A Participatory Pedagogical Model for Online Distance Learning: Ideation and Implementation

In spite of its increasing popularity, distance education faces challenges -- levels of digital literacy, access to technology, workload and time management, students' feelings of isolation and disconnection -- that can have a significant impact on the experience of the learners. In addressing these issues, we propose a pedagogical model for distance learning which promotes the synergy of eight ingredients -- Community, Openness, Multimodality, Participation, Personalisation, Learning, Experience, Technological-Enhancement, with their initial letters generating the acronym COMP-PLETE -- for the shaping of a highly participatory online learning experience and the creation of an active and cohesive community characterised by a strong sense of commitment towards the learning of the individuals and that of the group. This paper presents the theoretical rationale for and implementation of COMP-PLETE. It also provides recommendations for researchers and practitioners interested in cultivating an online learning community which responds well to the aforementioned challenges posed by distance education.

TeleNGAGE: Enhancing Collaboration between Families and Schools

Findings in the literature strongly support the importance of family engagement in education. However, effective partnerships between families and schools are rare, especially in ethnically diverse communities where families may lack efficacy or face structural challenges for engagement. Additionally, educator perspectives toward engagement are often framed by White, middle-class paradigms. Educators often fail to acknowledge structural challenges faced by low-income families or the cultural contributions low-income and/or minoritized families can bring. To facilitate engagement between families and schools, a new ECHO® line, TeleNGAGE, was developed at Oklahoma State University, Educational Leadership program. ECHO®, traditionally used in the field of medicine, has utility for professional development for educators because it offers a platform for case-based learning where real problems are addressed in real-time. Additionally, didactic presentations provide professional development for collaborative learning. Through the lens of Communities of Practice (CoP), this qualitative case study explores how relationships between families and schools changed as a result of participation in TeleNGAGE. Tenets of CoP, negotiated meaning, mutual engagement, and a shared repertoire, support a collaborative approach to addressing complex problems. Findings suggest that a CoP has emerged through TeleNGAGE and has resulted in changes in perspectives across families and educational leaders about "what it means to be engaged," enhanced family efficacy for engagement, and changes in engagement practice as family voice has expanded through sharing of concerns/perspectives. These findings have important implications for equitable engagement in a convenient, cost-free environment where educators and families can communicate and develop mutually supportive understandings and practices.

PREPARING FOR ESPORTS COMPETITIONS: GAMING COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE

Communities of practice are groups of people united by a passion for something, who deepen their knowledge and experience in their field through ongoing interactions. This article focuses on the importance of institutionalized relationship networks and mutual recognition in preparation for esports competitions. The study represents inductive, qualitative analyses. Individual in-depth interviews were conducted with players (n = 12) that have significant achievements in Magic: The Gathering (MTG) competitions. In the social world of MTG enthusiasts, numerous groups reflect the functionality of a community of practice. These groups constitute a fundamental aspect of preparation for top-level MTG tournaments. Examples of the functioning of so-called testing groups among MTG enthusiasts allow the formulation of a new analytical category – the gaming community of practice. Contrary to stereotypes, the presented study supports the thesis about the significant role of video games in the formation of social competencies and the creation of specific communities, which is particularly important in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.Alternate :Koncepcja wspólnoty praktyków zakłada, że jest to grupa osób, które łączy zamiłowanie do czegoś i które pogłębiają swoją wiedzę oraz doświadczenie w tym obszarze poprzez bieżące interakcje. Prezentowany artykuł skupia się na znaczeniu zinstytucjonalizowanych sieci relacji i wzajemnego uznania w przygotowaniach do rywalizacji w e-sporcie. Badanie stanowi przykład indukcyjnej jakościowej analizy. W jego ramach przeprowadzono indywidualne wywiady pogłębione z osobami (n = 12) mającymi znaczące osiągnięcia we współzawodnictwie w grze Magic: The Gathering (MTG). W społecznym świecie miłośników MTG liczne grupy odzwierciedlają funkcjonalność wspólnoty praktyków. Grupy te konstytuują podstawowy aspekt przygotowań do najważniejszych turniejów MTG. Przykłady funkcjonowania tak zwanych grup testingowych wśród miłośników MTG prowadzą do sformułowania nowej kategorii analitycznej – growych wspólnot praktyków. Wbrew stereotypom, prezentowane badania wspierają tezę o znaczącej roli gier wideo w kształtowaniu kompetencji społecznych i tworzeniu specyficznych wspólnot, co jest szczególnie istotne w kontekście pandemii COVID-19.

