This district defends multimedia literacy to combat “brain rot”

Key points:

It is essential that students know how to use digital content, but as students have more access to information, it is also essential that they know how to evaluate that information with a demanding eye.

In it Baldwin Union Free School DistrictEducators and leaders are working diligently to avoid “brain rot” as they strive to teach students how to ask questions, evaluate information sources and actively participate in their communities.

“'Pudition brain' is defined as' the alleged deterioration of a person's mental or intellectual state, especially seen as the result of the excess of material consumption (now particularly online contained) considered trivial or disturbing. Also: something characterized as it is likely to lead to such deterioration, “according to Oxford University Press, than declared brain rot as his word of the year in 2024.

Directed by Dr. Shari Camhi, the district superintendent and former president of AASA, Baldwin UFSD educators work to identify processable solutions to reverse brain rot and combat the tendency of students who consume high quality and high digital content quality.

The greatest approach to the district is the education of media literacy and civic commitment. Multimedia news and literacy studies are integrated into grades 6-12 ELA and social studies curricula.

Through lessons and research projects, together with a university level course, “University Civic and News Literacy”, Baldwin UFSD students are learning to discern the facts of fiction, identify erroneous information and develop thinking skills critic that will serve them throughout their lives.

Ask questions and think critically

A large part of multimedia literacy is to learn to ask questions. In an era of social networks, where anyone can cite information from any source and be declared an expert, students must have critical thinking skills to assess what behind the message or information that a person shares.

“There is so much wrong information out there: we deliberately ensure that our children have the necessary skills to know if what they are reading, wherever they are reading it, it is true or not,” Camhi said.

The University Level Course, offered through an association with the University of Stonybrook, teaches higher students about truth and verification, justice, balance and bias.

In social studies classes, students examine current news and information examples to determine if what they are reading is journalism, opinion journalism, entertainment, sponsored content, propaganda, etc.

“We hope that our students have the skills, but almost more important are that they have the questions,” said Camhi. “When they read something, they must have questions about where the information is, the author, another writing on the same subject, when it was written and for whom. That is one of the things we are really deliberate with our students, teaching them how to ask questions and how to ask the right questions. Everyone should be doing this. “

Digital resources and content will not disappear, and the best way to balance the potential for brain rot with the need to participate in digital environments is to create a healthy curiosity and healthy skepticism in students.

Sharing online content plays an important role in disseminating erroneous information. “One of the questions we ask is: 'Should you share this?'” Said Camhi. Instead of sharing before verifying what is behind the content, students in Baldwin UFSD are learning to ask questions before they press send.

“When children are on social networks, (I hope) their brains light up with the questions they are asking,” Camhi said. “The term 'brain rot', if I imagine how it looks, it seems that sitting, collapsed children, accepting everything that is presented. When I imagine our students, they are sitting right, they are curious, they are asking questions. I took a scan of their brains, they are illuminating because they are not sitting passively accepting what they are told. “

When it comes to the civic education of the district, Baldwin UFSD leaders believe it goes hand in hand with critical thinking skills.

If you ask people who define “Civics”, you are likely to receive a variety of answers, all related to government function and what it means to operate as a good citizen within that government structure.

“When I think about this issue, it's about being a good informed and curious citizen,” Camhi said. “What does it mean to be a good curious and informed citizen? The work we are doing in our degrees 6-12 and our university level course is exactly that. When we graduate from our students, regardless of their next step, we must ensure that young people who are intelligent, and not only reserve intelligent, who are curious and can ask questions, can notice the difference between what is real and what does not It is real, that they are ready for the next step of life.

“We do not teach children that think, but we certainly teach you as Thinking, that is an essential ability that takes you through old age. You can't forget how to think critically, because that is essential, ”said Camhi.

All students have different strengths, and not all will excel in all academic areas, but multimedia literacy skills are skills that all students must have.

“If our children graduate and cannot notice the difference between true and false information, none of us will be fine, we have to be intelligent about it,” Camhi added.

Laura Ascione is the editorial director of Eschool Media. He graduated from the prestigious Faculty of Journalism of Philip Merrill of the University of Maryland.

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