Explore the vast range of titles available.

Over the last decade, augmented reality (AR) has emerged in health care as a tool for visualizing data and enhancing simulation learning. AR, which has largely been explored for communication and collaboration in nonhealth contexts, could play a role in shaping future remote medical services and training. This review summarized existing studies implementing AR in real-time telemedicine and telementoring to create a foundation for health care providers and technology developers to understand future opportunities in remote care and education. This review described devices and platforms that use AR for real-time telemedicine and telementoring, the tasks for which AR was implemented, and the ways in which these implementations were evaluated to identify gaps in research that provide opportunities for further study. We searched PubMed, Scopus, Embase, and MEDLINE to identify English-language studies published between January 1, 2012, and October 18, 2022, implementing AR technology in a real-time interaction related to telemedicine or telementoring. The search terms were \"augmented reality\" OR \"AR\" AND \"remote\" OR \"telemedicine\" OR \"telehealth\" OR \"telementoring.\" Systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and discussion-based articles were excluded from analysis. A total of 39 articles met the inclusion criteria and were categorized into themes of patient evaluation, medical intervention, and education. In total, 20 devices and platforms using AR were identified, with common features being the ability for remote users to annotate, display graphics, and display their hands or tools in the local user's view. Common themes across the studies included consultation and procedural education, with surgery, emergency, and hospital medicine being the most represented specialties. Outcomes were most often measured using feedback surveys and interviews. The most common objective measures were time to task completion and performance. Long-term outcome and resource cost measurements were rare. Across the studies, user feedback was consistently positive for perceived efficacy, feasibility, and acceptability. Comparative trials demonstrated that AR-assisted conditions had noninferior reliability and performance and did not consistently extend procedure times compared with in-person controls. Studies implementing AR in telemedicine and telementoring demonstrated the technology's ability to enhance access to information and facilitate guidance in multiple health care settings. However, AR's role as an alternative to current telecommunication platforms or even in-person interactions remains to be validated, with many disciplines and provider-to-nonprovider uses still lacking robust investigation. Additional studies comparing existing methods may offer more insight into this intersection, but the early stage of technical development and the lack of standardized tools and adoption have hindered the conduct of larger longitudinal and randomized controlled trials. Overall, AR has the potential to complement and advance the capabilities of remote medical care and learning, creating unique opportunities for innovator, provider, and patient involvement.

In today’s globalized world, learning languages and developing intercultural skills are of paramount importance due to dynamic and complex global interdependencies. However, not every language student around the world has a chance to engage in face-to-face intercultural communication with people from different backgrounds. Telecollaboration offers a worthwhile opportunity by creating digital environments for language learners to communicate with people from diverse backgrounds. This qualitative meta-synthesis therefore aimed to investigate the research papers that were published between 2010 and 2015 in respect to language and intercultural learning within telecollaborative environments. Besides reporting emerging research trends among the studies, this synthesis study scrutinized recent emerging issues and observable patterns under five main themes: (1) the participants’ overall views on their telecollaborative experiences, (2) language learning through telecollaboration, (3) intercultural learning through telecollaboration, (4) the challenges experienced within the telecollaborative projects, and (5) the needs for further effective telecollaboration. Finally, this study synthesizes key emerging issues in telecollaborative projects and offers further research and practice directions in line with the current observable patterns.

This study aims to analyse intercultural communicative competence, understood as the individual’s ability to effectively and appropriately develop communication and behaviour, when interacting in an intercultural context. In this study, the Behavioural, Affective and Cognitive Dimensions, and their sub–dimensions, are considered by using videoconferencing as a tool for telecollaboration in Higher Education. These sub–dimensions are observed according to their positive and negative orientation (facilitating or inhibiting). The objectives of the current study are to analyse the dimensions and sub–dimensions distribution, to assess the incidence of the typology of generic and specific topics, and to assess the over time communication evolution. Content analysis of communications between university peers was carried out and we undertook a percentage frequency index. The results show behavioural communications to be in the majority, followed by affective and, finally, cognitive communications. Communications with a negative aspect are almost absent from this study. MANOVA was performed to investigate differences between typologies of topics (generic/specific) in dimensions. This research founds statistically significant differences in Affective Dimension. ANOVAs were conducted to observe if there are differences in the development over time of Behavioural, Affective and Cognitive Dimensions of intercultural online communications. There was a significant effect over time in Affective and Behavioural Dimension. The present study finds expressions that show a positive attitude towards communication, as well as interest in and an effort to maintain it. We can conclude that, in Affective Dimension, where generic topics enhance communication, while educational topics inhibit it. However, a sustained evolution over time has not been found, rather a significant incidence depending on topic themes.

