Media and Digital Literacy Certificate

Department of Elementary Education, Woodring College of Education

16 credits

Introduction

The new set of skills required for a digital world do not have an agreed upon label (21st Century Literacies, new literacies, media literacies, technoliteracies, transliteracy). While scholars have debated on the label for new literacies as well as on a common definition, Coiro, Knobel, Lankshear, & Leu (2008) have indicated there are at least 4 common elements in new literacies research: “(1) The Internet and other ICTs [information and communication technologies] require new social practices, skills, strategies, and dispositions for their effective use; (2) new literacies are central to full civic, economic, and personal participation in a global community; (3) new literacies rapidly change as defining technologies change; and (4) new literacies are multiple, multimodal, and multifaceted”. Perhaps the most central to this program is that new literacies rapidly change as the technologies that define them change. This program aims to provide teachers with current research and practice for transformative teaching with technology.

Why Consider a Certificate in Media and Digital Literacy?

Do you find media and digital literacy engaging? Do you like to approach your teaching with a wide variety of tools? Would you like to help students engage in authentic, real-world, collaborative problems? Do you want to know why as well as how? If so, you may wish to consider a certificate in Media and Digital Literacy. Students earning a certificate in this area will be able to apply their learning directly to their practice, with the ability to become leaders in their field.

How to Declare (Admission and Declaration Process):

Non-matriculated individuals must complete the Special Student Enrollment form, found on WWU’s website by typing “special student enrollment” in the search field. Please contact the WWU’s Registrar’s Office at 360-650-3432 for the particular dates of acceptance of these forms. It is also possible for students currently admitted to master’s programs to enroll in these courses and complete the certificate.