You may've heard about ChatGPT. It reached 100 million active users last month, "making it the fastest-growing consumer product in history," according to The Economist, which may have something to do with all the headlines about it. So here's my thinking on this quite remarkable chatbot, which, basically, is artificial intelligence that you can chat with, like Siri or Alexa, except that Siri or … [Read more...] about ChatGPT for media literacy training
Literacy & Citizenship
Future safety: Content moderators and digital grassroots justice
A flash of insight occurred the other day as I was listening to a conversation between two completely remarkable lawyers: Vivek Maru, founder of Namati, the nonprofit organization behind the Global Legal Empowerment Network of more than 3,000 organizations and 13,043 individuals in 170+ countries, and Preeta Bansal, who was general counsel and senior policy advisor to the federal Office of … [Read more...] about Future safety: Content moderators and digital grassroots justice
Media literacy and an invasion: The view from Estonia
As I write this today, less than a week into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, I’m wearing three hats: those of a digital safety specialist, a proud board member of the US’s National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) and a digital nomad who loves Estonia, where I’m based this year. The third hat first, with a little geographical and cultural context. The start of the invasion was … [Read more...] about Media literacy and an invasion: The view from Estonia
9 things that make viral hoaxes challenging
Remember “Blue Whale”? Almost five years ago, when I was getting to the bottom of that murky hoax, it wasn’t yet understood as one. It was being called a “suicide game,” and those two words were scaring parents around the world, literally. I was looking all over the Web for reliable sources and found my best one – still one of the world’s top experts on the subject, I believe – to be Georgi … [Read more...] about 9 things that make viral hoaxes challenging
New game to help middle schoolers be media literacy masters
It’s definitely not your typical American high school – not the one in “Agents of Influence.” But high school is the backdrop, which is smart for a media literacy videogame aimed at middle schoolers, right? Especially a sketchy, slightly dystopian fictional one like “Virginia Hall High,” in which the game is set. First, the school occupies what used to be the HQ of “the Omni-Directional … [Read more...] about New game to help middle schoolers be media literacy masters