AI Unlocked: a new AI Literacy curriculum from Poynter and PBS News Student Reporting Labs
March 26, 2025
AI Unlocked is a new AI Literacy curriculum from Poynter’s MediaWise Teen Fact CheckingNetwork and PBS News Student Reporting Labs (SRL). Released today, this five-part series covers what generative AI is, ethical considerations, how to recognize AI-generated content, best practices for using AI as an information source, as well as how to evaluate existing AI tools and brainstorm new tools.
Designed for educators of middle and high school students, each video and accompanying lesson plan breaks down the world of artificial intelligence with simple, easy-to-understand explanations and examples. Find this lesson series on Poynter’s Mediawise Teen Fact-Checking Network and SRL’s learning platform StoryMaker.
“Terms like gen-AI, Chatbot and prompt are used so often, we assume students (and educators) know what they mean,” said Leah Clapman, SRL Executive Director. “But we thought it was important to step back and make sure that students have a foundational understanding of how AI works and the core ethical questions so that they are equipped to navigate the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.”
“AI technology — and its encroachment into our lives — is happening at such a rapid pace that it’s hard to keep up,” said MediaWise Director Alex Mahadevan, who serves on Poynter faculty and co-wrote its AI ethics guide. “We’re excited to partner with PBS News to offer young people a chance to take a breath, understand how AI is shaping their world and learn how to get the most out of the myriad new digital tools they’re using every day.”
This series is a continuation of MediaWise and Student Reporting Labs’s collaboration, which began in 2022. Find previously produced media literacy curricula in this toolkit.
About Student Reporting Labs
PBS News Student Reporting Labs (SRL) is a hands-on journalism training program from PBS News and WETA that connects young people to real-world experiences and their educators to tools, resources, and community. This national program trains and equips educators and teens with the tools and training to report stories in their own communities, and provides platforms for their stories to reach national audiences. Since 2009, Student Reporting Labs has helped students publish over 150 video news reports on the PBS News Hour nightly broadcast and many more via local media outlets. Student Reporting Labs reaches over 9,500 educators through StoryMaker, its free learning platform. Visit www.studentreportinglabs.org and www.story-maker.org to learn more.
About MediaWise
MediaWise is a digital media literacy initiative of the nonprofit Poynter Institute. The program teaches people of all ages and backgrounds how to responsibly engage with online content in the age of information overload. MediaWise was created in 2018 to empower individuals with skills to find trusted sources and make sense of the vast amount of information at their fingertips. MediaWise brings simple, yet effective, digital media literacy tools to people where they are — whether they’re on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X, TikTok, or in one of the 10 countries where MediaWise operates — and walk them through every step to determine what’s real and what’s not on the internet. MediaWise is home to the Teen Fact-Checking Network, a virtual newsroom of middle and high schoolers who empower their peers with media literacy skills which now operates in the Americas, across Europe and India.
About PBS News
PBS News is the consolidator news brand within NewsHour Productions LLC, a wholly-owned non-profit subsidiary of WETA Washington, D.C. Major corporate funding is provided by BDO, BNSF, Consumer Cellular, and Raymond James, with additional support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the National Science Foundation, David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, Friends of the News Hour and others. More information on PBS News is available at www.pbs.org/newshour. You can watch and find PBS News programming on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. News Hour Productions produces PBS News Hour, PBS News Weekend and Washington Week with The Atlantic.
About WETA
Founded in 1961, the Washington Educational Telecommunications Association (WETA) is the leading public broadcasting station in the nation’s capital, serving Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia with educational, cultural, news and public affairs programs and services. WETA hosts the production of PBS NewsHour, a classical music radio station, and programming that focuses on the United Kingdom. Learn more at https://weta.org.