"Fostering Agency in the Context of Creativity and Social Justice: WSSU's Digital Literacy Journey" Dr. Wanda white and dr. jack monell- Winston Salem-State University

Leadership Support Makes All the Difference!

"WSSU provides access to digital tools for students, faculty, and staff, establishing support and resources to close the digital divide, and creating partnerships that will enhance creativity and digital fluency for all." ~Chancellor Elwood Robinson

In 2018, WSSU became an Adobe Creative Campus, and we were the first Historically Black College and University as a creative campus.

There are currently four (4) HBCUs who are Adobe Creative Campuses.

Winston-Salem State University
Florida A & M University
Fayetteville State University
Bowie State University

This year began our 5th year partnering with Adobe on ways to leverage student success by increasing DIGITAL FLUENCY for our students and simultaneously helping to close the DIGITAL DIVIDE for them.

When we began as an Adobe Creative Campus, digital acumen and even digital tool use were in its early stages on our campus.

A VIDEO SNAPSHOP OF OUR DIGITAL LITERACY JOURNEY AT WSSU

Addressing Digital Literacy for TWO Populations: Students and Faculty

Providing digital tools for just students or just faculty would not produce the impact that we were seeking as we began our digital journey.

Our Students

Founded as an HBCU in 1892, but today, WSSU has a diverse student body.

WSSU believes in high touch and high impact!

Many of our students are 1st generation college students.

WSSU Students come from all socio-economic levels and educational backgrounds.

Enter to Learn; Depart to Serve

We serve a population of motivated students who graduated with top honors in high school.
A large number of our students (69%) are Pell grant eligible- comes from a household whose total income is $50,000 or less.
17% of our students come from households whose income may be $25,000 or less.
One -third of our students are first generation college students.
A signifcant number of our students come from rural, eastern North Carolina where economic challenges are some of the largest in the state.

Oftentimes, students with similar profiles can have digital "gaps" or limitations that make digital access difficult, thus creating the "DIGITAL DIVIDE"

How Does the Digital Divide Affect Students in Higher Education?

The Digital Divide Creates Limitations for students for digital access and technology inclusion

There proves to be a digital divide for students at HBCUs and minority serving institutions nationwide.

"When students lack digital access, they are missing a piece of the puzzle to success." ~ Dr. Wanda White

Our Faculty

Providing intensive and frequent training opportunities for our faculty was an important step when we began our digital literacy project. WSSU faculty participated in Adobe tools "boot camps" with Dr. Todd Taylor, and our Center for Innovative and Transformative Instruction (CITI) offered ongoing workshops and mini tutorials on ways to use the tools in the classroom.

WSSU's COMMITMENT TO EMPOWERING FACULTY and STUDENTS WITH CREATIVE TOOLS meant providing the tools for EVERYONE: All of our students, faculty, and staff have access to the Adobe Creative Cloud at no cost to them.

First Year Experience and First Year Writing: The Starting Points

All first year students are required to take FYE and FYW.

This allowed an introduction to digital tools in their 1st classes during their 1st semester.

The next course was general biology. Faculty in this discipline quickly embraced digital tools for course instruction and also allowing students to use the tools for assignments.

Next, we collaborated with our Student Affairs/Student Engagement leadership on ways to include digital literacy on the student affairs side of our campus

The year 2020 was year that many of us want to put far behind us, but in some ways what made it the worst year in terms of digital access and advancement ---also made it a pivotal year in digital literacy for many in higher education.

Even the cover of The cover of Time Magazine indicated that the year 2020 was the worst year ever.

In Spring 2020- Spring 2021 Faculty really began incorporating Adobe Creative Cloud tools into courses for engagement during our 100% virtual academic year.

Many of the courses in our Department of Education/Teacher Licensure Programs began using Adobe Creative Cloud Tools.

Providing future classroom teachers digital access and experience is important in making sure our graduates who go into the K-12 classroom have digital confidence to include digital tools in their instruction too.

WSSU has a long history of preparing excellence in teacher preparation. WSSU/Winston- Salem Teachers College (1925) was the first college in the nation to confer elementary education degrees to African-American teachers.

