Steve Chiger

A meme about the dearth of media literacy skills.

All day—Last chance to grab a FREE kindle copy of Gram and Gran Save the Summer: acclaimed solve-it-yourself media literacy mysteries for ages 7-12. Leaving an honest rating or review helps us out! a.co/d/h8F492Q #EduSky #TLSky

Happy to boost this post. I've said it before and I'll say it again: GRAM AND GRAN SAVE THE SUMMER is one of the best #MediaLiteracy books for kids I have ever encountered. This is a perfect chance to check it out for free so you can decide which kid(s) in your life to give it to as a holiday gift!

#TLSky #EdTech #EduSky

Happy Media Literacy Week! To celebrate, @teachergoals.bsky.social has made Gram and Gran FREE on Kindle all week! Not asking for anything in return, but honest ratings/reviews always welcome! We’re a chapter book of solve-it-yourself media literacy mysteries for gr 3-7. Pls share! a.co/d/gKflH5A

Terrific post on the dangers of over-simplification for teachers and students!

LLM Chatbots Are the Inscrutable Unknown Variable in Lesson Plans The cognitive consequences of using LLM Chatbots in class can be subtle and hard to predict

New substack: LLM Chatbots Are the Inscrutable Unknown Variable in Lesson Plans
dtwuva.substack.com/p/llm-chatbo...

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If AI is being used extensively in office jobs, then should we be letting students use AI in the classroom?

No - here's why.

With reference to 3 papers that show what you do in a job isn't the template for what you do in the classroom.

substack.nomoremarking.com/p/education-...

Useful as always. If you don’t subscribe to Peps’ newsletter, consider doing so! (Link at the end of his thread.)

50% OFF Why Don't Students Like School?: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom, 2nd Edition Why Don't Students Like School? Second Edition features 25% updated material while still honoring the classic, beloved approaches of the original. The book draws its themes from the most frequ...

Wiley just put the audio version of Why Don't Students Like School on sale--50% off! www.audiobooks.com/promotions/p...

Yes. My view is that we should teach this early and repeatedly in K12, so it's just part of how students interact with online text. "Lateral reading" was essential for me as a journalist (we called it "independent verification") and we're at a point where it's essential for everyone, all the time.

Oh, wow.

“I think we need to be prepared for a world where it is impossible to tell real from AI-generated images and video, with implications for a wide swath of society, from the entertainment we enjoy to our trust for online content.” — Ethan Mollick

An article about a photograph that leads with an AI-generated version of it.

Get ready for much more stuff like this. An (interesting!) article about a photograph leading with…an AI generated image. We need to help students be ready to navigate this world, and fast.

I read and enjoyed this! It’s a good, fast primer for key cog sci research and its application in classrooms.

That is true! The news value of timeliness definitely means something different than when I was a reporter. As an educator, I wish I could say secondary verification was the norm—but it’s something that contributes to a media ecosystem where not all actors are equally responsible.

We have already left the world where “just look at the fingers” was sound advice. If we want to get this right, strong, sequenced media literacy instruction is an urgent need.

From Ethan Mollick’s “One Useful Thing” blog—“I think we need to be prepared for a world where it is impossible to tell real from AI-generated images and video, with implications for a wide swath of society, from the entertainment we enjoy to our trust for online content.” Couldn’t agree more.

This is so important to me as an educator and as a parent. 👇🏼Books are so essential to English instruction it almost feels not worth saying. EXCEPT, as this interview shows, that may not be the case!

Second best dietary advice I’ve seen, of course after Mark Strand’s “Eating Poetry.” 🤓 www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/52959/...

Enjoyed this intellectually nutritious post on diet and cognition from the inimitable @andrewwatsonttb.bsky.social.

www.learningandthebrain.com/blog/nutriti...

David is one of the smartest (and most prolific!) writers we have. If, like me, you find simulation theory fascinating, you’ll love this essay on what it means to build meaning in a world that might possibly not be real.

🧵How much does prior knowledge really matter for learning? A new study challenges one of the most foundational ideas in education: that the more you know, the more you can know. The results are pretty shocking. Here's why it really surprised me ⬇️

Harnessing Attention and Explaining Better Blake Harvard, a teacher and author of the best-selling book, Do I have your attention?, and I share an obsession with improving teaching through evidence-based practices. A major focus of both of …

Attention is often referred to as the gateway to cognition. Securing attention should be a major focus!

But you also have to give students something to attend to. Faultless communications are also necessary.

Registration is open for this free webinar!

educationrickshaw.com/2025/05/19/h...

You Can’t Even Watch A Movie Anymore Without Seeing Some Theme Explored I’ve loved movies ever since I was a little kid. Just stepping into that dark theater, with the smell of fresh popcorn, was like being transported to a whole other world. It used to be so magical. But...

At the very least, English teachers made our mark on the writers at The Onion. 😂

Love this! Lateral reading and SIFT are critical skills. Our generation may be catching up now, but we owe it to our kids to build this into the K12 experience.

Hello friends!

You're keen to spend a week this summer studying memory, attention, and learning? I've got just the workshop for you...

We'll be in Boston this July for our 7th summer; I hope you'll join us.

Reach out if you have any questions.

Cheers

Charell Star holding her new memoir: Trash Bag Tales & Other Stories of an Accidentally Happy Life.

SUPER proud of my partner Charell Star for publishing her memoir today! It’s one thing to write about what you know, but it’s another to write about what you’ve experienced. Powerful, moving, and full of lessons in joy & resilience to live by. a.co/d/dZT8OLf

This is precisely why @hibitus-habitus.bsky.social and I wrote Gram and Gran Save the Summer. Kids need to develop skills in #medialiteracy from a young age. (Plus, who doesn’t love solve-it-yourself mysteries?)

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Even though my funding was cut, I’m still committed to helping people build media & digital literacy skills. I’ll keep sharing research summaries, practical tools, and continue my own work—however I can. If you're interested in my work, follow along via my newsletter:
matthewfacciani.substack.com