As a result, teachers are suddenly faced with the challenge of how to continue their students’ education. While this might seem a daunting task, there are several ways teachers can utilize the technology and resources already available to support online learning and ensure students still receive a quality education. 

cited from

https://www.futurelearn.com/info/blog/resources-for-online-teaching-during-coronavirus

Hi! some universities already have prior experiences in offering online courses, distance learning where they have lecturers who are well acquainted regarding online deliveries and assessments. On the contrary those institutions who are comparatively new in digital transformation due to the pandemic can have collaborative training sessions with other universities having more experiences in online deliveries to improve media and digital competencies of their staffs. Thanks.

Yes it's a challenging issue. But most medical professors are getting well adapted so as to ensure uninterrupted medical education across the globe.

In our case, in fairness the universities and commission on higher education are trying to bridge the gap between the laggard, late adapters, and traditional teachers to the so called blended learning. Numerous webinars teaching teachers the very basics of MS powerpoint, MS excel, etc up to the nature and complexities of webinars and module making. In my end, teachers are bound to live to adapt in any situations. We need to dance with the music, passed through the needle's eye and even break an atom in to two for our students' sake.

Trinity University of Asia, the institution that I teach in, conducted a week-long training of all faculty members. The training covered topics like digital stress and how to make us of different platforms in sustaining the interests of students online.

great

Following.

Hi Agnoldo,

This is an important question because universities are having to grapple with online/distance teaching and trainee school teachers need also to be prepared for school teaching in a blended or completely distanced/online teaching and learning. Another degree of complexity is also added when many universities have to provide both synchronous and asynchronous teaching to cater for students from different time zones and those who are doing practical lab based subjects.

As university students themselves, trainee teachers will need to learn how to access and use learning technology software, digital platforms and learning environments such as Moodle, Zoom, MS Teams, Collaborate, Lecturecast, Echo 360, Padlet, Unitu, virtual common rooms and so one. Any research surveys trainee teachers want to undertake may need to be conducted online because face to face data collection is unethical in a COVID-19 pandemic and may expose them to harm so they may want to use Survey Monkey for example.

Doing practical work in schools may also be a challenge due to health concerns so trainee teachers may need to teach mini-lessons online for comment and feedback.

I think it is a matter of digital resources, staff capacity, location, preparedness and institutional creativity so will vary from one institution to another.

Dear Shamima Raihan Manzoor, Sujan Mahapatra, د. سليمان رجب الشيخ thank you for the shared experience, I think it could be a good suggestion to create academic networks for exchanging experiences between institutions that already have previous experience, sharing knowledge.

Dear Sumanta Chakraborty , I also agree that this is a big issue. The efforts of everyone in this moment of transition have been very important, especially in the areas of health, such as the medical, in continuing with the training of health professionals who are performing a fantastic job.

Dear Jesryl Paulite , thank you for sharing the experience, I think the type of support from the institution you mentioned is essential at this point. Having the support of the institution to train teachers and more importantly having the support of colleagues to develop the work. I fully agree, that the teacher has a fundamental role, in welcoming students, and with institutional support this becomes more viable.

Dear Dennis Luis De Dios Abellera , I found your experience developed at Trinity University in Asia very interesting, as it seems that the focus was not only on technical skills, but also considering other related issues such as digital stress and maintaining student engagement, which are dimensions of values in media and digital skills from the teacher.

Dear Dima Khazem, I appreciate the sharing of experiences. I also agree that it is very important for the teacher and future teacher to have the opportunity to learn to use the different platforms and resources to be able, according to their demands, to provide the best experience for their students. But also, as pointed out in your comment, the question of laboratory practice activities, in some cases can be compensated with the use of simulators but not all. Which brings the discussion the possibility of combining the different modalities. And within media and digital skills there are dimensions of values, humanized with questions and care in relation to ethical practices in virtual environments. I think it is very important that there is no single answer, but that different contexts and cultures are respected, and teachers have been very creative at the moment, as they always have been. I think that being able to expand our academic networks for collaboration and exchange of experience has been very important.

COVID-19 has given an learning opportunity to adapt to the new way of delivering teaching and training. Trainers need to be helped in non conventional ways of teaching.

