Why Distance Learning?

Seth Fleischauer (00:01.053)
Hello everyone and welcome to Why Distance Learning, the podcast that challenges misconceptions about live virtual education. Hosted by three seasoned distance learning professionals, myself, Tammy and Allison. Hello ladies.

Allyson (00:13.901)
Hi!

Tami Moehring (00:14.23)
Hello.

Seth Fleischauer (00:15.569)
We bring you real stories, expert insights and research backed strategies that uncover the true impact of distance learning in today's world. And today we're stepping into a space that for many learners might feel worlds away, a world-class art museum. We often talk about distance learning in classrooms, but what happens when you bring a museum into the mix? How do you translate the magic of standing in front of a painting, the texture of the story, the history through a digital screen?

Our guests today are doing exactly that. They're part of the team at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston that has been opening doors and eyes for students across the country through thoughtful, interactive virtual programs. They are re-imagining museum education so that access to world-class art isn't limited by geography, time, or resources. In this conversation, we explore the spark that led a major cultural institution to go virtual, what it takes to make art come alive online,

and how museum-based distance learning can deepen curiosity, context, and creative thinking for K-12 students. But first, Tammy, could you please introduce our guests?

Lauren Yockel (01:22.049)
you

Tami Moehring (01:25.006)
would be happy to. We have two wonderful guests as Seth mentioned. So the first one is going to be, I'm gonna go through is Cassie Bride has been a member of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston Learning Department since 2008. currently, she is currently the director of school programs working on K-12 initiatives including teacher professional development, digital resources and distance learning programs. Cassie manages the longs.

Cassie manages the long standing partnership between the MFA and Boston Public Schools, working closely with district leaders to align programming to best support students and teachers. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Art History from the College of Charleston, South Carolina, and a Masters of Liberal Arts and Museum Studies from Harvard University Extension School. Also joining us today is Lauren Yockel.

who is the School Programs Education Specialist at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Lauren develops and teaches K-12 distance learning programs that connect the museum's global collections with classroom curriculum. Prior to joining the MFA in 2015, she worked at the Nasher Sculpture Center, Eamon Carter Museum of American Art, Art Institute of Chicago, and the Dallas Museum of Art. Lauren holds a Master of Arts in Art Education from the school

of the Art Institute of Chicago. Welcome to the show, Cassie and Lauren.

Allyson (02:56.929)
Yay!

Lauren Yockel (02:57.898)
Thank you.

Tami Moehring (03:00.024)
So I'm gonna kick us off with our very first question. Could you each share a bit about your role at the MFA and how you became involved in distance learning?

Cassie Bride (03:11.513)
I can start off with that. You've described a little bit, Tammy, the work that I do at the museum. But as the director of school programs, really looking big picture at how we interface with K-12 audiences, really managing the partnership between Boston Public Schools, which is a large district of nearly 60,000 students.

and really thinking about how to integrate all of our programming across that and really integrating our programming together. So working with distance learning and really teaming distance learning up with all the other programming that we do at the museum.

Seth Fleischauer (03:57.469)
Hmm.

Lauren Yockel (04:00.948)
Yeah, and I am the school programs education specialist. So my primary role is our distance learning program. So I am doing the program development as well as teaching most of those programs. And I also support other program when we do with schools and educators as well. And during the time that I've been at the museum, the

Distance learning has certainly evolved. So I've been there about 10 years. And when I first started, I came on as outreach educator, which included doing both virtual programming and going out to schools in the surrounding area and visiting classrooms as well. And at that point, most of it was going to classrooms and the distance learning portion was very, very small. But things have certainly changed and evolved over the past 10 years.

Seth Fleischauer (04:33.149)
Hmm.

Seth Fleischauer (04:59.633)
Did something happen in the last 10 years that affected distance learning?

Lauren Yockel (05:01.888)
Yeah, some... something that sent us all home and put us all on Zoom.

Cassie Bride (05:02.041)
There was something that made it grow.

Allyson (05:07.501)
That's so interesting because I actually held a role as outreach programs manager in one of the museums I worked in too. And there definitely was that desire for that in-person experience and loan boxes were something that we worked with a lot and going into community art spaces. so distance learning definitely has had an opportunity to grow. So I wonder like what inspired MFA's evolution in distance learning? Like where did it begin with that idea?

