Teaching in the Age of AI: Media Literacy, Digital Identity & Rethinking Assessment with Professor Frederica Fornaciari

In this episode, Dr Ellie Meissner speaks with Professor Federica Fornaciari about what educators need to know as AI rapidly reshapes teaching and learning. Together they unpack how media literacy now demands far more than spotting fake news, it requires helping students question sources, evaluate intent, understand digital identity, and recognise bias in AI-generated content. Federica shares practical strategies for integrating AI safely and ethically in the classroom, including rethinking assessment through critical reflections and Socratic dialogue with AI. This conversation empowers teachers to support authentic learning, foster student agency, and navigate the challenges and opportunities of AI-enhanced education. 

Resources

Teach information and media literacy: The foundation of democracy https://avidopenaccess.org/resource/teach-information-and-media-literacy-the-foundation-of-democracy/

Deconstructing deepfakes with an AI expert https://www.nu.edu/podcast/engineering-and-technology/deconstructing-deepfakes-with-an-ai-expert/

Transcript

Ellie Meissner: Welcome to our podcast. Such a pleasure to have you here, to talk about privacy, digital identity, and media literacy in the age of AI. Just as a quick, introduction, Federica is a professor and academic program director at National University. And she has written about how people represent themselves in the digital spaces, and how online identity is constructed. She has a keen interest in how media frames shape public perception, political communication, and the ways messages are packaged. And of course, much of her work focuses on media literacy and ethical implications of AI in education. Is that a fair summary?

Federica Fornaciari: Absolutely, yeah, I loved it, thank you for having me.

Ellie Meissner: This is a pleasure. So we decided not to talk about a particular paper today, but keeping it a little bit broader, and maybe focusing on a question around how we teach media literacy in ways that keeps pace with the rapidly advancing AI, including all the deepfake and synthetic media that you always already touch on in your research.

Federica Fornaciari: Yeah, media literacy is such a hot topic. Just to give a little definition of what we mean by media literacy. Media literacy is our ability to access, analyse, evaluate, create, and use communication, in ways that are thoughtful, that are informed, and that are ethical. So  in the age of deepfakes and misinformation and the AI-driven platforms, this becomes, obviously, very complicated and multifaceted. So, media literacy is no longer just about the ability to spot manipulation, which is a very important component there, but it's more than that. It's, in a way, the agility to questions forces, the agility to evaluate intent, and to respond, with responsibility, right? So, developing these skills is a very important for democracy and for civic engagement. But also just for navigating our everyday challenges that we face. Whether we are CEOs, whether we are parents, or whether we are anyone in between. Because we will be exposed to some level of, misinformation, of deepfakes, and, being able to figure out what to do with those items, are very important skills that we need to develop. The ability to look at a source and wonder whether that's a reliable source or whether it's not. And when we talk about sources, it's also important to remember that we are often more prone to accepting information that comes from sources that we trust. But we still should double-check that. Just because one of our friends or family members reposted a piece of information, that doesn't mean that they double-checked before they did it.

Ellie Meissner: True, yeah.

Federica Fornaciari: Looking at source credibility, looking at the tone of the piece that we're looking at. Does it seem sensational? Does it seem too crazy, too wild to be true? That's probably the case. Looking at context. Perhaps if we look at the whole paragraph, or the whole interview, rather than just a quote or two, maybe the meaning was different. So there are, like, a variety of skills that we can teach our students or peers to learn to become better at questioning sources, questioning intent, and also embracing the fact that we are all content creators. Sharing and creating content is not just a self-expression. It becomes influence. There is a strong responsibility that comes with influence.

Ellie Meissner: Mmm, so that's really interesting, and in Australia, a lot of the discussions are really very, very risk-focused. Everyone just thinks about AI as a tool of cheating in the university context, still to this day. There are frameworks popping up on how to use it to do some of what you just described, analyzing information, etc. Using it in bilingual education. So what's your experience in terms of, students tending to use it to make their lives easier, but really teaching them those digital identity… about digital identities and creating content and critically engaging with it.

Federica Fornaciari: Yeah, that's something that I struggle with every day, but, I believe that students are smart, and that they are, for the most part, trying to learn, right? So, we'll need to learn different skills, in the AI era. We cannot think that, you know, a paper per se will be able to show critical thinking, because, it's hard to spot whether that was created through AI or not. Their tools to spot generative AI use are lagging behind, so it's never… we can never use those to point fingers. So in my classes, I try to spend as much time as possible with students explaining to them, and sharing with them, and discussing the fact that we need to dive deep into the information, and that we cannot use Gen AI as a shortcut. It can be a useful tool for brainstorming, it can be a useful personal assistant for doing, you know, lower-level activities. But we always need to think about critically analysing the content that AI generates. Does that look like there's bias in there? Because, Gen AI is trained in databases, and the output that they produce reflects the values that were embedded in the algorithm, and that were already present in the data that they used for training. So we cannot just take everything that comes from Gen AI as gold, we have to critically evaluate, analyse, look at bias, wonder where that information comes from, is there copyright infringement, and all that. Students still need to do their own research. We are learning to draw the line, what is acceptable and what's not. But human creativity, I don't think, can be replicated. That's where we need to put our focus. We need to, emphasise our own human voice. 

