Reflections, Considerations, and Recommendations for Teaching Global Health during a Pandemic

Reflections, Considerations, and Recommendations for Teaching Global Health during a Pandemic

Written by: Rachel A. Yoho,​​ Eric Coker,​​ and Elizabeth A. Wood (Department of Environmental and Global Health, College of Public Health and Health Professions, University of Florida).

“…The context of the course began with the importance of understanding the need for a global public health framework and infrastructure. Naturally, this focused on the “hook” of defining a pandemic and discussing key pandemics through recorded human history, such as the 1918 Spanish Flu and HIV pandemics. Unfortunately, following this first class session, the situation escalated to living ​​a pandemic, while also teaching an undergraduate-level broad overview of global public health. From this experience, we provide several recommendations for a thoughtful and critical approach to teaching global health during a burgeoning - or now, ongoing - pandemic.”

Teaching TV Production During a Pandemic: A Look at Two D.C. Universities and the Transition to Online Learning Due to COVID

Teaching TV Production During a Pandemic: A Look at Two D.C. Universities and the Transition to Online Learning Due to COVID

Written by: Whitney Harris

“…Instead of covering community events, functions on-campus, and new businesses opening, as was the case in prior semesters, students in the spring of 2020 were able to get creative to find unique stories that they could report from the safety of their own homes. They interviewed family, friends, and neighbors, or even chronicled their own experiences. The stories that they covered were profound, unique, and provide a glimpse into this unprecedented time. And students in both classes seemed pleased overall with what they were able to accomplish even amid a pandemic and a rushed transition to an entirely new way of learning…”

Rethinking My Online Praxis: Letting Resistance Find the Weaknesses in the Fabric

Rethinking My Online Praxis: Letting Resistance Find the Weaknesses in the Fabric

Written by: Leah F. Cassorla

…"Resistance showed me what I had forgotten: every online course I had ever taught was taught to students who had signed up for an online course in an otherwise normal semester. I didn’t have this. I needed to quickly rethink this! But my students were digital natives! They would be fine, right?

Resistance, here, showed me once again that digital nativity means about the same as print nativity. Being born into a digital world and handed a screen at toddler-age is no more a guarantee of digital literacy than being born in a print world and handed baby books. One is as literate as one’s access, one’s practice, and one’s education”…

From Hybrid Instruction to Emergency Remote Teaching: Reflections of a Teacher Educator in New Mexico

From Hybrid Instruction to Emergency Remote Teaching: Reflections of a Teacher Educator in New Mexico

Written by: Karla V. Kingsley. Department of Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy, University of New Mexico

“…The novel coronavirus has brought education to an inflection point. A pedagogy of social justice (Sleeter, 2015) and critical consciousness (Friere,1970) is urgently needed, one that not only eliminates geographic barriers to learning, but also works to heal the social, psychological, emotional, spiritual, physical, and academic trauma, the soul wounds (Duran & Duran, 1995) inflicted on minoritized students. In electronic learning environments, this means fashioning a culturally responsive, student-centered curriculum that integrates the knowledge, languages, and lived experiences of historically marginalized students. It also includes recognizing that students, families, and teachers are likely experiencing emotions related to grief and trauma due to loss of a loved one or as a result of changes in daily life that can cause feelings of shock, shame, sadness, guilt, denial, and depression. Unfortunately, teachers often do not receive training in how to process loss and grief (Dunn & Garcia, 2020). Yet social and emotional well-being, including self-care, are topics that can and should be taught”…

Human and Non-Human elements in a “big” conference on distance learning during the Coronavirus pandemic in Greece

Human and Non-Human elements in a “big” conference on distance learning during the Coronavirus pandemic in Greece

Written by: Koutsogiannis Dimitrios, Papantoniou Eleni, Zagka Eleftheria, Matos Anastasios, Nezi Maria & Polkas Lampros

…”At the same time, the digital media contributed to the transformation of the two-day event into a kind of popular spectacle. The conference had several characteristics of an entertainment event, reminding live broadcasts on Greek television where real-time positive or negative comments’ flow is shown for any action taken. Similarly, approving and disapproving comments were recorded on YouTube live streaming, such as: “Visionary! Congratulations!”, “Excellent !!!!!!!!!”, “I think we will hear bitter truths now!”, “You put your voice in our thoughts”.”…

