Fotini Diamantidaki

Online Learning and Teaching (OLT) is no longer considered an emergency remote teaching (ERT) practice but is now an activity
that has become part and parcel of our everyday life. At
present, we are ready to adapt, innovate, share and learn
new practices, especially based on technological innovation
activities and behaviors. Technology and communication are there to help.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments across the world implemented practices and rules related to masks in educational settings and beyond. Through a desktop analysis and systematic literature review, leveraging educational, governmental and journalistic sources, this article provides an extreme comparison of two nations' intra-period responses on the use of face masks in education. Taking the examples of two different countries (Greece and Singapore), we discuss their contrasting approaches to face mask use in education, ranging from pre-schools to universities, while taking into account the macroenvironmental dissimilarities of their educational systems and technological capabilities. There are significant opportunities to learn by examining the governmental, pedagogical, and community reactions of different countries about mask use, in order to strengthen educators' collective

Pandemic-the global spread of an initially local disease like COVID-19-bluntly forces us to stop. How do we respond in higher education to such stopping? Whether at the government level, for our universities, or in our classrooms, no existing playbook prescribes the pathway for dealing with a global pandemic of this magnitude, even now as we emerge from total lockdown to the potential for a new tomorrow. What we have done at this juncture is to capture anecdotal responses within and across countries that may highlight trends for later consideration. Unlike a globalised response that would adopt one approach internationally, our study considers adaptations for local differences in a glocalised set of responses in an attempt to identify new paradigms that reconceptualise not only teaching and learning, but also assessment. Our responses to the pandemic require leadership—from
all of us—to leverage a firm and steady presence, care and compassion for each other, and prudent decision-making.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments across the world implemented practices and rules related to masks in educational settings and beyond. Through a desktop analysis and systematic literature review, leveraging educational, governmental and journalistic sources, this article provides an extreme comparison of two nations' intra-period responses on the use of face masks in education. Taking the examples of two different countries (Greece and Singapore), we discuss their contrasting approaches to face mask use in education, ranging from pre-schools to universities, while taking into account the macroenvironmental dissimilarities of their educational systems and technological capabilities. There are significant opportunities to learn by examining the governmental, pedagogical, and community reactions of different countries about mask use, in order to strengthen educators' collective

We are glad and proud to present you the 3rd special issue that was co-created by the collaboration of the Journal of Media Critiques (JMC) and the Communication Institute of Greece (COMinG).
This volume includes selected papers presented at the 3rd Annual International Conference of Communication and Management (ICCM2018), 23-26 April 2018, organized by the Communication Institute of Greece. In total 40 papers were presented by 75 presenters, coming from 21 different countries around the world (Pakistan, USA, UAE, Germany, Finland, Beijing, Malaysia, Turkey, Russia, France, UK,
Belgium, Spain, Albania, Kenya, Thailand, Lithuania, Croatia, Morocco, China, Greece). This ‘audience’ comprised professors, researchers, students and key people, interested by education, politics, cultural affairs, etc.
The themes of this issue are separated into sections/chapters, similar with the ones of ICCM2018 conference, in order to facilitate the readers. From the twenty-six (26) papers of this volume, we have four (4) papers on International and Intercultural Education –Leadership, five (5) papers on International business and Management, four (4) papers on International and Intercultural, three (3) papers on Political sciences Communication and International affairs, and ten (10) papers on Social
Media, Media and Mediated Communication Technologies.

