My first reflective word of 2017 is veracity.
2016 brought events that caused waves in our society. These were not ripples that made small changes close to home. These were massive storm waves that disrupted our entire world. Some of the events were more positive like the Cub’s win, the Rio Olympics, or the Kepler telescope discovering a thousand new planets. So many more waves were negative. Police shootings in our state and beyond sparked protests, as did the Dakota Access Pipeline. Terrorist attacks took countless lives nearby and across the world. The social media world is blaming 2016 for the deaths of many celebrities, alongside some momentous losses from Castro to Supreme Court Justice Scalia.
So many of these events will affect the world in which our students and children will grow. Teaching digital literacy in the past could focus on credibility of the source. In today’s “fact checking” world, even vetted sources. We are leaving a year where Oxford Dictionaries chose “post-truth” as the Word of the Year.
I have been collecting articles about navigating between the lines to find the accuracy, the veracity, of the media we consume.
That is the reason one of my focuses of the year is “veracity”: how to help everyone, not just our students, to learn to find the accuracy of the media we consume.
veracity [noun]
1. Conformity to facts; accuracy:
– ‘officials expressed doubts concerning the veracity of the story’
– ‘If there are any doubts about a report’s veracity, they can call on the expertise of their editors instantly.’
– ‘‘Still, no matter the source or its veracity, intelligence has to be analysed correctly.’
– ‘‘We know that factual accuracy and veracity are trickier than they seem.’1.1 Habitual truthfulness:
– ‘‘voters should be concerned about his veracity and character’
– ‘‘The ending is powerful, with the message that history is what you make of it, depending upon the veracity of those who wrote it.’Origin
Early 17th century: from French véracité or medieval Latin veracitas, from verax speaking truly (see veracious).
“Veracity.” English Oxford Living Dictionaries. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Jan. 2017. <https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/veracity>.
Your perspective: What would your word be to represent 2017? What was the word of 2016? Please comment below.