Thank you, Linda Lou. Since all my garden preservation to date has been freezing produce and meats, I'm going to look into the course at UGA to see if I can augment my food preservation skills at this late date in life.

I've saved the site on my "personal bar", which makes it visible all the time. Again, thank you!

I sent in my registration and check for the U. of Idaho's course last week. I've been preserving for many, many, many years, but want to be able to teach the class at our Extension office. We have no one there to teach it and lots of people wanting to learn the proper ways.

I am glad you are also taking the course, bcskye. Perhaps I will "see" you on the chat. I am waiting to hear from them in the next day or so. I am taking the course to see if it is something we will want to offer here, along with our regular classes.
Let me know what you thought of the course when you are done.
From what I read from people across the country, we seem to be one of few that offer the actual hands on classes.
This is a reason we are still working, pushing so hard, to get the information taught.
Got a call the other day from a gal up north from here. They have had no one to test canner gauges for years. She is driving down, 5 hours, to bring her gauge and get it tested. I am trying to teach her how to convert her old dial gauge canner to a weighted gauge canner so that will not be a problem for her anymore. Then, she can share it with others up there and help solve the issue for others.
Once I get time ( yeh, right !) I plan on writing a document about changing them over so it can be provided in written form.
Anney, I do hope you take the course. You can learn so much from it. That course is nice since you can do it at your own pace. One word of warning, if you start canning, you won't be able to stop ! It is addicting.

Thanks Linda lou,
I am new to canning and appreciate the site links. I would also like to know how the course go's.

Happy Gardening and
Harvesting
Mark

Linda Lou, when you get the document on changing over the old dial gauge over to the weighted gauge, I'd be happy to buy a copy from you. There is no one in our county that tests the dial's. Also, I bought my sister a canner summer before last and it has the dial gauge which is why I think she hasn't used it. Like me, she's only used the weighted gauge before. I would like to change it for her because with her financial situation, she really needs to start canning again.

Our Extension Office would have to have someone from the U. of Illinois come in from Chicago or the Extension Office from the county just north of us. They each charge $150.00 for the classes and the one from the county north of us said she'd want mileage as well. Not many down here can afford that. Hope to see you on chat and we can compare our opinions on the class on here.

Thanks, LindaLou, I've been thinking that I'd like to take that on-line course as a "brush up", it's been quite a while for me and I know a lot of things have changed just lately...

Annie

Linda lou, have you heard anything from the U of Idaho? I sent in my application & check and have heard nothing further. With the start of classes just a couple of days away, I wonder if they have sent the necessary info out to everyone or am I jumping the gun.

I got my confirmation today. I am really not sure how we will know the lesson is online.... I guess they will send us an email. The first chat is a week from Thursday at 1 pm. Pacific Standard time.
You could email Carol and ask her if you are registered.
She would not mind at all.

This is all very interesting!

I teach an online class in copy editing, and I'm in the misdt of creating a new one about grammar. I find the potential of online teahing fascinating. It works better than I'd ever have expected, at least for what I teach; there are down sides, of course, but some things work *better* than in the classroom (for example, the discussions are preserved on the computer, so if you con't remember exactly what the answer to a question is, you can always go back and look).

Of course, copy editing and canning are wery different types of things --- I imagine the "hands on" nature of canning offers some challenges for online teaching --- but I bet you can learn a lot.

The heart of teaching turns out, in my experience, to be an exchange of ideas and information and enthusiasm, all things we here at the forum have learned first-hand can happen online quite well!

Have fun, folks, and tell us what you think.

Gosh, I'm tempted to sign up too just to see how it works. Gonna go check out the schedule.

Ed'A

Zabby,
You do give some good points about the online chats being saved for later on.
That is the downfall with the online canning classes. Most people really seem to need the hands on part of the lessons. I hear that from most all of the people we teach. The have to be shown in person what to do. My husband is one of the people that if you just tell him something he won't really get it. He needs to do it for himself and then it is fine.
I am sure there will be a place for the online course as not everyone can attend the other classes. I know some people live in more rural areas and driving to the city is prohibitive. Then there is childcare, so many factors. Besides, the online course is just $35 compared to nearly that for one of our community sessions.
I can report back later as to how they are going, the content, etc.
Zabby, I really did appreciate your perspective on this.
I wish you the best with your classes, too !

I will have to look into the online classes. They are offering a canning course through our Extension office this month, but I believe it was around $150, and three eight hour sessions with no childcare provided. As much as I wanted to take it, that was cost prohibitive, especially once you add the expense of childcare. Maybe in a couple of years, when all of my children are in school full time ...

Bonnie

Bonnie,
At least do the free ones at the Univ. of Georgia. They are good lessons. Nice thing is you can do them at your own pace, too.

linda lou,

Indeed, the "showing" --- and, better yet, the "you try it while I watch & give advice only if you need it" --- part of a hands-on skill like canning will surely be missed, though, as you say, good online instruction is certainly better than none, and hand-son courses just aren't practical for some.

What I'm really intrigued by is the possibility of a mixed course --- imagine, say, if you started with an online intro in which you read about the process, learned what the equipment was, the basic rules, etc., but with a real interactive component so you can ask questions, not just "read the book." THEN, all prepared with a few online classes, you went to the city once for a single four-hour hands-on experience, where you actually did the tasks and the teacher gave you feedback, etc., and some "assignments" to try at home. Then you had a couple of follow-up lessons online, where you ask about any problems you had with the follow-up assignments, etc.

That kind of approach I think might work for both copy editing AND canning, and be affordable and practical.

Hmmm.......

Zabby in teacher mode, musing
(and looking forward to your reports!)

I signed up too (University of Georgia free classes) and just got the email. I am pretty busy but they give you 6 months to complete it, should be doable.