Type of Presentation

Panel

Conference Strand

Ethics in Information

Target Audience

Higher Education

Second Target Audience

K-12

Location

Session 4 Papers

Relevance

As recent political events across the globe have shed a light on the fragility of democratic values, the role of the University in creating a framework for civic education becomes more urgent. Informed, caring and engaged citizenry must be a goal of higher education. Richard Taylor suggests that the role of universities is to strengthen public reason while protecting private reason. Taylor suggests, “in order to realize a civic function for the university in the 21st century, the university has the challenge of living outside in. It should take its bearings from the wider society.” David Watson, has compiled evidence that the re-energizing of universities is mobilizing educators to design learning objectives, courses and programs to better accomplish this essential task. Finally, in the landmark work Democracy and Education, educational psychologist, John Dewey argues that the full development of an educated mind depends on societal experiences that help younger members to better understand the social norms and effectively participate in society. There has been the fear that teaching these skills will come at the expense of teaching academic content. Jonathan Haber debunks this myth. He argues, “Yet one cannot think critically about a subject one knows nothing about. Since background knowledge, including knowledge of content related to the academic disciplines is a vital part of being a critical thinker.” This presentation will connect these threads of literature and provide one innovation team’s approach to help student develop the essential skills necessary for citizenship in the age of misinformation.

Abstract

As recent political events across the globe have shed a light on the fragility of democratic values, the role of the University in creating a framework for civic education becomes more urgent. Informed, caring and engaged citizenry must be a goal of higher education. Students currently face the emergence of faulty types of information - such as misinformation and disinformation, which undermines the notion of collective or public inquiry, not only within universities, but also within society as a whole. This challenge must be acknowledged and addressed by academic institutions.

Session presenters will provide an overview of their work, “Critical Thinking in the Age of Misinformation,” a project that responds to the need for critical thinking and media literacy intervention in core courses via a customizable interdisciplinary module that can be adopted across the curriculum. Presenters will provide a lively forum for discussion of this contemporary issue, relevant literature, key insights from a team innovation project and module overview for attendee inspiration. Presenters will highlight the core components of this module which include Zombie Logic, Social Mania, Fake News and Conspiracy Theories. The session will also share information about how this project and others were sponsored through the GSU’s Perimeter College Dean’s Summer Grant Program. This initiative funds important faculty projects to enhance teaching and learning across the curriculum during summer term through grant-funded reassigned time to allow faculty the space to innovate and investigate.

Presentation Description

This session will introduce a student interdisciplinary module, “Critical Thinking in the Age of Misinformation,” a project that responds to the need for critical thinking and information literacy. Presenters will provide a lively forum for discussion of this contemporary issue with key insights from a team innovation project. Interactive module components will be shared, which include Zombie Logic, Social Mania, Fake News and Conspiracy Theories.

Keywords

Information Literacy, Critical Thinking, Democracy, Social Media, Misinformation, Fake News, Information Science, Teaching and Learning, Instructional Design

Publication Type and Release Option

Presentation (Open Access)

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Apr 1st, 10:00 AM Apr 1st, 10:30 AM

Critical Thinking in the Age of Misinformation: Information Literacy for Citizenship

Session 4 Papers

As recent political events across the globe have shed a light on the fragility of democratic values, the role of the University in creating a framework for civic education becomes more urgent. Informed, caring and engaged citizenry must be a goal of higher education. Students currently face the emergence of faulty types of information - such as misinformation and disinformation, which undermines the notion of collective or public inquiry, not only within universities, but also within society as a whole. This challenge must be acknowledged and addressed by academic institutions.

Session presenters will provide an overview of their work, “Critical Thinking in the Age of Misinformation,” a project that responds to the need for critical thinking and media literacy intervention in core courses via a customizable interdisciplinary module that can be adopted across the curriculum. Presenters will provide a lively forum for discussion of this contemporary issue, relevant literature, key insights from a team innovation project and module overview for attendee inspiration. Presenters will highlight the core components of this module which include Zombie Logic, Social Mania, Fake News and Conspiracy Theories. The session will also share information about how this project and others were sponsored through the GSU’s Perimeter College Dean’s Summer Grant Program. This initiative funds important faculty projects to enhance teaching and learning across the curriculum during summer term through grant-funded reassigned time to allow faculty the space to innovate and investigate.