Schools should teach pupils how to spot 'fake news'

[Deleted]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-39272841

Schools should teach young people about how to identify "fake news", says the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's education director.

Andreas Schleicher is planning to include questions about such "global competencies" in the next round of the influential international Pisa tests.

He wants teenagers to look beyond the social media "echo chamber", where they might hear only views like their own.

Students need more places to "exchange ideas", says Mr Schleicher.

The OECD aims to develop global policies focused on improving economic and social well-being.

Its education chief says schools need to equip young people with the skills needed to navigate the digital world, with unreliable claims on social media and falsified news.

"In the past, when you needed information, you went to an encyclopaedia... and you could trust that the information would be true," says Mr Schleicher,

But now he says young people go to Facebook or news websites and need to be able to evaluate what is reliable.

"Distinguishing what is true from what is not true is a critical judgement," says Mr Schleicher, who will be addressing the Global Education and Skills Forum in Dubai.

"Exposing fake news, being aware that there is something like fake news, that there is something that is not necessarily true, that you have to question, think critically - that's a very important task."

Mr Schleicher, who runs the international Pisa rankings, is going to introduce written tests in 2018 on global competency, which will assess how well young people are ready for a diverse and "interconnected world".

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So is this a good thing or waste of school time?

[Deleted]

So a critical thinking class.

[Acidbaron]

Considering the technology advancing behind it, it's not a matter of good or bad it's a matter of necessity. We are years away from making facial animations that can put anyones face and voice behind any random message. We can already do that now but it can be spotted.

If you are a parent and your kid is using a tablet and are opposed to education on this, you are a bad parent plain and simply by refusing to equip your kid to future nonsense.

[Dezerte]

I've always been of the opinion that there should be mandatory "critical thought"-classes in basic school education. The education system needs to be modernized with more relevant subjects I feel, this being one of them.

[Spiral Mage]

Waste of time. Fake news is so easy to spot. You only fall for it if you want to.
You can't teach people not to want to do that.

Though critical thinking and common sense in general are a very worthy idea for a mandatory course.
Assuming the people teaching it are any better than the students.

[Deleted]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-39272841


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So is this a good thing or waste of school time?

Critical thinking and source criticism. It's very important in todays society. Kids need to learn to weed out good from bad, reliable from unreliable.

[Machismo]

Most adults cannot seem to understand the difference.

[Stormspark]

So a critical thinking class.

Yeah...will not ever happen in a million years. Critical thinking is highly frowned upon in school. There's no way in hell that's going to change. They'll probably just pay lip service to it.

[Miztickow]

All that's required is a small section during one class about credible sources and all the teachers taking points off future papers for using a source that's not credible.
It worked at my school.

[Lynarii]

People can already easily spot fake news, it's any news that disagrees with what they believe.

[Stormspark]

Critical thinking and exposure to multiple sources should have ALWAYS been the focus of secondary education.

Listen to the Carlin video I linked. The people in charge don't want that.

[Alydael]

Schools already teach this.

My professors in college and high school would not accept any papers sourced from unreliable sources.

However, what is considered a "reliable source" may vary from individual to individual.

I think it is more important to teach students to make sure they represent both sides of the issue, so that they fully research the topic.

When you only pull for one side (and represent one side), my writing professor used to call your "work" "mental masturbation." I can only imagine what he thinks of the press....

[Acidbaron]

Listen to the Carlin video I linked. The people in charge don't want that.

Too much Illuminati for my liking. However he has a point i do believe there's still a political change possible and at least in Europe more and more money influencing politics is being shut down.

[Deleted]

This is far more important than 90% of what you learn in school. Most people will never use geometry or chemistry in their everyday lives, but everyone encounters fake news on a regular basis.

My school didn't do either

[Rennadrel]

So a critical thinking class.

Pretty much. Apparently to have independent thought and use logic are no longer instructed to the youth today. I guess that explains the stupid hivemind mentality of the regressive left.

Also, if they want to cover shit like fake news, BuzzFeed should be their first stop, they are nothing but clickbait bullshitters anyway.

[Rotted]

I'd be up for this, except the majority of the time it's not kids spreading fake news,

Without offending anyone, its parents and seniors on facebook that spread so much fucking bull shit.

Christmas just gone, someone shared something to raise awareness - can't for the live of me remember what it was about - usually I ignore it, but this time decided to get involved as we hadn't long covered it and I could put my hands straight on legit scientific sources. Sent said person the source, with a message (in a nut shell) what you just shared isn't actually true, this is actually the case .......

To which they reply (something along these lines "lol, obv that is wrong that is just a word document someone wrote, this is from buzzfeed they report the important stuff" Needless to say I nearly flipped my desk and that person has since been removed from my friends list.

Hell my own mother is the same, she reads one article from a completely unknown website and is sharing it far and wide to people.

And don't get me fucking started on the comment-ors on things like the onion

[Acidbaron]

Pretty much. Apparently to have independent thought and use logic are no longer instructed to the youth today. I guess that explains the stupid hivemind mentality of the regressive left.

Also, if they want to cover shit like fake news, BuzzFeed should be their first stop, they are nothing but clickbait bullshitters anyway.

I hope you realize the irony in pointing out a single political spectrum when making that statement.

[Xisa]

Of course they should teach critical thinking.

There's the catch: If you think that teaching critical thought is a bad thing, it means that you believe something that has no logical foundation, and you are despearte to keep people from thinking about it too much.

In other words, if you're against teaching critical thought, you are automatically in the wrong.

[THE Bigzoman]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-39272841


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So is this a good thing or waste of school time?

They already do in Sweden.

Though i'm not sure why, vast majority of swede kids go to gubmit daycare.

They're not going to rise against what's practically their parents.

[Felya]

So a critical thinking class.

Mine was in Sicial Studies, current events portion. Don't remember the actual name, but it's where we learned NY Post is a tabloid.

The school:

http://schools.nyc.gov/SchoolPortals...34/default.htm