I’ve converted the curriculum for the second week of this info literacy learning community covering web literacy into this newsletter. This post is divided into three sections that you can review and study at your leisure this week.
Background
Web literacy is often the most valuable skill when recognizing fake news. Since most of fake news is easily propagated across the internet, being web savvy is the best way to identify misinformation to guard ourselves versus influence.
Since web literacy encompasses a wide range of knowledge, we’ll distill some practical strategies we can follow when diagnosing information. The tactics we’ll study come from Mike Caulfield from his Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers book. So let’s dive right into his four web literacy moves.
Explore
First, this video is a great introduction to this topic. Second, pages 2 – 30 of the Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers book cover most of the content we’re studying this week. In particular, review these parts of that excerpt:
- Investigate previous work by constructing search queries with duckduckgo.com using the “[search query] site:snopes.com (etc.)” syntax. Here’s the guide for this.
- Go upstream with articles. This involves being able to identify sponsored content, track down original viral images, and explore upcoming tools to identify clickbait like baitbuster.
- Read laterally to verify sites and sources before devoting the time energy to reading them. A great strategy here is constructing omitted search queries with google.com using the “baltimoregazette.com -site:baltimoregazette.com” syntax. Here’s the guide for this—it will allow you to research what other sources say about a specific website.
- Circle back to the original source if you ever get lost or hit a dead end
The goal of this research is to do it quickly and accurately so we can get into a habit of being critical of information we receive. As you feel compelled, here are a few more topics that make up the complexities of fake news. Explore as your interests inspire you:
Web Fact-Checking Tools
- Video: Check a Source with Google News by Mike Caulfield
- Video: Checking Existence of Traditional News Sources by Mike Caulfield
- Video: Verifying Breaking News by Mike Caulfield
- Video: Verifying Images with Google Image Search by Mike Caulfield
- Reading: It Can Take As Little As Thirty Seconds, Seriously by Mike Caulfield
For the Classroom
- Curriculum: Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers by Mike Caulfield
- Curriculum: Digital Polarization Initiative from AASCU’s American Democracy Project
- Reading: Verification Handbook edited by Craig Silverman
Propaganda
- Reading: White Supremacist Propaganda Surges on Campus from Anti-Defamation League
- Curriculum: Mind Over Media: Analyzing Contemporary Propaganda from Renee Hobbs & the United States Holocaust Museum
Digital & Media Literacy
- Curriculum: Media and Information Literacy: Curriculum for Teachers from United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
- Curriculum: Digital Education Leadership Training in Action from Commonwealth of Learning’s OAsis
- Curriculum: Exploring Digital Literacies Activity by Maha Bali
- Curriculum: Educator Resources from Center for Media Literacy
- Podcast: Yes, Digital Literacy, But Which One Episode – Teaching in Higher Ed Podcast featuring Mike Caulfield and Bonni Stachowiak
Reflection
Lastly, you’re invited to reflect this week on questions such as:
- From the content you studied this week, what should we be teaching our students about web literacy?
- What’s a small change you can make in your course for the benefit of your students
If you’d like for your reflections to contribute towards a “collection of recommendations” composed of all the reflections of participants in this training, you can submit your thoughts to this form.
The featured image is provided CC0 by Nicolas Picard via Unsplash.