Most Americans pay at least a little attention to current events, but they differ enormously in where they turn to get their news and which stories they pay attention to. To get a better sense of how a busy news cycle played out in homes across the country, we repeated an experiment, teaming up with YouGov to ask 1,000 people nationwide to describe their news consumption and respond to a simple prompt: “In your own words, please describe what you would say happened in the news on Tuesday.”

differing nomenclature makes the search for a commonly agreed definition or understanding of digital literacies even more elusive

Representation of Digital Intelligence

Make it a policy to always teach a new technology, with new literacies, to your weakest reader(s) first. This enables struggling readers and writers to become literate in this new technology before other, higher-performing students in reading. Those who struggle with reading and writing become literate in a new literacy before others and can teach this new literacy to others who are not literate with this new form. This is a powerful principle that positions weaker readers as experts

However, this does not nec-essarily mean they are skilled in the effective use of online information, perhaps the most important aspect of the Internet. Studies show that stu-dents lack critical evaluation skills when reading online (Bennet, Maton, & Kervin, 2008; Forzani & Maykel, 2013; Graham & Metaxas, 2003) and that they are not especially skilled with reading to locate information online (Kuiper & Volman, 2008).

print out enough copies of the first page of search results for each student. Dis-tribute these. Then see if students can locate the best link on the search results page for each question that you ask such as, “Which link will take you to a site developed by an Egyptologist?”

Make it a policy to always teach a new technology, with new literacies, to your weakest reader(s) first

Thus, when we speak of New Literacies in an online age we mean that literacy is not just “new” today; it becomes “new” every day of our lives.

We’ve built an information ecosystem where information can fly through social networks (both technical and personal). Folks keep looking to the architects of technical networks to solve the problem. I’m confident that these companies can do a lot to curb some of the groups who have capitalized on what’s happening to seek financial gain. But the battles over ideology and attention are going to be far trickier. What’s at stake isn’t “fake news.” What’s at stake is the increasing capacity of those committed to a form of isolationist and hate-driven tribalism that has been around for a very long time. They have evolved with the information landscape, becoming sophisticated in leveraging whatever tools are available to achieve power, status, and attention. And those seeking a progressive and inclusive agenda, those seeking to combat tribalism to form a more perfect union —  they haven’t kept up.

How many years did it take for the US military to learn that waging war with tribal networks couldn’t be fought with traditional military strategies? How long will it take for the news media to wake up and recognize that they’re being played? And how long after that will it take for editors and publishers to start evolving their strategies?

News agencies, long trained to focus on reporting information and maintaining a conceptual model of standards, are ill-equipped to understand that they may have a role in this war, that their actions and decisions are shaping the way the war plays out.

For one, much of the new research centers on U.S. politics and, specifically, elections. But social networks drive conversations about many other topics such as business, education, health, and personal relationships. To battle bad online information, it would be helpful to know whether people respond to these sorts of topics differently than they respond to information about political candidates and elections. It also would be useful to know whether myths about certain subjects — for instance, a business product or education trend — are trickier to correct than others.

Alan poses a question in his TEDx talk that we should ask students: “Do you know how to use Google?” Of greater importance, the same question should be asked of teachers.

The Teaching Tolerance Digital Literacy Framework offers seven key areas in which students need support developing digital and civic literacy skills. The numbered items represent the overarching knowledge and skills that make up the framework. The bullets represent more granular examples of student behaviors to help educators evaluate mastery.

Digital skills focus on what and how. Digital literacy focuses on why, when, who, and for whom.

Digital skills focus on what and how. Digital literacy focuses on why, when, who, and for whom.

open access to the skills and know-how needed to use the web to improve their lives, careers, and organizations.

