Developing Digital Detectives: Essential Lessons for Discerning Fact from Fiction in the 'Fake News' Era, Paperback

From the authors of the bestselling Fact vs. Fiction, this book offers easy-to-implement lessons to engage students in becoming media literacy "digital detectives," looking for clues, questioning motives, uncovering patterns, developing theories and, ultimately, delivering a verdict.

The current news landscape is driven by clicks, with every social media influencer, trained and citizen journalists chasing the same goal: a viral story. In this environment, where the race to be first on the scene with the most sensational story often overshadows the need for accuracy, traditional strategies for determining information credibility are no longer enough. Rather than simply helping students become savvy information consumers, today's educators must provide learners with the skills to be digital detectives - information interrogators who are armed with a variety of tools for dissecting news stories and determining what's real and what isn't in our "post-truth world."

This book:

• Shares meaningful lessons that move beyond existing "fake news" protocols for determining information credibility.
• Includes examples for presenting information to students so the strategies can be applied both in and outside of school.
• Provides a sample scope and sequence, outlining the key skills needed by all students as they navigate today's news landscape.
• Unpacks the connection between social-emotional learning and information literacy.
• Offers ideas for integrating technology to create learning opportunities for students that are relevant, meaningful and rich with real-world applications.

As the authors state: "Remember, the detective's job is NOT to prove themselves correct. Their job is to detect the truth!" This statement reflects the way they approach the lessons in this book, providing clear and practical guidance to help educators address and overcome this ever-expanding issue.

Audience: K-12 educators and library media specialists

About author(s):Darren Hudgins (@dhudgins) is a former secondary social studies and career tech education teacher, staff developer and coach who joined the Organization for Educational Technology and Curriculum (OETC) team in 2007. Since becoming the director of instructional technology, he's led, facilitated, presented on and developed technology integration programs in districts to help foster unique learning experiences. In addition to his professional development responsibilities, he is the OETC events lead for several different boutique events, including IntegratED Portland AcceleratED Portland, SPARK and Leading Schools. Hudgins holds an M.Ed. and dual bachelor's degrees in human development and social sciences. He is co-author of the book Fact vs. Fiction (ISTE, 2018).