Topico is a news-sharing app that's aimed at helping students not only consume news media safely but also to help them learn how that works.

The idea is to offer a service that delivers current events to students while also helping to improve skills such as reading, comprehension, and critical thinking.

The company says that it's mission is to "support news literacy for a better informed, and more civil society." So pretty lofty goals above and beyond what it will be doing for individual students -- but sensible aiming for big change at a scale with which teachers can work.

This guide aims to lay out all you need to know about how Topico could work for your class.

What is Topico?

Topico is a news curation and sharing app that highlights current events while encouraging skills using helpful teaching-focused features.

Teachers are able to curate articles from a wide selection of topics and sources, ideally suited to the subject or area being taught.

The idea here is that teachers and students can dig down into the news itself to probe questions such as how can a source be trusted, or why is this story being covered by many outlets?

This can be a great point to start discussions in the class that promote critical thinking. The app also has a social element that promotes sharing articles.

How does Topico work?

Topico allows teachers to create newsrooms in which certain stories can be curated. But there is also an option to follow a tag, allowing students to track a story as it evolves across different media.

By creating and organizing news article types into a single space, it can help to encourage students to make recommendations, based on that specific topic or story -- keeping focused on building on the news in a relevant way.

So while this offers a social element to news consumption and sharing, it avoids the risk of getting lost in comments or public opinions that can detract from the actual news and journalism being shared.

What are the best Topico features?

Topico offers its own News Wizard feature that helps teachers and students to curate a Newsroom with specific stories, with ease.

Newsroom notifications allow students and teachers to receive push notifications on their devices when new stories are added. This can help students to keep abreast of a developing story, but also teach them how to filter when they want to open the app and when to ignore notifications -- a useful life skill.

Teachers can set permissions on posting that can be a helpful control system. This allows educators to grant permission to students, co-workers, or friends to post -- or to remove those rights when rules are not followed, for example.

Since Newsrooms can be Topico-wide, it allows students with permission to explore other news feeds and topics to learn from and be a part of those other communities.

Your profile picture has influence rings around it to show how you rank based on the recommendations of your posts, which is a fun, engaging way to make this feel sociable without the weight of direct contact.

How much does Topico cost?

Topico is available on iOS and Android as free apps that can be downloaded and used without any charges. Everything is kept secure and private as this is built to be used by educators and students safely.

Topico best tips and tricks

Follow together
Begin using the app as a class, on the big screen, to show how it all works in practice so students can feel confident exploring.

Topic up
Put students in groups, each working on certain topics, before having them present back what they've found and experienced.

Back it up
Break out lessons to teach about sources and practical journalism so students can understand why it's better than social feeds.

• New Teacher Starter Kit
• Best Tools for Teachers

In today’s digital world, we seem to be surrounded by news. Clickbait, anyone? Yet the pervasive and often intrusive nature of internet news articles belies the fact that many of these sites are behind a paywall, biased, or feature low-quality reporting.

Still, online articles are a great starting point for all kinds of learning assignments across the curriculum. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of the best (mostly) free article websites for students. Many of these sites offer not only high-quality topical articles on every subject, but also ideas for lessons, such as questions, quizzes, and discussion prompts.

Free Article Sites

CBS Kids News
A top quality, free service of the Canada Media Fund, CBS Kids provides daily news stories of interest to kids in Canada and the United States. Although the focus is on Canada, the vast majority of articles are highly relevant to American kids as well. Examples include: “What’s an executive order? And why do U.S. presidents use them?” “TikTok creators confessed secrets before the app went dark,” and “Nintendo Switch 2 is coming in 2025.” Even better, the articles are written by students, grades 7-12. Topics are diverse and range from sports, gaming, and animals to politics and interactive quizzes. Stories are printable as PDF and shareable to Google Classroom. An excellent resource for teachers.

The Electric Typewriter
A remarkable free site that compiles and links to the best articles on a wide range of topics, from current affairs to music to sports and more. Ideal for students in grade 11 through post-secondary school.

The Sift
The Sift is a free weekly newsletter for educators that provides summaries, discussion points, ideas for lessons, and links to topical articles in the news. Each newsletter also highlights and debunks fake news making the social media rounds. Classroom-ready resources include shareable Google Slide decks.