Seth Fleischauer (05:08.221)
So.

Allyson (05:36.173)
creating the live virtual programs and how do you make sure it extends the museum's mission, especially for those that can't visit in person. Even our best members can't always be there every day in person. So how do you feel like your programs are there to extend the museum's mission?

Cassie Bride (05:53.079)
Yeah, I can answer that a bit.

know, the museum actually was, you know, starting piloting distance learning as far back as 2013. And then, you know, as Lauren said, we've worked together on this over 10 years. But really feeling like, like you've said, Alison, you know, not everybody can always get to the museum and also

how complimentary it can be for the folks who can come to the museum. And I think that's something that we've really found much more so in the last five years of how it can really be both. Working with schools that do distance learning and come to the museum as well, if they're nearby. But also being able to connect really broadly. we do connect with schools

across the US and into Canada. So really having that opportunity as well, but also sometimes it's hard for a school that's only an hour from the Museum of Fine Arts to get here or to come on a regular basis. And so that also gives touch points as well. So really thinking about that. But, you know, as I said, it really did start well before a lot of other museums.

suddenly five years ago for whatever reason decided they should have this learning program. So that was a nice thing that we had a little bit of a head start in what we were doing and had already evolved from being in a closet only on Zoom with slides and we had already really moved and then we had to go back to that.

Allyson (07:24.077)
you

Allyson (07:28.241)
Hahaha

Tami Moehring (07:28.878)
you

Allyson (07:43.757)
you

Cassie Bride (07:51.299)
for a bit too, but we had already evolved to really being live in in the museum's galleries. And that was something that we'd already done a fair amount of work on. So that was also a nice thing that we've evolved even those, even from then till now, but we had a lot of that basis, which was a good thing for us.

Lauren Yockel (08:16.536)
One thing I was thinking, I was just going to add, okay, thanks. Allison was talking about how, you know, we would go out into classrooms and people used to like you would do boxes and things like that that would go out to classrooms. And one of the things with our situation is with works of art, those don't go out to classrooms, like we can't, you know, we don't have those things we can take with us. So even when we were going into the classroom, it was still

Seth Fleischauer (08:16.674)
Lauren, maybe, sorry, you go.

Allyson (08:39.885)
Yeah.

Lauren Yockel (08:44.436)
a slideshow basically, we would have different tactiles or activities that we would do. So being now virtual from the museum galleries really adds a whole nother element that we couldn't bring, you know, they're still not in front of the actual work of art, but they certainly have more of the experience of a visit to the museum.

Seth Fleischauer (09:05.191)
Can you paint a picture for me here of what that looks, sorry, what does it look like being out in the gallery, right? Like, so you're out there, like what kind of tech are you using? What kind of programs are you running? Are there people that are like coming into the shop being like, hi students in Cleveland, Ohio. Like what, like, what does it look like?

Cassie Bride (09:25.027)
They do that. But I'll let you answer that, Lauren, the setup.

Allyson (09:26.111)
Yeah, they don't believe it's real, right? You're like, all of a sudden ahead.

Seth Fleischauer (09:26.365)
Hahaha

Lauren Yockel (09:33.793)
Yeah, we are fairly low tech, so we have a mobile tripod that has an iPad on it and it's really has a small footprint and moves around the galleries really easily. So one person can operate it on their own. So typically for just like a video conference program with a single classroom, it's just one of us out in the galleries.

doing our thing and we do it during open hours. We like to have people walking through the background and strangely even sometimes when I'm in the galleries obviously talking to a group of people on my screen museum visitors will still walk up to me and be like hey what are you doing and so but yeah.

Seth Fleischauer (10:19.869)
Excuse me, do you know where the bathroom is? Yeah. Can you tell?

Allyson (10:23.117)
I'm

will say having seen you some of being able to participate in some of your programs, I really find your model one that is such a great example for individuals that are bringing themselves as educators into the gallery and virtual spaces, especially the way that you set up. It shows that you don't need to have the most intense set up ever. Not that we don't love a souped out studio that's always fun to play with green screen and such.

But when you said that you felt like, you know, it is true, you're not in person, but the way that you handle your cameras, the way that you've thought through walking through your galleries is such a beautiful example of having the students feel like they are really there, the learners really being present in the galleries, especially with the chatter behind, because you're never really quiet in a space by yourself, even in person. So I just think that it's such a beautiful example.

