At times, I long for an old school textbook! I was educated in the classroom where lessons were presented from the pages of, say an old Understanding Science book series (Sampson Low Pub, 1960) and a teacher that was well informed (prepped) to teach us about the Bunsen Burner, plate tectonics or the compound microscope. I don’t think any foundational science knowledge is wrong and certainly has its place in today’s classrooms. Let’s make everything old new again!
In the today’s digital age classrooms, we ask student’s to engage with technology that can snap up information from multiple websites, with the expectation to trust the source….after all, it’s from the internet!
Student’s are fortunate to have digital citizenship lessons that shed light on important skills, such as cyber etiquette, laws, security and rights and responsibilities (to name a few of Ribble’s 9 elements). But what about media literacies and the topic of fake news? In week 9 catalyst presentations we were asked to look at the challenges of medial literacy in a “fake news” world.
Kim’s article discussed the problem student’s face with disinformation and a media literacy approach of teaching them how to critique and eventually discern a source/content as credible. An important approach given the vulnerability of students possibly being fed misleading information, with potential emotional and social effects. Do content creators intentionally create damaging material? I think the answer is yes because any browser search will pull up misleading and “fake news”.
To test this, I did a search on the Buffy Sainte-Marie “pretendian” controversy and found content related to her ancestry, her personal life, Hawaii, books she wrote, Sesame Street…an extensive amount of information. Now, given the seriousness of the controversial “pretendian” (the real issue), a search may lead an inquiring mind to a website that may glamorize or garner empathy, which takes the focus off the real issue. A site that I visited was boobingit.com that discussed a Sesame Street segment and interview where Buffy Sainte-Maire was breastfeeding her baby boy on TV. This particular website had links (click bait) to personal products for breastfeeding mothers. So basically, the website used the media popularity of Buffy Saint-Marie to sell their products. https://boobingit.com/buffy-sainte-marie-opens-breastfeeding-baby-boy-sesame-street-1977
Is this “fake news”? It may be or it may be not….but it has the same psychological challenges of cognitive overload and decision fatigue. Students might not be able to make quality decisions when serious topics are overloaded with viewpoints/perspectives that mislead and incite emotional responses rather that critical analysis. As a teacher, my media literacy challenge is to teach students the skill of critical evaluation and analyzing content for authenticity. I would be interested in hearing about any strategies or lessons that teachers have tried with their students. Please share!
Mrs. Ramona Alexson 
Hi Ramona. My area of expertise is mathematics, but some of colleagues in English and Social Studies have done some interesting things around media literacy. One activity was on political messaging where students used some very basic video editing skills to take the same clip (two friends meeting in a park, talking and then running to a tree) and then manipulate the message through colour grading, sound, etc. Some students took all the colour out of the clip, added fade effects, and turned it into a horror movie clip. Some over saturated the clip, added children’s music, and turned it into a pre-school show. They did a similar activity with photoshop. The point was that even neutral information can be manipulated to put forth an agenda or elicit a particular type of reaction.
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