Facebook turns 20 today, but the platform is nothing like what it was in 2004 – or, more comparably, in 2008, when it overtook MySpace, it was open to all (not just uni students) and it had the reputation of being a “safe space,” Forbes reports, because everyone had to sign up with their real name. Ah, I remember it well. Despite the grilling he received on Capitol Hill last week, Mark … [Read more...] about Much-less-social media on Facebook’s 20th birthday
Literacy & Citizenship
Welcome to 2024!
Happy New Year, dear readers! It was quite a year last year, eh? I'm sure that, like me, many of you are glad to move on. More on what we're moving into in a moment, but first let's use one of the biggest news stories (not just tech stories) of 2023 – generative AI – to look at the Top 5 news stories of the past year. I asked both Microsoft's Bing, powered by ChatGPT4, and Google's Bard, … [Read more...] about Welcome to 2024!
Supporting the youngest witnesses of this humanitarian crisis
Sometimes we parents feel so helpless when our children come to us hurting as much as us when they see something awful happening in the world. In her email letter to our community, my friend, colleague and fellow parent Michelle Lipkin wrote, when her 19-year-old daughter asked her to explain what's going on, "I tried my best, but I know my response was inadequate. At times like these, I always … [Read more...] about Supporting the youngest witnesses of this humanitarian crisis
Should our kids learn how to use generative AI? Well…
A teacher in an international school in Panama asks her students to critique essays "written" by ChatGPT, while others have their students fact-check AI material, according to Time. University of Pennsylvania professor Ethan Mollick requires his students to use generative AI while holding them accountable for the information in whatever they produce with it. These are great ways for students both … [Read more...] about Should our kids learn how to use generative AI? Well…
ChatGPT for media literacy training
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