Seth Fleischauer (11:20.357)
I'm intrigued. you dive into like, what is the thinking that goes behind what angles you're taking, how you're introducing the art? How are you making students feel like they are there with you in the building?

Cassie Bride (11:33.689)
Well, one thing that can be kind of a fun thing is because green screens, kids are so used to those now, especially because of so much Zoom. Sometimes we'll start and we'll do our intro and then we'll move and they'll be like, whoa, because they don't realize that we're actually there yet. And so that's kind of a fun sort of little trick that they're like, my gosh, they're really in there.

Allyson (11:43.319)
Ha ha!

Allyson (11:52.173)
You

Seth Fleischauer (11:55.63)
and

Cassie Bride (12:03.545)
So that's kind of an interesting thing. we do, you we think about kind of the angles because, you know, being in an art museum, it isn't only the art, but the museum itself is a work of art and just the space. And there's, you know, really atmospheric spaces within there too. So we're also thinking about that too, of trying to really...

Allyson (12:17.793)
Yes.

Cassie Bride (12:28.547)
have exposure to the galleries and to the space that they're in as well as the work of art.

Seth Fleischauer (12:35.047)
So is it, is it just like, know a shot, I know a good shot when I see it or like, you train people up on like, you're to want to make sure that you're, you've got like this particular background, with this type of art, you're going to want to make sure to go super close. Like, like, is there, is there kind of, is there, is there a science to your art here?

Allyson (12:57.013)
Ha!

Cassie Bride (12:58.739)
Do you want to take that one, Lauren?

Lauren Yockel (12:59.488)
Well, sure. I mean, we do, very intentionally plan out, you know, for each program that we're offering, where we're going to be, which works of art we're using. So it's all set out well before we get into the galleries. I mean, there's always, of course, flexibility or sometimes you might encounter something where you have to, you know, change your plan. But we certainly do have very particular locations, specific works of art. And typically it's

It's me and Cassie making those consulting and planning and making all those choices. So that's the extent of our team, but we do certainly give a lot of thought to planning all the particulars out ahead of time.

Cassie Bride (13:43.779)
Yeah. And we have really grown to working with curators in the museum. So having two people on, one being the actual curator of a particular collection, to really have that expertise beyond the educator expertise. And so that does add another layer of working with them and their comfort level and figuring out ways to still have them live in the galleries. And we've had...

Tami Moehring (13:45.038)
Have

Cassie Bride (14:13.461)
all sorts of crazy setups actually to make that happen. So that can be another added challenge, but totally worth it once it actually comes.

Allyson (14:16.289)
you

Seth Fleischauer (14:25.501)
What kind of... Sorry.

Allyson (14:26.835)
You have some really amazing opportunities, the way that you've set up some of your programming that I've seen, where you can see small objects as bigger than you would be able to probably see in person because of the ways that you get your camera angles, the way that you can move around the space even in a 360 view. And I wonder, in thinking about all of the fun setups that you've had, all of the wonderful experts that you work with,

What are the biggest lessons you've learned about teaching art through the medium and the fashion that you're doing it? Are you always looking for hidden treasures that maybe even if you come on person you might miss? Are you thinking strategically about what are the most popular objects that might be in an exhibition? I just wonder what are some of the lessons that you've learned in those setups?

Lauren Yockel (15:20.906)
Well, I think the lessons have been different over, like as the years have gone by. So I think the first big lesson we learned was that being in the galleries is so much more effective than just doing a slideshow, you know, being at a desktop and so engaging people in front of the actual works of art. But one of the real advantages, I think, I mean, we choose a variety of different types of artworks depending on what the program is.

A lot of our choices are based on curriculum connections. So we're really trying to look at what students in certain grade levels are covering and which objects we can pick to really support that classroom learning. But one of the great tools, I think, in addition to being out in the galleries, getting to see the actual work of art, is that we get to do a little bit of both. They get to see the real thing, but then we can also extend that by looking at slides, either of the object itself.

or other contextual images. An example I like is when we do our Art of Ancient Egypt program, we can look at this thing that's thousands of years old. And then because the museum also did all of the excavations and we have all of these archival images, I can show you photographs of the actual excavations. So you can really build out that experience with artwork too.

