Challenges and opportunities: Videoconferencing, innovation and development

Technology and educational ‘pivoting’ in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic: A collected commentary

“…We are delighted that several of the articles in this special issue already start to address historical issues in various ways. Some do so quite directly: Petichakis (2022), for example, compares a course in its new, 'online flipped' variant with the pre-pandemic version and draws attention to changes in design and student experience, while Gatrell (2022) traces the ongoing struggles arising from supporting teaching staff in enacting change against the backdrop of particular institutional provision. For others, historicity is expressed via culture and values.…”

“…Gatrell (Gatrell, 2022) writes from the perspective of an Educational Development Officer tasked with facilitating a Hong Kong university's move to emergency remote teaching (ERT) during the first stages of the pandemic. Indeed, Hong Kong and mainland China were among the first territories to move to 100% remote teaching as the realities of the Covid-19 outbreak became apparent.…”

“…Emergency remote teaching is just that, an emergency stop gap response. Online teaching needs to be "well-planned [and] high-quality" (Dovrat, 2022), enlist and involve advocates for change in a "successful alliance" (Gatrell, 2022) and "take into consideration students' lives" (Al-Ali, 2022). To conclude, if we are to really prevent statements such as "I hate online teaching", then we need to combine scholarship and research with practical experience and embrace the opportunities the pandemic has given us to learn what truly effective online teaching is.…”

“…Regarding the technologies involved, their mediating characteristics for emergency remote teaching are discussed by Gatrell (2022) who exposes and aggravates contradictions in teaching and learning. The author uses the social impetus of the emergency to initiate a collaborative partnership for technological innovations, investigating the roles of video and other mediating technologies.…”

Technology and educational ‘pivoting’ in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic: Introduction to the special issue

“…Our sixth paper, by Dave Gatrell (2022), is entitled Challenges and opportunities: Videoconferencing, innovation and development. While Gatrell draws inspiration from the literature on emergency remote teaching, he frames the issue in an unusually holistic way: noticing that there is much valuable insight that can be gleaned from the scholarship on pedagogy during previous public health crises, natural disasters, and protest-related disruptions.…”