Science Journal for Kids and Teens
A fantastic free source for hundreds of downloadable scientific articles aimed at K-12 students. Search by standards, grade level, scientific topic, or method. Each article is accompanied by a teacher's guide, lesson plan ideas, and related articles. Teachers need only to register once to access all educator guides. Be sure to check out their YouTube page as well!

PBS NewsHour Daily News Lessons
Daily articles covering current events in video format. Each lesson includes a full transcript, fact list, summary, and focus questions.

NYT Daily Lessons/Article of the Day
The New York Times Daily Lessons builds a classroom lesson around a new article each day, offering thoughtful questions for writing and discussion, as well as related ideas for further study. Perfect for practicing critical thinking and literacy skills for middle and high school students, it’s a part of the larger NYT Learning Network, which provides an abundance of activities for students and resources for teachers.

The Learning Network
Current event articles, student opinion essays, movie reviews, students review contests, and more. The educator resource section offers top-notch teaching and professional development resources.

News For Kids
With the motto “Real News, Told Simply,” News for Kids strives to present the latest topics in U.S. and world news, science, sports, and the arts in a way that’s accessible to most readers. Tooltips within each article highlight certain words to add a definition, or link to further explanation.

ReadWorks
A fully free research-based platform, Readworks provides thousands of nonfiction and fiction passages searchable by topic, activity type, grade, and Lexile level. Educator guides cover differentiation, hybrid and remote learning, and free professional development. Great resource for teachers.

Science News for Students
Winner of multiple awards for journalism, Science News for Students publishes original science, technology, and health features for readers ages 9-14. Stories are accompanied by citations, recommended readings, glossaries, readability scores, and classroom extras.

Teaching Kids News
A terrific site that publishes readable and teachable articles on news, art, science, politics, and more for students grades 2-8. Bonus: The Fake News resource section links to online games about fake news and images. A must for any digital citizen.

Youngzine
A unique news site for young people that focuses on climate science, solutions, and policies to address the myriad effects of global warming. Kids have an opportunity to express their views and literary creativity by submitting poetry or essays. Free for educators, compatible with Google Classroom.

Scholastic Kids Press
A multinational group of young journalists ages 10-14 report the latest news and fascinating stories about the natural world. Features sections dedicated to civics and international news. Have a student with a strong journalistic bent? In March 2025 Scholastic Kids Press will accept applications for the 2025-26 program year.

National Geographic Kids
A fine library of articles about animals, history, science, space, and—of course—geography. Students will enjoy the “Weird But True” short videos, featuring fun animations about oddball topics.

Freemium Article Sites

AllSides for Schools
From the public benefit company Allsides Technology, Allsides for schools aims to present unbiased news and information for kids through downloadable lesson plans covering polarization and bias, using AI for civil discourse, and comparing bias across news outlets. A free basic account allows limited access. Premium accounts cost between $4.99 and $14.99 monthly and allow 50-150 bias checker uses per month. Classroom and district memberships are also available and offer COPPA/FERPA compliant student access, starting at $200 annually for up to 99 students.

DOGOnews
News articles featuring current events, science, social studies, world events, civics, environment, sports, weird/fun news, and more. Free access to all articles. Premium accounts offer extras such as simplified and audio versions, quizzes, and critical thinking challenges.

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NexGen News was created from an idea that all students should be able to experience news, and learn to digest it, without the need to be exposed to everything.

This was born as a way to offer a more curated news selection to students of a younger age so that they can enjoy the process -- with parents and teachers comfortable sharing everything the site has to offer.

Of course, since this is designed for education, it goes a lot further with various resources that can help teach beyond the news itself. But at its most basic, this offers video and written news stories that children can use and enjoy to keep up with what is happening in the world -- with lots of exercises to help develop critical thinking.

This guide aims to explain in more detail what you need to know about NexGen News to see if could work for your class.

What is NexGen News?

NexGen News is a school-specific news platform that delivers bespoke videos every two weeks for students to watch.

The idea was to create a space with newscasts that are for young people, presented by young people, to better create engagement.

All that, the site's creators say, is in order to help young people to think critically about current events while also becoming contributing members of society.

The CEO and co-founder, Laura Segre, along with COO and other co-founder Michelle McGuire, hold multiple degrees, masters and a doctorate in teaching education disciplines. All that combines to offer a perfectly placed position to create something that's ideal for student growth both inside and outside the class.

