

Media Literacy Week: Youth & Social Networking - Creative, Connected and Collaborative
This November 3-7, thousands of students, educators, parents and community organizations will join MediaSmarts and the Canadian Teachers’ Federation (CTF) in marking Canada’s 9th annual Media Literacy Week.

Pyramid Power: How Hate Spreads Online
The last few weeks have shed an unprecedented light on the use of digital media to spread and inspire hatred. Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, the perpetrator in the attacks on Canada’s National War Memorial and Parliament buildings, appears to have been motivated in part by exposure to online postings by a self-described member of the Islamic state[1], and the Federal government has already stated that it intends to create tools to remove online content that promotes the “proliferation of terrorism.”[2]

Cyberbullying: The Role of Witnesses
Witnesses play a critical role when they witness acts and forms of bullying” and may suffer negative effects that are as bad as or worse than those suffered by the target. At the same time, there is evidence that youth who witness some kinds of cyberbullying may actually be more likely to perpetrate it themselves later.

Think Before You Share for Safer Internet Day 2015!
February 10 is Safer Internet Day (#SID2015): an annual international event organized by InSafe to help promote safer and more responsible use of online technologies, especially by young people. MediaSmarts and Facebook want you to help us mark the day by reminding youth to “think before they share” online!

So Many Choices!
This lesson introduces the students to the first steps in finding information on the Internet. Specifically, this lesson helps students understand the basic good practices of searching for something online: be accompanied by a trusted adult, start with a safe site and understand the use and power of using good links and keywords to find what they are looking for and to avoid bad results.

Stand up to Bullying on Pink Shirt Day
On February 25, we’ll be celebrating Pink Shirt Day – a day dedicated to raising awareness around bullying, giving young people the tools they need to stand up to bullies and teaching them how to step in when they see it happening. To help you mark the day, we’ve put together a list of resources.

Taming the Wild Wiki - Lesson
Students are introduced to Wikipedia, the user-edited online encyclopedia, and given an overview of its strengths and weaknesses as a research source.

Can You Spot the Ad?
In this lesson, students will learn about the concept of branded content and will learn to differentiate between branded images and videos and non-branded images and videos in online and offline contexts through a series of questions and discussions.