How Adolescents Learn From Digital Media

Essential question

How can learning from digital sources be biased?

Learning intention

Understand how learning from digital sources is vulnerable to bias.

Lesson vocabulary

Bias - prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group, usually in a way considered to be unfair
Confirmation bias - seeking out and paying attention to the information that supports the views you already hold; ignoring information that contradicts or does not fit your views

Lesson materials

Lesson slides
Chart paper, markers, & tape
Internet-connected devices for students (alternative activities are suggested if such devices are not available for students in class)
Search Activity Google Form (educators should create their own distribution links)

Lesson standards

CDC National Health Standards for Middle School
2.8.5 Analyze how messages from the media influence health behaviors.
2.8.6 Analyze the influence of technology on personal and family health.
3.8.1 Analyze the validity of health information, products, and services.

Florida Health Education Standards for Middle School
HE.6 C.2.5, C.2.6, C.2.8, B.6.1, B.6.2, B.6.3
HE.7 C.2.5, C.2.8, P.8.4, B.6.1, B.6.2, B.6.3
HE.8 C.2.6, C.2.8, B.6.1, B.6.2, B.6.3

Lesson plan

Introduction (~15 minutes)
As a class, have students brainstorm the ways in which teens learn about news or gain information and write their answers on the board. If they say social media, dig deeper and ask, “Which forms of social media do you think teens use to learn about the news?”

Then, have students work in small groups to choose what they think are the top 5 ways and rank them in order from most to least used. Have students record their ordered lists on a piece of chart paper and tape up around the room.

Show the slide with data about how U.S. teens get their news. Say: This graph shows the top sources of news for teens. Compare students’ lists to this list.

Ask: How do you think students find news on YouTube?

After students respond, show the slide with data about how U.S. teens find news on YouTube.

Say: Half of teens on YouTube get their news from YouTube. What could be some potential problems with receiving your news from YouTube?

Present the vocabulary word bias. Ask students to discuss how YouTube news sources could be biased.

Search Activity (~23 minutes)
Divide the class into pairs. Ask each pair to decide on a news topic that they are interested in researching. Ask one member of each pair to research the topic using mainstream media sources while the other member uses social media sources. When they have completed their search, ask each person to complete the Search Activity Google Form (educators should create their own distribution links) for this activity.

For classrooms without individual Internet-connected devices, students can select a current event as a class and take turns searching on the presenting computer while their classmates give advice. Instead of the Google Form, students can answer the questions on a printed handout.

After the searches are completed, ask students to discuss how the two types of sources compare. Then, ask students to discuss how their searches could have been biased.

Bias (~10 minutes)
Present the slide with different forms of bias. Read each form of bias and its definition. Ask students to raise their hands after each definition if they think their search may have included that form of bias. Call on a few students to share how that bias applied to their search.

Watch video about confirmation bias

Review the vocabulary word confirmation bias. Ask students to discuss how YouTube and social media can reinforce confirmation bias.

Exit slip (~2 minutes)
Ask students to come up with a strategy to avoid confirmation bias. If time, students can share their strategies with the class.

Essential question

What are signs of reputable and non-reputable digital news and media sources?

Learning intention

Develop an understanding of how to identify reputable news sources and positive media influences.

Lesson vocabulary

Disinformation - false information that is deliberately spread
Misinformation - false information that is accidentally spread

Lesson materials

Lesson slides
Internet-connected devices for students (alternative activities are suggested if such devices are not available for students in class)
CRAP Checklist Worksheet

Lesson standards

CDC National Health Standards for Middle School
2.8.5 Analyze how messages from the media influence health behaviors.
2.8.6 Analyze the influence of technology on personal and family health.
3.8.1 Analyze the validity of health information, products, and services.

Florida Health Education Standards for Middle School
HE.6 C.2.5, C.2.6, C.2.8
HE.7 C.2.5, C.2.8
HE.8 C.2.6, C.2.8

Lesson plan

Introduction (~6 minutes)
Say: In Lesson One, we learned that teens get information from all kinds of sources and that some sources may be biased. Today, we’ll learn how to tell if a source is a reliable one.