Ian O’Byrne, an assistant professor of education at the College of Charleston, wrote, “As an educator and researcher who studies these digital places and tools, I’m in front of screens a lot. I experiment and play in these spaces. I’m also writing and researching the impact of these screens and their impact on the well-being of others as it relates to children and adolescents. The problem in this is that one of the other hats that I wear is as a parent and husband. I am not only critical of my engagement and use of these digital technologies, but I’m also cautious/cognizant of their role as a mediator in my relationships with my children and significant other. These screens and digital tools play a strong role in our lives and interactions in and out of our home. In our home we have screens and devices all over the place. We have a video server that is ready to serve content to any one of these screens on demand. We have voice-assistive devices listening and waiting for our commands. I believe it is important as an educator and researcher to play with and examine how these devices are playing a role in our lives, so I can bring this work to others. Even with these opportunities, I’m still struck by times when technology seems too intrusive. This is plainly evident when I’m sitting with my family and watching a television show together, and I’m gazing off into my device reading my RSS feed for the day. Previously I would enjoy watching the funniest home videos and laughing together. Now, I am distant. The first thing in the morning when I’m driving my kids in to school and stop at a red light, previously I would enjoy the time to stop, listen to the radio, look at the clouds or bumper stickers on cars around me. Now, I pull out the phone to see if I received a notification in the last 20 minutes. When I call out for the voice-activated device in my home to play some music or ask a question, my request is quickly echoed by my 2-year-old who is just learning to talk. She is echoing these conversations I’m having with an artificial intelligence. I’m trying to weigh this all out in my mind and figure what it means for us personally. The professional understanding may come later.”

How do users identify and evaluate online “resource containers” of information?

The visual context and cues that print containers provide used to help individuals identify a document’s origins and measure its value

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series of videos showing students basic web techniques for source verification and contextualization

In other words, low digital literacy (among both students and faculty) likely shapes preferences for textbook format.

Users of the internet emphasize retrieving and manipulating information over contextualizing or conceptualizing its meaning

We will define “dialogic literacy” as the ability to engage productively in discourse whose purpose is to generate new knowledge and understanding

where you spend your trust

the protection of private information in an online environment has become the responsibility of user

Digital Pedagogy to Foster Digital Literacies

realize that the web was not something that happened to them but they were happening to

understanding how Web applications work “under the hood” and how databases and scripts interact

considering the interplay between design and content

organizing and architecting an online space

when Americans get news online, they increasingly reach for a smartphone (55%), with computer use falling significantly

the figure is just 53 percent when people are asked specifically about the news that they themselves use

people do not always distinguish between news reports and advertising on news sites, and the contrast between a professionally reported story and the “around the web” recommendations that may accompany it can be jarring

Technology is the problem. When the profit motive trumps the public good

How information is accessed, created, and shared is revealing about the future of learning

what does it mean to be human in a digital age

how we make decisions with that data needs to be as transparent as the content

And so, that part I think was the second marking point for me was this idea of connectedness, and that by being connected-- being transparent and connected-- you produced this huge array of potential knowledge futures in these areas.

Our work, said Campbell, is not to graduate more students, but to enable students to graduate themselves

Digital literacy has also been positioned as an enabler of rights. Unless people have choice and agency, they cannot act in their own interests.

The studying strategy with “the greatest power,” she adds, involves deeply questioning the text — asking yourself if you agree with the author, and why or why not.

copyright is about ambiguity, not right and wrong answers, may be a helpful way of framing copyright education

want to remain neutral or impartial

University-wide 33–39% of faculty said that fewer than half of their undergraduates meet their expectations

2016 Student Textbookand Course Materials

pedagogy of research

Sometimes, even people immersed in a discipline don’t quite understand how or why information is organized

The Internet is this generation’s defining technology for literacy and learning within our global community.2.The Internet and related technologies require new literacies to fully access their potential.

The new literacies of online research and comprehension frames online reading comprehension as a process of problem-based inquiry involving the skills, strategies, dispositions, and social practices that take place as we use the Internet to conduct research, solve problems, and answer ques-tions.

How can we develop adequate understanding when the very object that we seek to study continuously changes?

Consider, for example, just a few of these new technologies: Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Siri, Foursquare, Drop-box, Skype, Chrome, iMovie, Contribute, or any of many, many mobile “apps” and ebooks

It is the responsibility of educators in all grades and content areas to modify as needed for learners.

TPACK What knowledge do teachers need in order to facilitate student research? Understanding complex relationships among technology, pedagogy, and content with models like the TPACK framework may facilitate teacher growth in new literacies

when students share what they have learned not only about the information they found, but the sources and strategies they used to uncover that information.

1

Wikipedia is broadly misunderstood by faculty and students alike. While Wikipedia must be approached with caution, especially with articles that are covering contentious subjects or evolving events, it is often the best source to get a consensus viewpoint on a subject. Because the Wikipedia community has strict rules about sourcing facts to reliable sources, and because authors must adopt a neutral point of view, articles are often the best available introduction to a subject on the web.