This is a Full Issue of the "Journal of Education, Innovation, and Communication (JEICOM)", Volume 1, Issue 2, December 2019, entitled "
The value of pedagogical knowledge: an international perspective". Pedagogy is an applied social science that initially derived from Philosophy and is mainly associated with the research associated with children. Pedagogy refers to the holistic development of the child involving the body, mind and soul. As a discipline it is strongly associated with Psychology too and it is a theoretical and practically applied science.
Pedagogy holds its roots back in ancient times with a first definition involving the ‘child’ ‘παιδί’ ped- and the teaching of the child ‘αγωγή’ -agogy. In fact, ‘αγωγή’ means the orthodox – ‘right way’ of teaching. This statement can have many interpretations overtime and according to context. It makes us think what is the ‘right education’ for a child, who determines what is right? The context the child lives in or the one who shares the knowledge?
The term has evolved over the years and the literature recently focuses on the teaching practices adopted by the teacher (Windschitl et al., 2012 & Kazemi et al., 2009). Teaching practices can become procedural and eventually be considered as the ‘right’ way of doing things (Bourdieu 1990, Foucault 1980a).
The selection of the articles for the current issue underpins the above values on pedagogy and will aim to challenge what should be ‘right’, challenge the conception that what is new is seen as ‘right’, and appreciate reading different pedagogical practices from around the world, with a view to examine what connects us all and what is really, actually new.
How pedagogical knowledge is constructed is brought to us with the first article where the author shares the paradigm from the history of Jewish education. Bitty (2019) discusses examples he shares with his students during his lectures and where he tries to build their own identity as future teachers. In his words ‘…through historical sources, the students discover that the old and distant narrative is actually quite close to the reality that they face in their classrooms: the same dilemmas, the same difficulties and sometimes ... even the same educational solutions’ (Bitty, 2019: 15). It makes us think with the illustration of a classroom back in the day featured in the article, whether we are any better today. Two groups of students, doing differentiated work in the same classroom. Maybe the classroom is not then as traditional as we might have thought in the first place, even though this happened centuries ago. How teachers have constructed pedagogical knowledge over the years is deeply rooted into practice and into the classroom. Hence, we open the issue with such a dilemma and thinking: is what we see now happening in the classrooms new and better?
The next article in the sequence travels us back to our times and examines the challenges faced by the TOEFL –IBT test during the speaking assessment. A challenge that derives from the automaticity of the environment, where there is not enough time for self-correction and what’s even more, the candidate talks to a machine. The pedagogical practices are then developed whilst preparing students to take such a test. Souri and Merç (2019) discuss the ways teachers can overcome the challenge of such a standardised test by making the student more aware of their own mistakes, teaching them to step back and self-reflect on their errors before trying it again. Students can improve their performance if teachers provide them feedback on what they did wrong and what they can do to improve it. This pedagogical practice resonates entirely with the Assessment for Learning (AFL) concept (Black & Jones 2007) whereby one of the principles during the teaching practice is to promote feedback via formative means and provide feedback on a summative test, such as the one in the article, in order to improve learning and eventually the assessment outcome of the student.
A subsequent article by Luo (2019) contributes to the discussion on pedagogy in an innovative way, as it considers revolutionising the teaching of Mandarin Chinese via the WeChat app. The article is an empirical study which persuasively proves the benefits of social media and the impact on pedagogical practices. According to the research, WeChat’s communicative functions can enhance the learning experience and have a positive impact on student attainment. Live chat facility between teacher and student, group chat amongst students, multimedia input by the teacher and document transmissions make the learning process interactive and at the same time taking learning away from the classroom. Learning becomes instant, achronic, with the teacher on the other side of the device ready to provide feedback and instructions. Even in this virtual situation, pedagogical practices are applied throughout and the study proves that this model ‘works’ and foreign language learners get better results.
Qing (2019) investigates learners’ motivation and vision in learning Mandarin Chinese amongst different year groups in secondary schools in the UK. Language learning is seen from the students’ perspective and we learn from their point of view what motivates them to learn Mandarin and how they envisage themselves. The group of selected students are part of the Mandarin Excellence Programme (MEP) a government funded programme with intensive weekly teaching offered in many secondary schools in the UK. The programme also offers the opportunity for learners to go to China and immerse themselves in the culture they are learning about. Indeed, one of the main motivating factors is that students love to discover the culture of the language they are studying. The recommendation for pedagogical practices lies then with the teachers in order to include cultural input in their lessons as a result.
Han & Li (2019) explore more specifically one aspect of language learning – writing – and how students can improve their writing via the use of a new app called Cooperpad. The article discusses applications for both face to face and online learning environments. Cooperpad, promotes collaborative learning with a group awareness functionality, which continuously gathers group members' writing behaviour, analyses and visualizes their engagement intensity for group members to compare their participation with that of others. The results showed that the Cooperpad writing system is more helpful to enhance the student engagement and improve students’ academic performance as well as promoting learning initiative and teamwork ability. We observe that the app enhances and improves many pedagogical aspects during teaching and learning where interaction becomes key, in a traditionally very difficult skill to master.
Wei, Chan, Yan (2019) through their investigation of grit and self-regulation and their impact on the five competencies: communication, collaboration, critical thinking, complex problem solving and creativity, they found something very valuable and indeed timeless. According to their findings, teachers should teach their students to never give up, to persevere with their goals. A teachers’ job is to teach their students the way to growth, teach them that difficulties will occur but through self-reflection and seeking for help the students should be able to overcome their difficulties. Teachers, the pedagogues, should guide their students to set their own targets, choose suitable strategies to solve problems and when they meet difficulties they should know who to ask for help so that they can self-reflect and evaluate.
The last article takes us back to basics, and reminds us what is important in pedagogy and effectively timeless; even though these results were obtained through very modern means, the value of pedagogical knowledge lies within us, human beings. Each human being is unique, every learning experience is unique and we, human beings make it happen. That is what connects us all and makes us who we are.
To conclude this issue’s introduction, we consider the importance of the pedagogical knowledge as a priority for educators.  Diamantidaki (2019) discussed that the main goal of education should not be achievement in examinations; rather, the starting point should be the human qualities and capabilities we wish to nurture and what kind of society we hope for.
Education is defined and redefined by who we are and what we do matters to achieve a better society. Nelson Mandela shares that, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”!
This issue is organized with the view to help readers think about education and provide examples so as to feel more empowered and confident to paint a colorful and valuable passage in this world (Kazantzakis  ).
We wish you an excellent reading and we hope to have added, with this issue and all our other activities, a small building block to the edifice of pedagogical knowledge! Thank you!