Iyengar K, Mabrouk A, Jain VK, Venkatesan A, Vaishya R. Learning opportunities from COVID-19 and future effects on health care system. Diabetes Metab Syndr. 2020;14(5):943-946. doi: 10.1016/j.dsx.2020.06.036

Dear Karthikeyan P Iyengar , thank you for your collaboration in sharing the article related to health education. It is very important at this moment to rethink teaching activities with the support of different resources, but also in terms of giving opportunity and inclusion to those who are not following the teaching.

I agree.

However training of the teachers is required first for effective use of telemedicine.

Dear Pranav Ish , exactly. Teacher training for higher education is the beginning, and we must also include media and digital skills. Because with training, he can act in different modes, whether in face-to-face, online or blended, according to the need and possibilities.

Only, the teachers need mentality change, mean that the teachers must development competency and skills, in attitudes, strategies, solutions in educations.

Dear @Agnaldo Arroio your query has opened up an opportunity for people to share their experiences and motivations for their online work in COVID_19 time. Given that you have asked about how such work supports teachers and future teachers it is interesting to see how the responses are about teachers and instructors at the university level. This left me thinking about two issues.

i) Teacher versus instructor as they are not the same role. A teacher engages their students with ideas, theories or concepts. An instructor focuses on a trainee doing something that is specific such as developing a certain skill or being able to complete a task.

ii) Teacher education is a professional program that equips them with the professional expertise to do their job. Educating students requires a teacher to be able to facilitate learning by knowing what they are to teaching and why i.e. the curriculum; and creating a learning environment that is inclusive and supports their students to engage and succeed. These settings include classrooms, schools, higher education or the wider community.

This then brings me to my response to your question about developing the media and digital competencies of teachers. Using a collaborative model, @Andrea Webb and I developed a series of workshops to respond to some just-in-time needs of our colleagues who were being asked to develop online courses for the first time. We covered learning intentions; setting up online course shells; using varied learning activities and assessment; and synchronous and asynchronous learning. There is more to come as our colleagues are developing both their confidence and competence for delivering online. Our Department is heavily involved in teacher education so we wanted to make sure that we modeled sound pedagogical practices and the materials we developed are available to all of our departmental colleagues as a collegial and organic space.

Dear Kerry Renwick , I thank you for your cooperation, I think that the more we can exchange prices, I believe that we will leave with less scars from the whole process imposed by the pandemic and the need for isolation. In our case in Brazil, we do not have this difference between Professor x Instructors, which I found very important for considering the differences in the organization of institutions in different countries. But I think there is a need for articulation between their work, considering the training of students. I also agree with this aspect of the relevance of teacher training for higher education. As a profession there must be specific training. I liked your experience in practically creating a community, which supports, assists and shares knowledge. I think that at that moment most teachers were looking for more immediate questions, many with a focus on technological resources, the tool, which is understandable. But I believe that this movement needs to continue, deepening some themes and expanding to other domains. It is very interesting to know that your department created conditions and was involved in the actions, this is fantastic !!! I think it would be interesting to also think about how we could think about crossing borders and involving people from different institutions, this could be very important and interesting !!!

We can create communities, academic network, partners around the globe!!!

Dear Agnaldo,

For next academic year, more likely there will be a mix of online-only and hybrid teaching methods.

The hybrid approach includes both online and face-to face to different ratios for the delivery of contents.

However, if things get really bad because of Covid-19 health crisis, then faculty and students can switch completely to the online-only method of delivery.

Best regards

Prof. Dr. Mazin A. M. Al Janabi

Full Professor of Finance & Banking and Financial Engineering

EGADE Business School, Tecnologico de Monterrey,

Santa Fe Campus, Mexico City, Mexico.

Thank you Agnaldo Arroio for your question. There is a need for training, not just on digital skills but also on teaching and facilitation skills online. How to reshape the sessions to fit onto online teaching and how to interact with students. How to prepare tasks and enhance interaction online?

We have to remember that there will be second, third and fourth waves of COVID-19 over the next 6-18 months and schools/universities will be interrupted and we will go back to online learning. Therefore we have to be ready.

Various high learning instititutions have resolted into e-learning mode.However ,this has come with its own challenges because of the expenses involved in buying bundles especially for the students coming from law income families.In addition network is another challenge in some areas.

Agnaldo Arroio,

There has to be a happy blend of media and digital skills together with communication skills, the very art of teaching, motivating and accompanying the students. Covid-19 brought in physical distancing. In reality, in this context, media got an opportunity to play its vital role to inform, form and transform. The Covid-19, the Post Covid-19 and the days and years to come have to be considered within the larger context of human sciences and information technology.

