Pamela Roberts
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bookpedaler.bsky.social
Pamela Roberts
@bookpedaler.bsky.social
240 followers 270 following 49 posts
High school teacher-librarian & committed year-round cyclist from Canada.📚& 🚲
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bookpedaler.bsky.social
I needed a chuckle this morning...
jcsalterego.bsky.social Jerry Chen @jcsalterego.bsky.social · 18d
welcome to bluesky. if the word "mapquest" means anything to you and/or you used it as a verb, you're in the right place
November 11, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Reposted by Pamela Roberts
debbieohi.com
Curious why a standard picture book is 32 pages in traditional #KidLit trade publishing? And why NOT all 32 pages are for story content? In this #PictureBooks101 post, I explain picture book format & construction:
debbieohi.com/2025/09/pict...
Header graphic for Picture Books 101. One spot illustration shows an enthusiastic woman handing a big pile of papers to another woman. First woman is saying, "Here's my 8628 word epic picture book mss!" Another spot illustration shows a blue flower-decorated cup full of drawing and writing tools. Illustrated diagram showing how a cover is attached to a self-ended picture book.
September 23, 2025 at 1:09 AM
Reposted by Pamela Roberts
librarianstebbs.bsky.social
librarians everywhere
simpsons don't make me tap the sign meme. panel 1 bus driver: don't make me tap the sign. panel 2 bus driver taps sign that reads "asking for help is a positive social skill"
August 8, 2025 at 1:39 AM
Reposted by Pamela Roberts
newslit.org
👀 Coming this Thursday - the best Checkology® yet!

✨ Interactive lessons across topics
✨ Infographics, activities & more

🔨 Our digital learning platform is the one-stop shop for all your #NewsLiteracy teaching needs.

🔗 Visit our #BackToSchool page to get a head start: go.newslit.org/Back2School
August 5, 2025 at 3:55 PM
Reposted by Pamela Roberts
internetarchiveca.bsky.social
@queensu Library has been collaborating with the @internetarchive.bsky.social on a digitization project that uses Controlled Digital Lending (CDL) to make copies of small print-run fanzines or zines of science fiction/fantasy/speculative fiction available.
internetarchivecanada.org/2025/07/15/s...
Cover image of magazine Dark Fantasy No. 22, March 1980
July 15, 2025 at 5:53 PM
Reposted by Pamela Roberts
newslit.org
📢 Educators: Check out our new "Don't be Fooled" resource!

🔎 This handout helps students analyze an example of a viral falsehood featured on RumorGuard + reflect on common #misinformation tropes & tactics so they can recognize similar falsehoods online.

👉🏾 Dive in: go.newslit.org/RGreport
RumorGuard RumorGuard Report: DON'T BE FOOLED
July 15, 2025 at 9:04 PM
bookpedaler.bsky.social
Teacher-librarians love to collaborate! We can help with instruction, time, space & resources…and students love the library - come on down!
edutopia.org Edutopia @edutopia.org · Jul 6
“Some of the best literacy learning can happen through collaboration among colleagues and peers,” @wordsimagesworlds.bsky.social says.

Here’s how he teamed up with his school’s media specialist to design a powerful student project pairing graphic novels and research. 📖

#EduSky #ITeachELA #TLSky
The Benefits of Collaborating With Your School Librarian
Working with a peer to develop projects for your students can enrich your instruction and support student engagement.
edut.to
July 8, 2025 at 1:07 AM
Reposted by Pamela Roberts
lutzfernandez.bsky.social
I put together a 4-page doc for those wary of the rush to integrate in K-12 schools (though much applies beyond).