Women microbusiness owners' entrepreneurial marketing decision-making during a crisis

Understanding effective marketing decision-making is key to driving business performance. However, knowledge of marketing decision-making by microbusiness owners is limited. Moreover, little is known about how microbusiness owners make marketing decisions under crisis conditions. This article explores entrepreneurial marketing decision-making by women microbusiness owners during the COVID-19 pandemic, through qualitative interviews with providers of children's activities, who migrated their services online during lockdown. Findings shed light on their marketing decision-making by highlighting transitions between causation and effectuation approaches and identifying key resources leveraged in effectuation decision-making. We also observe how distinct principles of effectuation may be combined to make effective marketing decisions. In addition, we discern interactions within networks and membership of communities of practice as collective influences on women microbusiness owners' entrepreneurial marketing decision-making. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

VA-Approved Enterprise Standardization of Nursing Documentation Prompted by COVID-19

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, an interprofessional team from the Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Nursing Informatics and Office of Nursing Service was established to create standardized nursing documentation notes reflective of electronic health record modernization efforts. This foundational work established an enterprise methodology to electronically define and measure essential nursing documentation discrete data within an integrated complex health care system.

The Use of Tablet PCs in Previously Disadvantaged Secondary Schools in South Africa During the Covid-19 Pandemic

The South African Department of Basic Education (DBE) has considered the introduction of Tablet PCs an important aspect in improving the quality of education in South Africa. The Covid-19 pandemic has hastened the introduction of Tablet PCs due to the increased need for distance and online learning. Educators are often unwilling to accept and use Tablet PCs for teaching and learning because they do not have the necessary skills to integrate Tablet PCs into their pedagogical practices. This paper discusses the practical implications of the introduction of Tablet PCs into previously disadvantaged schools in South Africa specifically during the Covid-19 pandemic. To provide guidance to the DBE, principals, and educators to promote effective use and acceptance of Tablet PCs by educators for classroom and distance learning. © 2023, Association for Information Systems. All rights reserved.

Teaching the Arts in testing times: A Western Australian perspective on COVID impacts

Expert secondary Arts teachers are highly trained specialists well versed in face-to-face individual and group teaching pedagogies. Given the highly personalised nature of Arts teaching practice, the shift to online teaching resulting from COVID-19 lockdowns presented many with challenges for which they had little or no formal training. Many teachers felt stressed, isolated and unsure about where to turn for help. As there are demonstrated links between stress and attrition, it is important to reflect upon the experiences of these teachers with the aim of developing future mitigation strategies. The research reported here synthesises the online teaching experiences of 15 expert Arts specialists in Western Australia and revealed that being a digital native was not in itself sufficient to ameliorate online teaching challenges. Rather, the study found that teachers with deep pedagogical practice knowledge and a reflexive/flexible approach fared better than those with high levels of technology familiarity. The importance of collegiality and mentoring in an online setting, along with a reappraisal of teaching priorities emerged as key findings and serve as a timely reminder of the importance of collaboration, especially in testing times.

The impact of COVID-19 on overseas school leadership

This qualitative study investigated the impact of COVID-19 on leadership in public and private schools overseas. This research used a central phenomenon model to assess the pandemic's impact on school leadership. The research question and sub-research questions that guided this study were: (1) What were educational leaders' perceptions of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on their school leadership at public and private overseas schools? (1a) What primary challenges and opportunities were experienced at the onset of the pandemic? The COVID-19 pandemic influenced (1b) What challenges and opportunities for professional development? (1c) What challenges and opportunities were associated with distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic? This study collected data from email interviews comprised of 19 school leaders of K-12 students from public and private schools overseas to understand their experiences while leading during the pandemic. This study revealed behaviors school leaders endured through the ambiguity of teaching and learning, lack of preparation, and limited materials. Their voices told of the need for professional development embedded in professional learning communities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Middle school teacher methods for cultivating student autonomy: A PLC case study during COVID-19