Agnaldo Arroio,

There has to be a happy blend of media and digital skills together with communication skills, the very art of teaching, motivating and accompanying the students. Covid-19 brought in physical distancing. In reality, in this context, media got an opportunity to play its vital role to inform, form and transform. The Covid-19, the Post Covid-19 and the days and years to come have to be considered within the larger context of human sciences and information technology.

Dear Teresa Joseph , I appreciate your comments, and I agree with you. In fact, communication skills in the educational field are fundamental. And I believe that in teacher training courses they can be better addressed and integrated into the curricula. And I share the same considerations, in the post-covid-19 scenario, we can articulate the humanities and information and communication technologies more. I think that at the moment the more we share good practices the more we will contribute to the debate.

Thanks for the feedback Agnaldo.

Dear Samy Azer, thank you for your comments. In fact, it is necessary to have an articulation between the development of digital and media skills with communication skills and knowledge of the educational field. This is not a conversion that makes it more likely for online situations now, but being thought and planned for another modality. And above all how interactions happen in that situation. Also part of this concern, and when there will be a second, third wave, but regardless of that, it will be able to advance with a more modern training in teacher training.

Dear Harrison Phiri, thank you for taking up this issue again. We have many students and families who are unable to monitor online activities, what is the role and responsibilities of government officials in providing access and conditions for these families. It is not just a matter of providing an internet access kit, but in addition these people need to feed themselves. How do you keep your studies focused if you're hungry?

Though online teaching was started at the beginning of COVID 19, now it seems to be staying. It is a trying time for many teachers across the world as they are still struggling to shift from the classroom model to digital screen teaching. In this context, there are two very important aspects to be considered:

1. To make sure that each and every stakeholder of the education eco-system has access to the digital network and infrastructure.

2. It is very important to train students also and not only the teachers. If students and teachers both are not trained to use the online pedagogy, the outcome will always remain problematic.

All kind of subjects delivery in online mode very doubtful in future. Example Mathematics and medical science..

Institutions need to give training to teachers and students, high-speed internet, hardware, etc.

It is difficult and will take time in developing countries, I agree

Dear Pranav Ish, exactly. I also agree that the institutions must provide training support and resources for the professors of the Universities, especially for those who deal with the training of future teachers. And government officials should enter into agreements with mobile operators to provide access to students and teachers at public schools.

Dear Kanagaraj Venusamy, I appreciate the comments. I do not think that they should be replaced, as has already been said, at the moment it is a necessary transition as it is not yet possible to carry out face-to-face activities. But why, in possible cases, do not perform Blended modalities?

Lack of access also limitis acquisiton/development of the digital literacy and skills required by teachers, students and thier communities.

Dear Preeti Oza, I really appreciate your thoughts. Despite the emergency problem we are experiencing around the globe. There is still resistance to changing educational practices, because at this moment we had to experience other ways of teaching not to think about what positive we can consider. I think two crucial issues, I fully agree that conditions must be created so that everyone can have access and minimum conditions. And very well remembered, we often assume that because students consume a lot of media and use electronic devices that they are prepared for educational activities. The idea of media education for all, media and information literacy is very important. It has seen the proliferation of fake news, including hindering the fight against the covid-19 pandemic.

Dear Abdulridha Taha Sarhan, I agree with you. It seems to me that there should be a collective effort, by governments to provide infrastructure and by Universities and educational institutions to support the necessary training, in terms of education, communication, which enables the media and information literacy of those involved, students and teachers. And why not family members?

As a result, teachers are suddenly faced with the challenge of how to continue their students’ education. While this might seem a daunting task, there are several ways teachers can utilize the technology and resources already available to support online learning and ensure students still receive a quality education. 

cited from

https://www.futurelearn.com/info/blog/resources-for-online-teaching-during-coronavirus

Thanks dear dr Agnaldo Arroio for your comment and contribution.

Hello Arroio;

This question is very pertinent, but it is more related to teachers who already work in basic education at the present time. considering that I'm part of this group, however I do not feel unprepared, because I am part of an experimental project that has been working in Bahia (Complexos Integrados de Educação-CIEs) I that perspective. We are always updating and disseminating new methodological approaches to the educational network in Bahia. But most teachers face the lack of infrastructure and access to technology by students.

