A Preliminary Proposal for the Development of a Distance Education Lubrary Media Endorsement Program at Central Washington University

Abstract

In Washington State, there are currently six higher education institutions which offer state-approved library media endorsement programs for certified K-12 teachers. Due to population and geo graphical factors, our institution, Central Washington University, finds it difficult to attract K-12 teachers during non-summer months. Currently, our library media program is only offered during the summer months. Consequently, we lose a lot of the potential market of those unavailable during the summers. With the growing demand for library media specialists throughout Washington K-12 school districts, the timing may not be better in developing and implementing a fully distance education (DE) model for our library media program available year-round. Through our State's K-20 high-speed, highbandwidth Education Network, we can connect remotely to 475 public education sites throughout Washington. This paper represents a preliminary proposal examining and discussing the feasibility of creating a DE library media program for Central Washington University.