Digital literacies and WAC/WID

Abstract

This thesis defines digital literacies for an audience of educators who want to integrate digital literacies into their existing curriculum. In this discussion, I examine how discipline-based faculty encourage and support digital literacies and suggest how these faculty might update their courses to include digital technologies and new media. Much has changed with technologies of late, and I argue that educators need to shift from using old technologies and media to using digital technologies and media if they are to help students develop more sophisticated digital literacies. In the past, Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) and Writing in the Disciplines (WID) programs have successfully helped students in this regard; however, they likely see the need for this shift in emphasis from traditional literacies to digital literacies and are well positioned to network with discipline-based instructors and other constituents on campus to support students' digital literacies in the ways I propose.