Pharmaceutical care has expanded, with telehealth playing a key role, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite global growth, existing reviews focus on specific settings or conditions, highlighting the need for broader research on public health topics and comparative studies to evaluate the effectiveness, preferences, and cost of telehealth interventions in pharmacy practice. The aim of this study was to unify existing literature on the impact of telehealth on future pharmacy practice and to analyze those already implemented in current pharmacy practice, with the objective of providing recommendations. The PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) framework was used to guide this review. In total, 4 databases were searched for relevant studies: PubMed, CINAHL, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library. Title, abstract, and full-text screening was performed, and 18 reviews met the selection criteria. The search period was from August 1, 2012, to December 22, 2024. The quality of the reviews was assessed using a 5-point Likert scale and a GRADE-CERQual scale. Based on the identified reviews, telehealth interventions were categorized into teleconsultation, telemonitoring, telecollaboration, and telesupport. Teleconsultation was the most frequently used. Telephones were most common in teleconsultations and telemonitoring, while mobile, web, or computer applications were most frequent in telesupport. A combination of methods was most used to facilitate telecollaboration, such as telephone, fax, electronic messaging, shared electronic records, and videoconferencing. The identified reviews were evaluated by health outcomes, hospital readmission rates, patient safety, adherence, satisfaction, pharmacist shortage, and quality and access to care. The use of telehealth in pharmacy has generally seen an improvement in overall outcomes compared to traditional pharmacy practice. Our results show a strong push to integrate telehealth into future pharmacy practice, with the United States leading the way in adoption, demonstrating increased care access, quality, and patient safety. In Singapore, telephone consultations have been commonly used in hospitals, though community settings lack widespread adoption. However, the growing digital literacy of older adults and innovations like chatbots and telemonitoring present opportunities to expand telehealth services. To align with this shift, pharmacy education should invest in enhancing formative training by incorporating telehealth training, ensuring future pharmacists are prepared for this evolving practice, applicable to regions with similar contexts. Telehealth has shown promise in improving overall outcomes in pharmacy practice. While many countries have made strides, particularly in hospital settings, there remains an opportunity for greater adoption in community health care, driven by innovations like telemonitoring and digital literacy among older adults. The findings from this study can be used to inform future implementation of telehealth interventions in pharmacy in Singapore and other regions or cities with similar contexts.

Globalization and networking technologies have transformed the contexts, means, and uses of foreign language learning. The Internet offers a vast array of texts, films, music, news, information, pedagogical resources, sounds, and images from around the world as well as unprecedented opportunities for direct communication with native speakers in real time. However, the very technology that delivers these materials and interactions can produce subtle mediational effects that can influence how learners evaluate and interpret them. Focusing first on technological mediation broadly, and then on the specific context of desktop videoconferencing in a telecollaboration project, this article outlines the benefits and the potential pitfalls that computer mediation presents for the learning of languages and cultures. Specific attention is given to the question of what it means to mediate the foreign culture through interfaces that are familiar from one's home culture. The principal argument is that the dynamics of online language learning call for a relational pedagogy that focuses on how medium and context interact with language use. The goal of such an approach is to expose students to a broader scope of symbolic inquiry, to connect present text-making practices with those of the past, and to foster a critical perspective that will prepare young people to understand and shape future language and literacy practices. (Verlag).

Virtual exchange (VE) is an umbrella term used to refer to the engagement of groups of students in sustained online intercultural interaction and collaboration with international partners under the guidance of their teachers. In the computer-assisted language learning literature, telecollaboration and eTandem approaches to VE have been researched extensively. However, this research has principally focused to date on learner gains and the impact on teachers has been much less explored. This paper identifies the impact of VE on foreign language teachers’ practices and their professional development by examining the results of a qualitative study of 31 teacher trainers who engaged their classes in VE projects as part of a large-scale European project. The findings of the study suggest that participation in VE projects provides teachers with valuable experience in continued professional development and methodological innovation. In particular, VE was seen to open up opportunities for teachers to develop new professional partnerships, collaborative academic initiatives, to develop their own online collaboration skills, and also to introduce more innovative approaches in their current teaching practice.

