Do you know what sources your students are using to get their information? Do you feel you're on the same page with students about factual information, whether for current world issues or simply the information shared in class?  Can you determine what is real or what is fake? Will your students be able to? This week's webinar focused on building digital media skills with your students.  Presented by Kristy Roschke , Ph.D, Managing Director of the news Co/Lab at the Cronkite School, and hosted by Joshua Caulkins , Assistant Director of Undergraduate Programs in the School of Life Sciences, this presentation is timely to our current situation, with misinformation being shared every second.  Digital Media Landscape & Media Literacy At the start of her presentation, Roschke explained that with an increase in consumers of news and the opportunity to create media, we are headed further down the path for misinformation. Yet, when everything looks the same we relax into ...

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...