The purpose of this PLC-informed qualitative interview case study was to explore middle school teacher methods for cultivating student autonomy and the rationale behind their instructional choices. Here, student autonomy was defined as learners taking ownership of their academic performance and scholastic responsibilities (Holec, 1981). The unforeseen emergence of COVID-19 impacted the format of this study and provided a rare opportunity for a six-week, nine-member professional learning community (PLC) focusing on the topic of student autonomy. A survey questionnaire, PLC transcripts, and 30-minute semi-structured qualitative exit interviews underwent thematic coding analysis to place teacher responses in the context of predominant voices found in academia today. Themes are examined from a leadership perspective, through the social justice lens of critical pedagogy (Freire, 1970;Giroux, 2011;McLaren, 2015). This study evolved to capture the teachers' lived experiences during the pandemic in order to gain their perspectives on how autonomy shifted along with the traditional means of instruction during this time of seismic change. Discussed are themes of performativity, teacher authenticity, social and emotional learning (SEL), PLCs as professional development (PD), motivation, constructivism, adaptive expertise, and metacognition, along with several others, nesting teachers' practical experience in the rich context of pedagogical theory, specifically when navigating new roles in remote and hybrid instruction. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Conclusion

The chapter presents the similarities and the differences between the different case studies reported in the book and suggests some conclusion on the impact of COVID-19 on policies and practices devoted to persons with cognitive disabilities from a macro, meso and micro point of view. The COVID-19 surveillance regime has made people with disabilities, and particularly with intellectual ones, even more invisible, since their rights have been consistently under-represented in the different national contexts. Persons with intellectual disabilities have been considered objects of protection and this overprotective stance turns into an increasing process of institutionalisation, segregation and familiarisation of care. The COVID-19 surveillance regime has brought into light the limits of the implementation of the UN Convention and of the EU Strategy, but the book and the emerging epistemic community, in the framework of public sociology, contribute to support the rights of all persons, with or without disabilities, in public welfare policies in Europe. © 2023 Anjali Ghosh and Eleni Koutsogeorgou. All rights reserved.

Introduction

The introduction presents the pandemic context as the new sanitary surveillance regime that has even more affected persons with disabilities. This book focuses on welfare disability policy, services and practices for and with people with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic time, examining the period between Winter 2020 and Spring 2022. A pandemic is a time when changes are accelerated, forcing the emergence of new solutions. The pandemic has called for innovation and reform in all disability welfare policies to overcome increasing and changing social needs. Despite the UN Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the European Strategy 2021-2030, the impact of the pandemic has been different in each country according to the features of each national policy framework and local responses. Nevertheless, the European policy framework is the context and the benchmarking reference for the analysis carried out in this work. This book develops a sociological analysis of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on policies, services and practices in several European contexts adopting a public sociology perspective. Moreover, the book looks at supportive and self-help activities implemented during the pandemic to answer the needs of the persons with disabilities. By collecting these data, the book outlines and develops the concept of a community of practices as a group of people that share a concern for something they do and learn how to do it better by interacting with each other on a regular basis. Then the structure and the methodological choices of the book are presented. © 2023 Angela Genova, Alice Scavarda and Maria Światkiewicz-Mośny. All rights reserved.

Boundary Crossing through Text and Image on Instagram in an Online Community of Practice

During COVID-19 lockdown many social media challenges captured the attention of users all around the world, and many online communities of practice used social media platforms for their daily interactions. On Instagram these communities gather around common interests through the platform's sociotechnical affordances. We examined the role that these features play in boundary maintenance processes and boundary crossing practices, analyzing posts from four online communities of practice (CoPs), who were bounded by their hashtags and shared an art recreation challenge that was popular on Instagram at the start of COVID-19 lockdown. We found that while some practices are shared across CoPs, boundary maintenance processes sometimes are not, and the boundaries of some of these CoPs are more permeable than others. Cultural differences, language, and script were critical for boundary maintenance regardless of the platform's visual affordances that served the boundary crossing practices. © 2023 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.

Digital Networks and Leadership Collaboration During Times of Uncertainty: An Exploration of Humanistic Leadership and Virtual Communities of Practice

Over the past two years, ripple effects from the Covid-19 pandemic have amplified disconnection and loss while also fueling greater human creativity and connection through technological mediums. How can leaders continue maximizing technology and collaboration to best support and foster interpersonal connection and innovation while also navigating the human conditions and emotions present during times of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA)? The unpredictable nature of these times requires leaders and change agents to continue learning and refining ways to help their teams, organizations, and communities to flourish. Within the current context of Covid-19 rebuilding and repair, this paper explores how participation in digital or virtual communities of practice (VCoP) and leadership centered on psychological safety and humanistic principles have been experienced by leaders and coaches. An informal discussion was facilitated, and a qualitative survey was conducted to begin exploring questions pertinent to VCoP and humanistic leadership (HL). Practitioner testimonials and key insights are shared. The findings of this exploratory study suggest that the main benefits of VCoP have been leader exposure to diverse industry practices and the bridging of physical and professional disconnection caused by Covid-19 social distancing and remote working requirements. Findings related to HL indicate that the leaders surveyed believe HL is essential in the work they do and that HL and fostering resilience entail both practicing and promoting holistic self-care and relational connection. Meaningful participation in VCoP and HL practices are framed as vital tools for leading and evolving in a post-Covid-19 world. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

