Johns Hopkins trains 22,000 contact tracers on Coursera in the first week — from blog.coursera.org by Jeff Maggioncalda

Excerpt:

We are highly encouraged by the initial response — in just one week, more than 150,000 learners have enrolled in the course. More than 22,000 learners have already completed it, including over 2,500 prospective contact tracers who could be employed by the state of New York. Contact tracing will offer meaningful employment to those impacted by the economic downturn while fulfilling an urgent public health need.

 

 

It’s gone ‘shockingly well’: America’s hospitals have embraced remote technology amid COVID-19 — from finance.yahoo.com by Daniel Howley

Excerpt:

To address that, Kapsner said that nurses and primary doctors who need to physically be in a room with a patient will still do so, but specialists and consulting physicians will remain outside, communicating with the primary doctor or nurse via Teams.

From DSC:
Can #telelegal be too far behind…?

 

Fall Scenario #13: A HyFlex Model — from insidehighered.com by Edward Maloney and Joshua Kim

Excerpt:

In a HyFlex course, courses are delivered both in person and online at the same time by the same faculty member. Students can then choose for each and every class meeting whether to show up for class in person or to join it online. The underlying design ethos behind the HyFlex Model is flexibility and student choice.

To do it well, then, a lot of things need to line up, including the technology, the course design, the focus on pedagogy and the engagement of the students. Many schools that wish to scale the HyFlex Model across the curriculum for the fall semester will likely need to make a significant investment in classroom technology.

Also see the other scenarios from Kim and Maloney at:

15 fall scenarios for higher education this fall (i.e., the fall of 2020)

 

Problems planning for a Post-Pandemic Campus this fall — from bryanalexander.org by Bryan Alexander
How will campuses try to return to face-to-face education?  What does it mean now to plan for a Post-Pandemic Campus this fall?

Excerpt:

In April I published three scenarios for colleges and universities may approach the fall 2020 semester in the wake of COVID-19, based on different ways the pandemic might play out.  I followed that up with real world examples of each scenario, as different institutions subsequently issued announcements about their plans.  To recap, they are:

  1. COVID Fall: today’s “remote instruction” continues and develops for the rest of calendar 2020.
  2. Toggle Term: campuses are ready and able to switch between online and in-person instruction as circumstances change.
  3. Post-Pandemic Campus: colleges and universities return in the fall to the traditional face-to-face mode after COVID-19’s danger has ebbed to a certain level.

 

6 ways college might look different in the fall — from npr.com by Elissa Nadworny

Excerpt:

What will happen on college campuses in the fall? It’s a big question for families, students and the schools themselves.

A lot of what happens depends on factors outside the control of individual schools: Will there be more testing? Contact tracing? Enough physical space for distancing? Will the coronavirus have a second wave? Will any given state allow campuses to reopen?

For all of these questions, it’s really too early to know the answers. But one thing is clear: Life, and learning for the nation’s 20 million students in higher education, will be different.

“I don’t think there’s any scenario under which it’s business as usual on American college campuses in the fall,” says Nicholas Christakis, a sociologist and physician at Yale University.

 

If law schools can’t offer in-person classes this fall, what will they do instead? — from abajournal.com by Stephanie Francis Ward

 

Flipped Learning -- April 2020 -- from flr.flglobal.org

The April issue of FLR looks at how we’re all managing the social-emotional cost of making a rapid transition to online learning.

Featured articles include:

  • Teaching From Home Is Exhausting: How Are You Keeping Your Spirits Up?
  • Why Is Online Teaching and Learning So Awesome and So Awful?
  • 10 Ways to Help Students Cope With How COVID-19 Is Disrupting School Life.
  • What Teachers Need From Administrators While Shifting to Remote Learning.
  • Why the Two Most Important Online Teaching Skills Today Are Grace and Choice.
  • We Miss Seeing Our Students, How Can We Fill That Hole in Our Soul?
  • Unmasking the Social-emotional Cost of Going Online Overnight?
  • Teaching During a Pandemic Is Fragile: Self-care Is Good, Self-compassion Is Better.
 

