“Historians and students often fell victim to easily manipulated features of websites, such as official-looking logos and domain names.”
This quote really helps to show how often people are falling for misinformation and that it is not just younger less educated people that are falling victim but even highly educated individuals. This is why it is so important for us to know what to look for in order to make a decision about a source. Especially as historians we need to be using correct information but are instead getting tricked by sites that look like they couldn’t be wrong and end up using them before we even really dive into them to find out if they are true. I also think that misinformation is going to be a huge problem in the classroom when dealing with students especially when talking about current events so it is essential that I learn how to spot it so that I can then teach my students in turn. I also think that by pointing out that many people including professionals fall for misinformation that students would feel less alone/singled out and be more willing to learn.
“The close reading of a digital source, when one doesn’t yet know if the source can be trusted proves a colossal waste of time,”
It is so important that our students learn that while reading things close is an essential skill to have it should not always be what you do first. When reading about history or current events teachers should actually encourage students to skim the website first. We should look at the websites domain, who runs it, if it has any sources, if it has any bias, etc. Reading something really closely and knowing all the information is great but not very useful if it is full of misinformation. I think it would be a really good practice to learn this if a teacher gave their students two separate sites (one with misinformation and one not) on the same topic and asked them to judge whether or not the site is reliable. I’m sure you’d still have some students just read it but that would show them that the skill is not always the best.
“Communicate to students that more thorough evaluations, like those lateral reading allows, are crucial to establishing the trustworthiness of digital information.”
Instead of the close reading strategy we should be encouraging students to read lateral. So essentially skim the reading and website. Have them try to locate any biases, who the websites is by, etc. Then encourage them to even open another browser and search for the information and compare what other sites say. As well as search for the organization and see what others say about it. The biggest tip for them however would be to see if they could find any academic articles about the topic or organization to see the differences and then to make their decision based on their research.
The Educator Staff, “How to Help Students Spot Misinformation,” The Educator Online, August 7, 2018. https://www.theeducatoronline.com/k12/news/how-to-help-students-spot-misinformation/253223
