Booing AI-Promoting CEOs and AI Evangelists: Perfect Opportunity for True AI Literacy

When a CEO in a commencement speech tells a group of young people "To Deal with it!" over their boos about the mention of AI, these words seem to be echoes of the voices of manufacturers telling the Luddites the same thing when machines were installed to replace them in the factories of the 19th century.

This time, Big Tech, our government leaders, and Ed Tech establishment are relentlessly trying to instill into students the "inevitability" of AI and their need to quietly acquiesce to its replacing them in the workplace.

Amazingly, while so many have bought in to the inevitability myth, there are still young people who have the clarity of mind to see through the myths that have been constructed around AI specifically. 

This questioning of AI’s rightful place in our world is a perfect opportunity for educators to foster, not passive consumer sentiments over the tech, but to empower students to question, to be critical, and to be in charge of AI’s place in the future.

Undoubtedly, people like this CEO does not want that. CEOs want to the power and the ability to replace humanity at will for power and profit.

Ed Tech had an opportunity to curtail the narrative that AI is inevitable, but it chooses instead to propagate the narrative.

But that narrative is a lie. The AI that is being created is not the AI we have to accept and adapt our lives to.

Despite what the myth says, AI isn't taking over anything. What is happening, CEOs and business leaders and even educators are making the conscious decision to replace humans for the sake of their own power and profit. It is that simple. They are making a conscious, ethical decision.

Because it is  choice, made by human beings, it is also choice in how AI happens and a choice in what we allow it do. That is where AI literacy should be. We should be giving students all the knowledge and empower them with the choice.

Despite how it is spun by the AI pundits, commencement speech boos are not about fears and misunderstandings of AI; it is a sign that there are still individuals who are thinking for themselves, and that is what education should be about, not fabricating “good little consumers of AI.”

As educators, we should be arming students with critical thought that attacks the inevitability myth and other marketing myths of AI that can counter and help students decide their own future with or without AI.

There is a space yet for Luddite thinking when it comes to AI, and it is time to start booing the CEOs and prophets who are making these claims of inevitability.

New Must-Have Component Needed in Digital Literacy Approaches: Instruction in Screen Addiction Engineering

There should be a new component in all digital literacy efforts:

Students should be educated on the engineered addiction aspects of these devices and technologies and what they can do take away Tech's entrapment power.

They should receive training, for example, on how features such as the "Like" button were utilized to lure them to these applications and keep them there. By recognizing the manipulating factors of this feature, they can de-elevate its importance and free themselves from its tyranny.

They should be receive specific instruction about how these devices can be exploit them and manipulate them.

They should also receive instruction in how to counter this built-in addiction feature and free themselves from the lure of screens. For example, they could receive instruction on "the notification" and how it is a siren's call to return to the screen. They could learn to limit or turn off all notifications at all times or during specific periods of the day. This would eliminate one major, addictive aspect of the screen and give them control over the device.

Ed Tech should transform digital literacy from being an effort to sanitize Silicon Valley devices and transform students into "good little consumers" of these, into being empowered and critical human beings who decide for themselves when and how these intersect their lives.

This would transform the field of Ed Tech from being a cheerleader for Big Tech, into actually giving children and their parents power of these devices. 

Sadly, Ed Tech still sees its primary role as delivering new consumers to these companies.

Digital and Media Literacy: How Can It Support 21st Century Learning?

How can teachers use digital and media to support academic achievement in all subjects and content areas? The answer to that question is essentially what Renee Hobbs tackles in her book Digital and Media Literacy: Connecting Culture and Classroom.

Hobbs begins answering the question of supporting academic achievement with digital and media by outlining the rationale for engaging these two in 21st century instruction. Basically, that rationale includes:

• Digital and media motivates students and that makes them a means to reach today’s learners.
• Our students today have digital and media needs: 1) They need knowledge and guidance in using digital and media effectively, 2) They need to know how to evaluate the multitude of digital and media messages they receive, and 3) They need the integrity and ethical center to be good citizens in their use of digital and media.

After providing the rationale for using digital and media to support learning, Hobbs then turns to describing what she calls “A Process Model for Digital and Media Literacy.” This process model she describes involves “5 Communication Competencies or Steps” that can employed across all content areas. These are what she terms as “the essential dimensions of digital and media literacy.”

1. ACCESS: According to Hobbs, “access” is the first step in digital and media literacy. It involves “finding and sharing appropriate and relevant information using media texts and technology tools. Students need to be able to effectively locate and identify relevant information to the task or issue with which they are engaged. To do that, they need access competencies.

2. ANALYZE: This second step Hobbs points to involves “using critical thinking to analyze message purpose, target audience, quality, veracity, credibility, point of view, and potential effects or consequences of messages." In other words, students need to be able examine the messages and information they receive from digital and media and analyze for the common components of rhetoric and communication. This competency makes students effective consumers as well as conveyors of digital and media messaging.

