Slashdot Mirror
Efforts Grow To Help Students Evaluate What They See Online (apnews.com)
Alarmed by the proliferation of false content online, state lawmakers around the country are pushing schools to put more emphasis on teaching students how to tell fact from fiction. From a report: Lawmakers in several states have introduced or passed bills calling on public school systems to do more to teach media literacy skills that they say are critical to democracy. The effort has been bipartisan but has received little attention despite successful legislation in Washington state, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Mexico. Several more states are expected to consider such bills in the coming year, including Arizona, New York and Hawaii.
Advocates say the K-12 curriculum has not kept pace with rapid changes in technology. Studies show many children spend hours every day online but struggle to comprehend the content that comes at them. For years, they have pushed schools to incorporate media literacy -- including the ability to evaluate and analyze sources of information -- into lesson plans in civics, language arts, science and other subjects.
Advocates say the K-12 curriculum has not kept pace with rapid changes in technology. Studies show many children spend hours every day online but struggle to comprehend the content that comes at them. For years, they have pushed schools to incorporate media literacy -- including the ability to evaluate and analyze sources of information -- into lesson plans in civics, language arts, science and other subjects.
Anonymous sources aren't always a reason to distrust a story. The Watergate story was broken using anonymous sources and that's just one example of a high-profile story that was anonymously sourced. It is good to treat anonymously-sourced stories with some skepticism, though. FiveThirtyEight had a great article over the summer that gave some tips on when to trust an anonymously-sourced article and when to be more skeptical.
Most parents do not have those skills themselves.
A fair amount of them are parents because they believed in abstinence, the rhythm method, or a supernatural being who allegedly hates prophylactics.
By all means, parents helping their children is a great thing, and one that should be the norm. But it's not something that should be counted on, nor the quality of it believed to make a positive difference.
https://www.amazon.com/Mathema...
I gave this book to a young friend when he first left for college. It's a good read and a good teaching aid for critical thinking, especially when it comes to the media. Since it's math-based it's easier to see how "facts" can be presented in a way that distort the "truth".
Another book I've said would be a great one for high school seniors would be "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter". I found it an enjoyable book that weaved fact and fiction. For students, it might be easy to separate some the extremes as fact ( Lincoln becomes president ) from fiction ( vampires living for centuries ) but there's a lots of other parts that would take knowledge or research. The book was not intended to deceive, so it could be an enjoyable project for students to analyze. It would also be less political than using a news story to learn to separate the wheat from the chaff.
The true version is that vast numbers of parents haven't got a clue, and are stupid. Sad but true. By definition Slashdot readers are wildly atypical.
This is supposed to change that in the next generation.
I could sum it up into a soundbite to be recited instead of the pledge of allegience:
"People deliberately lie, grown-ups can be wrong about stuff even when they're not lying to you".
No sig today...
It would be nice if it applied both ways.
Don't want to look at nudey pictures? Don't look at them. Don't want to drink beer? Don't drink it. Don't want to stick your dong in another man's bunghole? Don't stick your dong in another man's bunghole.
Instead they push for laws saying you can't look at nudey pics, can't drink beer and can't stick your dong in another man's bunghole.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
The true version is that vast numbers of parents haven't got a clue, and are stupid. Sad but true. By definition Slashdot readers are wildly atypical.
Considering the number of commenters who accuse anyone disagreeing with them of being a Russian troll, your assessment of Slashdot readers may be a bit optimistic.
> By definition Slashdot readers are wildly atypical.
That's probably true. Yet, I often read the articles and find that the headline and summary posted here is very misleading clickbait. In the last several weeks many articles from Verge have been posted here. Most are very misleading, but nobody here questions them.
This video explains it all
There's a reason education sucks
(Paraphrased) There's a reason education sucks. It's the same reason it will never be fixed. Because the "owners" of this country don't want that. They don't want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don't want people smart enough sitting around the kitchen table thinking about how badly they are getting screwed by a system which threw them overboard 30 years ago. They want obedient workers. They want people just smart enough to run the machines, but dumb enough to passively accept increasingly shittier jobs with lower pay and longer hours.