Seth Fleischauer (16:41.339)
Hmm.

Seth Fleischauer (16:45.181)
It's actually, uh, really related to a segment that we introduced on the podcast where we bring in a quote or an idea from a previous episode. Uh, and I believe it was one or two episodes ago, uh, that we had on, uh, from the pro football hall of fame. I'm going to pause now. What's his name again? Alison. Okay. Jerry Shockey. Um, Tammy, could you please bring in that idea for our guests?

Allyson (17:03.117)
Jerry Schakey.

Tami Moehring (17:13.102)
Happy to use that. So one thing that, sorry. In that episode, distance learning, Jerry, let's try one more time. In the episode, Jerry said, distance learning doesn't replace the field trip, it multiplies it. It lets every student have access to experiences they might never otherwise get, and it actually makes the in-person visit richer than when it finally happens. Does that resonate in your line of work?

And how do virtual filters complement, not compete with the physical experience of being in the galleries?

Tami Moehring (17:55.658)
Either of you can start off first.

Cassie Bride (17:59.523)
I can start off a bit. Yes, we've really found that they do really complement one another. And as they saying, we work a lot with Boston Public Schools. So the local school district, it's in the city in which the Boston Museum is.

And we've been working very closely with the district, particularly the history and social studies department and the humanities department. So we've been able to track some of the visits through them, where there really are teachers who are doing the distance learning programs and coming to the museum. And...

It really is a great way for the students to have time to absorb a lot of those things in the classroom, in their familiar space before they come to the museum, and then can really dive deeper. We've also had moments where Lauren has become a celebrity when you see her. So that's also been kind of a neat thing that you do build a relationship and then all of sudden the kids are like, my gosh, that's the...

Allyson (19:00.863)
Yeah!

Hehehehe.

Seth Fleischauer (19:11.32)
It's her!

Cassie Bride (19:11.897)
So it's sort of, we've also had that experience with teachers too, you know, in a...

a school district that's a little bit far away. It's just a little bit too far for them to get to us. And we met with a group of them at one point and they just weren't paying any attention to what I was trying to say as this kind of big thing. They were just staring at Lauren like a celebrity. So I think that's also kind of an interesting piece of it is it builds a relationship that you might not think is happening.

Allyson (19:35.465)
Thank you.

Cassie Bride (19:46.777)
And it actually is.

Seth Fleischauer (19:50.534)
that's such a, that's such a cool perspective and a, you know, a lesson of that hybrid experience, right? That, that they, they really can reinforce each other. you mentioned the word partnership. You've talked a lot about Boston public schools here. I'd love to invite you to kind of dive into like what that partnership looks like. how are you a part of the approach that

Allyson (20:02.956)
Yeah.

Seth Fleischauer (20:16.721)
Boston Public Schools is trying to take in terms of introducing this type of culture to their students.

Cassie Bride (20:21.825)
Yeah, definitely. So I have worked at the museum for a long time and through that whole time have worked in relationship with Boston Public Schools. But I've been in my current role just for a little bit over a year and sort of building toward

kind of a new way of partnering with the district that was really coming out of COVID. And they were restructuring, we were restructuring. So it was a great moment to really think about how we worked with the district.

So one big way is working with the humanities department, which they are encompasses history, social studies and ELA programs. so really looking at their curricula, really finding ways to connect our distance learning. We also have digital teaching resources and our professional development, having all of those things kind of packaged around.

as well as our field trips. So really thinking about having a really holistic...

Allyson (21:33.901)
Thank

Cassie Bride (21:39.577)
connection for those and then having different touch points. So, okay, so we're connecting with middle school. we, you know, do we need to be looking more? How can we support elementary more? So building that way. And then we also work quite a bit with the arts department as well. That is less from the distance learning side usually. But also working with them on we have a high school art show, for example, where it's possible

public school students are displaying their art at the Museum of Fine Arts, which is a really pretty cool thing. And then also working with them on teacher professional development and all of those things. So it's really working very closely.

Allyson (22:16.62)
Yeah.

Cassie Bride (22:27.903)
really finding out what the district needs from us and then really building it together. So it's very, very collaborative between the two institutions, which is very cool. So it makes our work fun. Yeah.

