Disinformation is a hot topic - teachers concur
Recently, the Miles partners have been organizing trainings for teachers and students who are studying to become teachers. The goal of these trainings was to educate the teachers on the topics of disinformation, fake news, prebunking etc. Furthermore, many partners have been organizing free webinars for the same target audience, to elaborate even more on these topics.
The high demand for trainings, workshops and webinars on these topics, shows us the importance of our project. Disinformation is a hot topic, many teachers will agree. We can see that students spend more and more time alone, while simultaneously it seems young people have less and less control over what they see online and how they can recognize real from fake.
Evolutions to take note of
1. Fake news spreads like wildfire
According to studies, fake news spreads 6x as fast as real news and there is a 70% increased chance for fake news to be shared over real news. Therefore, learning and teaching how to spot fake news becomes vital.
2. It is becoming harder to recognize deepfakes
With the arrival of AI tools such as Sora, it is becoming easier to create realistic looking AI content and it is becoming harder to recognize fake content. This makes it even more important for us to be vigilant and share tips on how to spot AI content.
3. Factchecking is becoming more proficient
Some good news! Professional factchecking sites can help us recognize real from fake. These factcheckers exist on local and international levels and have professionalized the checking of news articles.
What Miles is doing
Now that we have trained some teachers, our next step is to come together to create and gather useful tools that can be used in the classroom. This way the teachers are emboldened to approach the topic during their classes, whether it is during civics class, English, Maths or others, in new, exciting and creative ways. That way, we will soon be starting to organize workshops with students themselves.