Digital literacy is becoming a huge part of our daily lives, given the social climate of today and our heavy reliance on the internet for information. In the past ten years or so, I have found my own digital literacy to be lacking and worked hard to ensure that any information I am spreading online or in person is fact checked and proven by multiple trusted sources. I hope I have improved this part of my life, however, I feel that I am more scared to “claim” having knowledge of something now than I was before, in fear that I may be misinformed. As a future maths teacher, it would maybe not come up very much directly in my classes to deal with fake news or misinformation. But I think there would be opportunities to teach about skewed information, especially in graphs! It is very easy to create a graph of statistics and make it LOOK different than it is. For example, I created these two graphs to the right to show the same information in two different graphs, and how simple it is to skew information or perspectives. People can definitely do a better job than this, especially since a lot of online sources simple lie about the numbers. I also think it’s important to catch students if they are spreading misinformation, or to be able to discuss any questions about topics they may be conflicted about with hearing multiple perspectives. I also thinking, if I am able to teach about it, that I would like to discuss the ‘backfire effect’ within the brain, discussed in this comic called "You're not going to believe what I'm about to tell you". This is the neurological process in which people deny or reject information that goes against their own beliefs because it is hard to accept being wrong on something that believe so deeply. Similarly stated and further explained in “it’s Easier To Call A Fact A Fact When It’s One You Like, Study Finds” by NPR. Also, in the ’10 Types of Fake News’ by PBS, I find it interesting that they labelled propaganda as neutral impact. If we look in the past, specifically in wars or conflicts, I will never consider propaganda as a neutral media. In fact, I think labelling propaganda as neutral is misinformation in itself, as it is not labelling it for what it really is! Giving it a more positive and acceptable view than it deserves. It is not appropriate or acceptable to spread propaganda in my opinion. I would like to teach students about propaganda, and it’s impacts as it seems to be the least noticed media misinformation. Overall, I think media literacy is extremely important in the growing world of today and even more important in our future and the students’ lives that we will be impacting.
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AuthorMy name is Paige Belcourt and I am currently a student a the University of Regina. I am working towards a degree in Secondary Mathematics Education with a minor in French, as well as a certificate in inclusive Education. Archives
April 2024
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