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Edible Education Goes Online in the COVID Era

An online classroom reads Zora’s Zucchini as part of their remote food education lesson.

As the school year starts in the most of uncertain of times, these food and garden classes enter new virtual territory.

By Lisa Held
Civil Eats
September 9, 2020

Excerpt:

Edible Schoolyard NYC’s program director, Liza Engleberg, said their teachers also found that while more extroverted students thrive in the school gardens, the quieter students seemed to find a voice within online classrooms. “Rambunctious kids who don’t like sitting down, they can be kind of our star students in in-person garden classes, but in the virtual classes, we got to know some of the quieter kids better, which is really nice,” she said.

Still, all of the expected challenges of online learning were apparent in the Foodprints summer enrichment sessions, too. Some children didn’t log on for class at all, and many couldn’t find the supplies they had been sent. Some had their cameras turned off, which made it difficult for teachers to make sure they were following along. (Teachers feel that forcing students to turn cameras on, however, is too invasive, especially without knowledge of a child’s home environment.) Shoddy internet connections also meant that both instructors and students froze at certain moments, adding breaks to the instruction.

Read the complete article here.