It Must Be True, I Saw it On the Internet! Teaching Students How to Vet and Discern Digital Media 

Tuesday, February 26, 2019
4:15 – 5:30 pm
at St. Joseph's Collegiate Institute (Cullen Lecture Hall)

Our students are digital natives, but not necessarily in the scholarly sense. Landmark and ongoing research from the Stanford University History Education Group (known as SHEG) has demonstrated students' overwhelming inability to discern truth from "fake news." There is such an overwhelming responsibility for educators to acknowledge this need for instruction when approaching digital information.

Educators can easily present and create systems to help students learn how to look at online content objectively and with academic criticism,and find the best quality information. We also need to teach our students how to check the veracity of websites/authors, and access age-appropriate and reading-level-appropriate, high-quality information.

Presenter: Kirsten Smith (Lockport Central School District), is the STEM Moderator for George M Southard Elementary School. She presented this topic at the NYS Reading Association State Conference and the NYSCATE Conference this past fall where it was well received.