The path to quality information is not straight.  A recent survey from Project Information Literacy  explored how college students engage with news . Most survey respondents encounter some news every day, but more found out about news and current events through conversations with peers, family and instructors than from professional news sources. Researchers found class conversation about world events can provide important context and practice for engaging with credible information sources. Further, students who discussed news and public issues in the classroom were more inclined to investigate the topics on their own.  Research and exploration are important components for any learning endeavor. Students dive deeper into a subject area to gain new knowledge, and instructors often help guide them toward credible, authoritative sources in their subject area. But what is often overlooked in most classrooms is the experience and habits students bring to the table for find...

Today's blog comes from Rene Tanner , subject matter librarian at ASU. Evaluating information in the digital age is a critical skill. In the classroom, as in life, we need to agree on basic facts to advance human knowledge and our understanding of the world. Fake news refers to sources that fabricate information, purposefully deceive, or grossly distort factual news reports (Novotny, 2017). Social media is an important source of information. A recent Pew Research Center study found that 62% of U.S. adults receive news through social media with Facebook (44%) as the lead outlet, followed by YouTube (10%) and Twitter (9%) (Pew Research Center, 2016a). Distinguishing real information from distorted information online can more difficult than we may imagine. A recent study by Stanford University found that most students, from middle school through college, had trouble identifying false or biased information online. For example, students often had difficulty distinguishing be...