Last month, our blog provided an introduction to deepfakes, a technique in which artificial intelligence-based technology is used to alter or produce video content, tricking viewers into believing that something happened when it actually did not.
This month, we follow up with more on this important subject, including resources and programming ideas for all ages.
Between the two of us we have over 45 years of teaching experience. (Yes, we are stunned by that, too!) From the beginning, our library programming has taught students to responsibly and critically select and evaluate their resources. It’s the very foundation of media and information literacy and a critical skill for students to master in their K-12 education.
Actual text message exchange between one of the authors of this blog and her child:
Do a quick internet search for "fake news" and "the 2020 election." The results are alarming. Teaching students to learn to deal effectively with fake news is information literacy. As librarians and educators we have continued to learn and expand our information literacy knowledge. We work to teach our students to be skeptical, lateral searchers and fact-checkers.
When we first started blogging for Programming Librarian, it was January 2018. We had just presented at the 2017 American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Conference in Phoenix on the trend of fake news that was on the uptick leading up to and after the 2016 presidential election.
Well, here we are again, leading up to another presidential election. And adding to that, we’re in the midst of a pandemic and nationwide protests over racial justice and police brutality.
It's February, and that means people in our school district are tired: the teachers, the students, and definitely the librarians. It's time to breathe some life into our library lessons and feel invigorated again with the TED-Ed lesson series.
To become a successful student and mature adult, children need to develop critical thinking skills. In the ever-changing world of electronic communication and emerging technologies, how can library workers help children develop and activate skills necessary to access, evaluate and create media? What better way to promote media literacy skill development than through library programming?
Information literacy and media literacy are crucial to student learning. As we have advocated in past blog posts, the process of teaching skills to produce media literate students starts in kindergarten and continues throughout their years as lifelong learners.
Digital footprint, digital dossier, online reputation, digital reputation … insert your term here: _________. Whatever you choose to call it, teaching high school students how to manage their online reputation is more about teaching them to share thoughtfully and less about telling them not to post.
Information literacy skills are a cornerstone to school library instruction. Teacher librarians have taught them for years. Why revisit them now? Before we get into how to use "Arthur" to teach media literacy, we thought it might be nice to give you a little background on why our passion for information literacy programming in school libraries was re-energized and renewed.
As librarians everywhere will attest, fake news is not new; fabricated stories have been presented as truth for centuries. But take a divided electorate and add a social media landscape where misinformation is shared with a click, and interest in the topic has soared.
Talk of fake news and the need for critical thinking skills have been in heavy rotation in the media in recent months, with new calls for the public to acquire appropriate research and evaluation skills and become more information savvy. However, none of this is new for librarians and information professionals, particularly for those who teach information literacy classes! With this renewed interest, librarians have brand new opportunities to impart these skills to patrons.
In this webinar, participants will:
