This curriculum for educators in formal and informal education environments provides step-by-step guidance and interactive exercises for helping learners of all ages recognize why and how manipulative content works and gain skills to reject half-truths, clickbait, hate speech, and fakes. Topics include: The information and media space and its features: Navigating different types of platforms and content, distinguishing between facts and opinions, recognizing professional journalism, and more. Misinformation and manipulation: Why everyone is vulnerable, and how to recognize and overcome biased information. Fighting misinformation: Practical skills and tools for recognizing and rejecting manipulation, assessing credibility, and selecting objective content.
Type of Material:
Online Course
Recommended Uses:
This content could be assigned to students, work teams or other online learning groups to help build media literacy skills.
The manual provides guidance on content to share based on time frames: from 1 hour to 3 days. The trainings are meant to be conducted face-to-face.
Technical Requirements:
This online course works on standard browsers
Identify Major Learning Goals:
Navigate different types of platforms and content, distinguishing between facts and opinions, recognizing professional journalism, and more.
Recognize and overcome biased information.
Use practical skills and tools for recognizing and rejecting manipulation, assessing credibility, and selecting objective content.
Target Student Population:
College General Ed, Professional, communication studies and librarian/information science majors
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:
basic ICT skills
Content Quality
Rating:
Strengths:
The manual is geared to trainers, and was created by IREX: an international development and education organization. The material is thorough, current and tightly structured, although it can be used in various disciplines and settings. Content is attributed appropriately.
Concerns:
The manual refers to PowerPoints and videos, which must be requested from IREX, which also does for-fee training. While these multimedia materials enrich the instruction, they are not technically required.
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
Rating:
Strengths:
Learn to Discern starts with building awareness of how the information space interplay with, and impact, human cognitive biases and emotional needs. It hones critical-thinking skills and abilities to identify and verify credible information. It concludes with building healthier information engagement habits, increasing demand for credible information, and strengthening participants’ commitment to sharing information responsibly. These objectives reflect core IT literacy standards. The manual does a good job of identifying existing knowledge and bulding on it. The units progressively teach knowledge and skills experientially. While learning might not occur quickly, it fosters deeper understanding so is effective. Materials are meant to inform daily life.
Concerns:
The examples could have been more diverse, in terms of offering more ways to achieve goals, but the content otherwise was helpful and engaging.
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
Rating:
Strengths:
The manual is very thoroughly scripted, with tips for instructors throughout. As a .pdf file, it requires little technical skill. The lessons themselves are highly interactive. The text itself is largely ADA-compliant, but the images are not fully accessible.
Concerns:
The manual refers to videos and PowerPoints, which have to be requested separately from IREX.
Creative Commons:
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