Researches worldwide show that technology and innovative
practices can improve the educational experience (e.g.
Gunasekara et al., 2021; O’Brien, 2020; Shelley, 2020; Qing &
Diamantidaki, 2020; Bonk et al., 2020). We continue to seek
alternatives to traditional communication, knowing that the
the world we live in will never be the same again (Kefalaki &
Diamantidaki, 2021), yet we need to acknowledge that this
technological advancement is not applicable in all parts of
the world where access to technology is not always possible
due to socioeconomic conditions. This special issue will
explore the successes with technology and its challenges to
allow us to reflect on its use and purposes.

This is a full issue of the Journal of Education, Innovation, and Communication (JEICOM) entitled 'Alternative Communications:
A much-needed transformation ', Vol. 3, Issue 2, December 2021, DOI: 10.34097/jeicom-3-2-december2021.  Our first article brings to the fore the very sensitive issue of social media and its negative effect on young people. The paper entitled ‘Social Media Effects and Self- Harm Behaviors Among Young People: Theoretical and Methodological Challenges’ by Argyro Kefala, examines the effects on social media use and online behaviours that leads to self- harm. The examination of those behaviors both suicidal and non-suicidal is grounded primarily in psychological and medical research but the increase in the number of adolescents who self-harm, in the last few years, expanded research into the use of social media. The paper addresses the issue from a communication perspective. The main argument of this paper is that social media are complex interactive, multimodal and multidirectional environments and user-created cultures that cannot be understood through traditional theories of media effects or simply in quantitative terms of uses and gratifications. Drawing from contemporary studies on media effects and social media affordances, this is an attempt to map the theoretical and methodological challenges in an effort to lay the ground for an enhanced understanding of social media as mediators in self-harming behaviors. A review of current studies in this field reconfirms the conditional and indirect character of media effects identifying at the same time the limitations and gaps in the examination of a complex behavior as it relates to multimodal “self- mass communication” (Castells, 2009) that leads to new forms of “socialized communication”.
Our second article follows on with our alternative communication perspective and brings forward an emerging discipline within the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Research concerning sex (ro)bots which is very new and has been recently undertaken from various scholarships such as gender studies, post-humanist studies as well as social robotics. ‘Sex (Ro)bots: Theoretical Challenges in the study of Human-Machine Communication’, by Iliana Depounti. The article is a review and examines the research focus of studying sex (ro)bots from a Human-Machine Communication (HMC) perspective. It explores two possible theoretical directions and argues in support of and proposes the most appropriate for qualitative HMC researchers. The relational and post-humanist agential philosophy of Bruno Latour is compared and contrasted with the post-structuralist, hermeneutical philosophy of imagination of Cornelius Castoriadis. This article underlines how each of these theories may impact a study within the discipline of HMC, which focuses on the meaning-making processes between humans and machines (Guzman, 2018). By focusing on the epistemological and ontological underpinnings of the two thinkers and providing distinct possible research directions for each theory, the article agrees with the renewed call for qualitative researchers to ground their research in robust theoretical frameworks (Collins & Stockton, 2018). It is argued that Castoriadis’s social imaginary is an appropriate theoretical tool to critically investigate sex (ro)bots as it is compatible with HMC’s research interests and key concepts in critical AI studies. The purpose of this review article is to encourage the identification of appropriate methodological tools to address sex (ro)bot qualitative research within HMC and the exploration of unanticipated old and new theoretical frameworks.
Priscila Minussi signs the third paper of this issue, entitled ‘Political Communication on Facebook: Comparing the República Portuguesa and La Moncloa pages’. As social media platforms grow in popularity, political institutions have been using them for more autonomy in public communication. The article analyses the use of Facebook, the most popular social media worldwide, by República Portuguesa, the government of Portugal, and La Moncloa, the government of Spain. First, a literature review on social media use by governments is presented. Then, the results of a manual categorization of a sample of posts published throughout January 2021 are presented. The posts were categorized according to DePaula, Dincelli and Harrison’s (2018) typology of government social media communication, which consists of information provision, input seeking, online dialogue/offline interaction, and symbolic presentation. The article provides an understanding of the use of each governmental party’s Facebook posts as a communication tool.
‘Applied learning and teaching transformations through project-based action learning in an International Business Management programme’, by KC Chan, Jürgen Rudolph, and Shannon Tan, is the third paper for this issue. This paper expounds on applied learning and teaching transformations through project-based action learning for students’ self-awareness and effective competence development. The purpose of this paper is to track the lead author’s two-decade experience in teaching a series of International Business Management (IBM) modules at an Indonesian university, and its effects on students’ professional life trajectories after having completed their Bachelor’s studies, especially in terms of their career. The overarching research question is: Has the students’ learning during the series of IBM modules benefited them in terms of employability and becoming critical, holistic thinkers? The paper is based on an over 13 years longitudinal action research that used a mixed-methods survey with multiple testimonials accessed via thematic content analysis. To succeed, international business management graduates have to continuously strategise, implement, and incorporate a closed-loop feedback system to track and manage individual progress with an action learning balanced scorecard. As whole-brain learners, the pursuit of knowledge must be transformed into a value-added advantage in four types of interconnected and interdependent power: a) holistic thinking, b) systems thinking, c) critical thinking and d) lateral thinking.
Evangelia Avraam, Andreas Veglis and Charalampos Dimoulas present the last paper of this issue entitled ‘News article consumption habits of Greek internet users’. The concept of different news consumption habits during a day has been well known for many decades in the broadcasting industry. News websites are also experiencing a drop in late afternoon traffic and a sharp drop in the evening hours. Furthermore, during the weekend, website traffic numbers appeared to be significantly different than the numbers during the weekdays. That resulted in the adoption of the concept of dayparting in the case of the internet. The existence of internet dayparts can have a significant impact on news websites since they can significantly determine their success. It is quite natural to assume that media organizations have adopted their publishing patterns to best satisfy the audience’s consumption patterns. This paper investigates those consumption patterns by conducting an extensive web survey among university students and particularly journalism and communication students that are expected to exhibit high consumption rates. The parameters being investigated include time, weekdays and weekends, and content categories. The study identified distinct periods that exhibit specific consumption patterns. The results appear to be to some degree in agreement with findings of previous studies that reported on publishing patterns, but significant differences have also been identified. Those results can provide valuable information for the implementation of successful content publishing strategies from the media organizations.
The above research papers, coming from academics and researchers in different parts of the world (USA, Singapore, England, Spain, Greece), reveal how traditional modes of communication are changing as we transform and strive to adapt to a world in constant evolvement.

