Moving at the Speed of Creativity

Tag: medialiteracy

  • Tags and Hashtag Literacy

    Understanding and using both “tags” (metadata) and hashtags to find, organize, and archive information for later retrieval are essential literacy skills today. These concepts may be poorly understood by many teachers and students, however, and underutilized in school-required research assignments. In this post, I’ll explore both the concepts of tags and hashtags and the skills…

  • Conspiracy Theories, Apollo Moon Landings and SIFT 

    The last 3 days, Shelly and I have WONDERFUL learning and networking experiences attending the NASA 2022 Space Exploration Educators Conference (#SEEC2022) at Space Center Houston (@SpaceCenterHou). For the past two years, I’ve taught a media literacy unit to my 6th graders called, “Froot Loop Conspiracy Theories,” focusing on the Apollo Moon landings, YouTubers who…

  • Teaching Conspiracy Theories & Media Literacy to 6th Graders

    My favorite unit to teach the last two years to my middle school students has been on “Fruit Loop Conspiracy Theories.” Rather than study and discuss controversial political topics, we focus on the Apollo Moon landings and the skeptics (who are sometimes also “flat-earthers” on YouTube) who believe NASA never landed on the Moon, and…

  • Political Philosophy and Media Literacy Cornerstones

    Propaganda and disinformation can have real, destructive effects in society and government. That is one of many lessons we can draw from the past week in Washington D.C., when we saw large numbers of protesters storm the United States Capitol building on January 6, 2021, in a riot which resulted in deaths, injuries, as well…

  • Media Literacy Conversations About Conspiracies and Culture Wars

    The past two months I’ve been working on a media literacy project with fellow educator and colleague Brian Turnbaugh (@wegotwits) which we have titled, “Conspiracies and Culture Wars.” Tuesday Brian and I shared a 60 minute virtual workshop together about this project and its topics at the Summer Institute on Digital Literacy, and last week…

  • Podcast473: Brainstorming About “Conspiracies and Culture Wars” with Brian Turnbaugh and Wesley Fryer

    This podcast is a recording of a conversation between Brian Turnbaugh (@wegotwits) and Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) discussing a proposed workshop at the virtual version of the Summer Institute on Digital Literacy, coming to a screen near you July 19-24, 2020. The proposed title is, “Conspiracies and Culture Wars,” and the Google Doc of resources we…

  • How I Use Noun Project Icons in my Class Lesson Slideshows

    This past school year I have absolutely loved the opportunity to return to the classroom teaching fifth and sixth grade digital literacy and media literacy at Casady school, and also teaching an adult Sunday school class at our church (First Presbyterian of Edmond) titled, “Curiosity and Questions: Jesus and Science.” In both cases, I use…

  • The Coronavirus Pandemic and Media Literacy

    We are living into a very interesting chapter of earth history this week. As I type this post on Sunday night, March 8, 2020, the confluence of several political decisions as well as the predictable mathematical results of exponential growth are combining to setup a week which will be filled with alarmist voices in both…

  • The Tyranny of Current Events

    A few weeks ago, I shared and led a lesson at our church which included discussion about the famous Apollo 8 mission to the moon in December 1968. Apollo 8 was: the first crewed spacecraft to leave low Earth orbit and the first to reach the Moon, orbit it, and return. Its three-astronaut crew—Frank Borman,…

  • Tips for Media Literacy and Avoiding Foreign Political Propaganda Influence

    The United States is not only engaged in a new “Tech Cold War” against China and Russia, we are also under information influence attack from foreign as well as domestic adversaries who are aggressively working to build “followers” on Facebook and other social media platforms they can use to exert unconstitutional influence on our political…