An investigation into the use of a Facebook group by secondary English teachers during a pandemic

This study focuses on a Facebook group utilized by secondary English teachers during the initial crisis period of COVID 19, defined as March 2020-June 2020. During this period, teacher participants used this Facebook group as a community of practice to re-envision pedagogy, using social media as a third space in which to have discussions with other teachers, either to seek help or to share resources. After a qualitative content analysis of 630 initial posts, 14,500 comments, and 13,539 reactions, three themes were determined. Teachers used the Facebook group to re-envision pedagogy by discussing texts and related activities, teachers sought strategies for lessons to implement during a pandemic;by offering a forum for discussion about ethical considerations of social justice and school responsibility, the teachers sought a space to talk openly about how to respond to current events;and by serving as a space for solidarity and support among fellow English teachers, the teachers supported each other through change. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

The Mind's eyes: An autoethnographic exploration of learning to draw in adulthood

Amid a long period of deskilling in art school curricula, craft has been denigrated as inferior to art and confining for artists, but can craft liberate imagination? The purpose of this study was to understand the relationship between an adult learner's self-perceived capacity for imaginative expression in representational drawing and the development of her artisanal judgment during a self-directed program of classical study, online and in-person, over a period of 22 months (mostly during the coronavirus pandemic). The researcher created, coded, and analyzed drawings, photographs, field notes, diaries, and video recordings to track cognitive events and situative factors encountered in the process of learning to draw. Rooted in Kantian philosophy and guided by Polanyi's theory of tacit knowing, an analytic interpretation of findings revealed the role of knowledge (empirical, axiomatic, tacit) and epistemically felicitous falsehoods in achieving constructive perception, a capability suited to imaginative expression in drawing and the predominant challenge of navigating complex attentional dynamics. Findings also described the role of embodied modalities, which constituted a somatic activity system, in grounding cognition and supporting learning transfer. Exploration of communities of practice served as a rite of passage, bringing to light artistic apparatus and valuable opportunities for peer learning. The inquiry exposed the author's unhelpful assumptions about imagination and identified methods for developing it that could be earned, not merely gifted: elaborative sketching, engaging with art, visual research, perceptual and recollective drawing, constructive drawing, and problem finding. This firsthand processual account of adult learning recommends a holistic approach to constructivist pedagogy over naive, or trivial conceptualizations of constructivism in drawing curricula. In addition to helping novice artists heal the breach between skill-building and imagination, the study contributes to literature, in educational psychology and social sciences generally, on adult learning and cognition in the arts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Phenomenological study of the impact of COVID-19 on graduate counseling students

With the declaration of a pandemic in March 2020, unprecedented changes have occurred globally to mitigate the impact of COVID-19. This phenomenological qualitative study sought to understand the lived experiences of graduate counseling students at an Atlantic Canadian university as they were navigating the pandemic. The study also sought to explore the impact on their developing professional counseling identity and the adaptive processes that may provide insight into the participants' overall resilience in the face of crisis. Through semi-structured interviews with 15 participants, the following research questions were explored: What are the lived experiences of graduate counseling students during the COVID-19 pandemic;how do graduate counseling students perceive the impact of the pandemic on their professional identity;and how do graduate counseling students perceive their resilience and employ protective factors during the pandemic? Using the theoretical frameworks of Communities of Practice, family systems, and Family Resilience Framework, data was analyzed, and the following themes emerged from participants' responses to the research questions: impact on student well-being, impact on student learning, development of professional self, integration into the profession, cohort community of practice, meaning-making, positive outlook, and transformative growth. The findings of this study have implications for the development of the professional counseling identity and preservice counselor wellness in counselor education programs. Ongoing research is needed around the continuing preparation of preservice counselors for the profession's changing landscape. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Virtual Communities of Practice for Faculty and Staff in Higher Education: A Systematic Review of the Literature

