Covid-19 and the decolonisation of education in Palestinian universities

Despite the severe social, health, political and economic impacts of the outbreak of Covid-19 on Palestinians, we contend that one positive aspect of this pandemic is that it has revealed the perils and shortcomings of the teacher-centered, traditional education which colonizes students' minds, compromises their analytical abilities and, paradoxically, places them in a system of oppression which audits their ideas, limits their freedoms, and curtails their creativity. While Israeli occupation has proven to be an obstacle in the face of the Palestinian government's attempt to combat and contain the Corona crisis, on-line education, the sole arena that escapes this colonial system, has forced many instructors to give up their domination over the process of education and to create a more collaborative atmosphere of education that is based on dialogue, research and flexibility of the curriculum content. This study is designed to gauge English literature students' responses to this mode of digital learning. We interviewed a hundred students from six English literature programs between March and August, 2020. Thus, through critically examining students' answers, and by drawing on Freire's concepts of banking education, consciousness and dialogue, we propose that online education is an important step towards the decolonization of education and a call for a paradigm shift on the account that the existing paradigm of traditional education is stifling students' creativity and critical thinking.

Effective environmental education for sustainable development beyond the Plastic Age in South Korea

The skyrocketing single-plastic demand during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic proved the limitation of top-down environmental policies in accomplishing sustainable consumption and waste management. Nevertheless, ‘smart consumers' can make smart choices for sustainable development. However, a review of the South Korean environmental education curriculum reveals that the current structure heavily leans towards the elementary level and does not enlighten the public on ‘what' and ‘how' to live sustainably. This study uses a quick survey to suggest that the effectiveness of environmental education may be enhanced if: (1) guidance on how to live with the natural environment in harmony for collective cooperation towards resilient and sustainable community building is incorporated with a clear purpose, (2) environment-friendly culture-building activities are enforced to institutionalise a new paradigm of sustainability to replace today's consumerism, and (3) contents are updated regularly to include Earth and environmental science knowledge in the state of art. © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Health in a post-COVID-19 world

In the previous article in this issue (S Afr J Sci. 2022;118(11/12), Art. #13165), the emergence and spread of COVID-19 pari passu with climate change and planetary degradation were interpreted as late manifestations in the trend towards gradual decline into disorder (entropy) in an unstable and ecologically threatened planet. In this article, as we contemplate a post-COVID world, the question is whether new insights could generate courageous, prescient leadership towards new paradigms of health, politics, economics, society, and our relationship with nature. A gloomy prognosis is postulated because of the power of many impediments to such changes, both in an increasingly polarised world and in South Africa as a microcosm. Despite many squandered opportunities and a decline in local and global cooperation between all who have a stake in the future, some hope is retained for innovative shifts towards sustainable futures. © 2022. The Author(s). Published under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence.

Challenges for University teachers in the midst of a paradigm shift

The COVID-19 pandemic suddenly became a reality at the beginning of 2020, affecting all parts of everyday life with higher education included. Teaching and learning were transferred online without any particular preparation in many cases, leading to the emergent distance education mode. Nevertheless, discussions have been centered around how this sudden change has led to a paradigm shift in education and how this shift is perceived by the actors included in it. This study presents the perspective of university teachers, in Sweden and Greece, as the receivers of this change but also as the facilitators of learning in this new setting. Focus group discussions showed how changes in higher education during the pandemic have reflected the stages of a paradigm shift according to Kuhn's theory. These stages are summarised in three waves, representing the sudden shift, the concerns for the new learning mode, and, finally, the challenge of the system and the reconsideration of identities. While university teachers in both groups seem to have experienced the process similarly, negative feelings towards change were observed to a higher extent in the Greek group, indicating a higher lack of trust in the respective higher education institution and the overall Greek education system © 2023,Academia (Greece). All Rights Reserved.

Neurological and Neuropsychiatric Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Albeit primarily a disease of respiratory tract, the 2019 coronavirus infectious disease (COVID-19) has been found to have causal association with a plethora of neurological, neuropsychiatric and psychological effects. This review aims to analyze them with a discussion of evolving therapeutic recommendations. METHODS: PubMed and Google Scholar were searched from 1 January 2020 to 30 May 2020 with the following key terms: "COVID-19", "SARS-CoV-2", "pandemic", "neuro-COVID", "stroke-COVID", "epilepsy-COVID", "COVID-encephalopathy", "SARS-CoV-2-encephalitis", "SARS-CoV-2-rhabdomyolysis", "COVID-demyelinating disease", "neurological manifestations", "psychosocial manifestations", "treatment recommendations", "COVID-19 and therapeutic changes", "psychiatry", "marginalised", "telemedicine", "mental health", "quarantine", "infodemic" and "social media". A few newspaper reports related to COVID-19 and psychosocial impacts have also been added as per context. RESULTS: Neurological and neuropsychiatric manifestations of COVID-19 are abundant. Clinical features of both central and peripheral nervous system involvement are evident. These have been categorically analyzed briefly with literature support. Most of the psychological effects are secondary to pandemic-associated regulatory, socioeconomic and psychosocial changes. CONCLUSION: Neurological and neuropsychiatric manifestations of this disease are only beginning to unravel. This demands a wide index of suspicion for prompt diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 to prevent further complications and mortality.

