Technology’s advancements over the past half-century have been incredible and revolutionary in how we can connect to information. However, with that advancement has come a problem, a problem that seems to be more relevant today than ever before: the problem of fake news and inaccurate sources. This is especially hard for educators to deal with in the academic community because of all the vital technology within a young person’s life; students (and adults) need to know the value of Digital Literacy. This article by Usable Knowledge gives excellent advice on a few tips that can turn the average person into a fact-checker.
- Read Laterally, Not Vertically
- Don’t Fall for Appearances
- Practice “Click Restraint”
Those three simple tips are great tools that we should be teaching our students not only to allow them to learn the content of our lessons but also to become well-rounded citizens in this social media age.
~Andrew Westmoreland (Nov. 2022)
I 100% agree that to be able to teach our students about social media correctly, these steps are vital. I think the most important rule is to read laterally, not vertically, essentially telling them not to skim. I think this is where most students get lost and need to most guidance.
It is extremely important to teach students effective ways to use digital sources to inform their knowledge of history. Using the three strategies you listed will not only help students evaluate the credibility of sources explored in the classroom, but will also make them aware of issues that might exist within news articles or social media posts, something prevalent in their everyday lives. Is there a strategy you think is more beneficial? It seems like the articles stressed the importance of reading laterally rather than vertically quite a bit. By doing so, students avoid diving too deep into the content of the site, and thus avoid promiscuous clicking, and can focus on the integrity of the sources they are looking at.
Not falling for appearances is a strategy we can teach our students. More often than not, we can tell what direction an article is leaning by the headline and the accompanying picture. Pictures are attention grabbers, hence the importance of it on our websites. If a picture shows a politician smiling and the headline reads, “They Steal Money From Us”, then the reader would get angry at the person so happy with their stolen money.