Dimension 1.2
Humans are storytellers
Teachers and teacher educators are storytellers at heart. Stories communicate. The participants in this research share their stories of MDL and OEPr with a focus on purpose and audience for the creation of the storied messages produced for teaching and learning. These sites of storying are evident in the findings. Here I make a connection to Thornburg’s (2001) writings about primordial metaphors and campfires in cyberspace since there isAlthough traditional campfires are replaced by the glow from computer screens, the metaphor is no less compelling for todays’ communicational purposes. Thornburg (2001) talks about spaces like the campfire, the watering hole, and the cave as sites where communications occur. I suggest adding the stage as an additional site, whereby the internet and open publications become ‘staged’ productions of perfected communications worthy of larger audiences. Merak makes reference to this in their lived experience; not wanting to share media productions in the open unless they were perfected. This brings communicational purpose to these sites of endeavour for the participants in this research.a sacred quality to teaching as storytelling, and this activity took place in sacred places, typically around the fire or under a tree. The focal point of the flame, the sounds of the night, all provide backdrop to the storyteller who shares wisdom with students who, in their turn, become storytellers to the next generation. In this manner, culture replicates itself through the DNA of myth (paragraph 8).
The campfire becomes Zoom rooms with breakout rooms, where conversations focus on topics relating to course content or opening dialogues. The watering hole becomes the back-room chat spaces created for one-off conversations as students and TEds sustain their learning with fluid dialogues, such as Aquila's use of Discord. The cave becomes a blog, website or shared document space for reflection about teaching practice. The stage becomes the sites where multimedia productions share stories and ideas, and learning events are showcased in digital spaces such as Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. Each of these metaphoric spaces require that the participants in this research make intentional choices, paying strategic attention to the intended audience for the communications, and the specific choice of digital tools. Participants in this research, through their shared stories, model their MDL in action for communicational purposes.
Although it may be self-evident that communication is one of the key elements to MDL and OEPr, the participants in this research continually navigate to and through communicational sites, spaces, strategies, and identities. They make strategic decisions as they attempt to answer questions such as Will I share?; Why will I share?; With whom should I share?; Where will I share?; Is this good enough to share?, or How might sharing impact my digital persona?; as echoed in the comments by Merak and revealed in the research by Cronin (2017).