Opportunities and Challenges in Educator Development: Audiovisual Media Communications and Multiple-Multimodal Skills

Introduction

Nowadays, in the 21st century, we live in a meta-transitional world as a novel today’s society in which technological knowledge is prevalent. Unfortunately, numerous humans believe that technology has already destroyed human civilization, while the primary values and ideals are already counterproductive and no longer unmatched, unparalleled, and confronted. Additionally, they also believe that the archetypal skills and abilities tend to be eliminated, while what we now call social media (see also Aichner et al., 2021) has led humans to believe that there is a virtual equality among them (see also Nicolaou, 2021a, 2021b; Nicolaou & Karypidou, 2021). Indeed, all of these have been rapidly rekindled in recent years in conjunction with the growing tendency of skepticism against scientific research as well as the proliferation of misinformation, fake news, and conspiracy theories (such as, for example, the case with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic) (cf. Shutaleva et al., 2021; Kefalaki & Karanicolas, 2020; Katsaounidou & Dimoulas, 2019), aided in part from and through the technology itself as an emerging assistive technology trend and technology-enhanced development. Overall, all of the aforementioned exemplifies a common situation in today’s 21st century society where, unfortunately, the advancement of technology creates one or more problems that can fortunately be solved primarily from and through utilizing media technology that combines audio content or even visual content (i.e., audiovisual content) in the framework of educational process by the educator.

Currently, it is a fact that the novel society in which we live in is, on the one hand, highly technologically visualized and digitally enhanced making our lives better and more prosperous; however, this situation requires that we—especially educators—have sufficient technological knowledge, attitudes, values, and new, more modern and advanced skills from and through the audiovisual media and communication technologies (audiovisual media technologies from here on) to be able to survive and succeed in this meta-transitional real world (cf. Chakravarti & Stevenson, 2023; Jeljeli et al., 2022; Nicolaou, 2023b; Nicolaou & Karypidou, 2021; Nicolaou et al., 2021b). On the other hand, in addition to the continuous use of audiovisual media technologies (including media technology, e.g., data storage devices, art media technology, print media technology, digital media technology, electronic media technology, etc.), educators must be able to apply them with thoughtful and effective manner as well as be receptive and maintain a positive outlook on any emerging innovation (Nicolaou, 2023b, 2022; Nicolaou et al., 2019).

Undoubtedly, audiovisual media technologies and audiovisual content (henceforth, audiovisual media communications) are possessed from communicative features and contemporary trends, approaches, and perspectives (cf. Dimoulas et al., 2018, 2015, 2014; Nicolaou, 2021a; Matsiola et al. 2018; Sarridis & Nicolaou, 2015), which, if properly utilized in the framework of learning methodology in teaching, can cause an active and interactive teaching and learning (Nicolaou et al., 2019; Nicolaou, 2022). Similarly, in the educational process as well as in the various educational professions they can be employed by the educators to teach more effectively in a technology-enhanced learning environment, while they can also acquire a wide range of other highly effective skills (Ewing et al., 2018; Frolova et al., 2020; Nicolaou et al., 2021b, 2019; Chakravarti & Stevenson, 2023). Additionally, literature overview and review as well as empirical research indicate that both self-efficacy and reflect learners’ deep learning through utilizing technology-enhanced learning help to shape the acquisition of a plethora of skills (cf. Chakravarti & Stevenson, 2023; Frolova et al., 2019; Nicolaou, 2023b, 2022; Nicolaou et al., 2019; Riyanti et al., 2021), making it a ‘win-win’ situation between educator and learners. Moreover, the use of audiovisual media communications in education helps both educators and learners acquire numerous abilities and competencies (cf. Nicolaou et al., 2021b; Nicolaou & Kalliris, 2020, Nicolaou, 2023b).