The “Journal of Education, Innovation, and Communication (JEICOM)” is a Fully Peer-Reviewed open-access journal publishing articles from all areas of education, innovation, and communication. JEICOM’s scope is to provide a free and open platform to academics, researchers, professionals, and postgraduate students to communicate and share knowledge in the form of high quality empirical and theoretical research that is of high interest not only to academic readers but also to practitioners and professionals.

In this issue, we present two articles from the field of education and Innovation and two from the field of Communication/leadership:
The first article, Innovating in University Teaching through Classroom Interaction, by Carmen Álvarez Álvarez, Lidia Sanchez-Ruiz, Andrea Ruthven and Javier Montoya del Corte, discusses a Teaching Innovation Project (TIP) as a means of confronting the reality of this matter and advancing in it through an interdisciplinary collaboration involving 16 teachers, who participate as external observers, representing all the Faculties from the University of Cantabria (Spain).

The second article, A Contextual Learning Approach Based on Augmented Reality to Improve Students’ Scientific Literacy’, by Yang Yang, Enrui Liu, Sining He, and Su Cai, proposes a contextual learning approach based on augmented reality(AR) technology. A specially developed AR system created a virtual-reality combined environment for students taking an optical inquiry task about rainbow in grade 5. Moreover, a mixed methods research approach was used to analyze the understanding of scientific concepts, use of inquiry process skills, and higher-order thinking skills of the students who learned with the proposed approach.