Online education is abandoning poor students: an exploration of digital education inequality in China

Online education is abandoning poor students: an exploration of digital education inequality in China

Written by: Liming Liu, Haiming Zhao

…”the student is using a mobile phone for online education on the top of the mountain which can offer him a stable internet signal. A plastic bag of fertilizer has replaced their desk, and they are sat on the ground without a chair. The reporter suggests that interview happened during early March when the weather was relatively chilled, and that the person in the photo does not have any heating equipment”…

'Transforming the Subject, Transforming Ourselves’: Resisting Surveillance in Virtual Learning Environments

'Transforming the Subject, Transforming Ourselves’: Resisting Surveillance in Virtual Learning Environments

Written by: Tyne Daile Sumner & Brian Martin (The University of Melbourne)

…”If, for example, a student deviates (behaviorally, academically, socially) from the guidelines set out by the VLE, there are processes in place to correctively ‘nudge’ them back towards normative standards of engagement; standards which themselves are algorithmically engineered via comparisons across large cohorts to determine pathways that may not produce optimal learning outcomes”…

The People Formerly Known as Tutors: A case study of Instagram

The People Formerly Known as Tutors: A case study of Instagram

Written by: James Walker

…”My experience is that using Instagram to communicate generates more responses than the virtual learning forums because social media is about community. These are environments that students are generally familiar and comfortable with, and consequently they will post comments because they want to, not because they have to. Similarly, social media allows information to be staggered in small chunks over a sustained period. It was this process of communication that I believed would help foster knowledge of a subject and develop their confidence to speak up in a class situation”…

Virtual schooling, COVID-inequalities: building resilience and digital literacies for uncertain futures

Virtual schooling, COVID-inequalities: building resilience and digital literacies for uncertain futures

Written by: Giota Alevizou, The Open University

…”Teachers also have become overstretched with new shifts and routines, learning new tools and everyday online content creation, while they become increasingly anxious about the ways in which they can cater for wellbeing on students and younger children online, especially those with special education and health needs. They even engage more in a kind of COVID-gogy: juggling between catering for the practical needs of vulnerable families and those emotional pragmatic needs of key workers’ children at school, the partial return of some years since early June, and, finally inspiring the children at home through online”…

Digital inequalities and education in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic: a brief reflection on the challenges of remote learning

Digital inequalities and education in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic: a brief reflection on the challenges of remote learning

Written by: Carolina Parreiras & Renata Mourão Macedo

…“we emphasize that the macroscopic data available points to dynamics of exclusion, and the need not to envision the intersection of education and digital technologies as a tableau, but as a relationship marked by differences, subtleties, and inequalities that reflect broader exclusionary and uneven dynamics found in Brazil. Pointing to these mechanisms of inequality is a first step towards carrying out practical and more inclusive actions.”…

The EdTech Trojan Horse; A critical narrative of the emergency pivot to online learning

The EdTech Trojan Horse; A critical narrative of the emergency pivot to online learning

Written by: Nathalie Lossec, Nicholas Millar, Mark Curcher and Marko Teräs

…”If UNESCO is not ‘endorsing’ these links, then what are they doing? Recommending? Promoting? Simply posting? This is very confusing to educational administrators and frontline teachers seeking a quick and reliable solution to their current and possibly desperate situation…”

COVID-19 and the push to online learning: reflections from 5 countries

COVID-19 and the push to online learning: reflections from 5 countries

Written by: Marko Teräs, Hanna Teräs, Patricia Arinto, James Brunton, Daryono Daryono, Thirumeni Subramaniam

…"it begs the question, what is quality online learning really like? For example, Finnish teachers were cautious if the management saw online learning merely as a cost-efficient way to run teaching: after you have designed the course it can be reused several times and students can take it almost as a self-study module. Naturally, this is not the case. Instead, similar rules apply than in face to face teaching. Designing and teaching a quality online course takes time and needs well allocated resources. Therefore, the quick solutions developed during the time of COVID-19 crisis might not be the best way forward, but strategic, pedagogically sound development of online learning is still very much needed”…