How does NexGen News work?

NexGen News uses YouTube-based videos to share the bespoke news in a two-weekly send-out. This means students know when it's coming and can access it from nearly any device. And since it's video, engagement is even easier for a wide range of students.

Each news video comes with a written article on the subject, too. These can be shared by the teacher with student accounts on their personal devices, or viewed as a group.

Lots of additional materials are offered for follow-up, including lesson plans for teachers as well as discussion questions and extension materials.

This is all ideally suited for middle school-aged students with the ability to expand or dive into the rich content, as needed by each teachers, to suit the class and students.

What are the best NexGen News features?

NexGen News offers some fantastic premium features that allow teachers to get more interactive with students digitally. This includes follow-up work to news pieces that can be assigned and graded with a lot of automation, which can be time-saving.

Specifically, there is the option to assign quizzes that are designed specifically for the news just digested. Also, there are written response questions that can be answered as a way to go deeper and assess student understanding.

The lesson plans, which are Common Core-aligned, helpfully offer a variation on the choices for ELLs and gifted students to ensure everyone is progressing at a pace that suits them.

Extension activities help to add even more value with options for writing, art, and tech. Plus, there are grading rubrics for assignments to help keep teaching planning time to a minimum.

How much does NexGen News cost?

NexGen News is a subscription service but does also offer some free content.

The free content allows you to have a try before you buy. This offers some free stories in video and written format. It also has follow-up questions, reading and writing tasks, lesson plans by grades, and follow-up activities.

Go for the Educator subscription tier at $239/year and you get the full video library, discussion questions, standards-based curriculum for grades, reading level differentiated news articles, Google Classroom and Clever integrations, plus a dashboard to assign and monitor student activities.

Go for the Educator Pro version, at $299/year, and you get the above plus auto-graded reading quizzes to assess comprehension, and self-graded writing prompts.

The School & District tier is bespoke priced, and adds data to track student performance, dedicated customer service manager, personalized school site training, and unlimited seats.

The Family package, at $120/year, gets you the biweekly newscasts, full video library access, discussion questions and activities.

NexGen News best tips and tricks

Go deep
Use the newscast as a jump off point into more depth on the subject area, watching the video to begin a lesson on that area.

Use the deck
Each lesson plan comes with a slide deck that is worth using in front of the class to work through as a group.

Quiz out
Either use the Pro-tier quizzes or write your own to assess the class and see how well uptake of the stories, written and video, are going.

• New Teacher Starter Kit
• Best Tools for Teachers

The Week Junior is a weekly news magazine that focuses on current events but filtered for readers between 8 and 14 years old.

That makes this unique as the only publication for children of that age that covers weekly news including science, nature, tech, and culture. It does all that with the goal of fostering the love of reading in children while also working directly with kids and empowering them to understand the facts behind what is happening in the world.

The magazine works with guiding principles that include Respect, Clarity, Balance, Trust, and Accuracy. 

In the words of Editor-In-Chief Andrea Barbalich: “Children are aware of what's happening in the world, possibly more so than they’ve been given credit for in the past. This generation is informed, engaged, and involved. Many children have told us, ‘We want to know what the adults know.'"

So how can this work in education?

What is The Week Junior?

The Week Junior is a magazine publication aimed at 8 to 14 year old readers that covers news, science, tech, nature, and culture on a weekly basis. It is available in print form, giving children a chance to read current events without the need for more screen time.

In a government study it was found that 83% of kids found it important to learn about the world around them while 75% believed their actions could make the world a better place. Since Gen Alpha also said that access to education is a top issue (along with protecting the planet and ensuring everyone is fed), the content in The Week Junior is more relevant now than ever before.

The magazine is available both as a companion to kids while also working as a partner for parents and educators helping those children to learn and grow. While this is all in print, there is also a digital side that allows for engagement from readers, but more on that below.

How does The Week Junior work?

The Week Junior is a subscription-based magazine that is released on a weekly basis.

It is a great non-fiction source, which is appealing for teachers who find it hard to find a non-fiction source that kids will enjoy reading.  

