Pushing back against the surge of misinformation online, California will now require all K-12 students to learn media literacy skills — such as recognizing fake news and thinking critically about what they encounter on the internet.
Gov. Gavin Newsom last month signed Assembly Bill 873, which requires the state to add media literacy to curriculum frameworks for English language arts, science, math and history-social studies, rolling out gradually beginning next year. Instead of a stand-alone class, the topic will be woven into existing classes and lessons throughout the school year.
I am glad to see this! It is a little late but very welcome and will help future generations significantly. It will be especially interesting to see in the very red counties like Shasta and Kern.
That’s a really interesting article. I appreciate that it digs into techniques for spotting misinformation.
During remote learning, he gave students two articles on the origins of the coronavirus. One was an opinion piece from the New York Post, a tabloid, and the other was from a scientific journal. He asked students which they thought was accurate. More than 90% chose the Post piece.
Fuuuk how could you possibly make that choice when presented with both?!?
I’m not a teacher, but I’ve worked with 14-15 years olds to learn them critical thinking, the scientific principles and about humanism. Not one of them could distinguish between a opnion piece and reporting
And after your teaching them the difference? How many could differentiate then?
Well, considering most of the U.S. reads below a 6th grade level and California has the highest population amongst the states… it makes sense these kids chose the source that tells them what to think.
Scientific journals have fun jargon words that make parsing certain sentences impossible without either knowledge of that field, or taking the time to look them up. That step right there is too much for many people, I think.
But wouldn’t the reasonable conclusion at least be “wow these are big words and it says scientists wrote it; must be more trustworthy”
I don’t love that we’re using the term “fake news” which felt popularized by Donald Trump and used as an autoresponse to media he didn’t like, rather than a label for poorly sourced or biased media. That said, super happy to see that this education is happening and hopefully we have a new generation of kids growing up that feel more equipped to use their critical thinking skills when navigating the vast world of information being thrown at them!
Trump didn’t make it up; he just repopularized an old NAZI tactic.
The above poster isn’t saying that Trump made up ‘fake news,’ they are pointing out that the overuse of ‘fake news’ has become fatiguing to many people. We hear ‘fake news’ and we don’t have a visceral negative reaction to it as we should, it’s just something we roll our eyes at now because hearing it over and over again has desensitized us.
Another recent comparable would be the word ‘enshittification’ which, while apt, already seems like a tired expression that also somehow underscores the severity of the phenomenon it is describing.
I hesitate to call it dyslexia, but I had to read the title 3 times before I read it correctly, I thought it said “California Schools Will Require Students to Learn to Fake IDs”
