Resources for my "Teaching the Conspriacies" course series are available:
Media Literacy Games
Through Media Education Lab events I've connected with Randall Fujimoto with GameTrain Learning, who is an educational game designer. Among other themes / topics he designs games focused on media literacy. Examples include:
Escape the Echoes: An Educational Escape Game About Media Literacy
Media Literacy Games by Loki's Loop (Escape Room and Game Designers focused on misinformation)
Added March 7 2024: Check out all my presentations for NCTIES 2024, including "SIFTing for Trusted Sources Online."
SIFTing for Trusted Sources Online
Thursday, March 7
4:15pm: SIFTing for Trusted Sources Online (307)
Description
Media literacy skills are vital! How can students (and adults) decide "who to trust online?" Learn strategies to use the “SIFT Web Literacy Framework” (Stop, Investigate the source, Find Trusted Coverage, Trace to the Original" with students to interrogate new information and sources online. Using lessons from his "Froot Loop Conspiracies" unit focusing on the Apollo Moon Landings (and YouTubers who claim the landings were hoaxes) learn how students in Wes Fryer's classes create InfoPics, sketchnotes, narrated slideshow videos, and other media projects to demonstrate their understanding of how to use SIFT as savvy information consumers.
I taught a six week course on "Teaching the Conspiracies" for the MediaEd Institute in January / February / March 2024. I'm also excited to share that I'm officially "affiliated faculty" with the Media Education Lab.
I'll be teaching a TWO WEEK "Part 2" course on "Teaching the Conspiracies" in late July 2024.
I have started migrating my media literacy lessons to lessons.wesfryer.com.
My 2019-22 Media and Digital Literacy curriculum / lessons / resources for 5th and 6th Graders at Casady School in Oklahoma City (where I served as the "Technology Integration and Innovation Specialist") are available on mdtech.casady.org. I was the Director of Technology at Casady for 4 years from 2015-2019. More info about me is available on my bio.
If you have questions or comments please reach out via Twitter or my electronic contact form.
Check out the slides for my May 2022 ATLIS presentation, "Teaching About Conspiracy Theories and Media Literacy"
Description:
Conspiracy theories are popular on social media and influence our local as well as national conversations and politics. How we can constructively teach about conspiracy theories and help students develop their media literacy skills to better evaluate information and sources in our digital world? This session will highlight the "Froot Loop Conspiracy Theories" media literacy unit, taught to 6th graders since fall 2020 at Casady School in Oklahoma City. By focusing on the Apollo Moon landings, students learn how to use and apply the "SIFT" web literacy framework (S = Stop, I = Investigate the source, F = Find trusted coverage, T = Trace to the original) analyzing together several online videos. While this unit is designed for middle school students, it an be adapted for other grades / ages / developmental levels. Access the full unit on lessons.wesfryer.com/lessons/conspiracy-theories.
Additional Resources:
For more resources about using Twitter lists & other clever, powerful apps and digital tools, check out Wes' workshop resources, "Discovering Useful Ideas."