The habit is simple. When you feel strong emotion — happiness, anger, pride, vindication — and that emotion pushes you to share a “fact” with others, STOP. Above all, it’s these things that you must fact-check. Why? Because you’re already likely to check things you know are important to get right, and you’re predisposed to analyze things that put you an intellectual frame of mind. But things that make you angry or overjoyed, well… our record as humans are not good with these things. As an example, we might cite this tweet which recently crossed my Twitter feed: You don’t need to know that much of the background here to see the emotionally charged nature of this. President Trump had insulted Chuck Schumer, a Democratic Senator from New York, saying tears that Schumer shed during a statement about refugees were “fake tears”.  This tweet reminds us that that Senator Schumer’s great grandmother died at the hands of the Nazis, which could explain Schumer’s emotional connection to the issue of refugees. Or does it? Do we actually know that Schumer’s great-grandmother died at the hands of the Nazis? And if we are not sure this is true, should we really be retweeting it?

Check for previous work: Look around to see if someone else has already fact-checked the claim or provided a synthesis of research. Go upstream to the source: Go “upstream” to the source of the claim. Most web content is not original. Get to the original source to understand the trustworthiness of the information. Read laterally: Read laterally.[1] Once you get to the source of a claim, read what other people say about the source (publication, author, etc.). The truth is in the network. Circle back: If you get lost, or hit dead ends, or find yourself going down an increasingly confusing rabbit hole, back up and start over knowing what you know now. You’re likely to take a more informed path with different search terms and better decisions.

FITness goes beyond traditional notions of computer literacy to require that persons understand information technology broadly enough to apply it productively at work and in their everyday lives, to recognize when information technology can assist or impede the achievement of a goal, and to continually adapt to changes in information technology. FITness, therefore, requires a deeper, more essential understanding and mastery of information technology for information processing, communication, and problem solving than does the traditional definition of computer literacy. Acquiring TK in this manner enables a person to accomplish a variety of different tasks using information technology and to develop different ways of accomplishing a given task. This conceptualization of TK does not posit an “end state,” but rather sees it developmentally, as evolving over a lifetime of generative, open-ended interaction with technology.

We’ve Made It Ridiculously Easy to Contribute to the Digital Polarization Initiative

The point is not to be defeatist, but to remind ourselves again and again that the process is always iterative, and that we must keep working to maintain, to improve, and thus to sustain our work.

How can I add value to this network – contribute, amplify, connect, share, listen, support?

When he read the Web address, http://pubweb.northwestern.edu/~abutz/di/intro.html, he assumed that the domain name “northwestern.edu” automatically meant it was a credible source. He did not understand that the “~” character, inserted after the domain name, should be read as a personal Web page and not an official document of the university.

Syllabus: EDM510 2016 Summer

“The only way to save a democracy is to explain the way things work,” says Linus Neumann, a CCC spokesman and information security consultant. “Understanding things is a good immunization.”

Without a repertoire of reading strategies that can be applied to any text, students are being shortchanged in their education. In order to teach students to read effectively, teachers must be sure that they are not simply suppliers of information on a particular text but also instructors of techniques to build reading skills. Here are some ideas on how to incorporate reading skills lessons into a curriculum.

Mozilla Web Literacy Map (https://wiki.mozilla.org/Webmaker/WebLiteracyMap).

these do not replace the conventional literacies of reading and writing, speaking and listening, but are supplemental to them

‘truth’ is something generally believed by people in a position to know, that are likely to tell the truth

The idea that you’ll get to truth by, for instance, just reading Breitbart and then Truthout, and somehow will come to truth, is kind of a bizarre idea

We need to start with a good term — could we call this vision one of “connected open”?

Participating includes: creating, using, adapting and improving open educational resources; embracing educational practices built around collaboration, discovery and the creation of knowledge; and inviting peers and colleagues to get involved

designed to help students fact-check and trace the circulation of online information—helps to answer both of these questions.

