Advice Request: Teaching Fake News

[SuburbanFarmer]

It’s probably not appropriate to teach too young, but the only way to know is cui bono. Follow the money.

It eventually leads to a pretty depressing view of the world, even if it is the most accurate.

[BjornP]

Some time ago, de o posted this:

viewtopic.php?f=64&t=2291&p=77737&hilit ... %2A#p77737

While I am not sure how to make it teachable for young children, I know it can be done. Source criticism is taught to schoolkids here in Denmark, and have done been for some time. Training the traits and methods mentioned in that list ought to make the young better prepared to decipher BS from reality. No matter where it comes from.

I can think of an immediate advice that ought be teachable to even young kids: The difference between bias and lies. Understanding that information does not become invalidated by having an author's strong emotions or ideological feelings attached it. For example, a gun grabber news source may report that a gunman "who had much too easy access to guns" gunned down fourteen kids in some town, and a pro-2nd amdnt news source may report that the same gunman "had a legal and sound access to guns.... which he abused". Both sources report the same fact, that a gunman gunned down fourteen kids. Their commentary on the story is biased, but the bias in itself is not a lie. Knowledge of bias can help identify the beliefs, or motives, of the subject, but they're not lies.

To determine wether something is fake news or not, it's often a good idea to check if it is copy-pasta from some other news site. Copy and paste a selected sentence in the article, put it into google with "" around it, then proceed to search by data. Then determine the likely oldest and therefore source of the story.

If it's a news site with loads of ads, and a peculiar wording structure indicating a non-native English speaker, it is probably one of those Eastern European fake news sites that make loads of ad money of American identity politics.

If I were to conduct such a class, I'd have a volunteer or myself show the class a picture of some event on their/my FB page or other social media site. I'd ask them: "How do, and can, you be more certain that what I say happened at that event, really happened?". The answer would be to find out and ask the other people in the picture to verify that the event happened as I said it did. This would highlight the fact that you can generally trust that X happened, if multiple witnesses also verify it.

Not sure how to best teach that sometime people have a motive for not wanting to tell the truth, or the whole truth. Would be best to figure out some way that kids themselves can relate to, after all.

[C-Mag]

Some time ago, de o posted this:

viewtopic.php?f=64&t=2291&p=77737&hilit ... %2A#p77737

While I am not sure how to make it teachable for young children, I know it can be done. Source criticism is taught to schoolkids here in Denmark, and have done been for some time. Training the traits and methods mentioned in that list ought to make the young better prepared to decipher BS from reality. No matter where it comes from.

I can think of an immediate advice that ought be teachable to even young kids: The difference between bias and lies. Understanding that information does not become invalidated by having an author's strong emotions or ideological feelings attached it. For example, a gun grabber news source may report that a gunman "who had much too easy access to guns" gunned down fourteen kids in some town, and a pro-2nd amdnt news source may report that the same gunman "had a legal and sound access to guns.... which he abused". Both sources report the same fact, that a gunman gunned down fourteen kids. Their commentary on the story is biased, but the bias in itself is not a lie. Knowledge of bias can help identify the beliefs, or motives, of the subject, but they're not lies.

To determine wether something is fake news or not, it's often a good idea to check if it is copy-pasta from some other news site. Copy and paste a selected sentence in the article, put it into google with "" around it, then proceed to search by data. Then determine the likely oldest and therefore source of the story.

If it's a news site with loads of ads, and a peculiar wording structure indicating a non-native English speaker, it is probably one of those Eastern European fake news sites that make loads of ad money of American identity politics.

If I were to conduct such a class, I'd have a volunteer or myself show the class a picture of some event on their/my FB page or other social media site. I'd ask them: "How do, and can, you be more certain that what I say happened at that event, really happened?". The answer would be to find out and ask the other people in the picture to verify that the event happened as I said it did. This would highlight the fact that you can generally trust that X happened, if multiple witnesses also verify it.

Not sure how to best teach that sometime people have a motive for not wanting to tell the truth, or the whole truth. Would be best to figure out some way that kids themselves can relate to, after all.

Good Stuff, Thanks

[Fife]

Tell those kids to question all assumptions. Take nothing for granted.

From Numberphile this week:

[C-Mag]

Tell those kids to question all assumptions. Take nothing for granted.

From Numberphile this week:

That's really good, I can see something like that working with the kids.
Thanks