What these teens learned about the Internet may shock you!
When the AP United States history students at Aragon High School in San Mateo California, scanned the professionally designed pages of www.minimumwage.com, most concluded that it was a solid, unbiased source of facts and analysis. They noted the menu of research reports, graphics and videos, and the “About” page describing the site as a project of a “nonprofit research organization” called the Employment Policies Institute. But then their teacher, Will Colglazier, demonstrated how a couple more exploratory clicks—critically, beyond the site itself—revealed that the Employment Policies Institute is considered by the Center for Media and Democracy to be a front group created by lobbyists for the restaurant and hotel industries.
Taking Notes By Hand May Be Better Than Digitally, Researchers Say
Laptops are common in lecture halls worldwide. Students hear a lecture at the Johann Wolfang Goethe-University on Oct. 13, 2014, in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images Laptops are common in lecture halls worldwide.
Search, fake news and politics - an international study
How are people using search, social media and other forms of media to get information about politics, politicians and political issues? Are we right to be worried about the impact search algorithms have on shaping political opinions or about inaccurate, false and politically biased information that distorts public opinion? A study, conducted jointly by researchers from the Oxford Internet Institute (University of Oxford) and the Quello Center (Michigan State University) questioned 14,000 internet users from France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, the UK and the USA about how they used traditional and online media. Search performance has the potential to support or undermine democratic processes. Does search enable citizens to obtain better information about candidates and political issues or does search bias distort search results?
10 Great Ways that Educators are Using LiveBinders
It is so much fun to go to the LiveBinders site and see all the new ways that educators are using LiveBinders to curate content. Every day that I go to the site I see a new interesting binder, so I thought it would be great to highlight some great examples in this post: ePortfolios – I think Jackie Gerstein created one of the first ePortfolios on LiveBinders and it continues to be one of the best: Computer Lab – Are you always finding more sites that you want to share in the computer lab? If you keep them in a LiveBinder, the students will always have access to your latest finds, like this one created by ‘dboyd’: Administration – Sometimes there is an event at school (like state testing) where the information changes constantly. In this case, it is helpful to have all relevant information in one place, where everybody can access it. Fun – Ok, I know I was going to stop at 10, but who says binders are all work and no play?
After Comet Ping Pong and Pizzagate, teachers tackle fake news
History teacher Chris Dier was in the middle of a lesson last week at Chalmette High School in Chalmette, La., when a student made a befuddling inquiry: “He raised his hand and asked if I knew about Hillary Clinton using pizza places to traffic people.” About a thousand miles away at Wilson High School in Northwest Washington, distressed students in teacher Eden McCauslin’s history and government classes asked why a North Carolina man armed with an assault rifle had appeared at their local pizza shop, Comet Ping Pong, telling police that he wanted to free child sex slaves he believed to be harbored there, a false narrative conspiracy theorists have pushed on the Internet. [Pizzagate: From rumor, to hashtag, to gunfire in D.C.] Hoaxes, fake news and conspiracy theories have abounded on the Web, spreading with increasing speed and intensity during the recent presidential election cycle. As the Comet Ping Pong incident displayed, such false accounts can inspire very real consequences.
Truth and the Modern Classroom
December 19, 2016 Findings from a recent Stanford study show that middle and high school students have great difficulty in effectively evaluating the reliability of online sources. The study revealed that most middle and high school students accept information online as presented without questioning or verifying it. Ignorance of facts is the enemy of liberation and is devastating to our democracy. How can our students realize their full potential if they are ignorant of the society in which they live?
The book that fights sexism with science
When young men and women come up against sexist stereotypes masquerading as science, Angela Saini wants them to be armed with the facts. “I call my book ammunition,” she says of her 288-page prize-winning work Inferior: The True Power of Women and the Science that Shows It. “There are people out there who insist that somehow the inequalities we see in society are not just because of historic discrimination, but also because of biology – the idea that there are factors within us that will cause men or women to be better at some things than others.” She wrote Inferior to demonstrate that “actually, science doesn’t support that point of view. I think it’s important we understand these scientific facts. We need that ammunition to counter the weird mistruths that are circulating within and outside science about sex difference”.
‘Who shared it?’ How Americans decide what news to trust on social media
Published 03/20/17 8:00 am This research was conducted by the Media Insight Project — an initiative of the American Press Institute and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research Introduction When Americans encounter news on social media, how much they trust the content is determined less by who creates the news than by who shares it, according to a new experimental study from the Media Insight Project, a collaboration between the American Press Institute and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Scholastic News: Constitution Day
America Celebrates Constitution Day Schools and federal agencies take time out to learn about the U.S. Constitution and our freedoms. By Tiffany Chaparro Friday, September 16—This year, Constitution Day will not go unnoticed.
