Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers Is Out | Hapgood Back before the election I was working on a book on the problems of living in “the stream” — this endless flow of stuff we read, retweet, and react to. My argument in that still unfinished work was that while the stream is useful and exciting it also warps our sense of reality in unhelpful ways. Forced to decide within seconds to retweet an inflammatory tweet or share a headline on Facebook we tend to make bad decisions that pollute the information environment and reduce the depth and complexity of our thought. The 2016 primary elections in the U.S. were going to be Exhibit A of this trend, with a nod toward the acceleration of these trends in the 2016 general election. It was going to be a condemnation of the attention economy we’ve developed and its whole rotten ad-driven substrate, followed by a plea to return to some older visions of the web. After the general election I felt both vindicated and weirdly distant. So I wrote this book: Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers. Like this:
Fake news. It's complicated. - First Draft News This article is available also in Deutsch, Español, Français and العربية By now we’ve all agreed the term “fake news” is unhelpful, but without an alternative, we’re left awkwardly using air quotes whenever we utter the phrase. The reason we’re struggling with a replacement is because this is about more than news, it’s about the entire information ecosystem. To understand the current information ecosystem, we need to break down three elements: The different types of content that are being created and sharedThe motivations of those who create this contentThe ways this content is being disseminated This matters. This is far more worrying than fake news sites created by profit driven Macedonian teenagers. The Different Types of Mis and Disinformation Back in November, I wrote about the different types of problematic information I saw circulate during the US election. Why is this type of content being created? Dissemination Mechanisms What can we do? We all play a crucial part in this ecosystem.
Harvard Students Launch a Free Course on How to Resist Trump NOTE: As of July 22, we updated this post to include the videos from the class sessions. Watch the playlist of lectures above. I have my doubts about whether we should call regular acts of civic duty “resistance,” rather than Constitutionally-protected democratic freedoms. Yesterday we remembered Martin Luther King, Jr. on the 49th anniversary of his assassination (and the 50th anniversary of his speech opposing the Vietnam War). As King and countless other civil rights and anti-war campaigners have demonstrated---some at the cost of their lives---civil disobedience is very often required and morally justified when legal appeals for justice fail. But for better or worse, “The Resistance” has become a catch-all media term for a loose and very often fractious collection of mainstream Democrats, progressives, and radicals of all stripes, whose tactics range from polite phone lobbying to brawling with white supremacists in the streets. Related Content:
factitious [infographic] Fake news or real news? 10 tips to getting the facts for yourself - Stone Soup Creative I read a good article today on NPR’s All Tech Considered, Fake Or Real? How To Self-Check The News And Get The Facts. Except I figure people who aren’t schooled in figuring out the difference aren’t likely to be reading an NPR article. So I quickly put together this infographic based on the article and a link provided to a google doc, False, Misleading, Clickbait-y, and/or Satirical “News” Sources, prepared by Melissa Zimdars, an assistant professor of communication and media at Merrimack College. Is it helpful? Lexicon of Lies: Terms for Problematic Information | Data & Society Propaganda, disinformation, misinformation: The words we choose to describe media manipulation can lead to assumptions about how information spreads, who spreads it, and who receives it. These assumptions can shape what kinds of interventions or solutions seem desirable, appropriate, or even possible. This guide is intended to inform commentators, educators, policymakers, and others who seek appropriate words for describing the accuracy and relevance of media content. Media historian and theorist Caroline Jack traces the specific origins and applications of several forms of problematic information, unpacking lazy usage habits and uncovering buried cultural origins. Lexicon of Lies attempts to provide nuance to current debates around truth and trust in the public sphere. The lexicon is the second in a series of outputs from the Data & Society initiative on Media Manipulation. For Educators
How to sharpen students' critical thinking skills online | eSchool News Helping students understand these dangers and identify the warning signs can make them smarter, more informed consumers of information. Here are three strategies that can help them hone their online critical thinking and evaluation skills: Cross-reference information. Go to a number of sites and cross-check information. A good, informative website should make an effort to acknowledge that there are different points of view on every possible subject. Students should be taught how to report online material that is hateful or malicious. Students also should be wary of flattery: someone who tells them very quickly how great they are online is just as suspicious as someone who does this in person. Engaging in dialogue with others who come from different backgrounds and have different beliefs helps reinforce these critical thinking skills and supports a culture of online civility.
How to spot a misleading graph - Lea Gaslowitz Now that you have watched the video, take what you have learned and analyze the graphs below. (At the end of this section are some possible solutions) 1a. Explain at least three problems with this graph.1b. In what year was the amount of waste trashed closest to the amount recycled? 2a. 3. 26.4a. b. All graphs should be looked at carefully and not just taken at face value. To learn more about other types of misleading graphs check out Misleading Graphs at FrontPorchMath.com. Possible solutions for the questions above: 1a. 1b. 2a. 2b. 3a. 3b. Sources:1. 2. 3.
Calling Bullshit. Turning Your Students Into Web Detectives Our students use the web every day—shouldn’t we expect them to do better at interpreting what they read there? Perhaps, but not necessarily. Often, stereotypes about kids and technology can get in the way of what’s at stake in today’s complex media landscape. Sure, our students probably joined Snapchat faster than we could say “Face Swap,” but that doesn’t mean they’re any better at interpreting what they see in the news and online. As teachers, we’ve probably seen students use questionable sources in our classrooms, and a recent study from the Stanford History Education Group confirms that students today are generally pretty bad at evaluating the news and other information they see online. In a lot of ways, the web is a fountain of misinformation. Here’s a list of fact-checking resources you and your students can use in becoming better web detectives. FactCheck.org Download a student-friendly version here. PolitiFact Snopes OpenSecrets.org Internet Archive Wayback Machine