Happy Holidays
Best wishes from the MediaSmarts team
As 2014 comes to an end, we reflect on the busy and exciting year that’s just passed.
As 2014 comes to an end, we reflect on the busy and exciting year that’s just passed.
“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.”
Students and educators are already having to deal with artificial intelligence (AI) and its implications on schoolwork, assignments and lessons. When writing an essay, or when completing a school project, generative AI tools like ChatGPT can maybe speed up the results, save time and craft the correct response. Is that a good thing or are we causing more issues for our futures?
January 24, 2023 - MediaSmarts is releasing new research today, during Data Privacy Week, which shows that youth are more aware than ever of privacy concerns online and want to take steps to protect their own privacy, but they don’t always know how.
It’s looking more and more like social distancing could go on for several months. Our school board has announced that computer-based learning from home will be introduced shortly; other provinces have announced school closures running through to the end of the year and we expect ours to follow suit soon.
So, parents, you may or may not have noticed that Taylor Swift has announced a tour that will in fact include six Toronto dates.
Ohhhh, you have noticed? Because you tried to get nearly impossible-to-get tickets like 38 million other people did?
Yeah, you aren’t alone.
It goes without saying that eight years is a long time on the Internet. Between 2005, when MediaSmarts published Phase II of our Young Canadians in a Wired World research, and 2013, when we conducted the national student survey for Phase III, the Internet changed almost beyond recognition: online video, once slow and buggy, became one of the most popular activities on the Web, while social networking became nearly universal among both youth and adults. Young people’s online experiences have changed as well, so we surveyed 5,436 Canadian students in grades 4 through 11, in classrooms in every province and territory, to find out how.
he beginning of another school year is here, and as it does many parents are beginning to wonder how they can help their kids ease out of summertime media habits. In addition to having to establish new rules for media use, parents may also face a barrage of requests and questions from their kids regarding digital technology, such as: Am I old enough to have a cell phone? Can I bring it to school? How about my iPod? What about Facebook or Twitter – all my friends are on them, I need to use them to talk about my homework!
Not only was 2012 a year of rebranding and change, we were also very busy at work updating our resources and creating brand new lesson plans. We released 21 new and updated lessons on a variety of topics from bias and crime in the media to free speech and the internet and challenging hate online.