Media Literacy RoundUp: 30 Dec 2024
Periodic links and ideas from Wes Fryer
It’s almost 2025, and I suspect we are in for a “wild ride” both politically and socially in the months ahead. The outcome of the November 2024 elections in the United States portend a time of tumultuous political change, and rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) technologies will both amplify and accelerate those changes even further. We shouldn’t strive to just “hang on and survive” during the year to come, we need to band together, continue to build our communities, and figure out how we can THRIVE amidst so much upheaval and uncertainty. Hopefully the links and ideas in this post can help! In 2025 one of my goals is to post these Substack updates more regularly. Here’s what’s on tap for this edition of our Media Literacy RoundUp:
18th MediaEd Forum (10-11 January 2025)
BlueSky Educational Networking (6 January 2025)
Dangerous Ideas with Wes Fryer
Facebook Friend Safety Tips
AI Created Video Clips
Wisdom with Wes updates
Oprah’s AI Documentary (September 2024)
Photos from Christmas at Biltmore
1. 18th MediaEd Forum
Since the summer of 2019 when I attended the “Summer Institute in Digital Literacy” for a week in Providence, Rhode Island, the community of the Media Education Lab co-directed by Renee Hobbs and Yonty Friesem has become an essential part of my “professional tribe.” I now IDENTIFY everywhere on social media as a “media literacy educator” and “media literacy advocate.” I’m convinced literacy today IS media literacy, and as a current middle school classroom teacher, I’m committed to continually learning more about media literacy to refine my craft as an educator as well as continue my personal journey to be both an informed and contributing member of my communities locally, regionally and globally.
With these perspectives in mind, I invite you to join me ONLINE for the 18th MediaEd Forum, scheduled to take place in about 2 weeks, starting January 10, 2025. It’s just $25 to register, and you can check out all the planned sessions in the schedule. I’m looking forward to attending many of these, including Saturday’s session “Building AI educational tools” with Jason Neiffer & Dana Thompson. As you may know, Jason co-hosts the almost-weekly “EdTech Situation Room” podcast with me on Wednesday nights. As part of his day job with the Montana Digital Academy, Jason’s team has created an incredible customGPT they call “Open MCQ: Open Multiple Choice Question Writer Bot.” Jason will be sharing about that AI educational project and more, it’s going to be both practical and transformative! And that’s just one planned session for the 2025 MediaEd Forum.
Please register and plan to join us!
2. BlueSky Educational Networking
In October 2024 I started facilitating monthly Zoom webinars for the MediaEd Club of the Media Education Lab. To kick off 2025, our first FREE webinar for 2025 will be on “BlueSky Educational Networking” on Monday, January 6th.
The webinar description is:
Thousands of educators are using the social media platform BlueSky to connect, share ideas, and collaborate. With so many social networking platforms now available, where should innovative teachers and educators connect? Especially since November 2024, one answer is BlueSky, thanks in part to the #EduSky community facilitated by Alice Keeler. In this interactive session, we will explore tips and tricks for using BlueSky as educators, and ways to specifically connect with other media literacy educators on BlueSky using starter packs, lists, and hashtags. Start off 2025 with inspiring ideas from educators around the world with BlueSky!
In addition to registering, please check out the “required media” and “optional media and links” for the session. Ideally if you can watch / read / listen to / check out some of these links BEFORE the webinar, you’ll get a lot more out of it.
I hope you can join me for this and other monthly meetups for the MediaEd Club! This is a great way to not only learn more about media literacy but also BUILD COMMUNITY and make new connections!
Also check out past recorded MediaEd Club webinars. Since October, these have included:
3. Dangerous Ideas with Wes Fryer
Over Christmas break this year I launched a new channel on Patreon I’ve titled, “Dangerous Ideas with Wes Fryer: human rights, democratic norms, tolerance, and media literacy.”
