I am still having great fun with Factitious, a quiz that tests my ability to distinguish real news from the fake stuff. It’s a resource that can help individuals fine-tune their media literacy skills, assisting them as they consider the truthfulness (or lack of truthfulness) of a news story.
I wrote about Factitious in June 2017, but recently I went back to the site and discovered that the game has expanded, with updated news for each year and a few more news evaluation levels. Last week I asked a group of friends play the game, and we all agreed it is a helpful teaching tool.
Everyone in a family or a classroom can play. Each quiz level features a set of news stories. A player reads each story and then decides whether or not it is true. If it is difficult to decide, Fictitious provides a source button at the bottom of each article that explains where the story came from, and that information can be key to deciding if the news is reliable. The site also has a link for teachers to use if they want to offer feedback to the game developers.
Developed collaboratively by JoLT and the AU Game Lab, two organizations at the American University in Washington, DC., Fictitious is an easy-to-use resource to help people learn to identify what is accurate and what is not.
This NPR story offers more information about Fictitious.
Media! Tech! Parenting! 