In this day and age of post-truth, alternative facts, fake news, it is more imperative than ever for youngsters (and adults) to learn how to evaluate sources of information. Distinguishing fact from fiction is one of the challenges of the age (there was even a creative writing talk recently entitled: Is non-fiction the new fiction?). Media literacy is nothing new of course: I was teaching my students how to interpret the media, and how to interpret statistical data. But the main differences, I think, are that these days news, whether true or false, travels far more quickly than it used to, and is uncontainable. By that I mean that the days in which you could limit the fallout from fake news by recalling and pulping printed material are long gone.
All of which is a very long-winded way of saying that this book is very timely. And what makes it even better is that it covers a range of useful topics: infographics, surveys, and presentations.
Also, this is not a dry academic tome on the one hand, nor a ‘populist’ book on the other, neither of which are of much immediately practical use to the busy teacher. This is, rather, a book written and structured with schools, teachers and pupils very much in mind.
Read more.
cross-posted at www.ictineducation.org
Terry Freedman is an independent educational ICT consultant with over 35 years of experience in education. He publishes the ICT in Education website and the newsletter “Digital Education."
