The Fight Against Fake News

ISTE Standard 3: Research and Information Fluency

ISTE Standard 3, Research and Information Fluency, involves students using digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information. When reading through this Standard I saw the criteria for students needing to “research strategies to locate information”, “evaluate the accuracy, perspective, credibility and relevance of information, media,”,“curate information from digital resources” (ISTE, 2017) and was immediately reminded of the numerous lesson plans and articles I have recently seen on helping students determine real news from fake news. This led to my personal trigger question “What tools are available to help students determine real news from fake news?”  Social media and the growing epidemic of fake news articles have created the need for students to be able to differentiate real news from fake news and determine viable information and sources.  It is not always an easy task. In response teachers are now seeing the need to create curriculum to address this issue.

One article, The Classroom Where Fake News Fails, illustrated why this skill is necessary relating that a recent study had shown American middle school, high school, and college students were bad at it.The article discussed a pilot blended learning program called the checkology virtual classroom as a new tool and teaching strategy to help students practice determining real from fake news. The article offered commentary by both the teacher and students as to the benefits of this program. Commentary from a student stated that, “We don't know which is which at this point," ... "We actually have to sit down, take our time, and actually read it.” (Turner, 2016). Overall, an important theme from this article was that teens get their news largely from the social media. “Some true. Some false.” Therefore, it is necessary to teach students methods and strategies of fact-checking. This program offered an engaging digital means of doing this. Since being able to evaluate credible sources is a cross-subject need, I agree with a fellow classmate's view that this program sounds like a great idea in any classroom. The blended learning platform of this program reiterated how “The move toward blended learning also has changed students' perception of computing devices. "Before, they saw them as something for word processing or web surfing at home," ... "Now, they see them as learning tools." (Wong, 2014).  

In my search, I found that there is not a conveniently packaged list or set method for students to follow to distinguish real news from fake news. There are, however, many lesson plans, websites, and strategies a teacher can share/teach to help students in this endeavor. Strategies, such as the C.R.A.P. Test, or  Google Reverse Image Search,  when combined with the blended learning platform, I think will provide students a great set of tools to work from.

References

Checkology™ Virtual Classroom. (n.d.). Retrieved February 11, 2017, from http://www.thenewsliteracyproject.org/services/checkology

Evaluating Sources - Use the C.R.A.P. Test! (n.d.). Retrieved February 11, 2017, from https://libraries.mercer.edu/research-tools-help/citation-tools-help/evaluating-sources

Google Reverse Image Search for Mobile. (n.d.). Retrieved February 11, 2017, from https://ctrlq.org/google/images/

ISTE Standards for Students. (n.d.). Retrieved February 11, 2017, from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/standards-for-students

Turner, C. (2016, December 22). The Classroom Where Fake News Fails. Retrieved February 05, 2017, from http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/12/22/505432340/the-classroom-where-fake-news-fails (Links to an external site.)

Wong, W. (2014). How Technology Enables Blended Learning. Retrieved February 5, 2017, from http://www.edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2014/04/how-technology-enables-blended-learning

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(n.d.). Retrieved February 11, 2017, from http://www.easybib.com/guides/evaluating-fake-news-resources/