4th Graders Say: What is Hacking?

May 14, 2019.Reading time 3 minutes.

What is hacking? Every year, as the final chapter to our Foiling Fake News unit, we pull back the curtain and dive into the HTML code behind a news website. Looking behind the scenes and manipulating headlines and photos using code checks to important boxes – first, it gives us valuable practice and experience with […]

How Do You Know That?: Critical Thinking in the Classroom with Information and Media Literacy

November 27, 2018.Reading time 17 minutes.

Fake news. The term is everywhere, but what does it actually mean? Editorialized or exaggerated news has existed for as long as news reporting itself, but as the delivery methods of news have modernized, it’s become more and more difficult to spot what’s trustworthy and what’s not. And now that news is being delivered much […]

My MozFest Experience

November 7, 2017.Reading time 10 minutes.

When Ms. Wilkens first approached me about submitting a session to present at MozFest, I wasn’t sure what to think. Moz? Like… Mozilla? The web browser? When I asked her what MozFest was – what kind of conference? What kind of people will be there? What will I learn? – she just smiled. “It’s […]

Mozfest 2017

October 23, 2017.Reading time 2 minutes.

Is That Real?: Preparing Students to Outfox Fake News from St. Anne’s-Belfield School on Vimeo. Pack your bags – we’re taking this show on the road! This Wednesday, Ms. Wilkens and I will be headed to London, England to talk information literacy, fake news, and computer science with educators, artists, and community leaders from all […]

Digital Literacy and Fake News with Library 2.0

June 5, 2017.Reading time 3 minutes.

I’m excited to have collaborated with Kim Wilkens to present Foiling Fake News wth Fourth Graders at the Library 2.017 Worldwide Virtual Conference. The theme for the conference was Digital Literacy and Fake News, so our three-week unit with St. Anne’s-Belfield School fourth graders busting fake news online was be a perfect fit. We spoke with […]

Foiling Fake News with Fourth Graders

May 15, 2017.Reading time 13 minutes.

Over on School Library Journal today, STAB Computer Science Coordinator Kim Wilkens and I are talking about Foiling Fake News, a unit we developed for fourth graders to help them to put their digital literacy and computer science skills to the test. We had a blast while helping our fourth graders to sharpen their critical thinking […]