Why we need a new approach to teaching digital literacy

Abstract

In recent years — and especially since the 2016 presidential election — numerous media organizations, newspapers, and policy advocates have made efforts to help Americans become more careful consumers of the information they see online. In K-12 and higher education, the main approach has been to provide students with checklists they can use to assess the credibility of individual websites. However, the checklist approach is outdated. It would be far better to teach young people to follow the lead of professional fact-checkers: When confronted by a new and unfamiliar website, they begin by looking elsewhere on the web, searching for any information that might shed light on who created the site in question and for what purpose.

“I'm Always Kind of Double‐Checking”: Exploring the Information‐Seeking Identities of Expert Generalists

“…Information literacy instruction in schools has not kept pace with the internet's evolution. In U.S. schools, many K–12 students are encouraged to search only in library databases or on .edu websites for their research papers; otherwise, they are told to evaluate websites based on domain name and features such as currency and relevance, often arranged in a checklist or as an acronym (Breakstone et al., ; Metzger, ). These checklists assume that credibility judgments can and should be made by closely examining a single webpage alone, and the Web 2.0 perspectives of these heuristics are often misleading in the current Web 3.0 environment (Breakstone et al., ; Kohnen, in press).…”

“…In U.S. schools, many K–12 students are encouraged to search only in library databases or on .edu websites for their research papers; otherwise, they are told to evaluate websites based on domain name and features such as currency and relevance, often arranged in a checklist or as an acronym (Breakstone et al., ; Metzger, ). These checklists assume that credibility judgments can and should be made by closely examining a single webpage alone, and the Web 2.0 perspectives of these heuristics are often misleading in the current Web 3.0 environment (Breakstone et al., ; Kohnen, in press). A decade's worth of research studies have found that in the absence of adequate instruction, students struggle to make credibility judgments (e.g., Brand‐Gruwel, Wopereis, & Walraven, ; Eynon & Geniets, ; Thomm & Bromme, ).…”

“…Never has that been truer than the present moment. We undertook this research amid escalating calls for improved online literacy instruction in K–12 schools (Breakstone, McGrew, Smith, Ortega, & Wineburg, ; Bulger & Davidson, ; Caulfield, ; Hobbs, ; Kohnen & Saul, ), while also witnessing the savviness with which young people from places such as Parkland, Florida, used social media to promote civic activism (e.g., Samuel, ).…”

From Syndication to Misinformation: How Undergraduate Students Engage with and Evaluate Digital News

“…Critics of the checklist have underscored major weaknesses of the method, such as how it oversimplifies a nuanced process (Meola, 2004) or does not reflect the many different types of information-sharing sites that now exist (Ostenson, 2014). These arguments hold more weight in the current fake news-saturated landscape, especially those suggesting checklist tools can produce false positives when used on certain questionable sources (Breakstone, McGrew, Smith, Ortega, & Wineburg, 2018;Caulfield, 2016). This move away from checklist evaluation tools, in conjunction with the recent emphasis on fake news in library instruction, suggests new approaches are needed to teach students to detect misinformation.…”

The power of peers: approaches from writing and libraries

“…There has also been a shift in expectations of availability and quality among consumers of this information, particularly among students (Heick, 2018;Horrigan and Rainie, 2002). Students have difficulty evaluating which information sources are credible (Breakstone et al, 2018;McGrew et al, 2018;Wineburg et al, 2016). When confronted by information challenges, students often turn to friends for assistance before turning to their professor, librarian, or other formal source of support (Beisler and Medaille, 2016).…”