When reflecting on digital literacy and considering how I plan to implement it in my classroom, the most clear way for me to do this is through social studies. One of the key struggles in our current time is being able to distinguish real from fake news. Social studies is the clearest platform in which we look at current events and would be regularly using news as a source of information for students. I believe this would be an important avenue to teach students proper digital literacy and critical thinking so they can develop the habits that allow them to be able to dissect the information they are receiving. Additionally, English provides another clear opportunity to focus on overall literacy, which can and should incorporate a digital component. Thankfully, there are a variety of resources online that can support me in teaching students these necessary skills.
Beyond Fake News
One of the most important first steps in teaching students about digital literacy, critical thinking, and overcoming fake news is identifying the ways that information is being developed to be misleading. The graphic above, developed by the European Association for Viewer Interests, provides concrete ways that organizations present misleading news. It is important for students, and teachers, to be able to understand the different types of misinformation so that they can better identify when it is occurring. By teaching students about these 10 different types, while also providing examples of each, it will allow them to see what this looks like in action. One of the most important pieces in education is turning concepts or theories into concrete examples so it would be necessary to use specific examples online to exemplify what each of these types represents.
How to Choose Your News
The video above presents a simplistic understanding of how the shift in the news industry has occurred and some steps that students can take to choose appropriate sources. The video above discusses the growth of alternative media sources such as blogs or social media which have turned everyone into a potential reporter. The narrator then discusses the importance for individuals to find the original news, the actual material that was presented, rather than an opinion piece or analysis which allows a person to judge for themselves. The narrator also talks about overcoming media bias by checking multiple outlets and sources to distinguish what is true and what is opinion to allow individuals to put the pieces together themselves. These are important tips and tricks for students, as it is easy to listen to analysis or opinion pieces and view them as fact. The most important thing to teach our students is this critical thinking piece about what is fact and what is opinion and the importance of verifying news before spreading it to others. Although this video is short, it presents valuable information that students can take to choose appropriate news sources and it builds on the previous resources in developing students into critical thinkers.
Lesson Planning - Fighting Fake News
The lesson plan below provides a great foundational point to start from when teaching about digital literacy for students and is the final resource that I found to be valuable when attempting to teach this topic. From reviewing the lesson plan, I believe it would be a great start in having students reflect on their confidence in distinguishing fake news from real news, while giving them some practice at applying what they are learning. Ultimately, if we want students to learn how to be good digital citizens, we need to teach lessons that explicitly attempt to achieve this outcome. Although at this time there does not appear to be any explicit outcomes in the Saskatchewan curriculum related to digital citizenship, this would be an important next step to ensure that students have an opportunity to take their learnings and show that they understand, know, and can apply them to distinguish fake news from real news.
All of the resources above are directly connected to these key elements for literacy in a digital age as developed by the National Council of Teachers of English (https://ncte.org/statement/nctes-definition-literacy-digital-age/).
Participate effectively and critically in a networked world
Explore and engage critically, thoughtfully, and across a wide variety of inclusive texts and tools/modalities
Consume, curate, and create actively across contexts
Promote culturally sustaining communication and recognize the bias and privilege present in the interactions
These elements focus on the fundamental skills that students should be able to have in our new age of digital literacy. The resources listed above provide the foundation for students to learn how to be digitally literate, while using their critical thinking skills to formulate habits and tools to be able to filter through the inordinate amount of information they are receiving to determine what is real and what is fake.