Manhattan’s awe-inspiring museum of modern art has a huge online display of work, from paintings and design to sculpture, architecture and film, including virtual views of Van Gogh’s Starry Night, the Surrealist Women exhibition and the gallery's Sculpture Garden. The New York, Open City video is a must for an immersive and historic NY experience. If you sign up to MOMA’s newsletter you can be updated on specific virtual events and live Q&As.

Built in 1964, this museum is dedicated to the archaeology and history of Mexico’s pre-Hispanic heritage. There are 23 exhibit rooms filled with ancient artifacts, including some from the Mayan civilization.

Virtual Cooking Classes:

Modeled after the multi-sensory dining experience Tasting Counter is known for, join TAsting Counter at Home for a two-hour virtual interactive dining experience. Along with one of the Tasting Counter chefs, you will learn how to prepare and plate three beautiful dishes, just like they do at the restaurant. Unlike cooking from scratch, ingredients are prepared so that minimal cooking is involved. Plate, learn, and dine at TC@Home!

Unleash your inner chef and get creative in the kitchen with online cooking classes and cooking kits delivered across America. They’re a fantastic virtual experience that will let you connect with an expert teacher and learn techniques that will help you create delicious dishes from scratch using your very own pots and pans. It doesn’t matter if you’re in New York or New Mexico, with our passionate local chefs live streaming and DIY kits to make along, you’ll discover tips and tricks that will take your cooking skills to the next level!

We teach more people to cook than anywhere else in the country; our instructors aren’t simply chefs—they’re experienced teachers as well. Each 90-120 minute class is a password-protected Zoom session, so you and the other attendees are free to ask questions as you follow along step by step. Work on getting a little me time or invite the whole household for some family fun—the price is the same no matter how many people are in your kitchen.

Through League of Kitchens, immigrant women from around the world welcome you into their home (virtually) to teach you their beloved family recipes. Learn how to make Lebanese mujadara with Jeanette or Indian aloo paratha from Yamini through this multicultural collection of online classes.

Featuring monthly themed classes straight from a chef's own kitchen, Italia Like Locals holds virtual events about everything from making homemade tortelli pasta to perfecting eggplant parmigiana. As an added bonus, chef Andrea Belfiore is typically joined by special guests like musicians, artists and even … fire dancers?

Reflecting the unique foods of Santa Fe, cooking classes at the Santa Fe School of Cooking include foods from New Mexico, as well as cuisines like Native American, Spanish and Southwestern. Classes are available in two formats: pre-recorded online classes and live cooking classes via Zoom.

Get kids and teens in the kitchen with family-friendly cooking classes from Freshmade NYC. Upcoming classes include making green goddess-dressed salads and gyoza.

Whether you're interested in making Southern-style comfort food or learning to roll your own sushi, Cozymeal offers online classes year-round in addition to themed classes throughout the year that are specific to holidays and celebrations.

From chicken butchery to bread-baking, the possibilities for learning are endless through the Institute of Culinary Education's list of online classes for all interests and skill levels. Class schedules change monthly, so there's always more to learn from this vast resource.

Virtual Gardening Classes:

This MasterClass taught by Ron Finley, helps aspiring green thumbs working with non-traditional planting spaces learn how to cultivate their gardens. In this 10-part class, Finley lays out how to grow everything from succulents to vegetables in any planting vestibule, from sidewalk planters to pots in rooftop gardens.

Starting a garden can be expensive, but in this class led by Kerry Ann Mendez, novices learn to design a garden while working within a budget. Mendez goes into the specifics of garden design before teaching students how to get the most bang for their buck. Mendez gives tips on where to score plants on the cheap (or even free) that will thrive for more than a season, and how to save money when shopping. Students also learn what kinds of plants will work best regarding lighting conditions and growing zones. This course also focuses on creating pollinator-friendly gardens that require less water and maintenance than traditional gardens.

In this on-demand Skillshare course taught by herbalist and gardener Geraldine Lavin of Suntrap Botanical, newbies will learn everything they need to kickstart their garden. Whether in a container, community garden, or a backyard, Lavin teaches everything from plant propagation techniques like seed starting and divisions to harvesting. Since Lavin is an herbalist, she also spends time explaining herbs for the home garden. This Skillshare course is broken down into 10 lessons that total around 46 minutes. The class revolves around one project, propagating an herbaceous cutting, but also teaches students how to maintain their garden and proper storage methods. It is also heralded in reviews by Skillshare users for its clear instruction and for inspiring students to take action in their own gardens.