En mars 2020, une école polytechnique canadienne est passée a l'apprentissage en ligne et a une communauté de pratique virtuelle (vCOP) en raison de la pandémie. La vCOP a été créée pour soutenir le corps enseignant et le personnel dans cette transition. L'école polytechnique a baptisé son vCOP Digital Learning Exchange (DigEx). En guise d'étape préliminaire a la recherche sur l'efficacité du DigEx, cette revue systématique de la littérature examine la littérature publiée sur les vCOP dans l'enseignement supérieur au cours des cinq dernieres années. Les recherches analysées se sont toutes déroulées avant ou pendant la pandémie mondiale de COVID-19 et permettent de saisir l'impact des vCOP pendant cette période de transition. Plusieurs aspects des vCOP étudiés sont identifiés et comparés, y compris les caractéristiques définissant les communautés, les outils numériques utilisés et les raisons de leur sélection, les impacts positifs de l'utilisation de ces outils numériques, les barrieres créées par l'application de la technologie, et les avantages ressentis suite a la participation du corps enseignant et du personnel aux vCOP.Alternate :In March 2020, in response to a global pandemic, a Canadian polytechnic moved to online learning and a virtual community of practice (vCOP). The vCOP, known as the Digital Learning Exchange (DigEx), was created to support faculty and staff in this transition. As a preliminary step in researching the efficacy of the DigEx, this systematic literature review examines recently published literature that examined vCOPs in higher education over the last five years. The studies reviewed all occurred before or during the COVID-19 global pandemic and serve to capture the impact of vCOPs during this time of transition. Several aspects of the vCOPs studied are identified and compared including the defining characteristics of the communities, the digital tools used and the rationale for their selection, the positive impacts of using these digital tools, the barriers created by applying the technology, and the benefits experienced as a result of faculty and staff participating in vCOPs.

Making in the midst of pandemic: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on two public library makerspaces

This qualitative research explored the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on makerspaces in the United States which were subject to public health guidelines and challenged with limited/no access to facilities. This multi-case study examined two public library makerspaces, and addressed these research questions: (1) How did the pandemic affect makerspace operations and access, and the teaching and learning that occurs there? (2) How did makerspace leaders respond to the challenges of the pandemic? (3) How did makerspaces evolve during the COVID-19 pandemic? I developed the Conceptual Framework for Studying the Impact of Pandemic on Public Library Makerspaces which informed the research questions and functioned as template for the research. I collected data digitally and used qualitative coding for within- and cross-case analysis. Findings indicated that the makerspaces shifted from a physical to a virtual setting using community of practice elements. Makerspace staff responded to challenges by reallocating or seeking alternate funding, embracing virtual opportunities to engage patrons in events and instruction, implementing online scheduling calendars, and restructuring services to offer maximum events/access. The makerspaces evolved in terms of staffing, funding, operations, equipment, and offerings. Findings support makerspaces as communities of practice. The study informs makerspace professionals who are adapting to change. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Analyzing a Data Science Online Practitioner Community: Trends and Implications for Data Science Project Management

The overarching goal of this research was to gain an understanding of what the data science Reddit online community discussed before, during, and after COVID-19. We used a publicly available Reddit API to harvest the r/datascience subreddit first level post data. We then performed manual annotation to explore the taxonomy of trends and themes discussed by the practitioners who belonged to reddit data science community. Then, we augmented the manually annotated data using a BERT model with topic modeling. In short, the key discussion themes, in order of frequency, were: Education, Jobs, Methods (of data science), Hardware and data collection, Data visualization, and Quality. The Quality theme includes discussions on bias, transparency, and fairness. Hence, a key finding was that there were very few discussions on data science project quality, especially trying to minimize the risk of machine learning bias. As discussions on bias are not yet common, data science teams should proactively identify and address potential questions and concerns that might arise in data science projects, especially the need to increase the team's focus on potential bias and fairness. © 2022 IEEE.

Early childhood education and the Covid-19 experience

This dissertation critically examined the perspectives of early childhood education professionals administering early childhood education programs in the midst of a pandemic. Responding to an unexpected interruption of services, with no predetermined end date, the work necessary to stabilize educational programming and reestablish connections to children and families less likely to have access to the internet or devices for virtual learning was explored. I as the researcher examined the work to reopen and the process of establishing a "new normal," drawing on a range of data sources including my own reflective journal and field notes as the Kinder Academy Executive Director. Using practitioner inquiry methodologies, I explored my own decision-making process and the understandings of the Kinder Academy administrative team by interviewing and conducting focus groups with team members to gain a higher-level understanding of the crisis through an alternative lens. I also explored the experiences and decision-making processes of colleagues, who were long-term early childhood education leaders in Philadelphia committed to providing each other with mutual support as we worked together as an Inquiry Community to develop ways to build and sustain our individual school communities and business operations. I conclude the study with a discussion of implications for early childhood leaders, practitioners, and policymakers. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)