Ellie Meissner: So in your assessment, it sounds like you do a lot of activities around really critically engaging with AI as a tool, however, then learning to, not just take everything that comes from it. So what does that mean for your assessments?

Federica Fornaciari: Yeah, you know, I'm in the process of developing newer assignments, so where the assignments are not just the papers, but, go hand in hand with, a critical reflection that the students will do on camera. Having students reflect on their thought process, on how, what they struggled with, how they develop certain arguments, and how they critically engage with the literature. So looking at that critical reflection, is key. I'm looking to develop new assignments that include a Socratic dialogue with your AI. Where I asked them to actually submit the whole conversation that they had. What questions did they ask. The idea is process over product, so I want to look at how they prompt? What do they ask? What level of critical thinking do their questions a show.

Ellie Meissner: And how do your students respond to that? It's because from my own research, a third of them is just as scared as the next one to even engage with AI. And here we are almost forcing it on everyone in our classrooms, right? So, what's your thoughts on that?

Federica Fornaciari: It's a very interesting space and time to be, because I have some students that are incredibly fluent in AI, and they've used it for work, they've been forced to use it since it came out. So they are already skilled, and they know how to engage with it. But also, I have also the skeptical. The laggard. Like the latest groups that embrace it. And they are very curious. Some are very skeptical, but they're very curious about the possibilities of the tool. It's tricky, because as Instructors, as faculty members. I see a lot of my colleagues that are trying to, step away from AI and just forbid it 100% in the classes, right? There's a lot of that. It's that technological sublime, that when a new technology comes about. There's a lot of awe and fear around it. But I believe, especially, you know, as communication specialists, as strategic communication specialists, we are gonna be exposed to having to use it, day in and day out at work, so through their master's, through their undergraduate degree, that's where they can play with it and see what are the possibilities, what are the risks, what are the benefits, and so I think that it's key that we embed it in our training, in our learning system.

Ellie Meissner: It is our responsibility as educators, isn't it? It just puts a lot of pressure on us as well, doesn't it?

Federica Fornaciari: It does, it does. And I don't think anyone has the answer yet of what of what we should be doing. I believe that the bringing back Interaction and synchronous connection, is going to make a difference.

Ellie Meissner: Yes, we're moving forward in the tools, but somehow we want that deep learning, and that engagement.

Federica Fornaciari: It is very, very fascinating how, yeah, newer technology also invites us to go back in time and, you know, not use necessarily writing as a proof of critical thinking, but go back into the Socratic dialogues.

Ellie Meissner: What do you find most exciting about, engaging with AI? Teaching in that space, being really at the forefront of thinking philosophically about the use of it in education? What excites you the most about all of that?

Federica Fornaciari: I think the limitless amount of possibilities that AI brings about. It's almost like the internet on steroid. Like, when we first had access to the internet, we couldn't believe the amount of information that was there, right? Those, tools are, like, superpowers. It's very exciting for someone who already developed their media literacy and their ability to write. Obviously, it's very challenging to help students still be able to develop those skills, while, you know, using taking a shortcut, is obviously so tempting. 

Ellie Meissner:  So, in your personal life, do you use a lot of AI tools?

Federica Fornaciari: I play with AI, but I also try to unplug. I think it's healthy to have unplug time. I've played with, mostly, you know, ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude, those generative AI, the large language models. I've used Midjourney and image generation. I haven't played with much more than that. But I like to try newer tools. I explore them as a researcher. There's a lot of research on the importance of boredom to trigger creativity, and how technology often comes in between us and becoming bored.

Ellie Meissner: 100%. Which is hard in our day and age, isn't it? It really is. Everything at your fingertips, and I can so agree with you of being so grateful for growing up without even a telephone. I really like that point you made around getting students to understand there is a different way, which we naturally had to learn. So if you had a couple of tips, then, for our educators who are listening, and maybe our students who are listening, what would that be,  on how we're moving forward at this point with what we know at this moment?

Federica Fornaciari: Avoid the temptation, like, keep the temptation of using the shortcut as away from us as possible. And still go through the learning process, still do the reading, still, struggle through outlining. Go through the struggle first. The productive struggle that's where the learning happens. Right? We can have a perfectly written paper that we didn't engage in, and we didn't learn anything. Instead of asking for the answer. Ask ChatGPT or whatever tool to ask you questions, about that theory, and see if you know the answers. So, you know, like, It can be a personalised gaming tool that helps us learn the material. We learn through gamification and, like, answering questions, multiple choice questions. So, Gen AI can be our personal tutor.  That's one way to play with the technology.

Ellie Meissner: Yeah, I love it. I will definitely steal both of these things when I chat to my students' productive struggle, I love that. And that's hard, right? Students find it hard, regardless, to sit in any sort of discomfort. Thank you so much, for all your insights. I loved having a chat with you.

Federica Fornaciari: Thanks for having me. Yeah, it was a pleasure.