Dutch garden designer Piet Oudolf, whose work notably appears along The High Line elevated park in New York City, is known for his texture-rich, contemporary design with perennial plants. In this course hosted by Learning With Experts, Oudolf and host Dr. Noel Kingsbury explore the farmer's family garden, Hummelo, while unpacking the site’s structure, texture, form, and color and how it informs the designer's garden aesthetic. This is not a course for beginners, but rather for seasoned green thumbs looking to expand their knowledge about garden planning. The class is broken down into four sections, with corresponding assignments exploring plant structure, plant combinations, seasonality, and planting by region. Class participants can begin the course whenever they want and will be a part of an online interactive classroom of no more than 20 individuals. Members can group chat and direct message each other in this collaborative learning environment.

For those whose gardening goal is to make beautiful bouquets and floral arrangements, Charlie Ryrie’s Learning With Experts course, "The Cutting Garden" is a great place to start. The course is suitable for everyone, but it's aimed at gardeners who already possess basic skills. "The Cutting Garden" introduces students to a lare variety of plants suitable for cutting gardens and explains how and where to grow them. It also teaches successional sowing, or staggering blooms, to get two crops of quick-maturing annuals a year from a garden. The course is divided into four sections, a practical guide in deciding how much time and effort you can allocate to your garden, as well as how to maintain a cutting garden.

Among its full roster of online gardening courses, Oregon State University offers a basic botany class that will help any green thumb improve their gardening game. Taught by Master Gardener Signe Danler, this on-demand lesson teaches students how to identify plants, distinguish monocots from dicots (and why that’s important to know), and recognize garden capers like fungus, lichen, algae, and moss. By the end of the class, participants should be able to identify plants, name their basic parts, and the roles they play in their growth and development, as well as recognize a variety of leaf and root systems.

This free class from the online course site Alison teaches users how to grow organic vegetables with as little negative environmental impact as possible. Although it seems counterintuitive that growing can have environmental drawbacks, "Introduction to Growing Organic Food Sustainably" discusses the fundamentals of growing vegetables in an environmentally friendly manner to ensure prolonged soil health.

Communication Facilitation

After the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, older adults were challenged to utilize different means of communication in order to stay connected with their friends and family. Through our participant interviews, we found that many older adults successfully adapted to efficiently use various modes of communication. Several modes of virtual communiction were utilized by many of our participants. These are listed below, as well as instructions on how to use them.

Zoom:

Zoom is a cloud-based video tool that lets individuals host virtual one-on-one or group meetings easily. With powerful audio, video and collaboration features, this remote communication tool connects remote individuals with each other.

How To Use Zoom:

Step 1: To get started with Zoom, head to their website, and click on the “SIGN UP” button that’s at the top-right corner of the screen.

Step 2: You have two options when it comes to creating a Zoom account. You can either create a new account using your work email address or sign in using SSO (Single Sign-On) or your Google or Facebook account.

Step 3: Zoom will now send you an email with a confirmation link. Click on that link to go to Zoom’s Sign Up Assistant and sign in using your credentials.

Step 4: Download the desktop app/Zoom client from the Zoom website for easy access.

Skype:

Skype is software that enables the world's conversations. Millions of individuals and businesses use Skype to make free video and voice one-to-one and group calls, send instant messages and share files with other people on Skype. You can use Skype on whatever works best for you – on your mobile, computer or tablet. Skype is free to download and easy to use.

How To Use Skype:

Step 1: Download the software. Depending on which device you plan to use, you'll download a specific version of Skype.

Step 2: Create your username. Come up with a username and password you can easily remember. Then, share your name with your family and friends so they're ready to receive your calls and reach out to you on their own.

Step 3: Set up your contact list. Once you've given out your Skype username, ask your loved ones for their usernames. You can easily add them after logging on by clicking the Contacts tab on the left hand side, then the "Add Contact" button in the top right-hand corner.

Step 4: Select your call type. After creating your contact list, you'll be ready to make your first Skype call. Select a family member or friend to call by clicking on his or her picture. You'll then see a series of buttons and you'll decide which kind of call you'd like to make. You can choose between video calls (click the video button if you want to communicate face-to-face) and phone calls (click the phone button if you want to make a call without using the webcam). You'll notice a "+" button as well, which allows you to add other loved ones to the conversation. This is especially convenient when you're trying to get the whole family together on the call!

