Dimension 1.1
Communication as a human right for a common good
Belshaw (2011) suggests communication as a nuts-and-bolts element of digital literacies, one of the eight essential digital literacies identified in his research, although also recognizing that digital literacies “are transient: they change over time, may involve using different tools or developing different habits of mind … They can be scaffolded and developed but to do so involves more than training, it involves education” (p. 204, emphasis in the original). Belshaw (2011) draws on research by Tornedo (2004) who brings to mind a linkage to media and digital literacies where communication is a basic human right within a growing and sustainable democracy. Many participants spoke of their belief of their role in education to extend learning as a common good.As noted in the findings, communication skills and fluencies using web-based tools are foundational to the participants’ open teaching practices. This is evident through their lived experiences in self-directed learning and self-driven explorations of digital communicational technologies to enhance their teaching, and their students’ learning experiences, for example, Vega's push to learn how to create podcasts for their course during the pandemic as a means of communicating course content. The communication strategies applied by the participants include the use of technologies that take a turn toward oral traditions (Belshaw, 2011) as well as increasingly visual forms of text production to communicate in multiple formats. Participants mention their active use of video and audio communications to supplement and enhance text-based messages for coursework to ensure student understanding.
As also noted in the findings, the participants grapple with the ethical use, creation, and communication of media produced with digital technologies, but more worrisome for a few of the participants are those media productions by technologies which are occurring with the advent of increasingly capable artificial intelligence software options (Borenstein & Howard, 2021; Chen et al., 2021; Gibbs, 2022), particularly with the ChatGPT form of artificial intelligence writing software, bringing this to the forefront in current educational contexts (ContactNorth, 2023). A shift in OEPr and MDL will potentially emerge as the application of block-chain technologies impact educational practices, as mentioned by ER. These technological changes require additional skills, fluencies and competencies to further inform TEds’ MDL as they push toward OEPr as a communicational mechanism as a human right for a common good.