Education resources
The News Co/Lab works to advance media literacy through journalism, education and technology. As part of our free online course Mediactive, we’ve created a series of open-access digital media literacy educational resources suitable for middle school, high school and post-secondary learners.
Each lesson plan includes a News Co/Lab video, expected outcomes, student activity, instructor feedback and additional information.
Lesson plans
The most important habit we can develop is to verify before sharing. In this lesson, students will watch a News Co/Lab video, then use the SIFT method to assess claims and verify information with multiple examples. SIFT was developed by our friend Mike Caulfield at Washington State University Vancouver.
News organizations publish a variety of different types of stories, which can at times be difficult to identify. This lesson plan includes a video, background information and a matching activity to help students understand the differences.
For young people, social media is often their most-consumed media. Lead your students through a 24-hour tracking exercise with this lesson plan, video and reflection questions.
Doctored images are everywhere. These strategies can help you determine whether an image is real — and if it’s being presented in the right context. This lesson includes two articles, a video and activity guide to help students become familiar with reverse image search tools.
We encourage educators to join the Mediactive course to learn more about media literacy and ideas to implement it into your classrooms. The free, self-paced class is available through ASU Continuing and Professional Education and the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.