It seems crazy that these ideas can seem “dangerous” today politically, but here we are. I’ve contemplated creating a Patreon focused on different things for many years, but our current political moment has pushed me over the edge. I want a more controlled, ‘safer space’ to share both ideas and resources which relate to these values and topics. So far I have six posts on the channel, and each of the “protected / locked” videos includes a 30 second preview. These posts include:
What is "Dangerous Ideas with Wes Fryer?" (not locked)
Standing Against Discrimination: Sharing a Personal Story from Caldwell Presbyterian Church
I’m offering a free 7 day trial for “The Strategic Advocate” subscription tier, which includes access to the private Discord community I’ve started for my Patreon.
Please consider joining and adding your voice to the important conversations I’m hoping to catalyze and facilitate there in the weeks and months to come.
4. Facebook Friend Safety Tips
I’m on Facebook frequently, and I’ve noticed it’s become a REAL MESS because of poor account security and rampant cybercrime. I have multiple relatives and friends now who have lost control over their Facebook accounts. Sometimes these individuals have created another Facebook account, creating confusion about “what is the real account?” Some of these people have multiple Facebook profiles because bad actors / threat actors are attempting scam their friends and contacts. In this post I want to highlight some of these situations and provide specific advice on what you can do to identify and avoid fake / malicious Facebook friend accounts, and also report them so the accounts can be (hopefully) deactivated by Facebook security engineers. I’ll also recommend what you can do to SECURE your own Facebook and EMAIL accounts (email is really like a “master key” to most of our online accounts and passwords) as well as how to customize your Facebook profile so people can tell it is legitimate.
Read and check out my complete post about this from December 1st on SpeedOfCreativity.org
5. AI Created Video Clips
One of the powerful ways artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms can be used by media creators is to identify short clips in longer videos which are potentially engaging for audience members, and then facilitating the process of making those clips into shorter videos that can be shared on social media. In this post I’ll highlight how I use the platforms Substack and Descript to create AI powered video clips. You can check out examples in this YouTube playlist from the EdTech Situation Room.
Read and check out my complete post about this from December 14th on SpeedOfCreativity.org.
6. Wisdom with Wes updates
In February 2024 I started a new series on YouTube I call, “Wisdom with Wes,” and I’m now up to 42 episodes! Since some creators are noticing Facebook / Meta and other social media platforms are DOWNRANKING videos which contain links, I’ve been experimenting with DIRECT video uploads to these platforms rather than sharing links.
Since my last Media Literacy RoundUp newsletter, I created 2 new “Wisdom with Wes” episodes. These are shorter videos you might want to check out:
Ep 41: Transmediated Possibly (4 min, 6 Dec 2024)
Ep 42 Advent vs. Easter: Why Christians are Truly Easter People (9.5 min, 16 Dec 2024)
7. Oprah’s AI Documentary (September 2024)
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing our world in significant ways now, and many smart people I respect and follow are predicting AI is going to TRANSFORM our world in many ways. AI is something not only important to study and learn about, but also PLAY WITH and use to better undertand it as well as leverage it.
In September 2024, Oprah Winfrey hosted a special on ABC titled, “AI and the Future of Us.” It’s 45 minutes and well worth your time to watch, reflect on, and share with others. Interviewees included:
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman
Tech influencer Marques Brownlee
FBI Director Christopher Wray
Founders of “The Center for Humane Technology” Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin
Add this video to your personal watch list / media queue, and consider watching it on a laptop or desktop computer using the Chrome browser and the free UBlock Origin extension, so you can SKIP all the advertisements.
8. Photos from Christmas at Biltmore
One highlight from our 2024 Christmas holidays was visiting the Biltmore mansion in Asheville, North Carolina, at night by candlelight. It was both amazing and very thought provoking, given the advent of “our new gilded age.” I’ll be reflecting more on this in the weeks ahead. For now, check out my 42 photos from Biltmore on Flickr.
That’s it for the final edition of “Media Literacy with Wes” for 2024! I hope you have a safe and happy New Year’s celebration, and look forward to continuing to learn and connect with you in 2025!