Les impacts neurologiques et neuropsychiatriques d'une infection à la COVID-19. CONTEXTE: Bien qu'il s'agisse principalement d'une maladie des voies respiratoires, la maladie infectieuse à coronavirus apparue en 2019 (COVID-19) s'est avérée avoir un lien de causalité avec une pléthore d'impacts d'ordre neurologique, neuropsychiatrique et psychologique. Cette étude entend donc analyser ces impacts tout en discutant l'évolution des recommandations thérapeutiques se rapportant à cette maladie. MÉTHODES: Les bases de données PubMed et Google Scholar ont été interrogées entre les 1er janvier et 30 mai 2020. Les termes clés suivants ont été utilisés : « COVID-19 ¼, « SRAS ­ CoV-2 ¼, « Pandémie ¼, « Neuro ­ COVID ¼, « AVC ­ COVID ¼, « Épilepsie ­ COVID ¼, « COVID ­ encéphalopathie ¼, « SRAS ­ CoV-2 ­ encéphalite ¼, « SRAS ­ CoV-2 ­ rhabdomyolyse ¼, « COVID ­ maladie démyélinisante ¼, « Manifestations neurologiques ¼, « Manifestations psychosociales ¼, « Recommandations thérapeutiques ¼, « COVID-19 et changement thérapeutiques ¼, « Psychiatrie ¼, « Marginalisés ¼, « Télémédecine ¼, « Santé mentale ¼, « Quarantaine ¼, « Infodémique ¼ et « Médias sociaux ¼. De plus, quelques articles de journaux relatifs à la pandémie de COVID-19 et à ses impacts psychosociaux ont également été ajoutés en fonction du contexte. RÉSULTATS: Il appert que les manifestations neurologiques et neuropsychiatriques des infections à la COVID-19 sont nombreuses. Les caractéristiques cliniques d'une implication des systèmes nerveux central et périphérique sautent désormais aux yeux. Ces caractéristiques ont fait l'objet d'une brève analyse systématique à l'aide de publications scientifiques. En outre, la plupart des impacts d'ordre psychologique de cette pandémie se sont révélés moins apparents que les changements réglementaires, socioéconomiques et psychosociaux. CONCLUSION: Les manifestations neurologiques et neuropsychiatriques de cette maladie ne font que commencer à être élucidées. Cela exige donc une capacité accrue de vigilance en vue d'un diagnostic rapide, et ce, afin de prévenir des complications additionnelles et une mortalité accrue.

Theming electracy: An interview with Gregory L. Ulmer

This interview seeks to provide a thorough and discerning overview of the various theories, concepts and issues guiding the work of Gregory L. Ulmer. The central aim of Ulmer's multifaceted project, which he terms electracy, is to theorize a skill-set intended to operate with networked technologies, in the same manner as literacy is an ability related to alphabetic writing. In Ulmer's words, electracy 'is to digital media what literacy is to print'. While literacy enables the mind to develop complex lines of reasoning, he suggests that electracy augments it by seeking to enhance the affective capacity of the body. In a more general sense, Ulmer conceptualizes electracy as the era, or, as he also puts it, an apparatus, dominated by digital technologies. To theorize various aspects of this apparatus, Ulmer compares and contrasts it with the other apparatuses (that of literacy and orality). The interview also situates Ulmer's insights within our current cultural context of a post-COVID world and examines the various social implications such insights entail. Moving from Greek antiquity, through Kafka and even Mickey Mouse, Ulmer provides an unnerving and motivating method for better understanding and interrogating the problems that we all face, particularly with regard to education. He also sheds light on other contemporary issues such as digital misinformation and the waning trust in traditional institutions. In addition to offering a 'crash course' on Ulmerian theory, the interview interrogates the ways in which electracy can help us develop new angles for digital pedagogy, but also for living and being, after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The necessity revealed by COVID-19 pandemic: Paradigm shift of Iran's healthcare system.