Invitation for Comment on Emergency Rulemaking — from uscourts.gov
Request for Input on Possible Emergency Procedures

Excerpt:

The committees seek input on challenges encountered during the COVID pandemic in state and federal courts, by lawyers, judges, parties, or the public, and on solutions developed to deal with those challenges. The committees are particularly interested in hearing about situations that could not be addressed through the existing rules or in which the rules themselves interfered with practical solutions.

And from Canada:
Our civil justice system needs to be brought into the 21st century — from theglobeandmail.com by Rosalie Silberman Abella

Excerpt:

I’m talking of course about access to justice. But I’m not talking about fees, or billings, or legal aid, or even pro bono. Those are our beloved old standards in the “access to justice” repertoire and I’m sure everyone knows those tunes very well.

I have a more fundamental concern: I cannot for the life of me understand why we still resolve civil disputes the way we did more than a century ago.

In a speech to the American Bar Association called The Causes of Popular Dissatisfaction with the Administration of Justice, Roscoe Pound criticized the civil justice system’s trials for being overly fixated on procedure, overly adversarial, too expensive, too long and too out of date. The year was 1906.

Any good litigator from 1906 could, with a few hours of coaching, feel perfectly at home in today’s courtrooms. 

 

COVID-19 Pandemic Will Propel US Telehealth Market To Grow At A CAGR of Over 29% During 2019-25 — from wearable-technologies.com by Cathy Russey

Telelegal can't be too far behind telehealth

 

Excerpt:

Since the Coronavirus Pandemic in the United States, the telehealth platform has emerged as a major tool to fight and contain the virus. Due to the rise in the COVID-19 pandemic, the US telehealth market is expected to witness over 80% YOY growth in 2020.

The telehealth services segment is growing at the fastest CAGR as the demand for these services is increasing across the US. With the rapid advancement in technology, telehealth is considered as the future of medicine. 

From DSC:
#Telelegal can’t be too far behind this trend in healthcare.

 


Special education and accessibility resources for remote learning — from education.microsoft.com

Excerpt:

For special educators, diversity demands they provide inclusive, accessible learning environments that inspire confidence and encourage independence differently for each student. Learn about how to create a personalized and engaging remote learning experience for all of your students through the resources provided in these pages.

These resources are intended for all educators, but will be especially helpful for educators and support staff who work in the following areas: special education, assistive technology, blind and visually impaired, deaf and hard of hearing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech language pathology, early childhood special education, behavior, counseling, school psychology, language interpretation, literacy, autism, and many other areas that assist students who need specially designed instruction.

 

Why local news outlets may be among this pandemic’s victims — from medium.com by Sue Ellen Christian
The healthy functioning of our communities depends on the survival of our local news systems. Here’s how to start resuscitating close-to-home journalism, now.

Excerpt:

Just as we thought it couldn’t get worse for the survival of local news outlets, it has. Covid-19 is attacking what was left of the advertising base for local news outlets. Local retailers are the foundational advertisers for online news outlets. With shelter-in-place orders enacted throughout the country, retailers are struggling to pay the rent; low on their priorities for financial solvency is buying ads in a local newspaper, online news outlet, local television news show or community magazine.

Furthermore, those same retailers, such as book stores and restaurants, where single-sale print copies of local magazines and newspapers are often available, aren’t open, further hurting the already meager revenue streams of local news providers.

New York has the Times. Los Angeles has its Times. The nation’s capital has the Post. We in smaller and mid-size communities not only deserve our close-to-home updates and information, our local democracies rely on it.

Daily digital and print news outlets in particular offer citizens a public service: News about the schools our children attend, how our taxes are spent, what is happening in court systems and park districts and local elections. They fight for public documents to be released and public meetings to remain open — to be sure, all vital parts to democracy. But these outlets also offer our communities a reflection of ourselves.

