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AlterNation Open Issue #01
Get PDFFollowing the opening of Alternation on the UKZN platform of the Online Journal Editing System (OJS), in late 2018, we have decided to both continue publishing theme-specific issues of Alternation, as well as open issues. Calls for papers for upcoming theme-specific issues will be published, on the Calls for Papers button, on our regular site, at, http://alternation.ukzn.ac.za/calls-for-papers.aspx. Starting with this issue of Alternation, we shall also publish open issues, and number them consecutively, as from this, the first issue, AlterNation Open Issue #01. As usual, we provide a brief overview of the abstracts of the papers in the issue
Modern Approach to the Study of Telemedicine Technologies in the Medical Institute
Get PDFTelemedicine is being actively introduced into medical practice, however, in order for it to become an effective tool in their hands, a basic knowledge of the possibilities and limitations of modern telemedicine technologies is needed, as well as practical skills in the preparation and conduct of videoconferencing. This led to the need to include a course on the basics of telemedicine technology in the training of medical personnel. The Department of Medical Informatics created the educational module "Telemedicine", which is implemented by the Telemedicine Centre of the Medical Institute of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia. After theoretical lectures, students receive practical skills through business games and conducting videoconferencing. Classes are conducted in accordance with world trends and standards. During the classes we demonstrate to students the technologies of remote interactive learning, in particular television lectures and master classes from the leading clinics of Russia, countries of Europe, India, Brazil and Canada. This practice allows our graduates to maintain contact with their teachers through telemedicine opportunities and participate in videoconferenced postgraduate education with PFUR professors, and international conferences held at PFUR sites. The experience of teaching the senior students of the PFUR Medical Institute is presented
How to Prevent Technical Issues in Large Multiparty Medical Videoconferencing
Get PDFIntroduction: Videoconferencing (VC) is useful for physicians who need to learn about many cases without moving from one institution to another. However, this advantage can be hampered by technical issues. This study aims to analyse the factors relating technical support that cause technical issues in regular multiparty medical VC to provide high-quality VC to meet participants’ demands. Methods: The study includes large multiparty VC between the Kyushu University Hospital Department of Paediatric Surgery and different institutions within Japan that were held from September 2014 to January 2017. Technical tests, a “previous-week test” and a “last-hour test,” were conducted for checking conditions prior to the VC. The chi-square test was used for factors: participation for previous-week and last-hour test, and attendance by an engineer VCs in each participating institution. A questionnaire survey was distributed among the participants to collect feedback on the quality of VC, ease of preparation and necessity of previous-week testing. Results: Participation in the last-hour test (P=0.002) and the presence of an engineer (P=0.049) significantly decreased overall technical issues. The last-hour tests significantly decreased disconnection (P=0.015) and audio (P=0.019) issues. The engineer’s attendance decreased content-sharing issues (P=0.027). Participants reporting “very good” and “good” audio and visual quality were 92% (109/118) and 96% (105/110). Eighty-three percent of participants (82/99) found the preparation “very easy” or “easy”; while 61% (63/103) found the previous-week test, “unnecessary.” Conclusions: Based on our study, “engineers’ attendance” and “last-hour” technical testing significantly reduced technical problems; these factors help provide high-quality output VC and meet the needs of the participants
Factors that Influence One’s Choice for Viewing Public Television in South Africa
Get PDFPublic Television Broadcasters (PTB) also known as non-commercial televisions are established to perform specific obligations to the public such as: to inform, educate and entertain with a variety of popular programmes. These programmes are available and accessible to all or the majority of the citizens. Public Television Broadcasters have moved towards incorporating commercial breaks into their programmes. This paper examines factors which influence viewer rating of public television in South African which ought to be informative and educational while providing suitable entertainment. Hence, this study analyses viewers’ intentions for watching public television within the City of Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. This study employs a descriptive survey technique to quantify data. A sample of 384 respondents participated in the research. Self-administered questionnaires, which contained mostly close-ended questions, were used to extrapolate information from potential respondents. The outcomes of this study highlight various reasons why respondents choose to watch different channels of South African Broadcasting Corporation Television (SABCTV). Analysis of the responses indicated a strong correlation between race and choice of viewing material. Black respondents mostly prefer to watch SABC11, Whites prefer SABC22, Indians prefer SABC33 and Coloureds prefer either SABC2 or SABC3. The study also reveals that the language, type of programmes, television heritage/ history as well as family and friends have an influence on viewers’ choice. The study further exposes short-comings of the public broadcaster’s mandate to society
Decolonial Counter-conducts? Traces of Decentering Migrant Ecclesiologies
Get PDFDecolonialisation concerns theology. As long as theology is preoccupied with engaging or explaining the other, it is not a decolonial project. As such this article makes a connection to Walter Mignolo’s claim that the researcher as much as the subject needs to be interrogated as part of the research in order to disrupt the subject/ object binary of colonial knowledge traditions. The main part of the article presents three narratives from the life of Nisha, a refugee woman from the DRC living in a South African township. The narratives also involve a researcher – I, the professor – and the pastor and gatekeeper that introduced Nisha to me. In all of the narratives, the two traditional subjects (professor and pastor) are decentered. Nisha makes money trading from a small kiosk, and she invites the two men to a meal at her township house. She walks the pastor and the professor through the neighborhood where she lives. Building on Michel Foucault`s theories of counter-conducts, the article argues that the three decentering narratives present Nisha’s everyday practices as counter-conducts and the two men as the decentered others. The article argues that such a decentering performs traces of a decolonialising theology. God is the one that lets hierarchy decenter in order to open spaces of others
