What: Today’s internet crazed culture is inundated with news. How do we know what is true and what is not? More importantly, how do we teach our students to sort through the fake news so they can make fully knowledgeable decisions? My suggestions below stem from an article by Nieman Labs (source) that can be adapted into the classroom.
Flagged false: The article suggests that tagging fake news on social media with “rated false” made people less likely to accept the information as true. In the classroom, students can work in groups to research content within an article and determine as a group if the information is true or false.
Intake more content: The article states findings that suggest the more tweets people choose to read, the greater intent to read more news in the future. They also found that the more tweets people read allowed their assessments of news stories and journalists to become more credible. In the classroom, we need to instruct students on how and where to find information. Students need to be taught how to look at information and decide for themselves if it is factual or not. The more students are exposed to content about a topic the more likely they will be able to create a knowledgeable opinion.
Lazy thinking: The article discovered that fake news is driven by lazy thinking. In the classroom, we need to teach research grit in order for students to spend time looking through reputable sources instead of choosing the first option that appears on Google and believing it as true.
Conclusion: Basically, the amount of fake news in our culture is large but students can be taught how to decipher what is fake from what is true by looking for content already flagged as false and by not taking the lazy route and looking at numerous options detailing the topic in question. If you are interested in this topic, the book News Literacy: the keys to combating fake news is an excellent read.
Next Steps
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References:
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TLDR (too long didn’t read):
Today’s internet crazed culture is inundated with news. How do we know what is true and what is not? More importantly, how do we teach our students to sort through the fake news so they can make fully knowledgeable decisions? My suggestions below stem from an article by Nieman Labs (source) that can be adapted into the classroom.
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