Like any other magazine, everything is laid out clearly and, in this case, beautifully, with vibrant colors, rich imagery, and well-spaced text. All that makes for an easy-to-read magazine that is appealing to younger children, helping them learn magazine layouts and setting them up for other news-reading options in the future.

Everything is sectionalized so readers can jump to the parts they want or work their way through. Puzzle sections allow let kids to get involved and test their learning skills. Plus, there is the email section in which kids can make contact and even see their own words, potentially, in print in the next edition of the magazine.

What are the best The Week Junior features?

The Week Junior reports on current events in a safe and trusted way for children.  The magazine gets students talking about events happening in the world, and provides them with facts that help develop their own opinions.

The big story, usually on page two, is the most complex, so it is followed by a series of questions and answers to help make it more easily digestible. Smaller stories follow with local U.S. news, which is then accompanied by features such as the Word of the Week to build vocabulary. 

Silliest Headlines is another nice section that adds brevity and humor to the reading and aims to make reading enjoyable for kids.

The image-led Around The World section is great for learning from 10 short stories that are dotted about a world map. Children learn about what's happening in the world while also discovering or reinforcing their understanding of where those places are.

The Big Debate is a superb section that encourages opinion and sharing with green and orange boxes to show points for the two sides, in which readers can then vote and get involved.

Other sections include the arts, how to, quiz of the week, and more, all designed to keep children coming back throughout the week to this valuable educational tool.

Another great feature is the weekly teacher guide. It's a free, easy-to-use lesson plan developed by educators that help teachers plan each week (since the magazine is current events, they will not know what will be featured until the magazine arrives that week).

How much does The Week Junior cost?

Educators can request a free sample magazine to review with your faculty and administrators, visit theweekjunior.com/schoolsample.

Educators can subscribe for their classrooms for just $1.29 per copy, a savings of more than 78% off the single copy price of $5.99 (includes access to both the Print & Digital edition). Also included is a weekly Teacher Guide to help you get the most out of each issue.  Subscriptions are flexible, teachers can subscribe for a semester or the full school year.

The Week Junior offers classroom bulk subscriptions that are delivered directly to schools.  Magazines arrive fresh-off-the-press every Monday.

The Week Junior best tips and tricks

Get quizzical
At the end of each issue is a quiz that can be used by teachers to check reading comprehension and see how well students are integrating what they're reading.

Review
Pick an article to review and discuss in the class once it's been read. See who has an opinion and who needs more encouragement to join in.

Extend
Use the magazine's lesson extension ideas to seek out more from beyond the magazine to add more depth to what the students have already read.

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In today’s digital world, we seem to be surrounded by news. Clickbait, anyone? Yet the pervasive and often intrusive nature of internet news articles belies the fact that many of these sites are behind a paywall, biased, or feature low-quality reporting.

Still, online articles are a great starting point for all kinds of learning assignments across the curriculum. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of the best free article websites for students. Many of these sites offer not only high-quality topical articles on every subject, but also ideas for lessons, such as questions, quizzes, and discussion prompts.

Student Article Websites

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CommonLit
With thousands of high-quality, Common Core-aligned reading passages for grades 3-12, this easy-to-use literacy site is a rich source of English and Spanish texts and lessons. Search by theme, grade, Lexile score, genre, and even literary devices such as alliteration or foreshadowing. Texts are accompanied by teacher guides, paired texts activities, and assessments. Teachers can share lessons and track student progress with a free account. 

DOGOnews
News articles featuring current events, science, social studies, world events, civics, environment, sports, weird/fun news, and more. Free access to all articles. Premium accounts offer extras such as simplified and audio versions, quizzes, and critical thinking challenges. 

CNN10
Replacing the popular CNN Student News, CNN 10 provides 10-minute video news stories on current events of international importance, explaining how the event fits into the broader news narrative. 

KiwiKids News
Created by a New Zealand primary school educator, Kiwi Kids News features free articles about health, science, politics (including U.S. political topics), animals, and the Olympics. Kids will love the “Odd Stuff” articles, which focus on unusual news, from the world’s biggest potato to centenarian athletes. 

PBS NewsHour Daily News Lessons
Daily articles covering current events in video format. Each lesson includes a full transcript, fact list, summary, and focus questions. 

