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This is a great article by @cwarzel and a good opportunity to talk (once again) why the SIFT methodology is radically different than the media literacy students are often taught. https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1357377153155883012
The media literacy we're so often thrown into has underneath it a sort of Orwellian idea. Information is limited, and we must apply much attention to finding the hidden agendas and meaning to what we are given to read.
That sort of assumption works well in the educational paradigm schools have embraced: schools present students with readings over and over. Here's a thing, look at it and think *deeply* about it. Follow the *logic*. Find the *inconsistencies*. But that doesn't help here.
The slide here say 2018 b/c the slides were from StratComDC 2018, but the situation has only gotten worse in 2020. When you have a *filter* problem encouraging students to *apply deep attention* to potential misinfo makes the problem infinitely worse.
Here's the sort of bad advice students get about dealing with misinfo from teachers. I'm not exaggerating, this model with it's ~26 questions is still the most popular approach to teaching online infolit.
Education at all levels is taking students whose problem is they don't know where to direct their attention and telling them the solution is to direct more attention to everything. It. is. insane. It. does. not. work. and. cannot. work.
Sure, it might seem to work in your 30 minute classroom assignment where a student spends 30 minutes reading something to determine whether it is worth reading. But you can see the problem here, right?
The way education approaches this issue is attention-illiterate, and in being that, socially dangerous. When the avg. person gives bad actors significant attention, even to "debunk their logical arguments" the bad actor has already won.
The alternate approach? Show students how to dedicate as little time to looking at sources not worth their attention as possible. Because ATTENTION IS THE SCARCITY. This is why we use a heuristics based approach called SIFT.
The point of SIFT isn't to issue truth-rulings or be a mini-scholar on an issue. It's just to ask two things about the information and media that comes to you:
1. Is this worth my attention?
2. And if not can I find something related that is?
1. Is this worth my attention?
2. And if not can I find something related that is?
Shoot I have a meeting, but more of this thread later...
