Celebrating 9 years of Lyfta with a powerful new course
This month, Lyfta turneds 9 years old!
Throughout the last few years, we've thought deeply about how we can best equip children and young people to navigate the complexities of the online world and social media - exploring topics like AI, media literacy, misinformation, and critical thinking.
There’s understandably a lot of discussion about these issues right now, and this has become the main focus of our work at Lyfta. We've carefully developed a structured and coherent learning journey that aims to honour the complexities and nuances of these themes, while delivering it all in a way that is accessible, compelling, and empowering for young learners.
Here are 9 ways critical digital and media literacy transforms learning, and how our course reimagines digital literacy for today’s classrooms:
1. Real stories, real people
At the heart of the course is a human-connection method as a pedagogical foundation, which fosters empathy, relational thinking, and resilience through real-world human narratives and immersive 360° storytelling.
Students don’t just learn about media, they meet and connect with the people, building connection, curiosity, empathy, and real-world contextual understanding. From an AI engineer in the US developing facial recognition tools, to a fashion designer in Kenya using social media, students explore how digital technologies shape and are shaped by lives in vastly different ways.
2. Meta-relational thinking tools
Students need to explore how digital media and content are shaping relationships between people, systems and the wider society. Our meta-relational approach invites learners to ask deeper questions about power, perspective, and production of content in the digital world.
This course empowers students to move beyond passive media consumption toward critical, thoughtful, relational, and responsible digital engagement.
3. Lessons designed for co-inquiry
Rather than just delivering information, lessons should be an invitation to think critically together. Teachers and students can embark on a shared inquiry, examining dilemmas, reflecting on assumptions, and building understanding collaboratively.
4. A flexible teacher toolkit
We know every classroom is different. That’s why educators need flexibility. This course includes multimedia content, optional journaling activities, vocabulary guidance, and a mix of discussion, reflection, and analysis opportunities.
5. Ethics, AI, and digital dilemmas
From AI-generated content to deepfakes and echo chambers, students confront the real ethical challenges of today’s digital world. Our resources help teachers facilitate nuanced conversations about truth, trust, and responsibility online.
6. Immersive, visual learning
Visually rich, immersive resources help learners stay engaged and connected and make abstract digital concepts tangible and memorable, sparking curiosity and critical thinking. This is the aim of all of Lyfta’s resources, across a wide range of topics and themes.
7. Space to reflect and respond is key
Students need regular opportunities to pause, reflect and record their thoughts. These moments, built in a structured way, encourage learners to examine their own digital habits, perspectives, and evolving ideas, and build deeper self-awareness.
8. Voice, agency, and perspective
Rather than simply analysing media, students need to examine who gets to speak, whose voices are amplified or silenced, and how they themselves can contribute meaningfully to digital conversations. It’s about agency, not just analysis.
9. Designed for now, but future-focused
We’ve built this course with the present in mind, but with an eye toward the future. As technology evolves, students will need fundamental skills for life, the ability to question, reflect, adapt, and connect across differences. That’s what this course is all about.
A birthday gift to schools
As we celebrate 9 years of connecting students with people, places and perspectives from around the world, we’re proud to share this new and unique opportunity to explore Lyfta. The course reflects everything we believe in: curiosity, compassion, critical thinking, and the power of human stories.
This 12-lesson Critical Digital and Media Literacy course and CPD package offers separate age-appropriate tracks for primary and secondary. The learning experiences are brought vividly to life through 10 stunning Lyfta storyworlds, leveraging powerful and authentic storytelling to increase the impact of the learning.
Here’s to our next chapter and to equipping young people to thrive in theirs.
Find out more about Lyfta’s Critical Digital and Media Literacy Course here: impact.lyfta.com/cdml
