10 DTC 101

About This OER

10.1 Methodology

Between 2017 and 2019, CMDC students were selected to work on the overall design and development of this textbook. Liliya Truderung, Diana Boligar, and Betsy Hanrahan created the design elements and graphics. Diana Boligar also helped to develop the site to be responsive to different devices. Joshua Yoes and Holly Slocum designed and built interactive units for various chapters.

Over time, this OER textbook has developed in response to changes in the field of digital media and to the evolving needs of CMDC students and faculty. As students and faculty using the textbook provide feedback and input, the text has been edited, modified, and expanded. Faculty may contribute their own sources and ideas to the main content of the chapters, and student-created interactive units, features, and design elements may continue to be added.

This textbook is designed as a living document. Like digital technologies themselves, it changes through revision, use, critique, and collaboration. The 2026 revision keeps the original emphasis on digital media, networks, data, games, art, and culture while adding new attention to artificial intelligence, generative media, algorithmic systems, and the ethical questions raised by contemporary digital tools.

10.2 Rationale

A summary study, conducted by Dr. John Hilton III, of various quantitative evaluations on the effectiveness of OER in undergraduate learning and retention, concludes that while OER does not prove overwhelmingly more effective, the cost savings to students and their parents are an important factor.

“If the average college student spends approximately $1,000 per year on textbooks and yet performs scholastically no better than the student who utilizes free OER, what exactly is being purchased with that $1,000?” (Hilton)

Other factors, such as the quality of the OER textbook compared to more highly produced commercial textbooks, determine the success of adopting OER. It therefore seems imperative, in this project, to spend time on the writing, navigation, design, media, and accessibility of the OER textbook.

Besides the cost savings, the DTC 101 textbook addresses the pedagogical needs of students immersed in a networked, media-saturated world. Cathy Davidson, one of the leading researchers in the Digital Humanities, addresses the issue of distracted students in the classroom by proposing that “partial attention” might be a learning strategy:

“In our global, diverse, interactive world, where everything seems to have another side, continuous partial attention may not only be a condition of life but a useful tool for navigating a complex world.” (287)

The DTC 101 textbook addresses this partial attention with relatively short, juxtaposed chunks of media and information designed to supplement traditional readings and in-class discussions. In a course that combines topics in computer science, media studies, cultural studies, and creative practice, students benefit from a digital resource that demonstrates multimodal, networked, and interactive learning.

The rapid development of generative AI systems makes digital literacy more important rather than less important. Students need conceptual frameworks for understanding digital media, networks, data, algorithms, creativity, ethics, and human-machine collaboration. This textbook seeks to provide those foundations without reducing digital culture to any single technology or platform.

Each chapter contains a selection of illustrative graphics, animations, audio and video resources, written explanations, historical context, glossary terms, and practical exercises to help with comprehension. The DTC 101 OER textbook fills a gap in the undergraduate pedagogy of digital media studies and further places Washington State University’s CMDC program as a leader in an emerging field. The textbook also serves as a model and template for CMDC digital publishing and for other OER projects in the university.

10.3 Open Knowledge and Collaboration

Open educational resources are part of a larger culture of open knowledge. The internet made it possible for information, code, images, media, and research to circulate beyond the boundaries of traditional publishing. Projects such as Wikipedia, open-source software, Creative Commons licensing, public archives, and collaborative repositories demonstrate that knowledge can be built, corrected, expanded, and shared by communities.

This does not mean that open knowledge is effortless or without conflict. Shared resources require maintenance, attribution, moderation, revision, and care. Like the network commons discussed in earlier chapters, open knowledge depends on trust, participation, and responsible governance. A free resource still requires labor.

An OER textbook is therefore not simply a free textbook. It is a collaborative educational form. It invites adaptation, revision, reuse, and response. In a field like digital technology and culture, where tools and platforms change quickly, openness makes it possible for teaching materials to remain responsive to the present.

10.4 Updating the OER in the Age of AI

This Open Educational Resource was originally researched, written, and designed between 2018 and 2020, before the emergence of contemporary generative AI systems. No AI tools were used in the creation of the original textbook. The 2026 edition adds two new chapters—Digital Intelligences and Artificial Intelligence—and substantially revises the remaining chapters to reflect changes in digital media, platforms, data, social networks, games, and AI since the first edition.

Generative AI was used selectively during this revision process as an editorial and design assistant rather than as an author. AI contributed to brainstorming, copy editing, restructuring sections, suggesting examples, identifying outdated material, generating draft infographics from detailed text prompts, and proposing revisions that were subsequently evaluated and edited by the author. All final writing, organization, pedagogical decisions, factual verification, and editorial responsibility remain with the author.

Because this textbook examines artificial intelligence critically, it also seeks to model transparent AI use. AI-generated text was never accepted without revision, comparison with other sources, and human judgment. AI-generated graphics were created from concepts already developed in the text rather than serving as sources of information. Where AI assisted the revision process, its role was collaborative rather than authoritative.

Artificial intelligence raises new questions for open education. AI tools can assist with drafting, editing, summarizing, coding, generating images, and organizing information. They can also produce errors, reproduce bias, obscure sources, and blur the boundaries between authorship, remix, automation, and collaboration. For this reason, AI should not be treated as an unquestioned authority but as a tool for inquiry, experimentation, and revision.

The age of AI also reinforces the value of living educational resources. Printed textbooks can become outdated as technologies, interfaces, laws, and platforms change. A digital OER can continue to evolve while preserving earlier editions as historical records. This flexibility makes open educational resources especially well suited to teaching rapidly changing fields such as digital technology and culture.

Digital technology is not simply a collection of tools. It is a cultural environment that shapes how people communicate, create, learn, organize knowledge, and imagine the future. The goal of this textbook is not merely to explain digital technologies but to encourage thoughtful, critical, and responsible participation in a rapidly changing digital world.

10.5 Credits

All text by Will Luers, except for Chapter 08: Digital Games, which was originally written by Michael Rabby and later revised for this edition.

Web design by Liliya Truderung, Diana Boligar, and Betsy Hanrahan.

Programming and interactive units by Joshua Yoes and Holly Slocum.

Revised 2026 chapter structure and AI-era updates by Will Luers.

All images and video are in the public domain, licensed for non-commercial use, used for educational purposes, or linked/embedded from external platforms.