How to beat fake news?

To me, seeing of something is a scam or fake news is just natural. I’ve never really been “taught” about fake news, but rather just grown up in an era of social media where this kind of thing is just common sense. However, I do see the importance of teaching fake news and scams to students. I think it would be best taught in its own course, however it can be implemented well into the Health or Social Studies curriculum. Unfortunately, it is something that will probably need to be taught each year, as technology and scammers evolve. By the time students graduate, they should be fluent in how to find true academic sources and how to beat fake news.

I like this Fake News Article because it includes diagrams as well as the explanation behind the diagrams. The author gives multiple examples of why fake news is spreading and how it can get so easily spread. The main reason is that people share without checking. As people, we are more inclined to believe something that aligns with our views (I do it all the time without realizing it).

A second resource I would use with my students would be a video. Lets be honest, are students really going to pay attention when reading some article? In this digital era, we all want to watch videos instead of reading. I like this video because it aligns closely with the article I chose to share. And this video uses a very real example, the Covid vaccine.

And lastly, I would test what my students learned with a quiz. This Break the Fake Quiz is very in depth, I got half the answers wrong! One key element I noticed is that most of the posts were fake, although some of them looked very real. Plus, fun online quizzes are always a great way to get students excited about what they are learning.

As a student myself, it is very important that I know how to find credible, academic sources (which can be very difficult). There are way more non academic sources (that are easier to read) than there are academic sources (which can be wordy and difficult to read). It can be hard to know what to believe in this world making it so important that we do our research before sharing it or referencing it in our work.

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