Data Analysis - Facet Three
In this section of the data analysis, I restlessly and hopefully explored facets of participants’ lived experiences in search for 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 was helpful to review the literature (see the Literacies section) and revisited the visualizations relating to literacies (see Figure 9) and the graphic of the interconnections between skills, fluencies, competencies and literacies (see Figure 10). I began by examining participants’ understandings of MDL concepts. Then I focused on the facets found within the themes of communication, creativity, and criticality. I concluded with a brief summary of the findings generated from the data gatherings.
Understandings
When prompted to describe media and digital literacies as experienced in their teaching practice, participants portrayed MDL as multifaceted, complex, and value laden. Perseus’ response resonated: “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”. Dorado defined 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 was evident in participants’ responses, since many included 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” (Dorado). This complexity was both opportunity and challenge, as noted in Leonis’ reflection that “we need to know better 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 involved value-laden judgments and biased decision-making about the intended purpose or audience of materials and productions. Some participants mentioned the need for a critical stance – “the digital allows you to take it into that productive space with a critical perspective” (Leonis). The values attached to media and digital tools, strategies, and productions were evident in participants’ expressed competence and dispositions.
The goal of MDL for some of the teacher educators focused on developing their own skills and competencies. This 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” (Polaris). Some participants mentioned specific MDL frameworks they used in their teaching practice, including the MediaSmarts framework and the ISTE standards for teachers.