proved that teamworking is possible during a pandemic. The students showed a great deal of initiative and demonstrated collective planning and organisational skills to make this happen. Not only did they work with each other in their class group, they collaborated with the equivalent class in Ayr, to ensure a consistent marketing message was conveyed across the campus. I was impressed with the standard of images taken and the extent to which the learners have developed their Essential Skills this year. As much as we would all loved to welcome you to an “in-person” exhibition, their virtual product still ticked all of the boxes”.
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