Online Quest for St Leonards

‘It was fantastic. Brendan did everything he possibly could to engage the students through an online platform rather than in person. He used the camera really well and demonstrated clearly for the students to copy from his drawings and labels.’ - Angela Confoo, St Leonards Primary.

Like educators all across Australia, the COVID crisis threw a curve ball at 100 Story Building.

When interactivity and performance forms the core of the work we do with children, how do we achieve the same outcomes through online interactions? 

But inspired by the commitment shown by Australian teachers towards supporting student learning, we too, rolled up our sleeves and put our lateral thinking brains to work. If medium is the message, how could we optimise online delivery to achieve the same level of engagement and output from students as we did with our in-person workshops?

Rather than merely adapting our workshops for online delivery, we examined the opportunities that online platforms presented in the form of framing, performing to the camera, pacing and using online chat functions for activities.

Using these techniques, we launched a suite of online creative literacy workshops, including Perilous Quest which was delivered to the Year 5 and 6 students at St Leonards. 

Angela further said: ‘I felt the activities were excellent and really engaging for the students. They were able to be creative with their own ideas but they had lots of support from the demonstrations if they needed it.’

The principal of St Leonards, Jennifer Cowburn, too shared that the teachers were very excited about student engagement and the opportunities to develop their creativity and imagination.

The school’s positive feedback validates the time we invested in understanding how to make online workshops work for children.

View our online creative literacy workshops.