Today I attended and participated in 3 virtual Zoom sessions in the Civics of Technology 2025 online conference, a free gathering of educators, researchers, and technologists working at the intersection of civic engagement, media literacy and digital life. As a media literacy and STEM teacher, I love grassroots learning experiences like this conference. Conference materials are password-protected during the event, but after Zoom sessions conclude tomorrow / 1 August 2025 the main conference page will again be openly accessible without registration. I started a Google Doc of conference notes with lots of links and resources, and will continue to add to it tomorrow on day 2.
Why This Matters
In an era dominated by generative AI, tech hype-cycles, political polarization driven around social media, and surveillance capitalism, building student awareness and civic agency around technology is more essential than ever. In our introductory / welcome Zoom chat messages, I shared my own favorite media literacy / STEM teaching units on “froot loop conspiracy theories”, family oral history projects, and “Minecraft Mars” coding. I hope these lessons (and others I’ve developed over the past 7 years) help students think both critically and creatively about technology’s role in our society.
Here are some highlights, takeaways, and people to follow from this powerful two-day experience. I’m sharing these both to reflect and to amplify some of the brilliant work happening in this space. One of the best ways to connect with others (including media literacy teachers) attending the conference is to follow the BlueSky “starter pack” for the Civics of Technology Community, maintained by Dan Krutka.
Keynote Highlights & Quotes
- “We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us.” – Father John Culkin, SJ, often attributed to Marshall McLuhan
- “We need to unsay the LMS.” – Audrey Watters
- “Resist techno-fascism.” – Resist and Heal
As we discussed topics related to digital surveillance, privacy, and digital citizenship, I shared my 2015 TEDx talk, Digital Citizenship in the Surveillance State. This feels more urgent than ever in light of ongoing AI ethics debates.
Breakout Session Highlights
“GenAI Ethics Made Accessible”
Presenters:
Key idea: Use ethical and philosophical frameworks to help students navigate and discuss values around polarizing technologies. John shared this thoughtful review of Co-Intelligence by Ethan Mollick.
AI Awareness and Belonging
- Dani Dilkes explored AI literacy with domains of awareness.
- Dr. Bonnie Stewart shared her research on “digital belonging” and the downsides of scaling without connection. Her message about dehumanization through scale in education deeply resonated with me.
Book Recommendations
- More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley’s Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity by Adam Becker (Review by Jacob Pleasants for Civics of Tech)
- Digital Degrowth: Radically Rethinking our Digital Futures by Neil Selwyn
- In Praise of Slowless: Challenging the Cult of Speed by Carl Honoré (Author’s site – I shared this one in Zoom chat)
Podcast & Media
- “Hard Fork” podcast episode discussing pro-AI hype and critiques (NYTimes)
- Peter Thiel’s recent controversial interview, “A.I., Mars and Immortality: Are We Dreaming Big Enough? | Interesting Times with Ross Douthat” (So many of the things Thiel says in this interview are CRAZY. Responding to this deserves its own post and video.)
AI Images & Media Literacy
Again via Zoom chat, I learned about the Better Images of AI project. I want to follow up and dive deeper into this resource for my own media literacy lessons next school year. Here’s an AI / ChatGPT summary of the project via the About page.
Most images representing AI today—especially in search engines and stock libraries—are misleading, dominated by sci-fi themes, humanoid robots, and white, Western stereotypes. This visual language distorts public understanding of how AI actually works, what it is used for, and who is behind it, contributing to mistrust, exclusion, and misconceptions. A growing body of research shows how these images reinforce harmful cultural tropes and limit the diversity of people entering the AI field. In response, a new initiative aims to build a more accurate, inclusive, and diverse repository of AI imagery that reflects the real-world technologies, people, and impacts behind artificial intelligence.
Connect and Share
I’ve posted more reflections and links from the event at:
wfryer.me/civicsoftech25
If you’re not already following them, I recommend checking out:
- Dr. Ben Williamson – researching datafication and education
- The conference’s main site: civicsoftechnology.org
- Their support page: buymeacoffee.com/civicsoftechnology
Final Thoughts
This conference affirmed for me that teaching civics and ethics alongside media literacy and STEM is vitally important, and there are many educators as well as others interested in supporting this work. We must help students develop the frameworks to engage with, critique, and shape the technologies that increasingly shape us.
I’d love to hear what frameworks, resources, or lessons others are using in classrooms to support these goals.
* AI Attribution: I used ChatGPT to create an initial draft of this blog post using my conference notes Google Doc, and edited / refined it before sharing. I created the accompanying post image with ChatGPT and edited it with Canva.com.