‘Religion as a Riding Horse of Politics?’ A Critical Evaluation of Political Influence in the Zimbabwean Ecclesiastical Life
Get PDFReligion and politics in Zimbabwe have always been trading together. The country won the liberation struggle because of the role played by religion. African Indigenous Religion (AIR) and Christianity contributed significantly from opposite angles. In the transitional processes of the post-independent Zimbabwe, religion and politics had marriage of convenience. Some politicians took it upon themselves to use, abuse, and misuse religion. Religion in Zimbabwe currently functions as a political platform, with AIR still dominating the political arena while the church denominations struggle between political puppets and opponents. This has resulted in the Zimbabwean church disintegrating. It has been argued that some politicians have turned African Independent Churches and some mega churches into their own havens while pushing mainline churches to the periphery of politics as anti-progressive. Against this background, the paper seeks to evaluate the extent to which the Zimbabwean church has become a ‘riding horse’ for politics in its socioeconomic and political transformation
The Impact of Using Geography Open Education Resources (OER) to Capacitate Natural Science Teachers Teaching the Earth and Beyond Strand in South African Schools
Get PDFIn 1994 South African curriculum developers decided to include aspects of Physical Geography in the Natural Science Intermediate and Senior Phase curriculum as a strand named Earth and Beyond. One of the complicating factors was that most in-service teachers that had to teach this strand had no training in post-school Geography or even worse, might not have taken Geography in the last three years of schooling. Research was undertaken to determine how the gaps in Geography knowledge, skills, resources and teaching skills amongst Natural Science teachers, with special reference to the Earth and Beyond strand in Natural Science teaching, could be overcome. A baseline survey was conducted and initial school visits were undertaken to determine what the situation was regarding the teaching of the Earth and Beyond strand in schools in a mostly poor rural school district in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa. Findings indicated that none of the Natural Science teachers visited, had any post-school training in Geography. Classroom observations indicate that more than 90% of the teachers use only direct instruction when teaching the Earth and Beyond strand; they use only textbooks and less than 10% of classrooms have even the basic resources like a globe or an updated map. An intervention strategy aided by the use of needs driven purposefully designed Open Education Resources (OER) was undertaken and a pre- and post-test were written to determine the impact of the intervention. This was followed up by personal interviews and follow-up school visits to determine the possible sustainability of the impact in practice. Findings indicate that the intervention had a significant immediate impact and that some of that was sustained in practice because of the use of Open Education Resources (OER)
The Role of e-Health in Disasters: A Strategy for Education, Training and Integration in Disaster Medicine
Get PDFThis paper describes the origins and progress of an international project to advance disaster eHealth (DEH) – the application of eHealth technologies to enhance the delivery of healthcare in disasters. The study to date has focused on two major themes; the role of DEH in facilitating inter-agency communication in disaster situations, and the fundamental need to promote awareness of DEH in the education of disaster managers and health professionals. The paper deals mainly with on-going research on the second of these themes, surveying the current provision of disaster medicine education, the design considerations for a DEH programme for health professionals, the key curriculum topics, and the optimal delivery mode
Psychosocial Implications of Prenatal Telehealth Genetic Counselling: A Systematic Review
Get PDFIntroduction: Telehealth is a growing service delivery model in clinical genetics and genetic counselling. Despite its popularity, telehealth genetic counselling (TGC) is often not incorporated into prenatal genetic services. Methods: A literature review was conducted to identify peer-reviewed, original research articles, which examined the psychosocial implications (e.g. satisfaction) of prenatal TGC. Using the PubMed database, searches were conducted using the following key terms: “Telehealth Genetic Counselling”, “Prenatal Genetics Telehealth” and “Telegenetics”. Results: The search returned 82 articles; only five articles assessed the psychosocial implications of prenatal TGC. The TGC delivery methods varied among studies, but results consistently revealed positive responses, most notably patient satisfaction. Conclusions: Further use and research of TGC are needed to better understand the social implications of this service delivery model for prenatal populations. This information is essential to guide clinical care for prenatal populations
Decolonising, Africanising, indigenising and internationalising Curriculum Studies: Opportunities to (re)imagine the field
Get PDFIn recent years the terms internationalisation, indigenising, decolonising and Africanising have circulated in discourses on curriculum both internationally and in South Africa. Recent student protests in South Africa have precipitated a particular interest in decolonising of the university curriculum. As a consequence, we are witnessing contestations on the topic in scholarly journals and books, and in the popular media. The concept decolonisation of the curriculum has also been bandied around loosely by some students, eliciting criticism on the lack of clarity about the idea.
The field of Curriculum Studies in South Africa has been characterised by a focus on banal matters related to the national curriculum: the merits and demerits of outcomes-based education; findings of standardised tests, assessment; continuity and progression, classroom pedagogy, and so forth. The upshot of this is that the field has become hackneyed, unimaginative and not able to address bigger questions such as the ones raised in the Call for Papers of this special issue. I wish to argue in this article that the concepts internationalising, indigenising, decolonising and Africanising could be the impetus for the renewal of the field of Curriculum Studies in South Africa.
In the article I shall clarify what is meant by the internationalising, indigenising, decolonising and Africanising of the curriculum. I shall discuss in which ways the concepts are disparate and explore what are the conceptual connections between/among them. My exploration will open up alternative ways of thinking curriculum, through viewing curriculum as complicated conversation, which could have potentially transformative effects for the field of Curriculum Studies in South Africa. The main aim of the article is to register the possibility of such complicated conversations happening in South African Curriculum Studies