Media Literacy Against Fake News- ISTE Student Standard 3

This week we take a look at ISTE Student Standard 3

Students today have more information coming at them than ever before. Due to various social media platforms, traditional news programs, news sites, and newspapers both physical and online, everyone needs to be increasingly discerning about where they get their information and what they believe. There is also a disturbing trend of "fake news." While some people use the term to describe stories they disagree with, there are others who deliberately distort the truth to spread false information. With all of this in mind, I decided to focus my research for this week on media literacy. I have done some research in the past, but I wanted to compile a list of curriculum available to teach my students how to be critical consumers of the information around them.

I began by watching a video from Education Week that outlines steps being taken right here in Washington state to teach media literacy. The video brings up a great point that "just because kids are comfortable with social media doesn't mean they're savvy about what they're using." It also gives some recommendations about teaching resources. Below I will expand on some of those resources and add some others.

In the video, they reference an excellent and interesting study by the Stanford History Education Group, which provides awesome teaching resources for history lessons, particularly document-based ones. You can read the study here, or listen to a story from NPR at the bottom of the page. To summarize, students today are not great at discerning fake news, and educators should do something about it. I greatly recommend the resources from SHEG if you are a history teacher looking for quality lessons using primary sources. You can also see examples of the activities they used to conduct the study in the summary. I used some of them with my junior students last year, and it was indeed depressing to see where the gaps in their knowledge were. In particular, they are unfamiliar with the idea of checking to see who is providing the information. So, I hope by using some other resources I can help them become more discerning.

The video from Education Week also references the group Common Sense Media. According to their website,

Common Sense is the leading independent nonprofit organization dedicated to helping kids thrive in a world of media and technology. We empower parents, teachers, and policymakers by providing unbiased information, trusted advice, and innovative tools to help them harness the power of media and technology as a positive force in all kids’ lives.

They have various series on different digital skills, but I am most interested in their unit on Digital Citizenship. There are leveled games and activities, as well as guides for teachers to facilitate the lessons. They also offer professional development opportunities for educators and the opportunity to connect with other teachers through social media platforms.

The last resource I would like to share is called Checkology and it is created by the News Literacy Project. Similar to the other sources, it acknowledges that students today have a lot more information coming at them, and it provides a platform for the students to learn how to evaluate that information. It has an interactive classroom discussion wall, incentives in the form of badges, and it includes a variety of activities, not just videos and questions. For the 2017-2018 school year, the premium version, where you can create classrooms and monitor student progress, is free! I like that it is directed at teens, and from the videos and activities I have done it is engaging and in teen-friendly language. I look forward to testing this resource and others in my classroom this year.


 (Links to an external site.)Links to an exterand it is created by the News Literacy Project (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. It acknowledges that students today have a lot more information coming at them, and it provides a platform for the students to learn how to evaluate that information. I haven't gotten very far into the modules, but it has an interactive classroom discussion wall, incentives in the form of badges, and includes a variety of activities, not just videos and questions.