Background: COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in drastic changes around the world, revealing vulnerable aspects of healthcare systems. This study aimed to explore how Iranian healthcare system experienced the paradigm shift during the pandemic and determine the aspects that need improvement during the pandemic era. Method: This qualitative study was conducted in 2021. A framework analysis approach was used to analyze the content of the 19 semi-structured interviews with the healthcare system experts from Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (SUMS). The interviews' audio files changed into transcript after each session and data was saturated at the 19 interview. To increase the trustworthiness of the study, Guba and Lincoln's criteria including credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability were used. Goldsmith's five-step framework analysis was used applying MAX QDA version 10 software. Result: Eight main themes and 20 subthemes were explored. The main themes included "strengthening the electronic health infrastructure," "research for evidence-based decision making," "dedicated financing to the pandemic," "prevention of disruption in the effective provision of services and medicines," "enriching the authority of the Ministry of Health by focusing on interactions," "recruiting, managing and empowering health human resources with attention to financial and non-financial incentives," "reforming educational approaches in training students in medical universities," as well as "lessons learned from neglected aspects." Conclusion: To be ready to respond to a possible future pandemic and for a paradigm shift, bold steps must be taken to make fundamental changes in various aspects of the healthcare system including e-health development, evidence-based decision making, dedicated budgets for pandemics, reinforcement of interactions at the national and international level, as well as sufficient attention to healthcare workers from all financial, non-financial and educational aspects.

Post-Pandemic Greenness? How Central Banks Use Narratives to Become Green

Suggested only a few years ago, green central banking has received a new impetus with the central bank interventions implemented in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Several central banks, with the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of England (BoE) being prominent examples, have stepped up their public communication on this issue in an effort to explain and justify their planned or ongoing policy actions. Carefully recorded and easy to find, these public communication messages are a rich source of insight into the process of monetary policy formation. In this article, we analyze the messages from two central banks, with the primary objective of identifying the narratives they use (if any) and describing the key features of these narratives, thus shedding new light on an ongoing process of policy change. A secondary objective of the article is to contribute to the growing literature related to the use of narratives in public policy by studying narratives in monetary policy through qualitative means, an approach that, to date, has received relatively little attention from scholars. To this end, we discuss two expectations related to the use of policy narratives derived from the literature. Thus, we hope to show how the two central banks devise and deploy narratives to help implement an unprecedented turnaround in monetary policy. © 2023 by the authors.

Latency-, Sync-, and Bandwidth-Agnostic Tightly-Timed Telematic and Crowdsourced Musicking Made Possible Using L2Ork Tweeter

The following paper presents L2Ork Tweeter, a new control-data-driven free and open source crowdsourced telematic musicking platform and a new interface for musical expression that deterministically addresses three of the greatest challenges associated with the telematic music medium, that of latency, sync, and bandwidth. Motivated by the COVID-19 pandemic, Tweeter's introduction in April 2020 has ensured uninterrupted operation of Virginia Tech's Linux Laptop Orchestra (L2Ork), resulting in 6 international performances over the past 18 months. In addition to enabling tightly-timed sync between clients, it also uniquely supports all stages of NIME-centric telematic musicking, from collaborative instrument design and instruction, to improvisation, composition, rehearsal, and performance, including audience participation. Tweeter is also envisioned as a prototype for the crowdsourced approach to telematic musicking. Below, the paper delves deeper into motivation, constraints, design and implementation, and the observed impact as an applied instance of a proposed paradigm-shift in telematic musicking and its newfound identity fueled by the live crowdsourced telematic music genre. © 2022, International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. All rights reserved.

Teleworking in Romania during Covid-19 crisis: From conjunctional adaptation to change of economic paradigm

The COVID-19 crisis has led to a raise in the number of people working remotely. This paper aims at identifying the extent to which the pandemic will determine a paradigm change regarding teleworking in Romania Our research is based on two surveys designed to assess the impact of teleworking both on individuals and on efficiency at the organizational level. The results show that, generally, teleworking has significant advantages, both for employees and employers. As we become aware of these advantages, it is quite likely that Romania will experience a paradigm shift in terms of teleworking, as both managers and employees consider that teleworking becomes a very good option. However, the changes will be gradual and with different intensities at the sectoral level, as teleworking must be adapted to the specificities of each sector or activity. While some sectors tend to make teleworking the new organizational culture, others will capitalize on the benefits of teleworking progressively, in relation to technological endowments and structural changes that will continue to occur. On the other hand, teleworking has the advantage of promoting the improvement of digital skills for employees, which is a great step forward for a higher degree of digitisation.

