This free webinar for educators, presented by the News Literacy Project, will introduce lessons on the Checkology®️ virtual classroom and help you get started with the platform.

30-Minute Webinar: Preview Checkology

Educators, maybe you’ve heard of the Checkology virtual classroom, the News Literacy Project’s free, award-winning e-learning platform with 20 interactive lessons for students in grades 5-12. But have you had the chance to teach with Checkology?

Join us for an engaging 30-minute webinar led by NLP staff to learn more about Checkology’s foundational lessons in essential news literacy topics, including:

• Recognizing and debunking misinformation
• Understanding algorithms and generative artificial intelligence
• Identifying credible sources

You’ll come away with a plan for getting started on Checkology and with practical tips for integrating lessons into your curriculum. There will also be time for questions.

We’re holding multiple sessions of the same event — choose the one that works best for your schedule!

Nov. 19, 2:30-3 CT

Nov. 19, 4-4:30 CT

Nov. 20, 6-6:30 CT

Nov. 20, 8-8:30 CT

🎁 All attendees will be automatically entered into a drawing to win a care package of NLP goodies.

(Can’t make it at these times but still interested? Email us at [email protected] so we can set up a solo session that works better for your schedule.)

This free webinar for educators, presented by the News Literacy Project on edWeb.net, will offer strategies for empowering students to think critically as they scroll on social media.

Teach With TikTok: Help students stick to the facts on social media!

Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024
5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT

Hear us out—TikTok has a place in your classroom! Social media continues to shape the way information is shared and consumed, especially by young adults.

Given the deluge of online content, students are bound to encounter mis- and disinformation created and amplified by bad actors. And the sheer volume of daily social media posts makes these sites  difficult to monitor and regulate. Nonetheless, TikTok is a regular news source for more than half of its users, according to the Pew Research Center.

In this free webinar, the News Literacy Project’s Alexa Volland and Brittney Smith will share insights and practical strategies to help students identify and debunk falsehoods, misinformation and conspiracy theories on social media.

Using the lens of news literacy, attendees will:

• Investigate examples of misinformation on platforms like TikTok, Instagram and X.
• Learn tips to fact-check viral posts before sharing.
• Explore strategies to help students identify credible sources on social media.

This edWebinar will be of interest to middle and high school teachers, librarians, school leaders, district leaders and education technology leaders. There will be time for questions at the end of the presentation.

Don’t miss this unique opportunity – reserve your spot today!

(Can’t make it at this time but still interested? Register anyway, and we’ll email you the recording.)

This free webinar for educators, presented by the News Literacy Project on edWeb.net, will offer nonpartisan, practical strategies to help future voters make educated decisions at the polls when it’s their turn to vote.

Navigating election misinformation: Lies, myths, and scares— oh my! 

Wednesday, October 9, 2024
5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT

It’s October and we’re heading into a very spooky time—not just Halloween, but also election season! Over these remaining weeks before Election Day, helping students develop news literacy skills is critical for the next generation to become engaged critical thinkers prepared to make educated decisions at the polls.

This free webinar is designed to empower educators with free, nonpartisan tools and resources to take the “scare factor” out of teaching about election-season topics. Join NLP’s Brittney Smith and Dan Evon as they share insights and practical strategies to help future voters understand how to think about the news, not what to think.

Using the lens of news literacy, attendees will:

• Explore strategies to help students identify credible sources, understand the role of a free press in democracy, and identify and even debunk misinformation.
• Learn about NLP’s new election-focused misinformation dashboard and its potential uses in the classroom.

Don’t miss this unique opportunity – reserve your spot today!

(Can’t make it at this time but still interested? Register anyway, and we’ll email you the recording.)

This free webinar for educators, presented by the News Literacy Project on edWeb.net, explores resources every educator needs in their toolkit to teach news literacy this school year.

Building a foundation with news literacy: Essential tools for educators

Wednesday, August 21, 2024
5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT

In today’s world, news literacy is too important to leave out of your curriculum – in fact, it’s where you must start if you want to ensure that your students understand how to think critically and identify news, sources and information they can trust. News literacy skills have a part to play in nearly any subject or grade level, so why not develop them from the get-go?

In this edWebinar, let the News Literacy Project help you kick off the back-to-school season with free foundational tools you can count on! You’ll hear about what makes news literacy the key building block of media literacy, why it’s so critical today, and how many states are meeting this moment with news and media literacy education requirements.

The News Literacy Project’s Brittney Smith and Susan Minichiello will cover the resources every educator needs in their teaching toolkit this year, including a key framework for developing and assessing news literacy skills, a newsletter that helps you bring teachable moments from the news straight to your students, and standards-aligned Checkology® lessons.

This edWebinar will be of interest to middle and high school teachers, librarians, and school and district leaders. There will be time for questions at the end of the presentation.