The starting point is profiling of teachers with respect to tech and media and assessing their context with respect to e-infrastructure. Then develop an in-service program to re-tool them. Bear in mind the varied characteristics and competencies of the teachers; some of them are digital immigrants and older. The training should be presented using e-learning pedagogies (online learning) as much as possible so that they learn the craft of using tech and media as they apply them in their daily work.

Exactly Mabel Bothasitse;

I totally agree with you.

I agree with you and teachers need to be train more on the usage of on line teaching.

I agreed with Duraid K. Al-Taey and Abdulridha Sarhan comments

Dear Abraão dos Santos Matos, I appreciate your comments. In fact, the question applies to the various teachers who work at different levels. u the experience as reported is very important and the way they work, whether updating or disseminating good practices, forms a sense of community and welcomes other teachers. Unfortunately it is not the reality in many networks in the country and in other countries. As I said, there is a need for greater mobilization among those who train teachers to enable such training, but also for managers and government officials to create working conditions for teachers, and access for students. But at this point, it is also revealing this problem of teacher training in many universities that these questions were not well developed or were not even part of the training curricula. In my view, media education should be designed and produced by everyone involved.

Article Is media literacy an urgent issue in education for all?

Exactly Mabel Bothasitse, although it would be very important, create the conditions and a training of teachers that presents, supports and makes available resources and knowledge. But teachers need to take ownership of this knowledge and develop their media and digital skills in order to have the autonomy to plan and develop their projects as needed. Training to reproduce an application, little can develop autonomy and empower these teachers to choose their own path, according to their context and demands.

Article Is media literacy an urgent issue in education for all?

Thank you Saad. S.M. Al-Azawi and Akinola Titilayo for your comments and contribution.

Dear Jorge Andrés Sánchez-Duque thank you so much for sharing it. The idea is all of us can contribute.

Certainly digital skills were already covered in courses run by my teacher education institution, and I'd imagine the focus will increase. At the same time, teacher education courses have a lot to cover; increase one thing, and another thing reduces. And most fundamentals of learning, motivation, curriculum do not change when we teach online (I taught high school pupils for 2 years before lockdown, after doing it in school for 16 years). Given how context-specific a lot of online teaching is (e.g. via a specific platform like teams), it is perhaps that the details are best covered by the school/local education authority.

Dear Jonathan William Firth, I agree that given the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, we need to consider local specificity and certainly the decisions of local authorities can help to make a faster and more emergency decision to reduce the damage to students and families. Anyway, the need to insert these issues related to media and digital skills, should be updated in the curricula of courses and teacher training program. The current problem only revealed the need to update curricula and inequalities.

Agree

The sudden plunge into online teaching by the senior faculty is a concern. Adaptability becomes and issue with those specially who are limited users of technology in their regular face to face teaching. Learning digital skills becomes a stressful and anxiety driven as this is not supported by the government or the employer. There has to be initiative taken by government institutions focusing on this area for their capacity building

Dear Asya Azhar, I appreciate your comments. In fact, we also have this kind of difficulty with senior teachers, in some cases we have helped to organize the activities of digital resources. But in this way we are overwhelmed too. In fact, without a clearer government policy to support this situation, we are just improvising activities.

I agree with answer of dr Duraid K.Al-Taey.

I totally agree with @JonathanWilliamFirth In my institution online classes are already taught in a complementary way to the face-to-face ones. With this new situation we had to organize the course again. It was an exhausting challenge, but very enriching.

Institutions of learning were not well prepared for digital learning though a few had platforms. Modalities are underway but most learning institutions are at infant stage.

Dear Laura Daiana Alcaraz thank you for your comments, that sounds interesting. Somehow you are already had previous experience in sort of blended approach, right? it seems this will be increase from now. So sharing this experience is important to encourage other teachers.

Dear Alice Omariba and Abdulridha Taha Sarhan, I agree that we have institutions with different levels of experience and practices and at that moment it would be important that there were more articulations between teachers not only within their institutions, but between different institutions as well. Expanding the academic network of collaboration because, after all, all aim to offer a better educational experience for students.

Thanks so much dr Agnalo Arroio for your contribution and following.

Gentle researchers I share a little pre-print technical report about the possible evolution of post COVID19 school. I hope this is useful for this topic. Have a nice week. --sv-- Technical Report Post-COVID19 pandemic school ecosystem: AR/VR classrooms as ...

Dear Salvatore Vicidomini thank you for sharing this contribution. I guess we can move forward improving teacher education.