Four of the main arguments for teachers using AI tools & introducing kids to AI as early as kindergarten are addressed with rebuttals linked to sources.
Help Sheet: Resisting AI Mania in Schools K-12 educators are under increasing pressure to use—and have students use—a wide range of AI tools. (The term “AI” is used loosely here, just as it is by many purveyors and boosters.) Even those who envision benefits to schools of this fast-evolving category of tech should approach the well-funded AI-in-education campaign with skepticism and caution. Some of the primary arguments for teachers actively using AI tools and introducing students to AI as early as kindergarten, however, are questionable or fallacious. What follows are four of the most common arguments and rebuttals with links to sources. I have not attempted balance, in part because so much pro-AI messaging is out there and discussion of risks and costs is often minimized in favor of hope or resignation. -ALF Argument: “Schools need to prepare students for the jobs of the future.” ● The skills employers seek haven’t changed much over the decades—and include a lot of “soft skills” like initiative, problem-solving, communication, and critical thinking. ● Early research is showing that using generative AI can degrade these key skills: ○ An MIT study showed adults using chatGPT to help write an essay “had the lowest brain engagement and ‘consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels.’” Critically, “ChatGPT users got lazier with each subsequent essay, often resorting to copy-and-paste by the end of the study.” ○ A business school found those who used AI tools often had worse critical thinking skills “mediated by increased cognitive offloading. Younger participants exhibited higher dependence on AI tools and lower critical thinking scores.” ○ Another study revealed those using “ChatGPT engaged less in metacognitive activities...For instance, learners in the AI group frequently looped back to ChatGPT for feedback rather than reflecting independently. This dependency not only undermines critical thinking but also risks long-term skill stagnati… Argument: “AI is a tool, just like a calculator.” ● Calculators don’t provide factually wrong answers, but AI tools have. Last year, Google’s AI search returned, among other falsehoods, that cats have gone to the moon, that Barack Obama is Muslim, and that glue goes on pizza. Even though AI tools have and are expected to improve, children in schools shouldn’t be used as tech firms’ guinea pigs for undertested, unregulated products while AI firms engage elected officials in actively resisting regulation. ● Calculators don’t provide dangerous, even deadly feedback. In one study, a ”chatbot recommended that a user, who said they were recovering from addiction, take a ‘small hit’ of methamphetamine” because, it said, it’s “‘what makes you able to do your job to the best of your ability.’" Users have received threatening messages from chatbots. ● Calculators don’t pose mental health risks because they aren’t potentially addictive or designed to encourage repeated use. They don’t flatter, direct, or manipulate. Chatbots have been designed this way—and this has led to dreadful mental health outcomes for some, including users in a New York Times report. Alleging a chatbot encouraged their teen to die by suicide, parents in Florida filed a lawsuit against its maker. ● Calculators don’t lie. Chatbots, however, have misled users. Writer Amanda Guinzburg shared screenshots of interactions with one that she asked to describe several of her essays. It spewed out invented material, showing the chatbot hadn’t actually accessed and processed the essays. After much prodding, it “admitted” it had only acted as though it had done that requested work, spit out mea culpas—and went on to invent or “lie” again. ● Calculators can’t be used to spread propaganda. AI tools, though, including those meant for schools, should worry us. Law professor Eric Muller’s back-and-forth with SchoolAI’s “Anne Frank” character showed his “helluva time trying to get her to say a bad word about Nazis.” In thi… Argument: “AI won’t replace teachers, but it will save them time and improve their effectiveness.” ● Adding edtech does not necessarily save teachers time. A recent study found that learning management systems sold to schools over the past decade-plus as time-savers aren’t delivering on making teaching easier. Instead, they found this tech (e.g. Google Classroom, Canvas) is often burdensome and contributes to