3. CREATE: The third step involves “composing or generating content using creativity and confidence in self-expression, with awareness of purpose, audience, and composition techniques into the world of digital and media.” Students need to be able to not only effectively consume information, they also need to be able to be effective content creators in digital and media. In the 21st century, with all the myriads of digital tools available, those who excel are content generators, so our students need this competency as well.

4. REFLECT: Reflecting involves examining the impact of media messages and technology tools on our thinking and actions in daily life. It also involves “applying social responsibility and ethical principles to our own identity, communication behavior, and conduct.” Students need to reflect on the digital and media messages they send and think about the effects of these on their lives. This skill of reflection helps our students become humane consumers and creators of digital and media content.

5. ACT: The fifth and final step or competency is “working individually or collaboratively to share knowledge and solve problems in the family, the workplace, and the community.” It means participating in local and global communities. According to Hobbs, this step involves getting students in the classroom connected to the world, providing support for their leadership development and collaboration, and developing integrity and accountability as they take their place as global citizens. Students need to engage in using digital and media in solving problems and at the same time take advantage of global connectivity. Because the 21st century world is a much smaller place, our students need to be able to "act" using their digital and media skills.

Throughout the remainder of Digital and Media Literacy, Renee Hobbs expands these steps or communication competencies and provides extensive discussion and information on the implementation and incorporation of them into the classroom and across subject areas. Each chapter is structured to take a closer look at these 5 dimensions or competencies, and how they might look in the classroom. Hobbs' book is a must-read for teachers, administrators, and district as well as state education leaders who are trying to tackle the question, “What do we do with students with all this digital and media?”

Other strengths of this book include:

• A thorough and comprehensive review of what digital and media literacy should look like in classrooms and in all content areas.
• A practical implementation knowledge with sample lessons that can be used to design learning that captures all 5 of the digital and media competencies or steps.
• A review of the 5 challenges teachers face when trying to “develop student voice in digital and media formats.”
• A powerful, concise discussion of digital citizenship and on becoming ethical digital and media consumers and creators.
• Useful information on how to incorporate current events into classroom activities.
• Some focus on how to engage in what Hobbs calls “Responsive Teaching.”

I’ve read a great deal on the topic of digital and media technologies and how to integrate those into instruction, but Digital and Media Literacy: Connecting Culture and Classroom provides something unique. First, it gives educators a framework of digital and media competencies and shows them how to engage students in learning those competencies using the technologies. Secondly, it provides examples of real classroom practice through narratives and sample lesson plans. Finally, its focus on implementation makes it great for a book study by a faculty wanted to explore how to use digital and media the way it should be used in the classroom.

Digital and Media Literacy is a must read for district and state leaders, classroom teachers, technology directors, and anyone interested in how we can embrace the enormous task of using digital and media to support academic achievement in the classroom.

Great Resource for Helping Students Manage Their Online Reputations

According to Matt Ivester in his book lol…OMG: What Every Student Needs to Know about Online Reputation Management, Digital Citizenship and Cyberbullying, “Many of today’s students are finding themselves with a very real permanent record---one that reflects every poor decision of their youth, and is stored online forever.”

Most of us remember those moments of major embarrassment in high school, and fortunately we are often the only ones who remember those incidents. That’s because the only record of those events are our memories.

Today however, our students engage in online behaviors that are recorded permanently. Their indiscretions and behaviors are recorded for posterity and the world to see. But how can we as educators help students engage in online activities without permanently damaging their lives and reputations with youthful mistakes? Ivester's lol...OMG is a book guaranteed to get the discussion about responsible online behavior started.

Ivester's book is a excellent resource for educating students in areas such as:

• Understanding How Creating and Posting Online Content Is Both Global and Permanent
• Understanding How What They Post Can Haunt Them for A Long Time
• How to Avoid Engaging in Careless Content Creation
• How They Are Creating Their Online Reputations
• How to Become a "Conscious Creator of Content"
• How to Engage in "Active Reputation Management"
• Issues with Cyberbullying and Why It's a Problem
• Becoming Responsible Digital Citizens

High schools are guilty of leaving students to their own devices when it comes to managing their online reputations, so should we be surprised when they end up as news stories in the national media?

The time has arrived for schools to teach students how to effectively manage their online reputations, be responsible digital citizens, and effectively deal with cyberbullying. To assist with that instruction, Schools will find Ivester’s book, lol…OMG an excellent resource for engaging students in conversations about their online behaviors. In a writing style that high school students should find easy-to-read, this book doesn't try to convince students avoid online activity because it is too "dangerous." Instead, it assumes students are going to be online citizens and gives them no-nonsense advice on how to survive online without permanently damaging their reputation.



Matt Ivester’s lol…OMG: What Every Student Needs to Know about Online Reputation Management, Digital Citizenship and Cyberbullying makes an excellent addition to your school’s reading list, or a great gift for any high school student heavily engaged in online activities.