If you are searching for an educational media literacy initiative that focuses on the mechanics of fact-checking, take a few minutes to learn about MediaWise, a project of the Poynter Institute.
Eighteen teenagers from around the United States are part of a MediaWise fact-checking network, learning about strategies and techniques that can help them identify misinformation. They participate in training that helps them understand how to determine what’s true and what’s not, and then the teens can set about investigating on their own. Finally, and this is the cool part, after the students decide whether the information is true or false, they create videos that illustrate the process they used to evaluate the information.
I’ve embedded two of the videos below.
Fact-checking is a 21st Century skill, so some ambitious initiatives are ahead for MediaWise. It has partnered with Stanford University History Education Group to design a curriculum, one that will be free and easily downloadable, to teach fact-checking skills to middle and high school students, and it aims to deliver the information to one million teens in schools around the country. It has also selected NBC Nightly News journalist Lester Holt (watch his MediaWise news segment) to be an ambassador for the program.
While the curricular materials are not ready yet, media literacy presentations are available to schools. The website notes that:
… the MediaWise team at Poynter is working with Local Media Association and National Association for Media Literacy Education to visit schools and teach the fact-checking skills the curriculum is built on. Contact mwtips@poynter.org to bring MediaWise to your school.
Two Fact-checking Network Videos
Media! Tech! Parenting! 