Interacting with AI

In this lesson, students explore AI chatbots and their impact on human relationships. They compare chatbots to friends and learn how large language models function through pattern recognition rather than traditional programming. Through a “red-teaming” exercise, students identify risks such as privacy concerns and misinformation. Finally, they complete a “Build-a-bot” activity, designing safe, ethical prompts by defining roles, purposes, and guardrails. This teaches students to interact with AI critically and responsibly while understanding its limitations.

Defeating Distraction

In this lesson, students learn how to manage distraction when using digital media tools and practice avoiding the “phone loop.” Students learn about the “phone loop” and simple strategies for avoiding it from a video, then rank those strategies based on how useful they think they will be in their own lives. They then think of different things they do with their phones, sort those into ones that have an obvious end point (like checking the weather) and those that don’t. Students try a number of different exercises designed to help them use their devices more mindfully, then write a reflection on the activity. They then identify ways in which apps’ and devices’ design features may make it easy to lose track of how much time we spend using them, then brainstorm ways they can change those features or their own habits to promote more mindful use. Finally, students design “paper prototypes” that show how they would change an app to encourage better habits and more mindful use.

Helping kids get a healthy start with phones

Phones and other media are a big part of kids’ lives, and they can be a healthy part too. Here are some ways that you can make sure your kids get the best possible start when using media and digital devices.

Helping young kids get a healthy start with devices

Screens and other media are a big part of kids’ lives, and they can be a healthy part too. Here are some ways that you can make sure your kids get the best possible start when using media and digital devices.

Supporting healthy media experiences for kids

Factors to keep in mind when prioritizing kids' media health

Children under two should spend as little time with screen devices as possible, except for video-chats with people they know offline and reading e-books with an adult or sibling.

How to Train Your Algorithm

In this lesson, students will learn about algorithms and how they function, particularly recommendation algorithms utilized by popular apps like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Netflix. Students explore the role of optimization goals such as watch time, engagement, and daily active use in shaping the content algorithms prioritize. Through activities like “red teaming,” students will critically analyze the potential downsides and biases of these optimization goals. Students will also discover how to train algorithms by providing both explicit inputs through actions like liking and sharing, and understand the implications of implicit inputs gathered from their online activity. Finally, students design their own algorithm for an app of their choice, identifying which goals it should be optimized for and how they should be weighted as well as what inputs it should use.

How to Train Your Algorithm

You can train the algorithms on social networks and video sites to show you more of what you want, and less of what you don’t want. Here are some tips:

Tweets from Birmingham jail

Malcolm Gladwell's recent New Yorker article “Small Change” has set the blogosphere buzzing with its strongly stated argument that social networks such as Facebook and Twitter will not usher in a new age of social activism, as some digital evangelists have proposed, but that they and the relationships they foster are actually detrimental to real social change. As Gladwell puts it, "The instruments of social media are well suited to making the existing social order more efficient. They are not a natural enemy of the status quo."

Break the Fake Tip #2: Find the source

Because it’s so easy to copy and share things online, it’s important to find out where something originally came from before you decide whether or not to trust it. Someone might have shared it with you on social media, or a news story might be based on someone else’s story.

Break the Fake: What’s in the frame?

In this lesson, students are introduced to the idea that what they see in media can be deceptive. They explore the idea that media are “framed” by their creators and consider what parts of the world are left out of the frame.