Lauren Yockel (22:42.912)
Allyson (22:44.941)
Yeah, I think like a collaborative partner.

Lauren Yockel (22:48.928)
And one of the ways I think that relationship does impact distance learning is we know that when we're working very closely with our Boston Public Schools partners and making sure that we're supporting the learning that's happening in those classrooms, even though the, you know, curriculum may not be the exact same in another state or somewhere else, we know that it's probably still going to be very supportive of what's happening in classrooms and other places too.

Seth Fleischauer (23:15.805)
That's a great point and a deep partnership. Whenever you have situations like that where institutions are working together for the betterment of students, I think there's some really incredible results. So thank you for that work. One of the things that we always do on the podcast is ask a couple of standard questions. One of them has to do with golden moments. Allison, can you please tee that up?

Allyson (23:30.039)
Yes.

Allyson (23:42.798)
Yes, well, I'm gonna, if it's okay, I'll ask two questions. One, I'm just wondering for both of you, because you have been, you you started all of this work in 2013, through the digital pivot of 2020, you get to use that framework and you get to get stronger and stronger. So I wonder first, looking ahead, what do you see as museum-based distance learning evolving in the next few years, especially with the way that you have such a beautiful framework that

I think everyone should go and check out because it's such a great model. And then I wonder also in all the years you've been doing distance learning, do you have a memorable story or moment when you saw a student really connect through virtual sessions? Hopefully inspiring you to think about what the future looks like as well. So just wonder those two questions.

Seth Fleischauer (24:31.367)
Hey, Alison, I'm sorry. I'm going to cut that off. I think that's going be a lot for both of them to answer. And that was my fault for not, doing that question before. So let's do the crystal ball question first. Is that okay? Okay. yeah, you do. Is that okay? Thanks.

Allyson (24:41.825)
Yeah, do I need to ask it again? Okay, I'm sorry Lucas, I just got too excited. Okay, you've done so much amazing work since 2013 in distance learning. You have this amazing collaborative partnership with Boston Public Schools, which is such a great way to learn through all of the educators and the students that you're working with.

Lauren Yockel (24:48.5)
You

Allyson (25:03.927)
So I like to think about the future, especially with your wonderful model and framework that you had established, you got to strengthen after the digital pivot of 2020. So I wonder, looking ahead, how do you see museum-based distance learning evolving over the next few years?

Cassie Bride (25:21.431)
Yeah, I think it's hard to have the crystal ball across museums everywhere, but in thinking about the MFA specifically, think it is really, it is deepening those relationships and really finding out what it is that they need. But the other, the exciting thing that I kind of referenced but didn't talk about that much more is it's, the museum is a big museum.

Allyson (25:25.995)
Yeah.

Seth Fleischauer (25:27.185)
Mm hmm.

Cassie Bride (25:51.105)
with a big staff. And so we've really built a way of working with curators as well. So that has also really built awareness within the museum of students and their needs as well. So I think that's also a really exciting piece of it is really having these very academic folks really understand what

Allyson (26:16.685)
you

Cassie Bride (26:20.867)
K-12 students needs are really learning and seeing our teaching strategies around that too. So I think that's also been kind of an interesting thing to think about. So I think it is really building those relationships too. And now we have curators who are terrified now they're like, can we do it next year? Can we do it next year? You know, with you again. So I think thinking that and then I think it is just continuing to really.

Allyson (26:42.445)
you

Cassie Bride (26:49.037)
reach out to Boston Public Schools, are connecting with our Department of Secondary and Elementary Education too here at the state of Massachusetts and looking to those curricula, working with folks there and really thinking about creating a product that they need that really serves them as well as the museum.

Lauren Yockel (26:50.624)
you

Seth Fleischauer (27:22.191)
Lauren, Crystal Ball time. What is the future of museum based distance learning look like?

Allyson (27:23.725)
No.

Lauren Yockel (27:29.47)
I designated that as a Cassie question. You can cut that out.

Allyson (27:31.798)
Yes

Cassie Bride (27:32.14)
You

Seth Fleischauer (27:32.445)
Fair enough. You're just you're just in the now, you know? Yeah, you've got like you're grounded in the present moment, I think is where yeah, that was coming from.

