Students are plagued by misinformation and disinformation online, and social media and the rise of AI may only exacerbate this trend. It’s no question then that teaching digital media literacy is the next evolution in a student’s education, two leaders from Gale, the school curriculum database, say on this special episode of the “Talking Out of School Podcast” recorded at FETC.
“The hope is that students gain experience looking for and evaluating information—and that they learn to do so in an environment that’s safer and saner than in the wild,” says Liz Collins, senior product manager in Gale’s K12 division.
To do this, school districts must onramp students slowly, curating content appropriate to each student depending on their grade level. But entering high school, it’s vital to relax guardrails and allow students to consume content geared toward the general public.
“It’s critical that we arm these students with critical thinking skills,” says Lemma Shomali, vice president of product. “Students need to be able to take in a lot of different information, interrogate it and form an opinion.”
More from DA: Trump moves to expand school choice, root out ‘indoctrination’
Collins takes it one step further, believing students should not only be prepared to question the content they’re receiving but also the platform they are receiving it from. “It’s a kind of digital literacy we’re all missing. How does ChatGPT or this social media site’s algorithm work? We can use that knowledge to understand the outputs it gives us. Most of us have a nascent understanding of that.”
Unlike most of “Talking Out of School” episodes, this podcast was recorded in person live from the DA Newsroom at the Future of Education Technology Conference.
“FETC brings together a lot of different definitions of technology used in the education space,” like content, hardware and IT infrastructure,” Shomali says. “School districts need all these things, so it’s really helpful when their partners are working together.”
Take this episode with on Spotify, Apple, Amazon or Podbean embedded below.