Article Teachers' pedagogical strategies for integrating multimedia ...

Article Is media literacy an urgent issue in education for all?

Teachers should update their skills and keep learning, not just technology, but also in teaching and learning using online platforms, their subject matter, and social intelligence and interpersonal skills.

Also, the staff development unit/department should help in these areas and address these needs.

Dear Samy Azer, I also agree, the process is continuous is a constant lifelong learning. And today with the advancement of digital resources and the digitization of life, updating becomes even more necessary. I also think that a technical form is not enough for us to understand the domain of digital tools, but that it should be articulated with educational training for appropriate use depending on the context. I also think that due to the context of isolation caused by the pandemic, institutions should create more conditions of infrastructure such as educational training for issues of media and digital competences in the field of education.

I agree with answer of Dr. Duraid.

In our university, measures were taken immediately (March-2019) to provide teachers with software (Zoom, Google Meeting, Classroom, Canvas, etc.) and also, with short online training courses to use the software properly and take advantages of different tools they offer. It has been a great challenge for both, teachers and students, but so far the academic programs have progressed on time, and meeting the pre-established learning goals. Distance teaching is not easy, there are many barriers, difficulties, and pitfalls, particularly proper utilization of time and meeting the standards of education.

Dear Alejandro Rodriguez-Garcia, thank you for sharing experiences. In fact, it is a great challenge for teachers and students, but it is good that challenges are to be faced and overcome. And for students with difficulties accessing the internet and equipment, did the institution provide them, as included? Or have they not had problems with students unable to carry out online teaching?

Although the approach and style to teaching has continued to evolve for centuries, the implementation and delivery has not caught up to this. Many traditionalists were ill-prepared for the paradigm shift that COVID-19 was going to bring. In fact in some circumstances trying to convince key stakeholders to adopt a more digital platform-based approach in addition or invest in other newer paradigms of education delivery was such an uphill struggle and has been so for more than a decade. Some could not justify the cost to change or develop their infrastructure and did not see the overall benefit until COVID-19 disruptions began. Some were so technology-averse, I think most have even continued to remain adamant to change, hoping that the nightmare will be over soon.

Unfortunately, COVID and variants thereof are here to stay and we have to adopt and evolve the methods of educational delivery. I guess it's human nature most leaders sort of like to wait for the problem to happen before doing anything to change it (The if it isn't broken yet don't fix it mentality). The philosophy needs to change or extended to support an evolved digital learner-centric paradigm.

It cannot be overemphasized that the technological skills of both teaching and non-teaching staff has to be upgraded to meet the challenging times in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. In the same vein, skills of students in that regard must be upgraded as well. I believe tailor made training must be made for staff and students to enable a smooth transition from purely face to face teaching and learning into a purely line one or the combination of face to face and online teaching.

I concur with all contributions thus far. We do have Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at our University, so much of the upskilling for teaching online/remotely was done by this Centre. But, personally, I have had to make better use of Bloom's Digital Taxonomy as shown in this video:

https://youtu.be/fGEprVb5HHg

Best,

Debra

All institutions should deliver in-service training. Some are successful in these and some are not...

The COVID 19 unfolded to us the scope to shy away from the vicious cycle of time old practices. When the situation does no facilitate the instruction through formal setting, teachers are to rely on remote teaching and learning strategy. In Bhutan, we adopted teaching through broadcast through national television, radio, google classroom and other social media. However, majority of teachers were handicapped with the technical know how of using digital world for teaching and learning. Therefore, there is urgency to accelerate teachers' professional capacity on digital technologies. This is certain to make learning more enriching and enjoyable for students and teachers as well.

The world was not prepared for a disruptive global picture due to COVID 19. Everybody had to implement new ways for virtual teaching as their environment and digital resources were available. All of a sudden, loads of webinars were offered from different publishers in order to provide assistance to the emergent issue and overcome a crisis. Social media as well as education platforms were the basis in order to fulfil teaching and new methods had to be implemented. It was like starting from scratch. That is the reason why Education Institutions, Universities and government, must provide teachers with training in order to develop this educational paradigm. As the world will never be the same as we were used to, this could be a new opportunity to propose new teaching methods for future generations.

Rapid change from offline to online teaching was required so permanent MIL development is required.