Leader to leadership: A paradigm shift?

Global estimates of employees in the post-pandemic era have shown that a large portion of the workforce has been impacted- most negatively impacted. Leadership needs to be redefined as consisting of two parts, leader and leadership. The first is that the individual must learn how to be a leader. This often involves individuals learning new skills in change management, conflict management, culture/diversity/inclusion, morals and ethics in business, and teamwork skills, to name only a few. Once individuals can lead themselves, and only then can they grow to lead others. This growth component involves individuals practicing their leader skills while being exposed to feedback and evaluation from peers to learn better how to be more effective at leading other people. At the practitioner level, a differentiation needs to be made between leader and leadership development. Each level needs the opportunity to practice and mature. Leader and leadership development initiatives must be directly associated with the correct competencies because the competencies at the leader level are different from those at the leadership level. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Proposal for a Paradigm Shift in Personalized Medicine for Patients with a Maxillary Edentulous Jaw by ENT Specialist and Dentist Cooperation.

With the spread of oral implant therapy, serious medical complications related to implant surgery are becoming a social problem. Although the number of complications after implant surgery in the edentulous jaw is decreasing in Japan, maxillary-sinus-related complications (MSRCs) have reached the highest number since 2012. It is essential to identify and eliminate possible predisposing risk factors for MSRCs at an early stage to prevent MSRCs. In this review article, we highlight the causal factors of postoperative complications with or without sinus augmentation for the maxillary molar region to achieve optimal treatment outcomes and reduce complications. In particular, we focus on anatomical variations that can cause the impairment of maxillary sinus drainage. Furthermore, we emphasize that the paradigm for personalized medicine for patients with a maxillary edentulous jaw by ENT specialist and dentist cooperation is shifting from the traditional assessment of maxillary sinus pathologies alone to the new assessment of anatomic variations that can cause the impairment of maxillary sinus drainage in addition to maxillary sinus pathologies.

Life with Covid-19: Swot Analyses for Transformative Digital Learning in Educators' Perspective

Covid-19 pandemic has influenced all fields of life, including education, teaching and learning procedure. Initially the situation seemed vague and uncertain, but still challengeable, by moving almost all processes online and offering the digital or distance learning. The aim of the article to identify key aspects of distance learning from educator's perspective following Covid-19 and basing on the research results to offer transformative digital learning strategy for educational institution. The authors draw attention to the procedure how to redirect weakness and threats into strengths and opportunities, by implementing necessary changes at four indicated levels: individual, institutional, local government and state one. An important part for any strategy creation, including transformative digital learning (TDL) strategy for educational institution, is the detailed situation analyses. SWOT analysis structure has been offered by analyzing respondents' views for the conducted online questionnaire for educators and experts' interviews Additionally literature review has been made to create the list of key elements necessary for the TDL strategy development, including global networking providers and nowadays paradigm shift -the transformative one.

A Study to Evaluate the Audience's Satisfaction Towards the Changes of the Television Programs during the Lockdown

Individuals were restricted to their homes for the duration of the lockdown, and as a consequence, families were occupied for an extended period of time. The unparalleled increase in Television viewership amidst the whole family has abided as a habit. This covid 19 authenticated the evolution and modification of Television in the lockdown. The large flood of television viewers has resulted in the emergence of new consuming habits as a consequence of the massive influx of viewers. Many people were addicted to their television sets, which they watched more often throughout the week and at all hours of the day. Males and their families began to dominate the viewing unit, which had previously been controlled by women. As the whole family watches television together at all hours of the day and night, on-prime time has been changed into new prime time, with a huge increase in viewership. There were tremendous change in the programs which is analyzed and also should need to figure out the Television consumption during the lockdown days and high time to find out whether the audiences were satisfied with the changes of major programs during the lockdown days. The Methodology incorporated is Quantitative approach to analyze the changes of programs in the television channels, Television consumption by the audiences and the satisfaction/dissatisfaction with the changes of programs during the lockdown days.

