Help Your Students to Detect Misinformation

Help Your Students to Detect Misinformation In the digital era, information is easily accessible but not necessarily accurate. Misinformation spreads like a virus through social media, online forums and even traditional media outlets. Brennan, Simon, Howard and Nielsen (2020) from Reuters Institute of the University of Oxford report that investigated 225 pieces of misinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic published between January and March 2020. They have found that In 59% of them true information was spun, twisted, recontextualized, or reworked. This cunning approach makes detecting falsehood harder and require elaborate fact-checking skills from every individual. Therefore, promoting these skills is an important responsibility of educators, while they raise the independent individuals and scholars of the future. The Goals -Raise your students to be independent researchers -Show your students that there can be more to the truth than meets the eye -Urge your students to use multiple sources and triangulate their data -Make referencing a part of the classroom culture What You Can Do -Bring current fact checking incidences in the classroom. -Teach the signs of fabricated information. -Discuss the possible reasons behind negligent or conscious spreading of misinformation. -Conduct fact checking hackathons in which student try to check accuracy of information in teams. -Present counter arguments and alternative explanations of natural phenomena to show sometimes more data is needed. -Make accuracy of information an evaluation criterion for homework and actively factcheck students’ work. -Urge students to cite their resources and coherently use a referencing system of your choosing. References 1. Brennan, J.S., Simon, F., Howard, P.N., and Nielsen, R.K. (2020, April 7). Types, sources, and claims of COVID-19 misinformation. https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/types-sources-and-claims-covid-19-misinformation