Tag: medialiteracy
-
Spot the Bot: Notes and Takeaways
This week I virtually attended an excellent “Lunch & Learn webinar” hosted by the Center for North Carolina Politics and Public Service at Catawba College, titled “Spot the Bot: How to spot fake accounts and sort fact from fiction in social media.” The presenter was Torry Crass, former Chief Information Security Officer for the state…
-
Sketchnote to AI InfoGraphic
Today was one of my favorite lessons in my middle school media literacy class: We started our “Froot Loop Conspiracies” unit about the Moon Landing Hoax, Lateral Reading, and using the SIFT web literacy framework to vet and verify online information and sources. Today’s introductory lesson involved watching the first two of three videos, and…
-
Digital Defense Against the Dark Arts
My spouse and I are big Lord of the Rings as well as Harry Potter fans. We love the books and we love the movies. Over Christmas break I started re-reading the Harry Potter book series… This evening we finished watching (AGAIN) the sixth film in the series, “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.”…
-
SIFT with WikiPedia and AI: Killings in Minnesota
The national and international events of the past several weeks have been positively dizzying and even disorienting. As I write this on January 27, 2026, we (as a nation) are recovering from the shock of two killings by federal law enforcement officials (ICE and CBP) in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Incredibly, even though both shootings / killings…
-
Fact Check Substack with a Superprompt
CLAIM: On 20 November 2025, 30,000 students in Charlotte, North Carolina, staged a walkout from school to protest Trump’s ICE immigration raids in the city. FACT CHECK RESULT: The past couple weeks here in Charlotte, North Carolina, have been both surreal and crazy. For insights into why, I recommend you watch the video from last…
-
Vibe Coding with AI
Today I facilitated the webinar “Vibe Coding with AI” for the MediaEd Club of the Media Education Lab. I mainly shared stories of two of my recent vibe coding projects, “Packet Defender 2.0” and my “DIY Federated Reader.” Both of those projects are shared on my GitHub. Check out the recorded session video and session…
-
Is Any AI Use Ethical?
The past two days I had the opportunity to attend multiple sessions at the summer 2025 conference for “Civics of Technology.” It’s a grassroots organization which: …aims to empower students and educators to critically inquire into the effects of technologies on their individual and collective lives. We conduct research, develop curriculum, and offer professional development.…
-
Civics Of Tech 2025 Conference
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…
-
Zoom AI Meeting Summary
Today I facilitated another monthly Zoom webinar for the MediaEd Club of the Media Education Lab, and I was both pleased and amazed to receive an AI-powered “Meeting Summary” (directly from Zoom) following the recorded videoconference. I’m including an edited version of it below, and adding hyperlinks to referenced resources. Here’s the archived recording (47…
-
Preserving the Past Through Technology
At the March 2025 NCMLE Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, the American Book Company‘s podcasting team interviewed me and published an 8 minute audio recording of our conversation. Check it out! “Preserving the Past Through Technology” My middle school family oral history unit is available on my curriculum sharing website. Learn more about Bob Sprankle…