Global Courant 2023-05-15 13:00:00
Whether it’s young kids watching YouTube videos, the elderly logging in for games or teens scrolling through TikTok, students these days come across all sorts of content online and often just accept it as truth, said 13-year-old Ainara Alleyne.
“I don’t think (younger kids) really know the difference between disinformation, disinformation and real news… These are just things that people say. You don’t really know that people can have hidden agendas or misinterpret different things,” noted the Hamilton based Grade 8 student on.
It’s part of why the teen has joined a growing wave of initiatives that hope to boost students’ digital literacy and critical thinking skills so they can better discern what’s what amid the storm of facts and misinformation. flying around the chaotic online spaces where they are. navigate.
“As younger people, we’re so used to using social media, things like Instagram and Snapchat and TikTok, and it’s so easy to spread misinformation on those apps — and even misinformation, where someone wants to purposefully spread information that’s wrong said 17 -year-old high school senior Arjun Ram.
“It’s super important for kids today to understand and be able to decipher what’s real and what’s not.”
LOOK | This video game helps children learn misinformation online:
This video game makes kids smarter online
CBC News Kids has created a video game that’s not just for fun, but designed to help kids navigate online and spot misinformation.
Alleyne and Ram are part of Reporting 101: Misinformation, a new CBC Kids News initiative designed to teach students in grades 4 through 8 to separate fact from fiction through the ultra-popular, blocky 3D gaming world of Minecraft. The new world, which launched last week, taps players like budding journalists investigating a story tip: summer vacation has been cancelled. Players must find and speak to various sources, verify information gathered, find out the truth, and write an article about their research.
“This game will help kids understand that you care and that it’s important to track down where your information comes from, and it’s important to decipher whether that’s true or not,” Ram said.
CBC Kids News reporters Ainara Alleyne, right, and Arjun Ram have avatars to guide students through the new Minecraft world Reporting 101: Misinformation. “It’s super important for kids these days to understand and be able to decipher what’s real and what’s not,” says Ram. (Nazima Walji/CBC)
Embedding this kind of learning in a space where young people love to spend time is an approach that gets a thumbs up from Kara Brisson-Boivin, director of research at MediaSmarts, a Canadian nonprofit focused on digital and media literacy.
“It builds into those teachable moments and opportunities within their gameplay,” she said from Windsor, Ont.
“They’re going to embrace those educational opportunities all the more because it’s already within the spaces and the online activities they’re engaged in.”
LOOK | Tips for navigating online spaces amid misinformation:
Tips to search misinformation online
What should students look for as they scroll through their online feeds? Researchers Timothy Caulfield and Kara Brisson-Boivin, along with CBC Kids News journalists Ainara Alleyne and Arjun Ram, share some tips.
For more than 20 years, MediaSmarts has conducted extensive research into young Canadians’ attitudes and behaviors toward digital technology and the Internet. A recent report specifically examined older teens and young adults perceptions and concerns about disinformation and disinformation on online platforms and communities.
While respondents reported enjoying the interactive atmosphere and immersive feel of their favorite spaces, they also expressed how often they encountered misinformation and disinformation. They are aware of how this type of content is linked to hate online – misogyny, racism, homophobia and more, Brisson-Boivin noted – and young people want more transparency, effort and action from decision makers to combat this, within the platform itself .
“Young people want to be in this space. They like the atmosphere. They don’t want to leave it completely,” she explained, noting the challenge of pausing or retreating to see information in another space or outside source. check.
Misinformation is a regular occurrence in the online communities where young people spend time and they know how it may be related to online hate, said Kara Brisson-Boivin, the group’s research director. However, as they enjoy the immersive nature of their favorite apps, they want the platforms’ decision makers to combat the misinformation in the spaces themselves. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters)
Brisson-Boivin believes that building digital literacy knowledge from an early age is another important approach to combating misinformation, whether students are doing research for school or scrolling for entertainment.
“It’s absolutely crucial to introduce this at the earliest possible age. I have a six-year-old[and]we talk quite a lot about the kind of content we see online: what’s real and what’s imagined, how can we know these things, she explained, noting a recent conversation when they came across an amazing video of an “inverted waterfall.”
Some quick internet research done together revealed that it wasn’t real, but cleverly crafted footage.
“There are lessons and opportunities as a family or household where you can embrace this with really young kids,” Brisson-Boivin said, adding that as students mature into teens and adults, additional approaches can be introduced, for example finding the original source, authenticating information through reputable outlets, using fact-checking tools, sites and experts, and so on.
“It’s something we all have to learn, practice and develop all the time.”
Students hungry for this information
Notable myth-buster Timothy Caulfield agrees, saying it can even be as simple as taking a few seconds to ponder or think about something you see online. “If you get people to accept that beat, they’re more likely to adopt a critical thinking perspective, less likely to believe misinformation, less likely to share misinformation,” said the University of Alberta and Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy professor.
“A lot of it is happening right now with the extreme headline, that funny meme. But if you just get people thinking and thinking about accuracy…that action alone can make a difference.”
The best-selling author and popular public speaker thinks teaching younger kids to “put on their thinking caps and really do a little research” should transition into introducing teens and young adults to more complex approaches to “understanding the nature of the evidence.” that is used” to make arguments.
“I’ve had the chance to talk to children of all ages and they are hungry for this information. They recognize that this is a problem: they are not naive. They know that the spread of misinformation is a real problem. So they want strategies,” he said in Edmonton.
Rather than turning students into “hypersskeptics,” he compares teaching students critical thinking to teaching them to think like a scientist: applying reason and looking at a body of evidence. He refutes those who believe that this skill building is about brainwashing someone. “We’re not talking about the content here. We’re talking about giving people skills – neutral skills – that they can use to go out and assess the information environment.”
Caulfield considers misinformation “one of the defining issues of our time” and one of the greatest challenges we face today.
“It’s a generational challenge, so that means we really need to teach our young people, the kids, how to spot and counter misinformation. And this means giving them the skills that will last over time to exist.”