NYT Daily Lessons/Article of the Day
The New York Times Daily Lessons builds a classroom lesson around a new article each day, offering thoughtful questions for writing and discussion, as well as related ideas for further study. Perfect for practicing critical thinking and literacy skills for middle and high school students, it’s a part of the larger NYT Learning Network, which provides an abundance of activities for students and resources for teachers.

The Learning Network
Current event articles, student opinion essays, movie reviews, students review contests, and more. The educator resource section offers top-notch teaching and professional development resources. 

News For Kids
With the motto “Real News, Told Simply,” News for Kids strives to present the latest topics in U.S. and world news, science, sports, and the arts in a way that’s accessible to most readers. Features a coronavirus update page.

ReadWorks
A fully free research-based platform, Readworks provides thousands of nonfiction and fiction passages searchable by topic, activity type, grade, and Lexile level. Educator guides cover differentiation, hybrid and remote learning, and free professional development. Great resource for teachers.

Science News for Students
Winner of multiple awards for journalism, Science News for Students publishes original science, technology, and health features for readers ages 9-14. Stories are accompanied by citations, recommended readings, glossaries, readability scores, and classroom extras. Be sure to check out Top 10 tips to stay safe during an epidemic. 

Teaching Kids News
A terrific site that publishes readable and teachable articles on news, art, science, politics, and more for students grades 2-8. Bonus: The Fake News resource section links to online games about fake news and images. A must for any digital citizen.

Smithsonian Tween Tribune
An excellent resource for articles on a wide range of topics, including animals, national/world news, sports, science, and much more. Searchable by topic, grade, and Lexile reading score. Lesson plans offer great ideas for the classroom and simple, usable frameworks for implementing these in any grade. 

Wonderopolis
Have you ever wondered if llamas really spit or if animals like art? Every day, the award-winning Wonderopolis posts a new standard-based article exploring intriguing questions such as these. Students may submit their own questions and vote for their favorites. Be sure to check out “Wonders with Charlie,” featuring acclaimed writer, producer, and director Charlie Engelman.

Youngzine
A unique news site for young people that focuses on climate science, solutions, and policies to address the myriad effects of global warming. Kids have an opportunity to express their views and literary creativity by submitting poetry or essays. 

Scholastic Kids Press
A multinational group of young journalists ages 10-14 report the latest news and fascinating stories about the natural world. Features sections dedicated to coronavirus and civics.

National Geographic Kids
A fine library of articles about animals, history, science, space, and—of course—geography. Students will enjoy the “Weird But True” short videos, featuring fun animations about oddball topics.  

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PBS NewsHour Extra

Trusted news brand's current events site could pique teens' interest

Pros: Timely lessons, videos, and discussion questions.

Cons: PBS videos are trustworthy and well-reported, but not quite what students are used to.

Bottom Line: This isn't going to necessarily excite students, but the high-quality content is credible and timely and should support interesting discussions.

Read more 

App of the Day picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly. 

By Common Sense Education

YR Media

Dynamic site harnesses creative young talent to speak truth to power

Pros: Great, modern content that tackles relevant topics in an authentic voice.

Cons: Some topics tend more toward people in their twenties than teens, and the radio stream can contain explicit language.

Bottom Line: This fresh and socially aware website will draw students in with catchy -- often controversial -- topics, but keep them there with quality content.

Read more 

App of the Day picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly. 

By Common Sense Education

What recommendations should we be giving parents and youth when it comes to screen time?  In past limiting some types of screen time made sense. A time when the American Pediatric Association (AAP) made long-standing screen time limits recommendations. However, those were based on research around passive television viewing and violent video games.

Since then the AAP has backtracked.

In 2015 Dimitri Christakis, AAP Council on Communication and Media member, revealed new information about the recommendations. He confessed to the research that lead to the recommendations was conducted before anyone knew the iPad, or similar interactive screen devices, existed. He says that since screens are now more than just devices to passively intake information, he has a different view. He explains that today, screens “can be used to read books to children, and high-quality apps are similar to toys. Therefore, the AAP needs to consider how these devices are used instead of discouraging their use across the board. We don't want to risk appearing so out of touch that we're irrelevant and people won't take our advice seriously."

A year later, the AAP updated their views saying that families are better off doing away with hard-and-fast restrictions on screen time. Instead, their should be joint media engagement and/or awareness, guidance, and conversations about healthy, productive, and/or educational screen use.  

