Data Analysis - Facet Three
Media and Digital Literacies - Understandings
“… knowledge emerges only through invention and reinvention, the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry beings pursue with the world and with others.” Paulo Freire
In this section of the data analysis, I restlessly and hopefully explore facets of participants’ lived experiences in search of an answer to the research question “How do MDL inform or shape practices of teacher educators immersed in OEPr?” For a clearer understanding of conceptions and understandings of media and digital literacies, it may be helpful to review the literature before proceeding (insert link here). The visualization of the interconnections between skills, fluencies, competencies and literacies may also be helpful (insert link to graphic here). First, I share participants’ understandings of MDL concepts. Then I focus on the facets found within the themes of communication, creativity, and criticality. I conclude with a brief summary of the findings generated from the data gatherings.
When prompted to describe media and digital literacies as experienced in their teaching practice, participants portray MDL as multifaceted, complex, and value laden. SH’s response resonates: “I've defined digital literacies, as all of the skills, strategies and mindsets, dispositions required for making meaning and communicating meaning through and with digital tools”. PL defines MDL by separating the terms, with media being the message and digital being the means of communicating the message.
The multifaceted and transmedia nature of MDL is evident in participants’ responses, since many include elements of creating and engaging with alternate forms of communication beyond traditional text formats. Complexity within MDL is partly defined and shaped by the tools used and their affordances since “tools/things have some agency” (PL). This complexity can be both opportunity and challenge, as noted in AT’s reflection that “we need to know better how to how to work with that complexity and the layers and how to do all those things at the same time, pull them apart and then put them back together”.
Some expressed belief that MDL involves value-laden judgments and biased decision-making about the intended purpose or audience of materials and productions. Some participants mention the need for a critical stance – “the digital allows you to take it into that productive space with a critical perspective” (AT). The values attached to media and digital tools, strategies, and productions are evident in participants’ expressed competence and dispositions.
The goal of MDL for some of the teacher educators focuses on developing their own skills and competencies, connected to student learning by helping “our teacher candidates develop theirs, so that they in turn, can use digital literacy frameworks, and support their students in developing their digital media literacies” (OW). Some participants mention specific MDL frameworks they use in their teaching practice, including the MediaSmarts framework and the ISTE standards for teachers.