In the age of bots and AI, how can students identify misinformation online?

Key points:

In this digital age of artificial intelligence and misinformation, today's students need to be better prepared to discern fact from fiction.

A 2023 survey A study by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a nonprofit that fights misinformation, found that “60 percent of Americans ages 13 to 17 surveyed agreed with four or more harmful conspiracy claims, compared with just 49 percent of adults. For teens who spend four or more hours a day on a single social media platform, the figure rose to 69 percent.”

Whether you rely heavily on ChatGPT to write a paper that results in an assignment filled with inaccurate information, or you rely solely on social media to learn about global issues like the conflict in Gaza or upcoming national elections, learning to understand primary sources, question information, analyze data, and discern hidden agendas are key skills all students need.

While reading, writing, and arithmetic remain important, today’s middle and high school students are bombarded daily with misinformation. Now that ai can effortlessly create compelling yet fabricated stories, today’s curricula must prepare students to navigate the murky waters of ai, bias, and misinformation.

It is possible to incorporate this into interesting learning segments. For example, a course or learning unit could explore issues such as the Bermuda Triangle and examine which news sources are credible or not, what misinformation really means, and how to write an argumentative essay correctly. The topic translates into real-world critical cognitive skills.

Another learning opportunity could be evaluating ai tools through ethical frameworks. Students could read and interact with the ideas of well-known philosophers and apply them to modern dilemmas in artificial intelligence. They could ask questions such as, “How do I measure and evaluate the benefits and potential harms of this ai tool?” and “What can Immanuel Kant’s theory of the categorical imperative shed light on how we make decisions around ai?”

My advice to educators is:

• Incorporate skills like critical thinking into segments about current events that students will find interesting. Students can participate with questions like:
  • What kind of content do I encounter?
  • Is the information complete? And if not, what is missing?
  • Who or what are the sources and why should I believe them?
  • What evidence is presented and how was it tested or examined?

• Explicitly teach students how to identify an opinion piece versus a news article and to consider who is behind a website or social media account.

Today, institutional brands like CNN or NBC News are no guarantee of a single set of standards, values ​​or approaches to quality. Knowing what distinguishes news from propaganda, advertising or entertainment is increasingly important. In his book The elements of journalism, Rosentiel and Kovach have identified the following four media models (note that all or some of these models can be found in a single issue of a newspaper and its online outlets):

• Verification journalism: a traditional model that places the highest value on accuracy and context (sense-making)
• Assertion journalism: A newer model that places the highest value on immediacy and volume and in doing so tends to become a passive conduit of information (transmitting information without providing much further context).
• Affirmation journalism: A new political medium that bases its allegiance less on accuracy, integrity, or verification than on affirming the beliefs of its audiences, and therefore tends to select information that serves that purpose.
• Interest group journalism: Specific websites or works, often investigative, that are typically funded by special interests rather than media institutions; they are designed to look like news.

• Help students understand the differences between:
  • Facts
  • Bias (prejudice about an idea, thing or person, usually unfairly)
  • Well-reasoned opinion based on fact-based analysis.
  • Poorly reasoned opinion based on prejudice or assumptions

• Incorporate ai tools into the classroom so students understand the power and limitations:
  • It aims for transparent and thoughtful use of ai, which involves citing the ai ​​tool and user input, evaluating the output, and editing, combining, and elaborating on the output.
  • Explain the differences between using ai as an assistant and tutor and using ai to perform tasks for you.
  • Use an ai competency rubric or scale to illustrate the skill sets needed to use ai responsibly

• Teach students how to verify information:
  • Help students explore how corroborate information they see online
  • A good rule of thumb is “trust, but verify.”
  • If a statement seems suspicious, determine if you can find 2 or 3 credible, unbiased sources that can corroborate it.

We can’t ignore the new set of skills today’s students need as they graduate and enter the real world. A key part of our job as educators is to prepare students to be critical thinkers and help them decipher information. It’s also more than just teaching them to navigate online sources; we need to prepare them for the new challenges that ai presents.