About a month ago, one of the teachers at North and I were discussing the increased skills that our students must develop in telling fake and biased news from more factual news. I told her that as a Media Specialist who had been trained in teaching digital literacy, I too needed to adapt my understandings to teach students to recognize the minute details that differentiate a very savvy fake website from a vetted one.
The Tree Octopus and dhmo.org used to be some of my go-to samples of misleading and fake sites. Today, parody and fake sites clone reliable sites so accurately that it is very hard to catch the nuances that show their true source. nbc.com.co and abcnews.com.co are two examples that are going strong as of this writing. These sites seem to have different agendas than satire sites like The Onion which calls itself a “farcical newspaper featuring world, national and community news.”
Going back to the conversation with the teacher, she asked if I had any good, new resources for lessons she was developing for her students. I had just bookmarked this resource from the University of Minnesota: How do we become better citizens of information? Amazingly, that same teacher had a connection to one of the librarians who was part of putting the page together. It was one of those moments where fate fell into place, and we were able to have a very special guest librarian present to our 9th graders with relevant, timely information.
The site focuses on a foundation of four tips:
1. Say No to Clickbait and check the domain name
2. Check the date
3. Find the original source and read it
4. Start at a library
Supporting the tips, the site includes up to date examples, commentary, and fact-checking resources. We were very lucky to have another voice bring an important lesson to our students.
Your Perspective: What is/was your go-to fake website source? Is it still relevant today? Please comment below.