US High Schoolers fail to evaluate digital information

Research findings published yesterday by Stanford reveal low levels of Information Fluency among US High School students.

FULL REPORT HERE

In a nutshell, here are the high level results, described as "troubling:"

• Fifty-two percent of students believed a grainy video claiming to show ballot stuffing in the 2016 Democratic primaries (the video was actually shot in Russia) constituted “strong evidence” of voter fraud in the U.S. Among more than 3,000 responses, only three students tracked down the source of the video, even though a quick search turns up a variety of articles exposing the ruse. 
•  Two-thirds of students couldn’t tell the difference between news stories and ads (set off by the words “Sponsored Content”) on Slate’s homepage. 
• Ninety-six percent of students did not consider why ties between a climate change website and the fossil fuel industry might lessen that website’s credibility. Instead of investigating who was behind the site, students focused on superficial markers of credibility: the site’s aesthetics, its top-level domain, or how it portrayed itself on the About page. 

Whose problem is this?

Something you can do about it

If you are tasked with teaching students to find and evaluate online information, resources on Information Fluency can help. Our research with Northwestern's Center for Talent Development showed marked improvement in the ability to detect and investigate information. Most students are OK when doing speculative searching (what they are looking for and how to get there) but investigative searching is another matter.

Be intentional about giving students investigative challenges as part of assignments.

If someone else (or no one) at your school has this task, show them Stanford's Report. Form a team to teach evaluation across the curriculum.