Mirror Image - Lesson

In this lesson, students analyze their own body image and consider what they wish they could change.

Eating Under the Rainbow

Studies have found that fast-food ads dominate children’s programming. In order to give children a perspective on the lure of snack-food advertisements, it’s important that they understand where snacks can fit into a healthy diet. Once they have an understanding of where snack food fits into their lives, they can begin to deconstruct the ads themselves.

Deconstructing Web Pages - Lesson

In this lesson, students apply the "5Ws of Cyberspace" to sources of information they find online. Assuming the role of a student researching a science project, students must authenticate the information in an online article about the artificial sweetener, aspartame.

Pay For Play

In this lesson, students discuss their experiences playing free online games and then learn the costs of these “free” games in the form of paying with money, sharing personal information or providing attention to advertising or branded content. Students then learn a variety of techniques for mitigating the risks and drawbacks of online games and communicate their learning by describing one of these techniques in video-game terms.

Use, Understand & Create: Towards a Comprehensive Canadian Digital Literacy Curriculum

Whether it’s to prepare for the future job market or just to manage the lives they already lead online, young Canadians need to be digitally literate. But what exactly is digital literacy, and how can we ensure that all Canadian youth are learning the digital skills they need?

Parents’ Guide to Cyberbullying

For most youth, the Internet is all about socializing and while most of these social interactions are positive, increasing numbers of kids are using the technology to intimidate and harass others – a phenomenon known as cyberbullying.

What to do if someone is mean to you online

Don't fight back.

A lot of times a bully is looking to get a rise out of you, and fighting back just gives them what they want. Sometimes they're hoping that you'll fight back so that they can get you in trouble!

Ontario Health Curriculum: Media and Digital Literacy Connections for K-12

The new Ontario Health and Physical Education curriculum released this year by the Ontario Ministry of Education is the first major revision to the subject area in almost 30 years.

Watching the elections

Joe McGinniss’ book The Selling of the President had a shocking title for 1968, suggesting as it did that in the television age the presidency had become nothing more than another product to be packaged and sold. MediaSmarts’ resource, Watching the Elections (a lesson for Grades 8-12), shines a light on how the different aspects of an election – from the debates to political ads to the candidates themselves – are actually media products.

Dealing with Marketing: What Parents Can Do

Educate your kids about advertising and how marketers target young people