Digital Literacy and all those other literacies

1) No one can even agree on a definition of “fake news,” even though a ridiculous number of words are being spent trying to define it.2) Folks don’t seem to understand the evolving nature of the problem, the way that manipulation evolves, or how the approaches they propose can be misused by those with whom they fundamentally disagree.3) No amount of “fixing” Facebook or Google will address the underlying factors shaping the culture and information wars in which America is currently enmeshed.

librarians can do more to promote information literacy.

In 2017 the need to teach fact-checking and source analysis looms larger than ever

"This is an issue that cuts broadly across the social media and news industries, and we are working together to help people better understand the sources and authenticity of information before they share with their friends or family," Justin Osofsky, Facebook's vice-president of global operations and media partnerships, told AP.

"If you build the freeway, you have the responsibility to make sure the freeway is safe," he told AP."You shouldn't just say that if there are potholes, drivers should try to avoid them."

"Publishers need to take this finding seriously going forward and think about their readers as ambassadors to cultivate. Social media sites should also think seriously about transparency when it comes to emphasising where news articles originate."

The Media Insight Project had this advice for journalists, their employers, and social media networks like Facebook:To publishers and journalists: Your readers and followers are not just consumers to monetise, instead they may be social ambassadors whose own credibility with their friends affects your brand's reputation. It is the sharer's credibility, more than your own, which determines other people's willingness to believe you and engage with you. This underscores the importance of news organisations creating strong communities of followers who evangelise the organisation to others.To news-literacy advocates: In light of growing concerns about "fake news" spreading on social media, this experiment confirms that people make little distinction between known and unknown (even made-up) sources when it comes to trusting and sharing news. Even 19 per cent of people who saw our fictional news source would have been willing to recommend it to a friend.To Facebook and other social networks: Facebook and other social networks could do more to emphasise and provide information about the original sources for news articles. The fact that only two in 10 people in our experiment could recall the news reporting source accurately after seeing a Facebook-style post suggests that basic brand awareness has a long way to go. We found that sharers affect perceptions more than the original news reporting source — but might that change if Facebook made the reporting source label more prominent?

Ms Wardle said the research was a wake-up call for journalists, who should think of themselves as creators of individual "atoms of content", rather than focusing on their brand."Create content that is shareable, do excellent journalism that will be shared — but know that this will not always be enough," she said.

"So as citizens of information and consumers of information, we have to learn how to be critical of the information that we consume and journalists have got an important role to play in helping audiences navigate the news ecosystem.

"Times have changed. It used to be that we had gatekeepers; we had the ABC. [People] went to the newsagent and got their paper and paid their money. Now news comes to us via text message or email or Twitter or Facebook," she said.

"We now become publishers when we share. So we have a responsibility to think about that before we retweet."Claire Wardle

"When people see news from a person they trust, they are more likely to think it gets the facts right, contains diverse points of view, and is well reported than if the same article is shared by someone they are sceptical of," the researchers wrote.

The study found that what mattered most was whether the story was posted to Facebook by someone trusted, or someone previously tagged as not trusted by the social media user.

The study by the Media Insight Project found that people's trust in a piece of content on Facebook was stronger if they trusted the person who shared it — regardless of what organisation published it.

Your favourite social media star is more influential than media organisations that have built up their audience's trust over decades, according to a recent experiment.

many students I met were being told that Wikipedia was untrustworthy and were, instead, being encouraged to do research

Information literacy is not just a set of skills that are “nice to have”; such skills are truly a necessity of modern life.

For the past 40 years, society has demanded information literacy of students

Information literacy presumes a set of unbiased institutions and incorruptible instructors are waiting in the wings to begin inculcating the masses with the proper truth procedures.

A powerful media and information literacy project from UNESCO

Check for previous fact-checking work Go upstream to the source Read laterally

Teaching students to separate fact from fiction has become a priority after an election in which false "news" played a large role.

the expert isn’t always right

research and discussion

"Behold, I make all things new;" "the letter killeth, the spirit giveth life."

We need to involve them in producing their own curriculum, their own organisational context, their own networks and rules of engagement

Media literacy, data literacy, algorithmic awareness: these are not optional extras in a course of study now.

Legal protections, rights, and democratic responsibilities are provided to citizens of a nation state, not to users of privately-owned digital platforms.