Perception of Esl and Efl Students Towards Code-Switching in Online Classrooms: An Exploratory Study

COVID-19 pandemic resulted in paradigm shifts and changes in educational landscape especially in the field of English Language Teaching, thus requiring teachers to tailor instruction and even relax language prescription to aid students in the new normal. Code-switching, a linguistic phenomenon normally practiced by ESL and EFL students, penetrates online classrooms beyond doubt. The purpose of this study is to examine the ESL and EFL students' perception towards code-switching in online classrooms. Using a qualitative method, data were collected through a focus group discussion with 2 sets of participants: 9 Filipino ESL students and 7 Vietnamese EFL students. Moreover, this study used the sequential analysis by Creswell (2018) on data generation. Findings indicated that a majority of FGD participants believe that shifting from English to their native language enhances their language proficiency in the target language, increases their participation, and has become a normal linguistic practice in online classrooms. However, a few FGD participants have ambivalence towards code-switching such as poor English language proficiency and extreme dependence and reliance on their teachers. The analysis also revealed three ways how code-switching is used as tool for English language learning in the online classrooms: (1) achieving linguistic competencies prescribed in the curriculum, (2) managing online classrooms, and (3) building connection between teachers and students. FGD participants call ESL and EFL teachers to use code-switching as an accommodation strategy for more effective English language learning and teaching in the new normal.

Halting COVID-19 Requires Collective, Decentralized, and Community-Led Responses.

Many global health organizations are reliant on the funding provided by a few dozen high-income countries, making them fiscally insecure and fragile, especially during times of global crises. The COVID-19 pandemic could be an opportunity to move away from this status quo to a more decentralized, multipolar, and community-led approach. The global health community can take four immediate steps in response to the pandemic to start that paradigm shift now: support more regional and country-specific responses, convince national and regional business houses and philanthropies to make up for response funding shortfalls, leverage public health advocacy to improve investments in public health infrastructure, and put community leaders and members at the frontlines of mitigation efforts.

Evolutionary Transformation of the Global System and the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Search for a New Development Trajectory

In this study, we aim to determine how the global turmoil of COVID-19 acts as a catalyst for global transformations. After examining recent sociological and economic implications of this pandemic crisis, we analyse specific theoretical frameworks that can be helpful to illuminate some of the features of the current global evolutionary readjustment from an elliptic point of view. These theoretical approaches are the techno-economic paradigm shift, the notion of ‘endless transition’, the fourth industrial revolution analytical framework, and the approach of ‘new globalisation’. Finally, we identify that the current pandemic crisis has caused a ‘stroke’ to the world economy that accelerates developments and radically intensifies the pre-existing challenges. Especially for the less developed, stable, and resilient socio-economic systems and organisations (the case study of Cyprus is examined, respectively), we conclude that their survival and growth depends primarily upon their potential for adaptiveness, innovation, and on building efficient change management aptitudes and mechanisms. © 2021, University of Nicosia. All rights reserved.

Managing Online Classes in the Post-COVID-19 Era: Choices and Challenges

In the pandemic period, there has been a paradigm shift in the teaching-learning strategies, due to the ever-increasing importance and intervention of technology in the curriculum at all the levels. Both the learners and teachers have been forced to adopt the new strategies and adapt to the changing needs in the transaction of curriculum. However, in a country like ours, where nearly 70% of the population live in the rural or semi-urban with limited or no exposure to ICT-enabled teaching-learning infrastructure and majority of the population cannot afford expensive smartphones, planning, conducting, and managing online classes on a large scale is a great challenge. In the COVID-19 scenario, when the physical congregation of the learners and teachers is either prohibited or constrained with SOPs, the online platform has become the most suitable alternative. As many of the teachers and learners are new to this new mode of teaching and learning, they need to be aware of the skills as well etiquette to make the teaching-learning transactions effective and successful. In spite of the tall claims that institutions and governments make, the internet bandwidth available with learners in most of the rural and inaccessible pockets of the country is often inadequate to support live-streaming of the online classes and the storage facility available with the mobiles is not enough to help the learners download the classes and watch them at their convenience. In a situation like this, the challenges encountered by the teachers while conducting and managing the online classes are more than the choices available. The present paper proposes to discuss the choices available to the teachers, the challenges they are likely to encounter and the innovative pedagogies and skills they need to exhibit to make such online classes effective, engaging and successful. The paper is based upon the findings of a survey conducted during the pandemic period on the effectiveness of online classes for teaching and learning.

Pedagogical Shift in Education Sector: A Necessity in Light of COVID-19 Pandemic

The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has collapsed the entire education system not only in India but across the globe. Its outbreak as a pandemic has brought sudden transformation in many sectors of the global community which has impacted everything including the education sector. The sudden transformation in the teaching pedagogy due to COVID-19 has resulted in some benefits, challenges, and inequalities. This paper attempts to draw a holistic picture of the best teaching practices in synchronous online spaces during pandemic conditions. It also aims to provide suggestions and measures to mitigate the challenges created by the newly developed pedagogy. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.