TY - CHAP A1 - Vladova, Gergana A1 - Ullrich, André A1 - Bender, Benedict A1 - Gronau, Norbert ED - Reis, Arsénio ED - Barroso, João ED - Lopes, J. Bernardino ED - Mikropoulos, Tassos ED - Fan, Chih-Wen T1 - Yes, we can (?) BT - a critical review of the COVID-19 semester T2 - Technology and innovation in learning, teaching and education : second international conference, TECH-EDU 2020, Vila Real, Portugal, December 2-4, 2020 : proceedings N2 - The COVID-19 crisis has caused an extreme situation for higher education institutions around the world, where exclusively virtual teaching and learning has become obligatory rather than an additional supporting feature. This has created opportunities to explore the potential and limitations of virtual learning formats. This paper presents four theses on virtual classroom teaching and learning that are discussed critically. We use existing theoretical insights extended by empirical evidence from a survey of more than 850 students on acceptance, expectations, and attitudes regarding the positive and negative aspects of virtual teaching. The survey responses were gathered from students at different universities during the first completely digital semester (Spring-Summer 2020) in Germany. We discuss similarities and differences between the subjects being studied and highlight the advantages and disadvantages of virtual teaching and learning. Against the background of existing theory and the gathered data, we emphasize the importance of social interaction, the combination of different learning formats, and thus context-sensitive hybrid learning as the learning form of the future. KW - COVID-19 KW - higher education KW - virtual learning KW - digital learning KW - subject differences Y1 - 2021 SN - 978-3-030-73987-4 SN - 978-3-030-73988-1 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73988-1_17 SP - 225 EP - 235 PB - Springer CY - Cham ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Mishra, Vidisha A1 - Vladova, Gergana ED - Miller, Katharina ED - Wendt, Karen T1 - It’s personal BT - 4IR and the future of learning T2 - The fourth industrial revolution and its impact on ethics N2 - The new technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) are disrupting traditional models of work and learning. While the impact of digitalization on education was already a point of serious deliberation, the COVID-19 pandemic has expedited ongoing transitions. With 90% of the world’s student population having been impacted by national lockdowns—online learning has gone from being a luxury to a necessity, in a context where around 3.6 billion people are offline. As the impacts of the 4IR unfold alongside the current crisis, it is not enough for future policy pathways to prioritize educational attainment in the traditional sense; it is essential to reimagine education itself as well as its delivery entirely. Future policy narratives will need to evaluate the very process of learning and identify the ways in which technology can help reduce existing disparities and enhance digital access, literacy and fluency in a scalable manner. In this context, this chapter analyses the status quo of online learning in India and Germany. Drawing on the experiences of these two economies with distinct trajectories of digitalization, the chapter explores how new technologies intersect with traditional education and local sociocultural conditions. Further, the limitations and opportunities presented by dominant ed-tech models is critically analyzed against the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. KW - 4IR KW - digital KW - online KW - gender KW - automation KW - inequality Y1 - 2021 SN - 978-3-030-57019-4 SN - 978-3-030-57020-0 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57020-0_12 SP - 151 EP - 158 PB - Springer CY - Cham ER -