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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.
Don't count on the schools to do this. Parents need to spend a lot of time teaching these skills. An important concept is that just because many people/reporters say the same thing, it doesn't mean its true. I find examples of stuff that gets repeated in multiple news articles that is wrong, then show them how to figure out its wrong. My one kid is a natural skeptic, the other tends to believe everything. Personal traits are a big factor
No it doesn't. When it comes to evidence based things like global warming, evolution and other things that have scientific data and facts behind them, conservatives ignore or just deny those facts and keep their beliefs.
And because their people are making policy, in the long run America will be weak and behind the rest of the World.
Belief == opinion with no evidence.
Quite the opposite, actually. The tendency is for people to blindly accept even the most vague or ambiguous evidence when it supports the conclusion that we went it to, and to treat with extreme skepticism any evidence that supports a conclusion we don't want to be true.
There's a name for the phenomenon, confirmation bias.
For example, look at "creation science". A significant number of evangelical conservatives who treat climate change with skepticism are perfectly willing to unquestionably accept conclusions about the origins of canyons and other geological features that are based on extremely dubious methods of inquiry.
,,, should not be a course tailored for a specific subject.
We're talking about a single "threat," here.
When another single threat surfaces down the road are we going to teach critical thinking about that?
Schools should be preparing students in the general art of knowing the difference between bullshit and wild honey.
That won't happen until teachers are allowed to teach without the guidance of vacuous-minded outsiders like DeVos, batshit crazy right-wing Christian Evangelicals, and the Texas textbook industry (that mentions Blacks slaves as migrant "workers").
That won't happen until adults with more sense than god gave a piss ant start voting rationally.
I'm not optimistic.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
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.
It is called critical thinking, and it is something that should have been taught before and should be taught now. It will be interesting to see if legislators will be willing to give the schools money for this task.
Other postings have emphasized the need for parents to address this issue, and I agree with that. Once, when one of my children was around 10, she said something that was not true. Both my wife and I said that was wrong. She said, "I saw it on the internet." We then had a discussion about how to evaluate information on the internet and other places.
It's not that science is too hard for the precious little ones, it's that it's too expensive and controversial for their parents.
Yes, science can be hard, but it rewards effort. But you know what's hard but not rewarding? Sitting through an overcrowded biology class taught by someone who barely knows the subject, or worse, thinks Adam and Eve rode around on dinosaurs.
Because of the unique way we do education in this country, the quality of science education you get varies from world class to third world depending on which state you live in, and for states at the bottom which town you live in. In fact the list of the best high schools in the country are dominated by states ranked roughly in the second quartile from the bottom.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
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...
The class was called Critical Thinking.
I think it was replaced by some kind of "studies" class because Critical Thinking contained too many awkward, yet true, facts.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
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.
And what about US law makers who regularly propagate fake news, fictions, and denialism? You know those idiots who say things like women who are raped don't get pregnant or that the science on climate change isn't settled. An irresponsible and poorly informed leadership isn't going to help cultivate a responsible and informed citizenry. Then there's Fox News...
Debate is a form of harassment. Do not question my truth.
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.