Teaching Civic Online Reasoning: Empowering Students to Sort Fact from Fiction Online

Presented by Dr Sarah McGrew

 

This is the second in a series of two online professional learning events featuring international guest speakers exploring inquiry learning and media literacy issues relevant to teacher librarians and teachers in 2021.

Each session is being held on a Saturday morning from 9-11am, with each 2 hour session consisting of a one hour presentation with Q&A followed by one hour of practical workshop-style activities.

Each session identifies the relevant standards for members to claim these hours as Elective Professional Development.* Completing this first session will provide you with a total of 2 hours of Elective PL.

Each 2 hour session will take place in SLANSW's Zoom conference room.

Those who register for this event will receive an email within 24 hours before the event with details to access this online session.

A maximum of 100 places are available for each session, so get your registrations in ASAP.

If you wish to register for both sessions to receive an extra members' discount, please go the ISS Professional Learning Package on the Events page on SLANSW's website to register for the 2 sessions as a package (do not register for each individual event as you will not get the extra discount).

Please note SLANSW's Cancellation and Refund Policy for Professional Learning Events when registering for this conference.

International Speaker Series: 2   Saturday 13th November, 9-11am

Teaching Civic Online Reasoning: Empowering Students to Sort Fact from Fiction Online

Presented by Dr Sarah McGrew

Description of session

Information floods our phones, tablets, and laptops, and young people, in particular, rely on this information to learn about the world.  Yet evidence suggests that students struggle to evaluate digital content.  Teachers and teacher librarians should help students learn effective evaluation strategies—but what should they teach?  This workshop will focus on a research-based approach to teaching students to evaluate social and political content online: civic online reasoning.

Participants will be introduced to research from the Stanford History Education Group on effective approaches to evaluating online information and strategies for supporting students to learn these approaches.  As part of the workshop, participants will examine student responses to assessments of civic online reasoning, get an inside look at research on how fact checkers evaluate online information, and analyze approaches to teaching civic online reasoning.  Throughout the workshop, we’ll consider how teachers and teacher librarians can support students to learn these vital democratic skills.  Participants will have an opportunity to plan for how to incorporate these ideas and approaches into their own classrooms and schools.

About the presenter

Dr Sarah McGrew is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership in the College of Education at the University of Maryland, College Park.  She studies educational responses to the spread of online mis- and disinformation, focusing specifically on young people’s civic online reasoning—how they search for and evaluate online information on contentious social and political topics—and how schools can better support students to learn effective evaluation strategies. As part of the Stanford History Education Group, Dr. McGrew developed assessments of students’ online reasoning, conducted research on fact checkers’ strategies for evaluating digital content, and tested curriculum designed to teach these strategies to secondary and college students.  Dr. McGrew earned a B.A. in Political Science and Education from Swarthmore College and an M.A. and teacher certification in the Stanford Teacher Education Program.  She taught high school history in Washington, D.C. for five years before returning to Stanford to complete her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Teacher Education.

 * Elective Professional Development

As NESA changes continue to unfold, this ISS professional learning session is an Elective Professional Development opportunity. The following standards apply to the content being presented in the keynotes and workshops:

1.2.2 Structure teaching programs using research and collegial advice about how students learn.

3.3.2 Select and use relevant teaching strategies to develop knowledge, skills, problem-solving, and critical and creative thinking.

4.5.2 Incorporate strategies to promote the safe, responsible and ethical use of ICT in learning and teaching.

6.4.2 Undertake professional learning programs designed to address identified student learning needs.

7.4.2 Participate in professional and community networks and forums to broaden knowledge and improve practice.