In his book "The New Childhood," agrees.  He lays out clear recommendations on healthy and productive ways adults can spend more screen time with young people to successfully prepare them for the digital world in which they live.

The other important point to remember is the usefulness of screens beyond just learning. 

Yes. Screens are our books. They let us publish books. The allow us to code and create for authentic audiences. They enable our math to become visual so we can better understand how to solve equations. Screens enable us to communicate and collaborate across geographic boundaries. We can interact and engage in powerful ways never before possible.

But, that’s just the start.

Assisting those with disabilities

The percentage of the population with disabilities at any given time stands around 15 - 20%. For many of us able-bodied, this is only a temporary state. A large percentage of the population will experience disability at some point in their lives. It may be a broken bone that puts us in crutches or a cast on our hand. We may experience vision or hearing loss because of a medical condition. We may have cognitive impairment as we age or because of an aneurysm. We may have an undiagnosed learning condition like dysgraphia or Aspergers. Whether it is ourselves, a friend, a child, parent, or other family member, we all have or no someone who may have abilities that are impaired.

Fortunately, today technology can help powerfully with all of these conditions.
That means we must think differently about screen time.

Unfortunately, there is no acknowledgement with the AAP about the value of screens to support those with disabilities. The organization sees the world as things you do on screens and things you do without screens. It fails to recognize the ways screens are being integrated into the lives of so many.  
Let’s take a look at a few examples.

Screens give a voice and unleashe the thoughts of Dillan and Meera 

 Screens become the eyes of Patrick. 

Screens give sound to Shane. 

Screens provide mobility for Todd. 

Invisibly Abled

Screens are also helping those with invisible disabilities. Like Immersive Reader and speech to text for those with dyslexia or other literacy issues. There are accessibility features for those who are color blind, or those prone to seizures. Translation technology now can take words in an image turn them to text, translate them and read aloud.

Even those without a named disability, often find that screen technology unleashes their ability to learn or create in new ways.  

Screens are a lifeline and learning line in ways we may never have realized possible in the past.

When the conversations of screen time come up, the answer must always be,there is not one answer. It depends on the individual. What they’re doing matters. The abilities they wish to access and how they wish to do so matters too.

Instead of talking about screen time, we can switch our conversation to what a healthy media diet looks like for each individual. For more help with that, Common Sense Education has an entire media balance toolbox to guide you. 

Lisa Nielsen (@InnovativeEdu) has worked as a public-school educator and administrator since 1997. She is a prolific writer best known for her award-winning blog, The Innovative Educator. Nielsen is the author of several booksand her writing has been featured in media outlets such as The New York Times,The Wall Street Journal, Tech&Learning, and T.H.E. Journal.   

Civic engagement is one of the latest education buzzwords. But for many of you, prepping kids to be engaged, informed, and knowledgeable citizens has always been job one. So it’s good to see the rest of the Ed world climbing on board.

Part of the task of creating civically engaged citizens is training them to be savvy consumers of online information. And back in the olden times of the World Wide Webs, say around 2008, it wasn’t super difficult to make sense of content that we ran across.

2018?

It’s a bit more difficult. The ease of creating and posting content, the monetization of clickable ads, and the current political / social environment has changed the way the Web works and looks. Making you the underdog when it comes finding ways to help your students (and perhaps yourself?) navigate the online environment.

But there are tools available to make your task a bit easier. So  . . . today? Five tools and strategies that combat fake news and create informed citizens.

1. Train your students to know the difference between biased news and fake news.
Just like all primary sources, all real news is biased. We all bring our own world views to the table whenever we create any sort of content.

Reading accounts of the Battle of Lexington is one way to highlight how different people perceive the same event. Take a look at a lesson plan on the battles of Lexington and Concord. The guiding question – Who fired the first shot that started the Revolutionary War? Students are given eight primary and secondary sources to help them address the question. The problem? Four say American colonists fired first. Four say British soldiers fired first.

Same event. Eight different accounts.

The Stanford History Education Group has a similar activity where students are asked to determine what actually happened during a scuffle in the lunch room. Heck . . . watching Tampa Bay fans during last night’s Monday Night Football game complain about a touchdown that was called back was a perfect example of how our biases impact how we see things.

Here’s what it can look like visually.

