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The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has brought changes to the way medical care is delivered to keep health workers safe while simultaneously managing available resources. The well-being of patients and healthcare workers is crucial and has become a topic of debate as the world faces adjusts to the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, there is need to consider innovative methods of delivering medical care. Telehealth and digital health care which is the provision of medical care via Information Communication Technology (ICT) with highspeed telecommunications systems, has increasingly becoming popular in providing medical care services can be adopted to reduce infections during quarantine and social distancing practices. Specifically, by means of document and literature review this paper discusses the role of telehealth and digital care solutions, types and application of telehealth, and current policies for COVID-19. More importantly, findings from the article present the human, infrastructure, and institutional determinants that influence the adoption of telehealth and digital care solutions during the pandemic. The findings discuss how telehealth and digital care technologies can benefit the society. This study provides implications to informs medical staffs on the potential of digital technologies to provide support during and after the pandemic.

Inspired by a posthuman philosophy, this paper explores sustainable natureculture kindergarten praxis as a pragmatic transcorporeal collective engagement with the present and sustainable future events to come. The point of departure is the economic argument for implementing science, technology, engineering and mathematics education within early childhood education and care as a preparation for the challenges a science- and technology-driven society brings at the forefront. By exploring and experimenting with dataphilosophy as our theory-method and the concept of non-position, we embrace and critique technology and technological solutions in connection with kindergarten praxis and steer them towards new forms of solidarity and socially just pedagogies. Through the article, we ask (in)directly what kind of subject position digitalization as part of a sustainable future requires, and the inevitable questions this subject position regarding professionalism within early childhood education and care brings.

Source at https://doi.org/10.18261/issn.1891-943x-2018-04-02. Over ten years have passed since Norwegian educational reform implemented the use of digital tools as a required basic skill in all subjects and at all levels of Norwegian schools. However, government surveys show that there is still a significant gap between the intention of educational policies and what is actually practiced in Norwegian education. This gap has often been attributed to practitioners’ skill deficiency. This paper challenges the notion of practitioners’ skill deficiency as being the sole causal explanation for lack of progress, and attempts to explore this through a comparative study between initial teacher education in Norway and New Zealand. Our analysis has shown some significant differences between the countries, and based on our findings, this article discusses how such differences may be connected to policy development and political influence. This analysis contributes to a broader understanding of the complexity behind this gap. Understanding the bigger picture is essential for being able to work constructively towards diminishing the difference between policy intentions and practice in the future. Our findings suggest that top-down governance of the educational use of digital technology could create resistance among teacher educators. It could therefore be understood as counterproductive regarding progress. Prioritising policy goals above pedagogical goals in this field is contrary to teachers’ understanding of teacher proficiency.

The traditional exam has a strong holding within Norwegian higher education and is very often the preferred way of assessing students. Digital technology opens up for alternatives to the traditional exam, but so far focus has predominantly been on exchanging pen and paper with personal computers within the traditional framework. Digital alternatives may come in conflict with existing law governing teaching and assessment at university, as the law was written at a time when digital technology did not exist. We present data from a workshop in which 48 individuals from 11 institutions, academics as well as administration, were asked to identify and discuss challenges related to the introduction of digital alternatives. A case study strategy was considered appropriate as this gave us the opportunity to collect information from representatives from many universities and university colleges across Norway. Lack of knowledge about alternatives to the traditional exam, and lack of knowledge as to how digital technology may be used in assessing students were the kind of challenges most often mentioned. Assessment practices may be rooted in an assessment policy, but data from a survey (29% response rate) indicate that there is little awareness concerning this issue within Norwegian higher education institutions. © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)