Does sharing leadership work? An evaluation of the benefits and drawbacks of shared leadership, is the third article presented in this issue, by Nathan Herbst, Carlos E. Rios-Collazo, and Jesse Denison. This paper is a novel contribution to this field of inquiry concerning Leadership. Surveying prominent leaders from several faith-based organizations in the United States that utilize shared leadership, five limitations were discovered, including the difficulty of the model, a potential lack of follow-through, a possible lack of efficiency, a general lack of acceptance of the model, and the danger of immature or usurping team members.

The fourth article, Leadership challenges of Urban Institutions of higher learning, which serve a predominantly diverse and multi-cultural student population, by Michael A. Altamirano, examines the unique leadership challenges confronted by staff and faculty of higher education institutions that serve a predominantly diverse and multicultural student population in urban areas of the United States.

This is a special issue of the Journal of Education, Innovation, and Communication (JEICOM), entitled 'Communication is RObust when NAtions Come Together: The Importance of Collaboration during a Global Crisis' ( Special Issue, June 2020  -  DOI: 10.34097/jeicom_SP_june2020). This issue focuses on themes that involve pedagogy in different places and universities around the world during the time of this pandemic; how education leaders and leadership in general respond, or should respond, to the COVID-19 crisis; and ways to engage students in collaborative learning.

This is the Full Issue of the Journal of Education, Innovation and Communication, entitled "Reevaluating the Role of Innovation
in education: a living social process", Vol. 2, Issue 2 (December 2020)
DOI: 10.34097/jeicom-2-2-Dec2020. Our issue aims to add to the existing knowledge on innovation that has influenced teaching and learning processes during the pandemic with the hope that this issue will help us re-evaluate the purpose of innovations and their impact on our everyday life.

This is a full issue of the Journal of Education, Innovation, and Communication (JEICOM) entitled 'The evolving and interactive nature of Communication' -Vol. 4, Issue 1, June 2022- DOI: 10.34097/jeicom-4-1-june2022. The first paper, by Makri Elina and Veglis Andreas, entitled «Human Cognition and Data Journalism», is a cross-disciplinary research that draws the attention of data journalism stakeholders to the mental operations of a person who experiences storytelling with data. More particularly, it investigates the reasons that the audience acts upon emotional stories rather than data and statistics. Additionally, the research examines the role of the language use by the data journalist; and whether language can overshadow data and consequently influence the reader’s perception on the information from an article.
«The Role of Psychological Approaches in Data Journalism Visualisations», by Kalliri Emilia and Veglis Andreas is the second article of this issue. Data visualisation, the method that allows communicating large amounts of data, improves viewer’s understanding of news and increase interaction. This study explores whether visual designers in data journalism assess psychological principles in data visualization. Data visualisations from the BBC and the Guardian presenting coronavirus’ information and the use of ‘decoding model’ initiated by Munzner (2014), helped the authors identify the visual attributes of data visualisations.
The next paper, by Atencio Chris and Herbst Nathaniel, entitled « Addressing Common Obstacles to Effective Shared Leadership: A Five-Year Follow Up», aims to fill the gap of limitations, drawbacks, and difficulties associated with shared leadership. A five-year follow up investigation into seven American Christian churches and ministries, that have been previously interviewed, confirm that all five same obstacles (difficulty of the model, a potential lack of follow-through, a possible lack of efficiency, a general lack of acceptance of the model, and the danger of immature or usurping team members) were experienced over the past five years. Nevertheless, the research also proved that none of these obstacles had kept these organizations from continuing to effectively share leadership. 
Yingfa Song and Jiangxia Ji, author « Why people participate in collaborative governance through the government hotline: from the perspective of the theory of planned behavior». This study constructs a model of influencing factors for the public to use the government hotline to participate in collaborative governance, based on the theory of planned behavior. Hypothesis testing was conducted by structural equation model, and regression analysis was used to explore the moderating effect of each influencing factor on different governance behaviors. The results show that the attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, government trust and participation resources have a positive and significant impact on the public's behavioral intention to use the government hotline to participate in collaborative governance, and the behavioral intention further leads to the actual governance behavior.

This is a full issue of the Journal of Education, Innovation, and Communication (JEICOM) entitled 'Interdisciplinary studies in social sciences – unmasking truths whilst nurturing new possibilities',
Vol. 3, Issue 1, June 2021. DOI: 10.34097/jeicom-3-1-june21

This is a full issue of the Journal of Education, Innovation, and Communication (JEICOM) -Volume 5, Issue 1, June 2023- entitled 'Creative Intercultural Collaboration in the UK Modern Foreign Languages Classroom: The quest for social justice'
DOI: 10.34097/jeicom-5-1-June-23 . This issue aims to highlight the ongoing successes taking place in the UK language classroom, that most of the times are lost amongst the negative debate surrounding languages education.