‘information literacy’ suffers from a lack of descriptive power. It is too ambitious in scope, too wide-ranging in application and not precise enough in detail to be useful in an actionable way.

ndividuals can organize bodies ofknoWl-elg=--Esearch texts or other presentations for useful_analyze----nesvzskills in orderatc0Jprogram" their ownwacq4isition sequences

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OER textbook called Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers

I had usually depended upon my unsystematized knowledge am.I the inspiration of the hour and the occasion, but I had now got the "scholar bee in my bonnet," and supposed that inasmuch as I was to speak to college professors and students I must ul least make a show of some familiarity wilh letters.

As an ethical and political practice, a public pedagogy of wakefulness rejects modes of education removed from political or social concerns, divorced from history and matters of injury and injustice. Said’s notion of a pedagogy of wakefulness includes “lifting complex ideas into the public space,” recognizing human injury inside and outside of the academy, and using theory as a form of criticism to change things.[xxv] This is a pedagogy in which academics are neither afraid of controversy or the willingness to make connections that are otherwise hidden, nor are they afraid of making clear the connection between private issues and broader elements of society’s problems.

In order for critical pedagogy, dialogue, and thought to have real effects,  they must advocate the message that all citizens, old and young, are equally entitled, if not equally empowered, to shape the society in which they live.

according lo social historian David Cressy, only 20 percent of women were sufficiently literate lo sign their names, even though the Renaissance had improved opportunities for their education (sec the introduction lo Part Three)

publisher Tim O’Reilly, who recently published an article on how he vets news online.  It’s very useful, actually, listing a series of practical tips, from looking for references to checking out other links on the same topic.

publisher Tim O’Reilly, who recently published an article on how he vets news online.  It’s very useful, actually, listing a series of practical tips, from looking for references to checking out other links on the same topic.

Fake news is just squatting in one part of one building in an entire landscape of neglect and corruption; evicting them will make no difference to the blight.

But students are arriving with some well established digital practices of their own

The Role of Literacy Research in Racism and Racial Violence Statement Endorsed by the Literacy Research Association [PDF] 12/19/16

Digital Literacy

A new form of information manipulation is unfolding in front of our eyes. It is political. It is global. And it is populist in nature. The news media is being played like a fiddle, while decentralized networks of people are leveraging the ever-evolving networked tools around them to hack the attention economy.

The techniques that are unfolding are hard to manage and combat. Some of them look like harassment, prompting people to self-censor out of fear. Others look like “fake news”, highlighting the messiness surrounding bias, misinformation, disinformation, and propaganda. There is hate speech that is explicit, but there’s also suggestive content that prompts people to frame the world in particular ways. Dog whistle politics have emerged in a new form of encoded content, where you have to be in the know to understand what’s happening. Companies who built tools to help people communicate are finding it hard to combat the ways their tools are being used by networks looking to skirt the edges of the law and content policies. Institutions and legal instruments designed to stop abuse are finding themselves ill-equipped to function in light of networked dynamics.

personal responsibility

Children are indoctrinated into this cultural logic early, even as their parents restrict their mobility and limit their access to social situations. But when it comes to information, they are taught that they are the sole proprietors of knowledge. All they have to do is “do the research” for themselves and they will know better than anyone what is real. Combine this with a deep distrust of media sources. If the media is reporting on something, and you don’t trust the media, then it is your responsibility to question their authority, to doubt the information you are being given. If they expend tremendous effort bringing on “experts” to argue that something is false, there must be something there to investigate.

Many marginalized groups are justifiably angry about the ways in which their stories have been dismissed by mainstream media for decades. This is most acutely felt in communities of color. And this isn’t just about the past. It took five days for major news outlets to cover Ferguson. It took months and a lot of celebrities for journalists to start discussing the Dakota Pipeline. But feeling marginalized from news media isn’t just about people of color. For many Americans who have watched their local newspaper disappear, major urban news reporting appears disconnected from reality. The issues and topics that they feel affect their lives are often ignored.

How can we, instead, meta-communicate liberation and possibility?

The problem isn’t the fake news itself, as much as the historical consciousness that allows so many to willingly believe it with no skepticism.

We need to have our crap detectors on high alert, and double-check everything we can, especially if you find it popping back into your mind later.

That means they make it easy to get the “gist” of a “news” story without going to the actual article, and they attract attention away from the name of the source in their news story previews.

Be wary of casual scrolling. This is hard work