Ask students to discuss whether they can trust the information they read/hear on the internet.

Remind students that we can trust information but must be careful to double check the source to make sure it is reliable.

Information (~6 minutes)
Watch video about information sources and false information

Review the vocabulary words from the video, disinformation and misinformation. Ask students to think of and share an example of each.

CRAP activity (~35 minutes)
Say: One strategy to avoid misinformation or disinformation is the CRAP checklist.

Present the slides explaining the CRAP method.

Break students into small groups and assign each group one of the three example websites to review using the CRAP Checklist Worksheet.

• Example #1
• Example #2
• Example #3

After ~20 minutes, when students have finished, pull up each webpage and ask students to share their responses. Ask: Was it difficult to determine if the webpage was real? Why or why not?

For classrooms without individual Internet connected devices, each of the example sites can be visited as a class, with students filling out their own CRAP checklists for each site.

Exit slip (~3 minutes)
Ask students to complete the exit slip exercise. If time allows, students can share their questions and try to answer each others’ questions.

Essential question

How can fake news be recognized?

Learning intention

Think critically about information presented on the internet.

Lesson vocabulary

Fact check - use different sources to confirm that information is true
Debunk - show or demonstrate that something is not true

Lesson materials

Lesson slides
Internet-connected devices for students (alternative activities are suggested if such devices are not available for students in class)
Classify the Clip Worksheet
Module Review Google Form (educators should create their own distribution links)

Lesson standards

CDC National Health Standards for Middle School
2.8.5 Analyze how messages from the media influence health behaviors.
2.8.6 Analyze the influence of technology on personal and family health.
3.8.1 Analyze the validity of health information, products, and services.

Florida Health Education Standards for Middle School
HE.6 C.2.5, C.2.6, C.2.8, B.6.3
HE.7 C.2.5, C.2.8, P.8.4, B.6.3
HE.8 C.2.6, C.2.8, B.6.3

Lesson plan

Introduction (~3 minutes)
Ask students to write down their definition of “fake news”, then share responses with the class.

Say: In today’s lesson, we will learn about how to recognize fake news on the internet.

Fake news and conspiracy theories (~15 minutes)
Watch video on fake news-related vocabulary.

Review the vocabulary words from the video, fact check and debunk. Ask students to discuss what these words have to do with fake news.

Say: A common type of fake news is a conspiracy theory.

Watch The Guardian video on conspiracy theories.

Say: Now that you have more background information about fake news and conspiracy theories, think about how you and your peers use technology. What makes adolescents susceptible to believing and sharing fake news and conspiracy theories?

After students have discussed in small groups, call on students to share with the class.

Classify the clip activity (~20 minutes)
Break students into groups and have them complete the Classify the Clip Worksheet. Students should first guess whether each clip (headline) is real or fake news, and then research the story. (Answer key: 1: Real, 2: Fake, 3: F, 4: R, 5: F, 6: F)

When students are done, ask them to share what they learned as a class. Ask students what they did to research the clips, and how they could tell if the websites they visited were reputable.

For classrooms without individual Internet-connected devices, students can take turns searching the stories on the presenting computer while their classmates give advice.

Fighting fake news (~5 minutes)
Say: Fake news is hard to fight because it spreads so quickly. Scientists researched real data from Twitter and found that fake news spreads six times faster than true news. The graph shows how many minutes [vertical axis] it takes for information to reach increasing numbers of users [horizontal axis]. You can see that the fake news, in red, reaches more people, more quickly than true news, in green.

Those scientists also found that fake news is more attention grabbing because it tends to be more emotional and surprising, which gets people to want to read it and share it.

Review ways to fight fake news.

Review resources for fact-checking potentially fake news. Say: There are many online resources for fact-checking the news. The Duke Reporters’ LAB also maintains a list of reliable fact-checking websites.

Exit slip/module review (~7 minutes)
Have students complete the Module Review Google Form (educators should create their own distribution links) and remind them to always fact check.

For classrooms without individual internet-connected devices, the Google Form questions can be turned into a worksheet or asked verbally, with students writing down their responses.