The First Amendment and Digital Citizens

“Amendment I: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” In these few, brief written words, the First Amendment protects so … read more »

Two Sides to Students’ Right to Privacy: Safety vs. Intellectual Freedom

This week is Choose Privacy Week , an event sponsored by the American Library Association. While privacy has been part of our recent national discussion, privacy issues are nothing new to K-12 public education, which must follow at least three privacy rules and laws.  These include the 1974 Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), a … read more »

Being Resourceful Part Two: Reliable Sources and C.R.A.A.P.

Evaluating resources, in any medium, is a critical thinking skill for information literacy, media literacy, or digital citizenship.  Of course, it is also part of educational state standards patterned after the Common Core.  They emphasize reading, writing, and speaking grounded in evidence from texts. In a discussion of the key shifts in the standards, the … read more »

Misinformation, Disinformation, and AI – What Students Need to Know

Artificial intelligence (AI) is an amazing tool. Like all tools, it has benefits and deficits—one deficit affecting education is AI’s ability to produce misinformation and disinformation. Misinformation is false or inaccurate information, and disinformation is false information deliberately produced to mislead. Media literacy education is key to teaching students to recognize misinformation and disinformation produced … read more »

Why You Should Be Teaching Media Literacy in Your Classroom

Media Literacy is an important topic that all teachers should be involved in teaching. According to Common Sense Media, media literacy is the ability to identify different types of media and understand the messages they’re sending.  A more detailed definition of media literacy is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and create media in a … read more »