burnout. As one teacher put it, it “just adds layers to tasks.” ● “Extra time” is rarely returned to teachers. AI proponents argue that if teachers use AI tools to grade, prepare lessons, or differentiate materials, they’ll have more time to work with students. But there are always new initiatives, duties, or committee assignments—the unpaid work districts rely on—to suck up that time. In a culture of austerity and with a USDOE that is cutting spending, teachers are likely to be assigned more students. When class sizes grow, students get less attention, and positions can be cut. ● AI can’t replace what teachers do, but that doesn’t mean teachers won’t be replaced. Schools are already doing it: Arizona approved a charter school in which students spend mornings working with AI and the role of teacher is reduced to “guide.” Ed tech expert Neil Selwyn argues those in “industry and policy circles...hostile to the idea of expensively trained expert professional educators who have [tenure], pension rights and union protection... [welcome] AI replacement as a way of undermining the status of the professional teacher.” ● Tech firms have been selling schools on untested products for years. Technophilia has led to students being on screens for hours in school each week even when their phones are banned. Writer Jess Grose explains, “Companies never had to prove that devices or software, broadly speaking, helped students learn before those devices had wormed their way into America’s public schools.” AI products appear to be no different. ● Efficiency is not effectiveness. “… Argument: “Students are already using AI, so we have to teach them ethical use. ● If schools want ethical students, teach ethics. More students are using AI tools to cheat, an age-old problem they make much easier. This won’t be addressed by showing students how to use this minute’s AI, an argument implying students don’t know what plagiarism is (solved by teaching about plagiarism) or understand academic integrity (solved by teaching and enforcing its bounds)—or that teachers create weak assignments or don’t convey purpose. The latter aren’t solved by attempting to redirect students motivated and able to cheat. ● Students can be educated on the ethics of AI without encouraging use of AI tools. They can be taught, as part of media literacy and social media safety programs, about AI’s potential and applications as well as how it can enable predation, perpetuate bias, and spread disinformation. They should be taught about the risks of AI and its various social, economic, and environmental costs. Giving a nod to these issues while integrating AI throughout schools sends a strong message: the schools don’t really care and neither should students. ● Children can’t be expected to use AI responsibly when adults aren’t. Many pushing schools to embrace AI don’t know much about it. One example: Education Secretary Linda McMahon, who said kindergartners should be taught A1 (a steak sauce). The LA Times introduced a biased and likely politically-motivated AI feature. The Chicago Sun-Times published a summer reading list including nonexistent books—yet teachers are told to use the same tools to do similar work. Educators using AI to cut corners can strike students as hypocritical. ● The many costs of AI call into question the possibility of ethical AI use. These include: ○ Energy - AI data centers need huge amounts of water as coolant as well as electricity, pulling these resources from their communities—which tend to be lower-income—straining the grid, and raising household cos…
June 25, 2025 at 9:45 AM
Reposted by Pamela Roberts
newslit.org
“Exposure to #MediaLiteracy instruction was associated with higher trust in news media, more frequent news consumption, & increased confidence in doing reverse image searches." - NLP's Kim Bowman, who talked about our "News Literacy in America" report on the Unpacking Education podcast 🎙
News Literacy in America: A Teen Study, with Kim Bowman and Peter Adams - AVID Open Access
Kim Bowman and Peter Adams from the News Literacy Project, a nonpartisan nonprofit, discuss the results of their study, News Literacy in America: A Survey of Teen Information Attitudes, Habits and Ski...
avidopenaccess.org
June 23, 2025 at 8:32 PM
Reposted by Pamela Roberts
drtlovesbooks.bsky.social
It's almost as if - and try to stick with me here - this illegally- and unethically-created new tech that is being forced on the populace by shady tech bros & cos MIGHT deserve to be study before we jam it into schools.