Don’t miss this unique opportunity – reserve your spot today!

(Can’t make it at this time but still interested? Register anyway, and we’ll email you the recording.)

This free webinar for educators, presented by the News Literacy Project, explores and introduces educators to the Checkology virtual classroom and lessons that are ideal for the back-to-school season.

Webinar: Get started with Checkology and discover what’s new for 2024-25

Thursday, August 15, 2024
5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT

In this free, 30-minute webinar designed for educators, learn all you need to know about using the Checkology virtual classroom, the News Literacy Project’s award-winning, free e-learning platform. The News Literacy Project’s Brittney Smith and Erin Olson will lead this discussion, which will include insights and recommendations for educators new to Checkology as well as those who’ve used it in the past.

Attendees will: 

• Receive a primer on how to set up your account and assign lessons.
• Explore some of the best lessons for beginning to develop news literacy skills.
• Get one of the first looks at our rebooted lesson on algorithms and generative AI.

Add this short webinar to your back-to-school prep, and gain time-saving tips and tools to help you ease into a new school year!

This webinar will be of interest to middle and high school teachers, librarians, and school and district leaders. There will be time for questions at the end of the presentation.

Don’t miss this unique opportunity – reserve your spot today!

(Can’t make it at this time but still interested? Register anyway, and we’ll email you the recording.)

Are you — and your students — ready for the new school year?

Get ready with a foundation in news literacy — as well as best practices for teaching it — through our free educator webinars and resources. Additionally, sign up for Checkology®️, our FREE, browser-based, classroom-ready platform that teaches students how to think, not what to think.

When students become news-literate, they learn to better navigate our complex media landscape and avoid misinformation.

New lessons in STEM, opinion journalism and more

This year, Checkology’s newest lessons make it easy to bring news literacy to science, math and art classes among other subjects, such as civics, social studies, history and more. Be sure to share the news with your colleagues and emphasize the cross-curricular connections with your students!  These lessons, created in 2022, demonstrate news literacy’s sweeping relevancy:

• “Power in Art: The Watchdog Role of Editorial Cartoonists” Learn about the history of editorial cartooning as a unique and powerful form of opinion journalism and practice analyzing cartoons from the 1700s to the present day.
• “Making Sense of Data” Explore how we create, interact with, and are influenced by data in all aspects of our lives — and learn how to evaluate the accuracy of data-based claims and visualizations.
• “Be Health Informed” Discover how to make sense of the health and wellness information vying for our attention — and avoid being misled.
• “Evaluating Science-based Claims” Learn how to recognize science-based claims and evaluate their credibility.

Events for the new school year

• Memes, editorial cartoons and visual journalism: Lessons for your classroom In this edWeb webinar, get a firsthand look at editorial cartooning, the focus of the Checkology lesson “Power in Art: The Watchdog Role of Editorial Cartoonists.” Hear from leading editorial cartoonists Lalo Alcaraz and Signe Wilkinson and NLP staff experts Peter Adams and Darragh Worland.
  • *Already occurred; view the recording here.
• Get rolling with Checkology: Discover new content and more This introduction to brand-new content and features on Checkology will help you teach about social media, misinformation, data literacy and more! This webinar is offered three times during August; choose the session that best fits your schedule.
  • *Already occurred; view the recording here.
  • AUG. 17, 4 p.m. ET: Register here.
  • AUG. 22, 7 p.m. ET: Register here.
• Building strong digital citizens: News and media literacy in the classroom In this edWeb webinar co-sponsored by EdCuration, news literacy ambassadors Allie Niese and Molly June Roquet will discuss how educators can encourage students’ digital citizenship skills.
  • AUG. 18: 5 p.m. ET: Register here.
• Back-to-School News Literacy Webinar Series In this six-part virtual series designed for educators across all grade levels and subject areas, we’ll explore the fundamentals of news literacy education. This series is sponsored by the Knight Foundation. Register here to gain access to all six sessions.
  • AUG. 17, 5 p.m. ET: Teaching news literacy – Where do I start?
  • AUG. 24, 5 p.m. ET: Exploring the misinformation landscape
  • AUG. 31, 3 p.m. ET: A discussion with Teens for Press Freedom
  • SEPT. 7, 14, 21, 5 p.m. ET: Details to be announced soon.

Other educator resources

• Subscribe to The Sift®, our free. weekly newsletter for educators — delivered during the school year — explores timely examples of misinformation, addresses media and press freedom topics and discusses social media trends and issues.
• Explore the FREE classroom-ready material on our website, including infographics like How to teach news literacy in polarizing times and Eight tips to Google like a pro.
• Check out our “News Literacy Foundations” collection on Flip.
• Watch these videos to see how other educators found creative ways to teach news literacy during the challenging 2020-21 school year and benefit from their lessons learned.