Allyson (27:35.821)
You

Cassie Bride (27:37.753)
She didn't think about it. She didn't think about the future.

Lauren Yockel (27:37.792)
I did not I'm thinking about this week, no.

Allyson (27:42.477)
Ha

Yeah.

Cassie Bride (27:45.751)
Yeah.

Yes.

Allyson (27:49.674)
Yeah, and you're utilizing all your tech to all the best abilities, the way that you use your slides, you said. Soon we'll be able to cast up hopefully some holograms. It'll all get exciting.

Lauren Yockel (27:54.688)
You

Cassie Bride (27:55.481)
you

Seth Fleischauer (28:02.589)
I

Tami Moehring (28:04.174)
I have to do say, Cassie, I did like how you mentioned curators and getting them ready to go to the camera. As someone who also worked in a museum before, I remember going down to certain levels of the building where I felt like a kid running around on a sugar high and all these people looking at me like, why are you down here? And then you kind of build that bridge and you're like, raw, it's okay, we're all like, I wanna tell everyone all the great things you do too.

Seth Fleischauer (28:21.607)
Hmm.

Allyson (28:25.047)
laughs

Tami Moehring (28:33.431)
It's okay.

Cassie Bride (28:33.977)
But I'll translate it sort of a little bit, you know? think that's, yeah.

Allyson (28:34.665)
Yeah, yeah, we're here to help interpret it. But it is nice too, and thinking about museum-based experiences, sometimes based on where you are in your departments, everyone has so many responsibilities, so it's hard to cross-collaborate as often and think about that need for interpretation outside of...

Tami Moehring (28:36.75)
Yup.

Lauren Yockel (28:38.072)
You

Cassie Bride (28:53.336)
Mm-hmm.

Allyson (28:57.611)
maybe the labels or how the layout might be, and especially thinking about the students understanding. I think that's a really great opportunity that you have. And you've been able to create these great programs with the help of those experts. And yay, hopefully they're learning lots from you all as they listen to the interpretation, but also from the students who can often give us great ideas that we were never thinking about before from their observations.

Seth Fleischauer (29:24.893)
I loved the illustration that Tammy just offered us of being like a kid on a sugar high as you do these things and I'm wondering if you have such illustrative descriptions of this standard question of ours, which is a golden moment. We talk about these moments when we're like, wow, this technology is at its fullest potential as I am connecting learners to this experience and I would love to hear a golden moment from each of you. Lauren, can you start?

Allyson (29:31.17)
Yeah.

Lauren Yockel (29:54.721)
Sure. And I think the golden moment I'm thinking about is, I mean, it's related to technology because it happened on a distance learning program. again, it's not too high tech. there was a program, Cassie and I were both actually leading last year on art of the American Revolution. And towards the end of that session, we were looking at a painting depicting the Battle of Bunker Hill. That's a part of our collection.

and this was on a webinar format type program. And in the chat I got a question that said, our school is named after someone who fought at this battle. Do you know if this person is depicted in the painting? And so responding live, I didn't know I can't identify every single person in the painting. So I didn't, I wasn't able to answer their question live, but

I loved having the opportunity to follow up with that classroom. So I went back to the registration list based on the name they gave me. I was able to identify the teacher email and followed up with them, sent her information. I just put together like a quick little slideshow with an image of the painting and then a diagram showing them this is where your person is. And she wrote me back and she was like, this is incredible. Thank you. I showed it to my students and they were

Seth Fleischauer (31:09.757)
Hmm.

Lauren Yockel (31:21.32)
you know, just wide-eyed. And anyway, so I think it kind of goes back to those relationships we were talking about earlier. So it was an amazing connection, I think, for those students to happen during the live session, but then also to be able to follow up with them and establish the relationship with the teacher. it was a local Boston area school. So I think moments like those are the ones that, you know, are really great for me.

Allyson (31:23.253)
you

Seth Fleischauer (31:48.068)
it's beautiful. What about you, Cassie?