Many teachers have had to undergo intense learning about ICTs and the different platforms used today for science teaching, especially those who were teaching face-to-face. Educational institutions have had to adapt forms of communication with their educational community, through different platforms that facilitate the necessary interaction in order to achieve the educational objectives set for an atypical school year.

The SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) coronavirus pandemic caused the acceleration of the Internet and digitization of communication and teaching processes. E-Learning in some schools and colleges was already being carried out before the development of the SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) coronavirus pandemic. However, in previous years only some of the classes and only in some schools and universities were conducted remotely as part of online e-learning. However, due to the current pandemic, e-learning has spread and has become a standard in many countries. In my opinion, however, this is a temporary situation. When the pandemic is over, there should be a return to teaching in a traditional, stationary form, at least in most of the classes. On the other hand, some classes, conferences and communication processes are likely to be carried out in a hybrid formula also when the pandemic is over. The hybrid formula is increasingly used in various institutions and companies. The hybrid formula consists in partial remote communication, via the Internet, in the videoconference formula and partly in the traditional, stationary form.

Best regards,

Dariusz Prokopowicz

E-learning and media is the only way to teach students in the current situation. The teachers who lack this are in soup.

Congrats, good work.

Information Communication Technology is mandatory to survive in the academic fields

I agree teachers are trying to learn n train for e- modules and it will be a necessity in these times. But I value their efforts in this as it is not easy for traditional teachers to adapt n familiarise themselves with this.

Agnaldo Arroio

Dear Researcher,

Thank you for the fantastic topic of discussion.

In the post COVID-19 era, it is true that media and digital skills of the teachers are going to be very important. In a developing economy like India, it is going to be of prime concern for the institutes, colleges and universities. "Train the Trainer" programs are going to change in this context. Cost of such programs are going to rise and I think in future the teachers and professors will have to bear a part of the cost. Secondly, you need quality trainers also for such type of programs. The production of such type of trainers and the cost of their hiring is also going to be costly. As a result of these changes, I see a change in the pricing policy of institutes and universities, the burden of which is ultimately going to fall on the students.

Thank you.

Best regards,

Anamitra.

Joseph Davids , you're right, because we could be better prepared to face the reality of isolation caused by COVID-19 with better conditions to offer a better educational experience with the support of digital resources. I hope that at that moment the resistance to openness changes will diminish. For we need to consider that many who are contrary continue to be contrary and possibly making an inappropriate use of resources and even providing non-positive experiences and reinforcing their beliefs. I also agree that the mindset needs to be changed, as there are many people with potential for change who could do a good job if they had the opportunity, we would also need to have a team renewal even.

Dear Afia Essandoh , Nazime Tuncay , Kanagaraj Venusamy , Abdulridha Taha Sarhan certainly changes need to happen in the educational community, but teachers end up playing a very important role as they can be agents that induce change. I agree that if there is no preparation by the technical support team and also by the students, such changes cannot happen more permanently, perhaps only to remedy and reduce the damage at the moment. But thinking in the medium and long term perspective, if the changes do not happen involving all the actors in this process, there would be no sustainability of the educational practices caused by the changes.

Debra Sharon Ferdinand-James certainly centers like the one you mentioned at the university could join together and promote joint collaborative actions in order to expand the audience that would benefit from training. Thank you for sharing the information.

Dear Wangpo Tenzin , how interesting it is to know the responses they made in Bhutan to the problem of isolation. Certainly, the articulation of the use of different resources could make it possible to reach a larger number of people, very important at this moment. We also have a similar situation in Brazil as the one you mentioned in Bhutan in relation to teachers' knowledge gaps. I agree that a very important path at this time would be to strengthen teachers with appropriate training to deal with these issues of media and digital literacy. Thank you for sharing your experiences in Bhutan.

Exactly Maria Vazquez and Ratko Knezevic , we were not prepared for the situation so abrupt, but we will be able to prepare for a new reality of uncertainties. I also agree with you that it would be very important that the Institutions of Education, Universities and government should offer professional training courses for teachers. But it would be very important for them to actively listen to the teachers so that the courses could in fact assist them in this process. For teachers who are in schools know very well the challenges they are facing daily, especially in situations of social contexts of inequality. I also agree that developing MIL competences will be essential.

I also agree Wilmer Lopez and Shaifali Rachna Puri the media and distance learning are the possibilities for the moment, as we believe in preserving the lives of teachers and students. The more we vary the resources we can increase the chances of reaching a larger audience and create channels of communication and interaction between people. In the context of physical isolation, improving remote interactions is very important.