Winston- Salem Teacher's College education majors in the 1940s and 1950s

Other academic disciplines who have embraced and integrated digital literacy into their curricula are: Nursing, Physical Therapy, Music, and Social Justice

Training Is Key! CITI Practices What We Preach.

Fall 2022 is the 2nd year that WSSU Faculty have participated in Digital Learning Communities. This is a semester long commitment, here is what faculty have to say about the Digital Learning Communities.

CITI is a full scale teaching and learning, faculty development, and online instruction support space at WSSU.

OUR TEACHING AND LEARNING CENTER INCORPORATES USING DIGITAL TOOLS, SPECFICALLY ADOBE CREATIVE CLOUD IN 95% OF OUR WORKSHOPS AND TRAININGS.

Adobe Student Ambassador Experience

In 2019, WSSU had one student Adobe Ambassador.

Currently, we have 10 student Adobe Ambassadors

Adobe student ambassadors educate fellow students about their free access to Adobe Creative Cloud and partner with our digital media lab to provide training and programming.

Our last graduating class in Spring 2022 were the first cohort of students to have access to the Adobe Creative Cloud for all 4 years at WSSU.

How amazing is it for them to go out into a workforce that relies so heavily on digital fluency for so many careers?

A 2021 LinkedIn Report listed Digital fluency as one of the key performance indicators and skills needed for the current workforces, so we feel really good about the access being provided for our students from the first day they enter campus.

Like many other institutions in higher education, the last two years have been ones that we have all approached with a new spirit of innovation, creativity, and some times, even uncertainty of what to do next.

But During those most challenging times, our focus at WSSU has always been the students and making sure that their success was not interrupted or hindered. Having access to digital tools definitely play a big part of providing resources for their success in the classroom.

ADOBE CREATIVE CAMPUS FACULTY FELLOW

"THE PARADOX OF EDUCATION IS PRECISELY THIS - THAT AS ONE BEGINS TO BECOME CONSCIOUS ONE BEGINS TO EXAMINE THE SOCIETY IN WHICH HE IS BEING EDUCATED" - JAMES BALDWIN

My Goal as an Adobe Creative Educator

Is to inspire students to use their voice through digital literacy to combat social injustice.

A thank you from a student

HIGH IMPACT PRACTICES

High-impact practices, or HIPs, are active learning practices that promote deep learning by promoting student engagement as measured by the National Survey on Student Engagement (NSSE). HIPS practice assists students in developing deeper learning, achieving significant engagement gains, and fostering positive differential impacts on historically underserved student populations.

HIPS Key Elements

Interactions with faculty and peers about substantive matters
Experiences with diversity, wherein students are exposed to and must contend with people and circumstances that differ from those which students are familiar
Opportunities to discover relevance of learning through real-world applications
Public demonstration of competence

SCHOLARLY ACTIVISM

Incorporating Social Justice into lectures using Digital Literacy

LIFE MAPS - SOCIAL JUSTICE - ADOBE SPARK

RONNIE LONG IS FREE - HIPS (Learning Through Real-World Applications)

QUESTIONS?

Created By

Wanda White

Appreciate

Credits:

Created with images by fotogestoeber - "viele kleine Ideen führen zu einer großen Innovation" • JoyImage - "3d purple number 5" • vectorfusionart - "Composite image of the words the beginning against white backgro" • geralt - "power knowledge board" • Wayhome Studio - "Cheerful female writer with attractive appearance wearing jean clothes sitting at sofa against shelves with books, working on her new article while using laptop computer and free wi-fi connection" • wilhei - "puzzle fits match" • Artur - "Text sign showing Let S Get Started. Business photo showcasing encouraging someone to begin doing something White pc keyboard with empty note paper above white background key copy space" • magele-picture - "Requirements" • magele-picture - "Reason" • Serhii - "Pretty afro american female student with backpack and paperwork at classroom of university" • angelo.gi - "macro photo of a music sheet " • Rawpixel.com - "Workshop Training Teaching Development Instruction Concept" • Wokandapix - "school education learning" • geralt - "skills can startup" • Sensay - "Business concept - sketch with schemes and graphs on chalkboard" • MarekPhotoDesign.com - "win-win - negotiation or conflict resolution strategy - word abstract in vintage letterpress wood type against handmade paper" • Thisabled - "sign society racism"