Biased news the day after Game Seven of the 2017 World Series:

Gee . . . I wonder who won that game?

Fake News:

There are tons of these sorts of sites out there, all posting completely fictitious articles. But are also sure to tell us that in their disclaimers so they can’t be sued. But who bothers to read disclaimers . . . as long as the articles support my already established world view?

The point? There’s a difference. Houston won the World Series. Los Angeles lost. Bias. Clear editorial decisions to put certain news on the front page of the paper and not other news. Not fake.

America’s Last Line of Defense? Clearly targeting a specific audience in hopes of generating traffic and ad sales. Fake. And dangerous.

Part of your discussion with kids needs to center around identifying individual bias. We’re all susceptible to confirmation and implicit bias. Both we as teachers and our kids need to explore those terms and what they mean to how we absorb information. Then have students walk through a survey titled Where Do You Fit in the Political Typology? from the Pew Research Center. It’s perfect for helping kids identify where they actually stand on a variety of issues. Most walk away surprised at the results.

And while you’re at it, spend some time exploring the Media Bias Chart. Developed a few years ago by Vanessa Otero, the Chart is a concrete and visual way of determining which news sources to trust and how their bias can impact the editorial decisions they make. This is the first one:

Give kids a list of news sources and ask them to place the sources on the matrix. Ask them to provide evidence of why they placed their source where they did. Then head over to Otero’s site for the latest edition including their version of where news sources belong. Be sure to explore both their methodology and scroll down for mini-versions that highlight specific shows and websites from individual news sources such as CNN and Fox.

2. Once kids are beginning to question their own biases and the bias of others, share a few tech tools that can help as they’re online

Start with a Google Chrome browser extension called Trusted News for Google Chrome. It claims that they are “your first step in the fight against fake news. Trusted News uses independent, transparent, and neutral sources to assess news sites. We aim to help you cast a more critical eye over the news by rating for fake, questionable or trustworthy news. Using a simple notification system, the extension flags the trustworthiness of the site. Check at-a-glance if a site is reputable or not. Trusted News also highlights satirical and user-generated content.”

The extension puts an icon in your browser that changes color and shape depending on what site you’re visiting. A green check? Trustworthy. Red exclamation mark? Not trustworthy. It also marks sites as biased, satire, clickbait, and malicious.

3. Surfsafe is a similar type of browser extension. Install it using the Google Web Store and once activated, it analyzes images that appear on the web sites that you visit. SurfSafe uses the news sites you trust, along with fact checking pages and user reports as benchmarks for what images are considered “safe”. Hover over an image, and SurfSafe will classify the image as “safe”, “warning”, or “unsafe”. SurfSafe will also show you every instance of where the image in question has been seen before. SurfSafe allows you to report suspicious images in order to help others surf safely.

[Global Problem Solvers: Authentic problems, engaging content, free resources.]

One possible issue with the Surfsafe extension is that it asks you to select news sources that you trust. So if I only select Breitbart News, Fox News, and NewsMax, my results are gonna get skewed to the right. If I select Slate, Daily Beast, and HuffPost, I’ll probably end up skewed to the left. So while Surfsafe is useful and it does take other information into account, without the bias awareness training we’ve already talked about, it might end up a wash because of your individual bias.

4. Fake News Wakelet
I put together a quick list of helpful resources that can help you design and deliver fake news and bias lessons.

5. Stanford History Education Group Online Civic Literacy
SHEG has had great stuff for years. Last November, they created and posted a series of activities that help you and students develop strong online literacy skills. These assessments show students online content – a webpage, a conversation on Facebook, or the comment section of a news article – and ask them to reason about that content. SHEG as also designed paper tasks as well as tasks that students complete digitally for flexible classroom use. Their goal is to design classroom activities, as the basis for discussions about digital content, and as formative assessments to learn more about students’ progress as they learn to evaluate information. Awesome stuff. And it’s free. So what are you waiting for?

Need a couple of bonus tools? 

My six step process for training kids to make sense of online content.

Explore Facticious – a handy online quiz that measures a student’s ability to recognize fake news.

cross posted at glennwiebe.org

Glenn Wiebe is an education and technology consultant with 15 years' experience teaching history and social studies. He is a curriculum consultant forESSDACK, an educational service center in Hutchinson, Kansas, blogs frequently at History Tech and maintains Social Studies Central, a repository of resources targeted at K-12 educators. Visit
glennwiebe.org to learn more about his speaking and presentation on education technology, innovative instruction and social studies.