Step 5: Make sure you're connected. If you've made the call and you can't see or hear the other person, there might be an issue with the connection. Click the call quality icon to make sure you and your loved one have strong enough internet connection to interact.

Step 6: Talk for as long as you want! Once the connection is strong you'll have a full screen of his or her picture and a small square of your own in the bottom right corner. Now you can talk the day away! Skype makes connecting with your loved ones a simple task, regardless of the distance.

Step 7: End the call. Once you've finished the call, simply press the red handset icon to end the conversation and close out of the program.

WhatsApp:

Launched in 2009, WhatsApp is a free, multi-platform messaging app that lets users make video and voice calls, send text messages, share their status, and more with just a Wi-Fi connection. Part of what makes this app appealing is that it works on various phone and computer operating systems, so you can continue your conversation anytime, anywhere. It can also take advantage of Wi-Fi and cellular data to make one-on-one or group calls, reducing the need for expensive calling charges.

How To Use WhatsApp:

Step 1: Install WhatsApp. Install the app from the Play Store (Android) or App Store (iPhone).Launch the app and approve the requested permissions. Enter your phone number and tap Confirm. Enter the verification code received via SMS (WhatsApp may do this automatically). Import existing contacts into the app (optional).

Step 2: Set up your WhatsApp profile. Tap the three dots in the top-right corner of the app and tap Settings. Tap your name at the top of the screen. To change your picture, tap the camera icon and select a photo. To change your name, tap the pencil icon next to Name. Enter or adjust your bio by tapping the pencil icon next to About.

Step 3: Start a chat. Now that your profile is set, it’s time to get to the task at hand: chatting! The first time you open the app you won’t have any chats open, but you can start a new chat by tapping on the chat bubble in the bottom right. From there, simply select the contact you want to chat with from the list. If you already have a previous chat with that contact, it will open that instead of a brand new chat. All that’s left now is to type your message at the bottom of the screen. After entering your text, tap the arrow icon that appears alongside the text box to send it. You can also send pictures or files on WhatsApp by tapping the paperclip or camera icons at the bottom of the screen. WhatsApp has a built-in camera app, but it’s better to use your normal camera app to take the picture and select it in the gallery to send.

Step 4: Start a call. One of the most useful features when using WhatsApp internationally is the ability to make phone calls. Unlike standard international voice calls, WhatsApp calls use your internet connection rather than your phone line, so they’re completely free (barring any data overage charges when not on Wi-Fi). To start a phone call on WhatsApp, all you need to do is open a chat window and tap the phone icon in the top right. If it’s a group, you can even select multiple people to call at the same time.

Mindfulness and Reflection

Many of the interviewees endorsed using various forms of mindfulness and reflection in order to avoid feelings of isolation and loneliness. Mindfulness promotes reflection and body and mental awareness. Practicing mindfulness promotes executive function skills, emotional regulation, and pro-social skills. Listed below are several strategies and ideas to practice mindfulness and reflection.

Meditation and Mindfulness Apps and Websites:

This app is designed to make you happier by funneling the “science of happiness” through technology. It’s main features are activities and games based on scientific research that suggests there are five essential skills for happiness: savoring, thanking, aspiring, giving, and empathizing. You’ll like it if: If you are someone who struggles with happiness, Happify is a great option for you. The app’s visually pleasing design is simple and user-friendly. How it works: You complete simple tasks that aim to focus your attention on coping. Techniques include writing down what you are grateful for, writing about how to manage stress, and playing mental games. The app uses brain-training mechanics to help you relieve stress.

Omvana is an app that provides one of the largest collections of meditation sessions currently available. You choose from a selection of famous authors and renowned teachers that provide guided sessions. You’ll like it if: You enjoy customizing and personally tailoring your meditation sessions to fit your individual needs and desires. How it works: You are given your own mix board that enables you to do anything from recording your own sessions, to mixing 2 sessions into one. This app is really great because it has a selection of narrated lessons by thought-provoking leaders and public speakers.

This app is designed to declutter your mind with various sounds. It’s main features are: audio brainwave training, personalized brainwave training, and meditation sessions. The app tracks your progress and shows data on habits like productivity, focus, and hindsight. You’ll like it if: You love to plug in your headphones and shut off the outside chatter to help increase your focus and productivity throughout the day. How it works: Brain.FM works by playing 30-minute clips of brainwave-altering sounds to help you focus on work, sleep, meditation, anything! Once you sign up you have three options: focus, relax or sleep, pick a variety of themes, and then hit play!

