At the beginning of this school year, I gave a speech to a group of parents, seeking to provide information while exhorting them to be at their best for their children.

At the last minute, I added a quotation from Sir Winston Churchill to my talk. The next day, I received an email from a fellow teacher who is educated, analytical, and ethical to his core. He had a question: Did I know that the quote I had used might be one of the many sayings inaccurately attributed to Churchill? Sheepishly, I responded that I might have gotten ahead of myself and made a mistake.

I added that he just might have a terrific lesson for his students: Someone in authority made a mistake that could have been easily avoided. My colleague cautioned me to slow down because he had found his information through AI, and we all know that AI is far from a flawless source of the truth.

Shortly thereafter, I read a headline about Meta agreeing to pay $18 billion to settle claims by several states about its causing harm to American children through the manipulation of social media and causing addiction of such among young people. I wondered if the judgment against Meta will serve as a wake-up call. Experience tells me not to hold my breath.

Since modern technologies were adopted widely in schools in the late 1980s, I have heard people extol the virtue of all forms of media while espousing a view that moving forward........

© Arkansas Online