Using Digital Education Amid a Global Pandemic to Address Coursework and Wellbeing

Using Digital Education Amid a Global Pandemic to Address Coursework and Wellbeing

Written By: Alesia Mickle Moldavan (Fordham University)

…”From an instructor’s perspective, I found that the use of digital education enhanced student participation in the course. I used the asynchronous modules as a flipped instruction model to encourage student engagement by moving lecture and research outside the classroom, thereby, leaving more time for student-led discussions and interactive activities during the synchronous instruction. Thus, the flipped instruction model enabled me to use technology to not only promote learning beyond the classroom but also create an active and collaborative learning environment”…

“Needs Must”? Critical reflections on the implications of the Covid19 ‘pivot online’ for equity in higher education

“Needs Must”? Critical reflections on the implications of the Covid19 ‘pivot online’ for equity in higher education

Written by: D Belluigi (Queen’s University Belfast), L Czerniewicz (University of Cape Town), S Khoo (National University of Ireland, Galway), A Algers (University of Gothenburg), LA Buckley (National University of Ireland, Galway), P Prinsloo (University of South Africa), E Mgqwashu (North West University), C Camps (University of South Wales), C Brink, R Marx (University of Edinburgh), G Wissing (University of the Witwatersrand), N Pallitt (Rhodes University)

…”This article offers reflections-in-action by 21 contributors from 18 institutions whose scholarship and/or practice in academic development (broadly conceived) spans 7 countries. As individuals, we were drawn together through networks of existing concerns about equity. Informed by critical traditions of scholarship and practice largely underpinned by a political ethos of social justice in the micro-curriculum, the thematic analysis in this paper outlines contributors’ critical deliberations during the initial ‘firefighting’ of this ‘watershed moment’ where the ‘equality debate now overlaps much more with the digital transformation debate’”…

Reflections about digital culture & education in a time of crisis in Argentina

Written and created by: Raquel Tarullo and the research team she leads, formed by Yanina Frezzotti, Javier Charne, Belisa Martino, Sabrina Pompei, Belén Chilano, Pablo Godoy, Clara Masciulli, Erica Izquierdo,  Lucía Papa, and Florencia Papa

Raquel Tarullo and the team at ‘Redes En Estudio’ based at Universidad Nacional del Noroeste de la Provincia de Buenos Aires (UNNOBA) have created an audio-visual book detailing their work around the impact of COVID-19 on Argentinean education. Please click the image below to see, listen, watch their interactive book!

Telematic Dramaturgy in the Time of Covid-19

Telematic Dramaturgy in the Time of Covid-19

Written and edited by: Glenn D’Cruz and Rea Dennis (Deakin University)

… "While most of the usual audio cues drifted in and out of our classes, depending on who was muting their microphones, we found that the camera provided a good sense of whether people were engaged with the class. After a little while, most students became less self-conscious about being on camera: we found it wasn’t difficult to detect enthusiasm or boredom by scanning the ZOOM rectangles”…

Corona Communities: Rethinking Digital Knowledge in a Time of Crisis

Corona Communities: Rethinking Digital Knowledge in a Time of Crisis

Written by: Jana Fedtke & Mohammed Ibahrine

…"There is no simple dichotomy between remote learning and “regular” classes in the physical classroom. These questions and positions show us that we need to continue to rethink the meaning of community, learning, knowledge creation, and our own practices. Reflection of current changes, flexibility, and adaptability are key to being successful in this new context. Whether we see this development as a new opportunity, as ‘technological barbarism,’ or something else, rethinking one’s practices and attitudes enables us to find new ways of engaging our students and ourselves”…

Visual Literacy and Maps: A Librarian Approach to Combating the COVID-19 Infodemic

Visual Literacy and Maps: A Librarian Approach to Combating the COVID-19 Infodemic

Written by: Jacqueline Fleming & Theresa Quill

…"The reason why misinformation surrounding COVID-19 and other global events is so prevalent, is because we live in a visual world that lacks an emphasis on the importance of having a visual education and continually overstimulates our senses with both true and false information. While there have been institution and national level efforts to address this issue, the onslaught of continuous information concerning COVID-19 has complicated and progressed this concern.”