 
 

10 ways COVID-19 could change office design — from weforum.org by Harry Kretchmer

“Think road markings, but for offices. From squash-court-style lines in lobbies to standing spots in lifts, and from circles around desks to lanes in corridors, the floors and walls of our offices are likely to be covered in visual instructions.”

 

From DSC:
After reading the above article and quote, I wondered..rather than marking up the floors and walls of spaces, perhaps Augmented Reality (AR) will provide such visual instructions for navigating office spaces in the future.  Then I wondered about other such spaces as:

  • Learning spaces
  • Gyms
  • Retail outlets 
  • Grocery stores
  • Restaurants
  • Small businesses
  • Other common/public spaces
 

Coronavirus crisis could bring big changes to legal operations — from news.bloomberglaw.com by Brian Baxter

  • Compensation cuts, hiring freezes, and shrinking budgets are hitting in-house lawyers
  • Such coronavirus-linked changes could create opportunities for legal services upstarts

Excerpt:

As during past downturns, corporate counsel facing pressure to reduce costs may bring more work in-house or adopt new vendors, such as alternative legal service providers. The use of automation to perform certain legal tasks, whether through artificial intelligence or the use of contract management technology, means in-house counsel have more options than ever before, said Lee Udelsman, a managing partner and head of in-house counsel recruiting at legal consultancy Major, Lindsey & Africa.

 

Desperate times call for innovation — from abovethelaw.com by Cori Robinson
New York expands standby guardian statute and permits video witnessing of estate planning documents.

Excerpt:

First online notarization, then the legalization of surrogacy, now an expansion of the standby guardian law and authorization of video witnessing of estate planning documents. Governor Andrew Cuomo of COVID-19-stricken New York is a gift not only to trusts and estates attorneys, but to all citizens.

 

From DSC:
As the ripples move outward from this time of the Coronavirus, we need to be very careful with #EmergingTechnologies. For example, where might the use of (police dept) drones equipped with #AI #FacialRecognition flying overhead take us? What if you’re of the “wrong religion” in a country? Hmm…

 

Social Distancing Enforcement Drones Arrive in the U.S. — from nymag.com by Adam Raymond

Excerpts:

In late January, a viral video from China showed people who’d wandered outside in the early days of the coronavirus outbreak getting scolded by a disembodied voice from a drone flying overhead. Last month, similar campaigns began in France, where locals flouting travel restrictions were gently reminded to “respectez les distances de sécurité s’il vous plaît.”

Now, self-righteous flying robots have made their way to the U.S., with at least two American police departments deploying drones to tell people to disperse, go home, and stay there.

“These drones will be around the City with an automated message from the Mayor telling you to STOP gathering, disperse and go home,” the police department wrote on Facebook. “Summonses HAVE AND WILL CONTINUE to be issued to those found in violation. Fines are up to $1000. You have been advised.”

 

FCC enacts $200M telehealth initiative to ease COVID-19 burden on hospitals — from techcrunch.com by Devin Coldewey

Excerpt:

The FCC has developed and approved a $200 million program to fund telehealth services and devices for medical providers, just a week or so after the funding was announced. Hospitals and other health centers will be able to apply for up to $1 million to cover the cost of new devices, services and personnel.

The unprecedented $2 trillion CARES Act includes heavy spending on all kinds of things, from direct payments to out-of-work citizens to bailouts for airlines and other big businesses. Among the many, many funding items was a $200 million earmarked for the FCC with which it was instructed to improve and subsidize telehealth services around the country.

 


Also see:

#telehealth#telemedicine#telelegal

 


 

Join the fight against COVID-19 misinformation — from newslit.org

Excerpt:

This rich collection of guides and resources can help you make a real difference in the battle against dangerous COVID-19 misinformation; it can also inspire and empower your students to enlist in that fight. Doing so [is] one of the most powerful actions we can all take.

Also see:

The Sift Archives -- getting at the truth within the media

 

The News Literacy Project on Twitter

 
© 2025 | Daniel Christian