Resources for Teachers

Grades: 6-12

Duration: 60 to 90 minutes, plus extension activities

Author: MediaSmarts and TELUS

Learning goals:

Key concepts/big ideas:

Grades: 7-9

Duration: 1.5 - 2 hours

Author: MediaSmarts and TELUS

Learning goals

Key concepts/big ideas:

Students will understand that Interactions through digital media can have a real impact:

  • Conversations with chatbots can have emotional effects and affect what we think and believe

Digital media experiences are shaped by the tools we use:

Original digital art takes patience and skill. While yes, you could ask ChatGPT to recreate something similar with the right prompt, it doesn’t come close to the heart or care that was put into this original artwork and it doesn’t quite look the same.


MediaSmarts’ experts are available to facilitate virtual and in-person workshops in school and community settings for parents/guardians, educators, youth and the general public. Our workshops cover topics such as online safety, misinformation, digital well-being, managing tech in the home, diversity and representation in media, digital citizenship, critical thinking, online hate and more.

This lesson helps teens become active consumers by encouraging them to 'talk back' to advertisers when they have concerns.

In this lesson, students learn how different media use different techniques to communicate meaning.

This lesson begins by helping students to identify and understand the different aspects of news outlets. Using these skills, students will then collect and identify news stories and categorize them according to subject matter.

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:

This tip sheet will give you some tips for building a healthier relationship with social media so you can avoid the comparison trap and feel better about yourself online.

Understand How the 'Comparison Trap' Works

Here are a few things about social media that make us more likely to compare ourselves to others:

Here are some tips to develop a healthier relationship with technology: