In a December report from the Pew Research Center, 64% of American adults surveyed said that “fake news” sows “a great deal of confusion about the basic facts of current events.” And while almost a quarter admit that they have shared a “fake news” story on social media, 39% still express that they are “very confident in their ability to recognize made-up news stories.”
It is increasingly difficult into today’s media landscape to make these kinds of judgments and decisions, even when sharing things on social media. For students who are writing research papers and completing post-secondary assignments, the bar is (as it should be) set much higher. How do you know your students have the skills to recognize acceptable sources for your assignments?
The Langara Library’s “Can I Use This?” Evaluating Your Sources online tutorial asks students to think critically about the sources they find and build healthy skeptical habits around information sources. Students are presented with a “Five W” framework that considers a number of questions to ask about each resource they find.
While the tutorial is designed to help students find resources acceptable for assignments, this tutorial can cultivate a mindset that helps create better informed, more critical, and healthily leery student body.
Contact your subject librarian for more details on how the library can assist your students in evaluating the trustworthiness of information sources.