Cassie Bride (31:51.181)
I think going back to the, know, all of sudden everything's closed. We've got to figure out what we're doing. And there were, you had to get permission to enter the museum as an employee. The museum itself was shut down. We had an amazing special exhibition of the artist Basquiat and

all of his friends just basically sitting in an empty closed museum. But again, you know, thinking about those relationships working with the arts department at Boston Public Schools, figuring out how to go into that exhibition, get that exhibition out to the students. And then we actually had

a not an art contest because they didn't want it a judged thing. They just wanted the students to be making art. So it was called the art, the BPS art challenge. And all of these works were submitted to the arts department. They created this amazing video that we then put on the MFA's website. that was also just that sort of like, my gosh, we reached all these students, all of them who are at home.

but they were still in their school community. They still felt supported by the school. They were submitting all this artwork and everything was in each class. So it was all bundled into Ms. So-and-so's class or whatever. So that was a pretty awesome moment of.

of thinking about, you know, just something that everybody needed art then, everybody always needs art, but there's certain moments in time where it's even more critical than others. so that was a pretty cool opportunity, although slightly scary to go to a basically completely shut down museum.

Seth Fleischauer (33:37.49)
Hmm.

Seth Fleischauer (33:46.045)
Hmm.

Allyson (33:48.142)
Yeah, you can feel all the different energies coming off of the different artworks and artifacts, I'm sure. But how special, I hope you twirled in the galleries and felt light and excited as well.

Cassie Bride (33:58.359)
Yes. Yes. Yes.

Cassie Bride (34:04.665)
Yes.

Seth Fleischauer (34:08.893)
Well, another question that we ask on the podcast every episode is the title of our podcast. I would love to hear from your perspective as museum educators, specializing in distance learning, Lauren and Cassie. Why distance learning? Let's start with you, Cassie.

Cassie Bride (34:25.273)
I think it's, it is just such a great opportunity of a use of technology that is really simple, you know, it has become very simple and accessible technology and I think you can reach so many different people in different ways and, and it can stand alone and really stand alone in a strong way, but it also can really be a hybrid experience.

or an introduction or all of those things. So I think it's just a...

really, really great way to just be able and as we said, it's mostly Lauren and me, it's two people and we reach thousands of people a year, just the two of us. So, with a little help from our friends, but I think that's the other thing too, is just thinking about capacities and really being able to really connect.

Allyson (35:16.134)
Yeah.

Cassie Bride (35:29.973)
as well. I think both of both of those sides, I think from the institution side and from the classroom side.

Seth Fleischauer (35:38.139)
Yeah. What about you, Lauren?

Lauren Yockel (35:41.141)
Yeah, think it's, mean, just as an educator and the person who's like actually teaching a lot of these programs, it's so, it's really exciting to both connect with students who I know are in the local community and I can, know, you know, besides that this is your museum, you can come and you can see these things. But then also to connect with a classroom that's in California or wherever, it's equally just as thrilling to be like, you know, we're in.

two completely different places, but we can share this experience and look at this art together. So that's always really exciting. And I think another amazing thing about distance learning and especially with our setup, which is pretty simple, we can do a lot of different things. We can be in different places. Most of our sessions are in the galleries, but sometimes we go into the conservation lab and do a program from there.

or in the past when there's been a collection that's not on view in our galleries and we can work with the curator to have a few objects pulled out just for this session. So, you it's not just a virtual visit. There's a lot of things that we can do.

Seth Fleischauer (36:48.541)
Yeah. think that behind the scenes look is a really underrated component of, virtual programs for museums, especially, right? Like, you can send one worker with a camera back into the annals, but you can't send an entire class most of the time. so it's, that's a, that's a really great use of the technology in a way to, to, provide new opportunities, not just, an analog of what you might experience in person.

Lauren Yockel (37:04.138)
Right.

Seth Fleischauer (37:17.179)
Well, Cassie Lauren, thank you both so much for being here. you know, conversations like this remind us that distance learning isn't just a technical solution. It's a doorway. When done thoughtfully, it expands access, deepens curiosity and connects students to worlds they might never step into otherwise for our listeners. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow us, leave a review. helps more educators, leaders, and curious thinkers discover these stories. You can find more recess.

You, no problem. We're almost done. you can find more resources, episodes, and insights at cilc.org slash podcast. thank you as always to our editor, Lucas Salazar, and thank you for listening. until next time, we'll keep exploring what's possible when learning goes beyond the classroom. See you next time.

Allyson (37:51.447)
Sorry, sorry.

Allyson (38:04.833)
Thank you.

Allyson (38:13.09)
Bye.