A Lesson in Digital Wellness

Students spent their Flex period this week doing various exercises to strengthen their digital wellness and media literacy skills. “For the upper school, we used the time to discuss how the ever-changing AI landscape affects education and learning - for better and worse - and what we need to keep in mind as we choose when and how to use AI,” explains Kelly Vikstrom, Director of Library & Instructional Technology. 

Upper School students worked through three different AI-focused exercises aimed to spark conversation amongst the advisory. Dave Parson’s senior advisory worked through determining if videos and photos were authentic or AI-created. 

“That first exercise of trying to determine what’s real and what’s AI illustrated very nicely that it’s difficult to be sure anymore. They were doubtful. They weren’t in total agreement with any of them.”

They also heard an interview with Ezra Klein and Jack Clark, Co-Founder of Anthropic, questioning whether AI can make you more productive.

“It’s important for the students to be aware of how they learn and how they see things, and how they form their views based on what they see, because social media is so generated,” adds Parsons.

Middle School students spent their Flex time working through a different exercise designed by librarian Rebecca Moore that aimed at fine-tuning their journalistic skills in order to be better consumers of news. “We talked about quality journalism when news is coming at us from all angles; it’s important to understand the role of the press,” explains Vikstrom. The students learned about the seven standards of journalism: multiple, credible sources, verification, avoidance of bias, balance, documentation, context, and fairness.

The students in Stephanie Castle’s advisory discovered that working through the journalism process involved some of the same science principles they use in Castle’s class. The students looked for evidence and verified results, much the same as in a science experiment.

“These days students’ sense of wellbeing is so entangled in and influenced by technology and media, so talking about the issues in these areas is important,” explains Vikstrom.