Teaching News Literacy in the Age of AI - by Cathy Collins (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Get the tools and strategies you need to help students understand why news matters and how to navigate the journalism landscape in the age of AI, misinformation and conspiratorial thinking.

News literacy is critical to understanding the role that information and a free press play in our lives, and to maintaining a robust democracy. However, effective news literacy education resources at the K-12 level are hard to find. This book fills the gap, offering a civic-minded and globally oriented perspective to help teachers integrate news literacy across curriculum areas to guide students in learning about the importance of journalism in a democracy and in our world.

Through practical tools, resources and lesson plan ideas, the book helps educators foster the skills students need to become discerning consumers and creative producers of news. Educators will develop strategies for sparking meaningful classroom discussions that empower students to evaluate, interpret and synthesize information, pushing students beyond the concept of "fake news" to become expert critical thinkers and content creators.

This book includes:

• Guidance in every chapter on how to address news literacy in the context of AI.
• A menu of resources for further exploration, such as podcasts, videos and digital tools, in each chapter.
• Guiding and reflection questions, with a link to an online Padlet for real-time sharing.
• An Action Plan Template to help teachers integrate news literacy in classrooms and learning spaces.
• An introduction to tools such as the News Literacy Project's Framework for Teaching News Literacy and the MediaWise Teen Fact-Checking Network.

The cross-disciplinary approach of this book gives readers knowledge and resources to help students navigate today's news and media landscape as expert chroniclers, curators and content creators.

Audience: Elementary and secondary classroom teachers, library media specialists

About the Author

Cathy Collins, Ed.D., is a veteran library media specialist who currently serves as a News Literacy Project ambassador in Massachusetts. Collins is also the lead instructional designer for "STEM Innovations and Global Competence," an online course for K-12 teachers hosted by the U.S. State Department. Previously, Collins was a Reynolds High School Journalism Institute fellow, and a project consultant for the ebook Searchlights and Sunglasses: Journalism in the Digital Age. She received a Teachers for Global Classrooms fellowship from the U.S. State Department in 2014, and is the recipient of an American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Intellectual Freedom Award. She was named a Massachusetts School Library Association (MSLA) Super Librarian in 2015, and is the recipient of an Ellen Berne Pathfinder Award for Innovative School Library Programming, as well as MSLA's Web Seal of Excellence from 2014-2020. Collins was elected to the ISTE Board of Directors in December 2020. She earned a doctoral degree in curriculum, leadership, teaching and learning, and holds master's degrees in education and library science.