This app is designed to take a moment and reset during your busy day. It’s main features are a daily delivery of mindfulness inspiration to your phone/tablet in the form of tips, exercises and teachings. You’ll like it if: If you create reminders for just about everything from remembering to do laundry, to reminding yourself to take a 5 minute walk because you have been sitting all day – this is the app for you. How it works: Mindfulness is a simple, basic mindfulness app that allows you to set reminders for meditations, body scans, and more. This app provides statistics to help you measure your progress in metrics.

The AbleTo app takes a different approach to mindfulness, tackling the mental health side of things by offering mindful tactics to help issues like social anxiety and boost your self-confidence. You’ll like it if: You feel helped and supported by having an objective coach there to guide you through issues like social anxiety. How it works: You will be assigned to a coach, beginning with a 30-minute phone call to discuss your social anxiety with your coach and set goals to work towards. You touch base on a weekly basis while completing online activities to help you cope with your anxiety.

This is a subscription-based platform with the sole purpose of helping you reduce your stress. This app will immerse you in scenes of natural beauty and bathe your mind with relaxing music and nature sounds. You’ll like it if: You have particular meditation goals, such as better sleep, deep concentration, inner peace, etc. The app offers a wide variety of goal categories. How it works: Calm intends to clear your mind with guided relaxation sessions, meditation music, and premium programs that focus on a range of areas from sleep, calm, self-esteem, and more.

This app is designed to be the go-to place for insight, information and inspiration to live mindfully. It’s main features are a bi-monthly magazine called Mindful, MindfulDirect videos, and the website itself which provides approachable mainstream mindfulness practices. You’ll like it if: You want to dive into the practice and philosophy of being mindful. How it works: Mindful.org is a space that offers personal stories, advice you can use, and news you can share. The insights found here speak to anyone from the rookie meditator, to the expert exploring new ways to cultivate mindfulness in their daily life.

This app is designed to be your own personal trainer to help you de-stress by exercising your mind. It’s main features are animations about how the mind works and tips on how to sit quietly and breathe. It also allows you to set meditation reminders and track your activity. You’ll like it if: You’re looking for meditation made simple. Headspace is known as the app that cultivates modern meditation. How it works: This slickly-designed app provides 10-minute meditation sessions with co-founder Andy Puddicombe. He provides relatable instructions like “Don’t force your breath, your body already knows how to breath.”

This app (and website) houses hundreds of premium online yoga, fitness, and meditation classes. Both the iOS and Andriod apps are of the highest rated apps on this list. With hundreds of 5 star reviews from the students. We also plant a food-producing tree for every class taken. So users can feel even better about getting on your mat with. You’ll like it if: You’re looking for beautiful guided meditation and yoga classes with top instructors from around the world and you like the idea of planting a tree every time you practice. How it works: Start a free 14-day trial to see if this app is for you. After the trial you can continue on a monthly or annual plan. You can download the app, watch the classes on your television and even download classes to watch them offline.

Note Taking and Journaling Apps:

Momento is great for tech-savvy social media users. It makes it possible to put all of your posts from different social media platforms together in one single place. You can also include your special Uber ride transactions or your Spotify playlists. Along with that, this application also helps you create a private journal. Simply write your entry for the day in rich text format. Then add images, generate some tags, and add a location tag. Suppose you want to relive special moments, the app groups updates from all your related social media pages and your blog in a consolidated timeline. The free edition permits up to three social media accounts to be linked. The premium edition, meanwhile, has an infinite linking option. For protection, there is a passcode and TouchID feature in the premium service.

It is one of the best journal apps for Android users that lets you write entries and geotag them. Journey App is a secure journal. In addition, the app lets you track the weather and add a range of media while making entries. This app paves the way for easy journaling that can also be modified conveniently. The app is a complete set of everything! Its noteworthy features include passcode and fingerprint security, a step-by-step tutorial for beginners, and the ability to write email journals.

The simple user interface of Goodnight Journal makes journaling simple and enjoyable. The app works exactly the same on all the platforms that make its user interface better than any other journal app. Goodnight Journal also has free mental health features that can be used alongside writing journals. The ‘well-defined community’ is everyone’s favorite feature. You have to be a member to join, and it is the perfect place to get stuff out of your chest and feel light.

Penzu is known for having the expertise to provide stress-free journaling as it helps you to write entries, make format tweaks, and add images. The golden attribute of this journal application is the security lock. No one can see your entries without your permission. With Penzu Pro, you can access unlimited journals, custom journal covers, 256-bit protection for privacy, and custom fonts. The app offers infinite storage to write as many entries as you want. The app also includes end-to-end security to ensure you do not face any issues.

Diarium is the highest-rated journaling app in the Windows 10 App Store. Diarium stands out because of its support for various media types. If you wish to speak rather than a type, you can dictate your thoughts with detailed speech recognition. You can also export your entries to DOCX, HTML, RTF, or TXT formats, so rest assured that your data will be safe. Diarium will automatically take in feeds from Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram to make journaling much simpler and will remind you to write in the journal once a day.

If you want your digital diary to be arranged, then this is the ideal app. You can pick folders and tags whenever you add an entry. It is much simpler to focus on the full-screen option while journaling. he Pro edition of the app allows you the option to use your Dropbox account to upload entries. This means that you will be able to read your journal from a new device. The Pro edition also offers you an option for improved storage to backup and export journal entries. The best features include protecting your entries with a lock, adding colors and themes, and a backup or restore option.

Grid Diary offers you the simplest way to get started with keeping a diary. The app has in-built prompts such as, “What sports did I indulge in today to enhance my health?”, “Did I spend time with my family today?” “What can I do today to make my future better?” in a simple and concise form. Thus, offering the fastest way for journaling. It offers you a thorough and bird’s eye view of what is going on in your life, one day at a time. You can select from various grid models or configure the grid and ask yourself questions to reflect on the areas of life that you want to track. You can use Grid Diary to write down simple solutions that help you focus on your days instead of worrying about what you should write about each day.

This app is built for teams and individuals to create, collaborate, and organize all your knowledge in one place from anywhere in the world. It is great for media-rich journaling. Create fast dynamic notes, documents, wikis, knowledge bases, projects, client deliverables, technical docs, training guides and client portals, while integrating across the apps you work with.

Community Engagement and Acts of Service

A majority of the older adults that we interviewed found ways to remain active in their community, virtually and socially-distanced. Several of our participants endorsed remaining active politically, participating in virtual acts of service, as well as others. Some ideas for community engagement and acts of service are listed below

Virtual Volunteering:

This volunteer search tool is exclusively for online volunteer projects. Each one has a timeline that can range anywhere from an hour to a few weeks. So whether you have an afternoon or several, you can help not-for-profit with tasks like writing thank you letters or editing photos.

If you’re looking to take your online volunteering worldwide, this is the place to start. UNV connects you with organizations working for peace and development in need of skills like research, writing, art, and design. There are already over 12,000 volunteers from 187 countries lending their talents to organizations around the globe.

The Smithsonian Institution is the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex, but even they could use a little help sometimes. Help make their collections more accessible by volunteering online to transcribe historical documents or edit Wikipedia articles related to their artifacts and research.

Operated by Amnesty International, this network of digital volunteers helps conduct research into global human rights violations. Volunteers have used their phones and computers to verify the location of oil spills, find evidence of drone strikes, and flag abusive tweets to women politicians in India.

For those fluent in more than one language, check out this nonprofit that combines language skills with humanitarian aid. Volunteers provide translations (10 million words a year!) to international organizations that focus on crisis relief, health and education.

Here’s a perfect example of technology being used for good. Become a volunteer to help the Crisis Text Line continue to offer free, 24/7 support for those in crisis. If you’re at least 18 and can commit to volunteering four hours each week, you can apply to be trained for free.

Zooniverse is a platform for people-powered research that literally wouldn’t be possible (or practical) without the help of online volunteers. Spend as much or as little time as you’d like identifying endangered animals, classifying galaxy systems, or transcribing Shakespearean manuscripts.

Founded in 1971, this may just be the virtual volunteering effort that started it all. The goal is to create the largest digital library, and so far they’ve amassed 59,000 free eBooks. Volunteer by donating eligible materials, transcribing books into a digital form, or proofreading others’ work.

DoSomething empowers young people to enact social change both online or off. Volunteer online through one of our campaigns to help solve real-world problems. DoSomething members have used the internet to successfully urge Apple to diversify their emojis, change the dictionary definition of “Black/black”, and create a youth-powered mental health guide for students nationwide.