CDI Computer Dealers, provider of classroom-ready technology to schools, has partnered with Toronto-based Parlay to bring its new online classroom discussion tool to schools throughout North America. 

CDI partners with educators in schools and districts across North America to deploy and support classroom technologies. The company provides student and teacher devices, a wide range of classroom technology and instructional tools, professional development, deployment services and warranty programs. 

Parlay helps promote meaningful student discussions while teaching digital citizenship and helping teachers measure student engagement. The program offers a library of discussion prompts called the Parlay Universe and two classroom activities called Live RoundTables and Online RoundTables.

For more information about Parlay or to request a demo, visit https://parlayideas.com/ 

Parlay and CDI will host a webinar at 2 p.m. Eastern Time on Nov. 27, 2018 in which McDonald will explore how class discussions can be used to transform the modern classroom. For more information and to register, visit https://goo.gl/u6nSkZ. 

TIME for Kids

Kid-friendly news/info resource can help boost brain power

Pros: Well-written articles, including ones written by kids their age, can help students learn about dozens of topics.

Cons: Teachers must provide insight and feedback to personalize the experience; kids can't post comments, which increases safety but limits discussion.

Bottom Line: News content is presented in a digestible format, which, along with educator guidance, can help kids learn about key current events and other topics.

[Teaching Kids to Examine Media Critically]

Read more here.

App of the Day picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly.

By Common Sense Education

Flocabulary

Schoolhouse Rock meets Tupac in this delightful hip-hop-based platform

[Class Tech Tips: 3 Ways Adobe Spark Promotes Creativity in the Classroom]

Pros: Smart songs are helpful and catchy; they hit all the right spots to satisfy both teachers and students.

Cons: Some subject areas are lighter on content than others, but new material is added regularly.

Bottom Line: Flocabulary has the goods: It's savvy enough to keep kids focused, and teachers will be tapping their toes to the unorthodox learning method.

Read more here.

App of the Day picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly.

By Common Sense Education

Site of the Week picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best edtech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly.

Newsela

Absorbing daily news stories offer kids just-right learning content

Pros: A best-in-class library of high-interest, cross-curricular, adjustable nonfiction texts.
Cons: Expanded search and recommendation features could help students connect with articles tailored even more to their interests and reading level.
Bottom Line: Up-to-date, high-interest articles meet students right at their level: Use this robust tool to bolster students' nonfiction reading practice.

Read more here.

By Common Sense Education

How are you including high-quality, high-interest informational text in your classroom this year? News-O-Matic is a wonderful tool for teachers. This iOS, Android and web-based platform gives kids access to five brand new current events articles each day. Written for specifically for students, News-O-Matic can help teachers make connections across the curriculum and support readers at different levels in their classroom.

As a former elementary school teacher I know how important it is to give students time to explore informational text. Having new articles related to events around the world can help students stay interested as they read and promote discussion. I love how News-O-Matic makes it easy for kids to access high-quality, relevant current events stories both inside and outside of the classroom.

1. Daily reading activities: News-O-Matic can be used in the classroom for everyday reading. As independent readers, students can access new articles each day of the week.
2. Connecting to writing: Current events can inspire writers of all ages. Kids can respond to what they’ve read or use topics in News-O-Matic articles to inspire their own storytelling.
3. Monitoring student understanding: Teachers use the quizzes in News-O-Matic to make sure students understand what they’ve read. This formative assessment data can help teachers see who needs extra help.
4. Refreshing classroom libraries: Students love having access to new text and News-O-Matic gives them something new to read each day. Kids can tap their screen to see brand new articles each day.
5. Extending learning: By introducing students to current events during the school day, you can help them extend this learning outside of the classroom. Teachers can share prompts and a list of news topics with families at the end of each week.

Have you checked out News-O-Matic? Visit their website to learn more!

cross posted at classtechtips.com

Monica Burns is a fifth grade teacher in a 1:1 iPad classroom. Visit her website at classtechtips.com for creative education technology tips and technology lesson plans aligned to the Common Core Standards.