Media Literacy Roundup: 9 Feb 2024
Periodic links and ideas from Wes Fryer
Hey it’s February already and if you’re spending lots of time reading the news, it may seem like the world is on fire. Certainly parts of it are, but thankfully, we can each choose to “hack our own brain” and “marinate” each day in some good, hopeful and constructive ideas instead of just constantly reading / watching / listening to the bad stuff. Hopefully some of the links and ideas in this update will help! Here’s what you can look forward to in this edition:
Webinars with Wes
Heal Our Culture Project
Wisdom with Wes
Making Videos with AI
Minecraft Mars Outpost Project
Great Pork Ribs and Cauliflower Crust Pizza
1. Webinars with Wes
My mantra for 2024 is “Write the Books,” because I have several new books inside of my head which I’m hoping to write (in a “Big Magic” sort-of-way) and self-publish in the months ahead. In addition, however, there are a number of related (as well as tangential) topics which I love and want to share about, and don’t “fit” inside our weekly “EdTech Situation Room” podcast or fully inside those book projects! As a result, “Webinars with Wes” launched this week!
These are fee-based EVENING webinars hosted by “OnZoom,” shared on Thursday nights (starting next week) at 8pm Eastern - 7pm Central - 6pm Mountain - 5pm Pacific. Cost is $10 to attend live, or $20 to attend live AND access the recorded session for 30 days afterward. Here are the topics and dates:
I’m giving away 10 free tickets to my first webinar on “Bible Verse AI Visualization.” If you’re one of the first 10 people to complete this Google Form, I’ll email you the “secret” free registration link so you can attend “gratis!”
Please share these webinars with others you know who might be interested. I’ve created the website webinars.wesfryer.com to include upcoming sessions with registration links, an updated Google Calendar, and an “Archives” page which includes several past (and free) webinar recordings I’ve shared. Those include:
I also included an “Updates” page which recommends following my “Speed of Creativity Learning” page on Facebook. (These are “events” on that page!)
I hope to see you in an upcoming “Webinar with Wes!” If you have a suggestion for a webinar topic, please let me know, and if I offer that webinar I’ll email you a free ticket link!
2. Heal Our Culture Project
I’ve started teaching my six week asynchronous course, “Teaching the Conspiracies,” for the 2024 MediaEd Institute, hosted by the Media Education Lab. Based on early participant feedback, I’ve moved up our discussion of “Contemporary Conspiracy Theories” from Week 5 to Week 3, and let me tell you… It’s pretty dark out there.
The genesis of this class is my “Conspiracies and Culture Wars” media literacy inquiry project, which I started in 2019. Since my last Substack post, I’ve launched the “Heal Our Culture” project, which I’ve been thinking about and planning for many months. You can read more about the project on the website “About” page, but the essence is summarized in the tagline, “Cultural Healers - Not Culture Warriors.”
No matter what is on the news tonight or tomorrow, no matter who wins the next election for whatever office you’d like to discuss… This is going to remain the same: I want to be a culture HEALER. Our culture needs “healing” in so many ways, and the good news is… There are a LOT of people “out there” doing great work to help make our lives better: filled with more kindness, love, respect, and joy. So that’s exactly what I want to amplify.
“Healing Our Culture” means many things, but one of them is that we need to study, discuss respectfully, and seek to better understand our HISTORY. This includes ALL the chapters of our shared history, the good and the bad. Two weekends ago, Shelly (my spouse) and I participated in a “Racial Healing” conference at our church (Caldwell Pres) in uptown Charlotte. Last weekend, we participated in the “Confronting Whiteness Conference at Myers Park Baptist Church in uptown Charlotte. These events were powerful and important.
The Heal Our Culture website (HealOurCulture.org) features both an audio podcast as well as a growing webpage of project resources. Please subscribe to the project podcast, follow us on Facebook, and check out our first episode, “Racial Healing Conference.”
Please let us know your thoughts and feedback! Like Storychasers, “Heal Our Culture” is a project I want to keep working on for the rest of my life. I hope you’ll join me!
3. Wisdom with Wes
“Playing with Media” is not just a book or a learning pedagogy for me, it’s also a lifestyle! I decided recently to start a new series of VERY short videos on YouTube, which I’m calling “Wisdom with Wes.” I’ve recorded three so far, and they are all included in this YouTube playlist. Episodes include:
These videos are examples of “Quick Edit Videos,” which is a format I’ve loved to create and share since 2013 when I started “Show with Media: What Do You Want to CREATE Today?”
Do you have a challenging question you’d like me to tackle? Please let me know!
This project reminds me of the audio podcast, “Publish at Will,” which I recorded and shared back in September 2005.
4. Making Videos with AI
Last weekend, I used the AI platform Pictory.AI to create 3 marketing videos for the primary middle school courses I teach at our school. I was able to make all of these videos in a fraction of the time it would have taken me without AI assistance. View all of these videos on YouTube from the links at the top of my lessons and curriculum “Courses” page. Read more details on my “AI Tips and Tricks” Google Doc.
5. Minecraft Mars Outpost Project
My middle school computer programming students have been creating animations and games in Scratch, the amazing (and free / advertisement free) block-based programming language from MIT. We have been discussing and watching videos to prepare for our “Coding Mars” project, which I renamed from “Minecraft Mars Colony” to “Minecraft Mars Outpost” project this week.
A couple videos related to this project I highly recommend are:
Middle School Coding Class Simulates Mars Colony (January 2024)
3D printing homes on Earth, someday the moon (60 Minutes, October 2023)
I’ll be presenting about this project at the NCTIES 2024 conference in Raleigh, NC on March 7 or 8. That session is titled, “Minecraft MakeCode meets Mark Watney and Mars Colonization.” I’ll also share this session at the Space Port Area Conference for Educators at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in June 2024.
6. Great Pork Ribs and Cauliflower Crust Pizza
Who doesn’t love watching some tasty cooking videos?! Check out my new ones on “Blues Hog (Original) Pork Ribs” (5 min) and “Pizza on a RecTeq” (12.5 min). These and more are included in my “Wes Fryer’s Cooking Videos” YouTube playlist! 72 videos and counting!
Have a great Friday and safe weekend!