Developing Digital Detectives: Essential Lessons for Discerning Fact from Fiction in the "Fake News" Era

From the authors of the bestselling Fact vs. Fiction, this book offers easy-to-implement lessons to engage students in becoming media literacy “digital detectives,” looking for clues, questioning motives, uncovering patterns, developing theories and, ultimately, delivering a verdict. The current news landscape is driven by clicks, with every social media influencer, trained and citizen journalists chasing the same goal: a viral story. In this environment, where the race to be first on the scene with the most sensational story often overshadows the need for accuracy, traditional strategies for determining information credibility are no longer enough. Rather than simply helping students become savvy information consumers, today’s educators must provide learners with the skills to be digital detectives – information interrogators who are armed with a variety of tools for dissecting news stories and determining what’s real and what isn’t in our “post-truth world.” This book: Shares meaningful lessons that move beyond existing “fake news” protocols for determining information credibility. Includes examples for presenting information to students so the strategies can be applied both in and outside of school. Provides a sample scope and sequence, outlining the key skills needed by all students as they navigate today’s news landscape. Unpacks the connection between social-emotional learning and information literacy. Offers ideas for integrating technology to create learning opportunities for students that are relevant, meaningful and rich with real-world applications.