Dear Dariusz Prokopowicz , I also agree with you that the hybrid form could be a good way, considering the conditions of inequality in many places, certainly a completely online option would not be possible, as well as denying all the good practices and experiences that we are experiencing remotely and return only for face-to-face teaching, it would be to deny the knowledge that was produced. I also believe that the hybrid format may bring new arrangements in the educational context. For example, expanding the participation of people from different countries and cultures with the support of webinars made it possible to reduce costs and increase the repertoires of experiences, contexts and points of view that were much more diverse, which would promote intercultural dialogue. At the same time, it made it possible to improve the relationship with time, in a city so densely populated as São Paulo in Brazil that we can lose more than 1 or 2 hours in traffic for mobility, take advantage of remote teaching situations that allow us to avoid this loss of time with mobility would certainly improve our quality of life. We are not ignoring the need for investments to create the conditions for infrastructure and appropriate training to implement hybrid modalities, but we could greatly improve our quality of life and expand intercultural dialogue.

I do agree with the ideas put forward by fellow researchers above. In my country Indonesia, the New Minister of Education has set up policies with the Merdeka Belajar (Freedom to Learn) reforms aimed at schools, and campus autonomy through the Kampus Merdeka (Independent Campus), the most important reform of which is students’ right to take up to three semesters studying outside of their program. What a coincident with the pandemic, the only choice of teaching and learning process is e-learning, and it appears that only those who manage to allocate funds, training, and all other supporting means that could survive the challenge of the unpredictable shape of education in the foreseeable future in post-pandemic. Regards

Mhd. Syahnan

Well, it is a situation that should not leave anyone behind, you are right Pranav Ish there are teachers with more difficulty who need to be welcomed in this movement. And with that they can rethink their practices considering the contexts in which they are present, they would certainly have many contributions in this process.

Dear Anamitra Roy , first of all my solidarity with the situation in India due to the worsening of the covid-19, in Brazil the situation is also very complicated. You are right, expanding training programs to increase the number of people reached would also increase costs. But considering the different contexts of inequality that the pandemic showed, as they existed before, it should encourage international cooperation even further by expanding collaboration networks between researchers, professors and institutions. It would be very important and necessary to exchange experiences between countries so that they could promote inclusive public policies for the scenario after the covid that increases exclusion. Without cooperation, it would be difficult to reduce inequalities. And in the name of costs, people should not be excluded.

e-learning is the future that needs time and effort to realization.

I agree Agnaldo Arroio that international cooperation is the need of the hour

E-learning is a necessity due to the current situation and it has to be updated based on many circumstances. Exchange of experience from the worldwide professors should be welcome.

It is obvious that the teachers have to upgrade their level of digital skills. Moreover they need to keep acquiring information and media literacy skills. That is one of the reasons we have been making the world level conference on information and Media Literacy since 2011. Feel free to join us. More about one may find at www.wbimlc.org

Dear Ratko Knezevic , thank you for sharing the call for conference. For sure the exchange experience it will be more and more necessary. The digital transformation of the world requires it.

Following up on @SamyAzer 's comment. The pandemic has shown the need for the development of context-sensitive and content-specific distance education concepts and theory accompanied by high-quality research. Digital media literacy alone will not do the trick, experts in content/subject matter, pedagogy, technology, ethics etc. are needed to contextualise, evaluate, debate and contribute to current trends together.

Dear Sandra Stadler-Heer , I appreciate your contribution. The situation revealed the complexity of the problem that required joint and coordinated efforts. Several fronts are needed as mentioned, and at the present moment an important actor in this chain, which is the teachers, were in charge of the situation. They need to be strengthened.

Even after more than 168,000 deaths in Brazil, people are still underestimating the seriousness of the pandemic. Now with the concrete possibility of a second wave of the pandemic in Brazil with the increase in cases in recent weeks, there are still many people denying this reality, unfortunately. In other words, the current scenario of the need for education in remote or remote mode may be extended for a long time until we have the vaccines developed and with access to the global population. Thus, it becomes more necessary or even vital for the sustainability of education that teachers have the opportunity to improve their media, digital and informational skills. It is almost a question of survival.

My view on your initiatives, My colleagues r involved very deep in utilizing all features in MS office, MS team platform. We mostly facing difficult in engineering students exam paper evaluation and correction. If any open source app for paper correction will be helpful for academicians