Please listen to the following 20 min recording by clicking on the picture below. This talk is about hate speech and misinformation across social media and the importance of digital literacy. The questions are below in the comments. Please join in when you can.
1. What is your definition of digital literacy? It is just the technical skills or is it more and if so what is it to you?
That it isn't just about technical ability, it's also about navigating misinformation and digging deeper for truth
@Alison Edwards I agree - while technical ability is necessary, an ability to think critically about information is also essential.
@Alison Edwards I think that's a great way of putting it - 'navigating' is a really good word for it, as it's about your approach and mindset, not just the skills you have.
2. According to this presentation, the technical skills of digital literacy are not enough to address the problems of fake news, fight against terror and misinformation. Were you surprised to hear this?
Not at all. The presenter asked what do we tell students regarding what is good and what is bad?
No - I think a lot of people might have at least some of the technical skills necessary, but it's also about how you approach fake news etc. I think it requires engaging critically with the material, and working out when to apply those technical skills, which means actively thinking about them more than a lot of us perhaps do normally. How do we approach teaching that?
@Elle Codling Great question Elle! I feel that teaching this is more about context than just the skills itself. We have to engage with our students in a way that makes them want to apply these skills. How often do we, as adults, talk about these skills being so boring to teach? If we think this way we are on a hiding to nothing as no student is going to want to apply them. If however we choose to be excited about what these skills can bring for our students then attitudes can change. The best way I have found so far is through Inquiry and especially FOSIL. If you are interested and want to know more check out The Fosil Group website.
3. Many people live in a social media bubble where they can be encouraged to share the populist view or become passive receivers. How can we encourage our students to get a wider view of the world and burst this bubble?
By teaching students to check and cross reference sources. I was surprised at some of the sources which were left or right leaning, which I would have thought to be reliable.
@Alison Edwards I agree cross referencing is so important. I am glad that this talk helped you learn that even resources that we class as reliable do have a slant and a biased. As long as we are aware of this it does still make them reliable but it does make the cross referencing even more important.
We all need to be aware that no source is entirely without bias. Some are more reliable than others, but even these need to be examined critically. I think encouraging students to examine and be aware of their own biases is also important. We all bring our own point of view to our interpretation of the information we find.
4. If social media is all about engagement over quality and allows trolls to exploit and spread hate, is there anything we can do within our roles to combat that?
Most students, in my experience, have no wish to spread hate. We need to warn them against passive sharing, perhaps by illustrating who may be getting hurt by this, and making it more personal to them.
@Alison Edwards I agree that when we talk to students they are adamant that they would not intentionally share or spread hate. However, you hit the nail on the head, passive sharing is a large part of the problem and I am sure that many of us as adults have been duped into sharing something without reading it properly. Sharing is so quick but reading and digesting takes time. It is about helping them understand that taking time can not only help them share good content but will reflect better on them in the long term. The positive impact this could have would be immense.
@Alison Edwards I like the idea of illustrating who may get hurt by something - it's sometimes hard to show why sharing things can be hard, so as you say, making it personal can really get the point across more than a generic discussion would.
5. Teaching our students to think critically plays a huge part in combatting hate speech and misinformation. Can you see a way to do this or are you already doing something you can share?
During Y7 Internet Search Skills lessons, we have touched on misinformation and how we can link this back to the truth. I have used really simple illustrations they are already familiar with, such as things that might have happened at school. They seem to understand these examples.
This has been a really thought-provoking session, which will change how I teach as we need to be ensuring students go deeper and learn to fact check.
Thanks for joining in @Alison Edwards and I am glad it was a positive experience. Please check out the reading for May and June found here https://www.elizabethahutchinson.com/schoollibrariescpd
Thanks for this session and for highlighting this interesting piece of research, Elizabeth!
Thanks Elizabeth - a great video that makes some really interesting points about digital literacy and everything that involves!
Thanks for joining in this time @Elle Codling I am glad you found it useful and hope you will join in again when you have time! Take a look at what is on offer over the next couple of months https://www.elizabethahutchinson.com/schoollibrariescpd