In recent years, telecollaboration has been gaining popularity among scholars, teachers, and students engaged in foreign language education because it facilitates the use of Internet-mediated communication tools to connect language and culture learners in geographically distant locations. Telecollaboration, as currently viewed in academic and classroom settings, places greater emphasis on the development of learners' intercultural communicative competence. The problem with this approach is that this process may not consider the possibility that learners engaged in online intercultural exchanges could have limited or no knowledge about certain aspects of their own lingua-culture. We argue that, for learners to effectively share lingua-cultural knowledge with their online peers abroad, there must be a framework that supports the construction of learners' own intra-cultural knowledge to provide a solid foundation for intercultural learning and communication. In this paper, we develop an inquiry-based model of telecollaboration incorporating both inquiry and online exchange based on the inquiry cycle, which includes engagement, exploration, explanation, elaboration, and evaluation. This paper builds a case for the application of inquiry-based telecollaboration in a real classroom environment, which could not only help learners obtain and eventually share more authentic, deeper knowledge about their lingua-culture, but also promote informed intercultural exchange.

Since advances in computer-mediated communication (CMC) tools have made virtual exchanges readily available in educational practices, telecollaboration has been gaining traction as a means to provide practical experiences and cultural exposure to language learners and, more recently, teacher trainees. Drawing upon Byram’s (1997) model of intercultural communicative competence (ICC), this study examines 48 teacher trainees’ interculturality through a telecollaborative project between two teacher training classes from Turkey and the USA. This study relies on data generated by the participants throughout this telecollaborative project: weekly online discussion board posts within groups of six and post-project reflections. Although developing ICC is an arduous and prolonged task, the data analysis suggested that the participants’ experiences in this telecollaboration contributed to their emergent ICC through discussions on the topics of multicultural education and interactions with trainees from another educational context. Their intercultural learning is evidenced by their (1) awareness of heterogeneity in their own and interactants’ culture, (2) nascent critical cultural awareness, and (3) curiosity and willingness to learn more about the other culture. Thus, this study implies that telecollaboration offers an effective teacher training venue that affords teacher trainees with first-hand intercultural encounters to engage with otherness and prepare for their ethnolinguistically diverse classrooms.

Intercultural communication is now a crucial part of our globalizing lives; however, not everyone has an opportunity to engage in an intercultural interaction with people from different cultures. Computer-based technologies are promising in creating environments for people to communicate with people from diverse cultures. This qualitative synthesis of quantitative and qualitative research therefore aimed to investigate the literature in respect to intercultural learning through technology use. Besides reporting research descriptives in the literature, this review brought eight main points to the light: (1) an overall satisfaction with digital tools and intercultural learning, (2) increased knowledge toward both own and target culture, (3) superficial and fact-based exchange between similar cultures and profiles, (4) varied levels of intercultural communicative competence development, (5) lack of in-depth analysis and of detailed reports, (6) necessity for training, guidance, and good communication skills, (7) need for stimulating contexts, and (8) technical and institutional challenges. The current study is timely to help researchers and practitioners to both comprehend the existing literature and to find new research and practice directions in the field.

Many researchers have underlined the benefits of student mobility in strengthening their communication skills. Studying a foreign language and fostering knowledge about behavioural attitudes are the most common research cases. One of the major issues of mobility, by its very nature, is that it implies significant travel and accommodation costs. Virtual mobility, or Virtual Exchange (VE), can be introduced as a proactive alternative solution. This work presents an evaluation of a telecollaborative online course model organised as a VE between German and Moroccan universities. It was established to explore the benefits of integrating a VE experience by practicing some 21st-century knowledge elements as tools for the development of intercultural, language, and digital competencies from the perspective of mobility. In this paper, we present a VE model and its design, structure, and progress. Then, we evaluate this first experience to overcome some challenges that similar future experiences could face. We analyse the tools proposed in this design, the interactions between the different actors, and their feedback. The evaluative study shows the acquisition of awareness of cultural differences and the improvement of language skills through practice in addition to the development of some digital skills.