Apr
2019
Reddit against Fake News
How to Combat Fake News Online? Bring Reddit (and Other Online Forums) Into the Classroom.
By Jeffrey R. Young Nov 30, 2016
Reddit has become an important way for scholars to distribute and explain their findings—you just have to know where on the bustling online community to look. The r/Science section of Reddit now boasts 1,300 volunteer moderators—all with some kind of graduate degree—who block out climate deniers and other views that lack rigorous proof.
AMAs have become a signature part of Reddit, and experts from all walks of life participate in these open office hours in many sections of the community: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/
A new paper calls it “crowdsourcing the curriculum,” where students are taught to become digital citizens in online communities and develop habits—like knowing how to participate in Reddit AMAs—that they can continue once class is over.
++++++++++++
more on Fake News in this iMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=fake+news
Mary
April 10, 2019 at 12:56 am (6 years ago)Young’s article is interesting because it brings up a good point of media literacy – students should be able to connect what they learn in the classroom to the online world. The problems that we give students should be based on real world examples and problems, rather than simply “busywork”. Reddit gives users equal standing in ability to post content and comment on other posts, which can either be very good, or very bad. As the author points out in the last few paragraphs, Reddit often has a bad reputation in schools. In the St. Cloud school district, for example, Reddit is one of the banned websites. What other resources can you use to help elementary and secondary students become media literate?
Plamen Miltenoff
April 11, 2019 at 8:01 pm (6 years ago)Mary, for very practical hands-on resources regarding digital, information and media literacy, please search this blog:
e.g.
http://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=media+literacy
just type your keywords in the search box (upper right corner)
also, if you search by
#FakeNews
you will find plenty of materials for classroom use
Jacquelyn Ward
April 11, 2019 at 12:23 am (6 years ago)This hits on an important consideration which is often overlooked in digital citizenship and/or digital literacy teaching; that of communication. Students need modelling and guides and opportunities to communicate constructively in an online community in an intentional effort to construct deeper understanding. This communication skill isn’t only an online classroom community building strategy but also an integral practice of critical thinking in everyday life. I recently visited a high school that has opted to have teachers create their own ibooks instead of textbooks. WHen a concerned faculty member worried that the books had no vetting process such as textbook publishing editors, a valid point was made that students should be vetting the ibooks. Would it be reasonable to think that students could/should closely examine the information in the ibooks and have conversations with each other and with experts to further the knowledge of the given topic?