As the school year ends in Armenia, so do the strange times, challenges and attempts at distance education. To document the transition, I have been photographing children and adults who experienced the changes to visualize what online learning—or the lack of it—looks like, what children are doing during the time that they would otherwise spend at school.
For parents, there was the additional workload of having to film videos and take pictures of their children’s homework for teachers to check. One story follows a mother of two in the village Haytagh, who films her children reciting Victory Day poems for school. In the village of Taronik, children are seen busy helping adults in the morning hours. A boy named Ruben in Yerevan has a hearing disability and the lockdown has affected his learning of sign language. Empty school classrooms and educators working from home are also an important part of the story.
As access into homes is limited, I have also included a personal perspective of how I help my own children with their learning activities. As difficult and different this time has been for everyone, it has also revealed much about who we are as educators and as learners.
This project was funded by the National Geographic Society.