#AIIsCrap #AIHurysStudents #TLSky #EduSky #SchoolLibrarians #SchoolLibrary
June 21, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Reposted by Pamela Roberts
seced.bsky.social
Nine ways to create a culture of reading for pleasure in your school: How can #schools encourage students to love reading? In the first of two articles, @mattbromley.bsky.social considers nine approaches to boost reading for pleasure: buff.ly/dfuQgDe #teaching #literacy #teachers #edusky
June 19, 2025 at 9:02 AM
bookpedaler.bsky.social
Great ideas for how to teach digital literacy using resources from the News Literacy Project with a focus on AI!
newslit.org News Literacy Project @newslit.org · Jun 5
"Especially with social media & viral posts, I stress the importance of looking at who’s sourcing & posting the information, breaking down the actual claim, what evidence is being cited to support the claim, & then fact-checking using credible sources."

Read more from #educator Genna Sarnak ⤵️
Insider Spotlight: Genna Sarnak
Welcome to the Insider Spotlight section, where we feature real questions from our team and answers from educators who are making a difference teaching news literacy. This month, our featured educator...
go.newslit.org
June 5, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Reposted by Pamela Roberts
socialmedialab.ca
AI-generated hallucinations are an increasing concern within the legal profession.

Here's a database of legal cases in which courts confirmed that a lawyer submitted hallucinated content generated by AI: www.damiencharlotin.com/hallucinatio...
AI Hallucination Cases Database – Damien Charlotin
Database tracking legal cases where generative AI produced hallucinated citations submitted in court filings.
www.damiencharlotin.com
May 28, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Reposted by Pamela Roberts
newslit.org
Readers of The Sift have spoken. And, drumroll, your top resources from the 2024-25 school year are...

🥇 Daily Do Now slides: 5- to 10-minute bell ringer activities!
🥈 Quizzes! Especially fact-checking 🚩
🥉 Our "6 things to know about AI" infographic

👉🏾 The final issue: go.newslit.org/Sift19May2025
The Sift: Final issue: Top clicks in 2024-25
A roundup of the most popular stories and News Literacy Project resources in The Sift newsletter for educators during the 2024-25 school year, including topics like AI deepfakes and misinformation.
go.newslit.org
May 21, 2025 at 7:58 PM
bookpedaler.bsky.social
Happy Earth Day! If TikTok is blocked for you, check it out on their YouTube Channel:
April 22, 2025 at 4:06 PM
bookpedaler.bsky.social
April 20, 2025 at 10:50 PM
bookpedaler.bsky.social
So proud of my volunteers for designing a social media post for the upcoming ‘Poem in your pocket Day’ next Thursday. We’re planning an open mic poetry reading event at lunch.
April 17, 2025 at 1:51 AM
Reposted by Pamela Roberts
as-king.bsky.social
For librarians. 💓
April 10, 2025 at 3:29 AM
bookpedaler.bsky.social
Before you genrefy your library, consider how complicated it gets to train your volunteers shelving… #SkyBrarian #Librarians #highSchoolLibrarian #secondayLibrarian
April 9, 2025 at 4:23 PM
bookpedaler.bsky.social
"Look it up" is a Gen X tell, I suppose. 😔
chescaleigh.bsky.social Franchesca Ramsey @chescaleigh.bsky.social · Apr 7
here’s a curse word free version of “look it up” as requested by countless teachers and librarians 🥰😘
April 8, 2025 at 3:38 PM
bookpedaler.bsky.social
Who doesn’t love putting off writing the newsletter when new books come in?
April 8, 2025 at 2:59 PM
bookpedaler.bsky.social
Yesterday the Toronto Marlies hockey team played Syracuse, NY. Local elementary school students sang both anthems. During the American anthem, one idiot yelled ‘Boooo!’. He was shut down real quick & we applauded both anthems. That’s what you don’t see in the news. Most Canadians are a class act.
April 6, 2025 at 4:59 PM
bookpedaler.bsky.social
It’s time for this cheerful display of pink books! ‘I don’t know the title, but the cover was pink’. Every librarian is up for this challenge of ‘find me that book’!
April 6, 2025 at 2:15 PM
bookpedaler.bsky.social
“Don’t be the fool, pity the fool” - Mr. T (you may need to fact check that one)
newslit.org News Literacy Project @newslit.org · Apr 1
🤷🏾 Not to sound boring, but our advice for #AprilFoolsDay is the same as our advice every day: Verify before you share!

⚠️ Remember that what starts out as a joke or satire on the Internet often gets shared as fact.

❌ Finally, it's still true: Memes aren't news! More tips: bit.ly/7tipsNLP
An infographic with 7 boxes. Headline: Seven Steps for Staying Sharp Online Each box has a box with a tip. The tips are: 1. Pause 2. Memes aren't news 3. Likes and shares ≠ credibility 4. Take time to assess sources 5. Get to the experts 6. Don't feed the trolls 7. Steer clear of conspiratorial thinking
April 1, 2025 at 4:10 PM
bookpedaler.bsky.social
This week’s poetry collection & French fiction haul. I love when all the new books arrive the same week! Feast your eyes on the last purchases before the tariffs…
March 30, 2025 at 3:56 AM