MisinfoDay 2021
Virtual sessions reach over 1,000 students & educators
Due to COVID-19, MisinfoDay 2021 sessions were livestreamed through YouTube. Educators registered their class and streamed the sessions to their students through their typical virtual classroom platform or shared the links with students to access on their own.
The schedule below shows our program of four sessions repeating in the morning and afternoon so that educators could choose the time that worked best for them and their students. We also provided optional session questions for educators to share with their students.
SCHEDULE
9:30-10:10 PDT | Spotting Misinformation with Jevin West Students will learn tips for identifying misinformation and discover why it can be tricky to recognize. | |
10:20-11:00 PDT | Fact-Checking Claims and Sources with Mike Caulfield Students will practice investigating the reputation of claims and sources so they can make informed decisions about what to believe online. | |
11:10-11:50 PDT (Note: these sessions will be offered concurrently) | Understanding the Landscape of Information Disorder (HS)* Empowering students with a knowledge, an understanding and the tools to build resilience against harmful, false, and misleading information. | Disinformation Goals & Tactics |
1:00-1:40 PDT | Spotting Misinformation with Jevin West | |
1:50-2:30 PDT | Fact-Checking Claims and Sources with Mike Caulfield Students will practice investigating the reputation of claims and sources so they can make informed decisions about what to believe online. | |
2:40-3:20 PDT (Note: these sessions will be offered concurrently) | Understanding the Landscape of Information Disorder (HS)* Empowering students with a knowledge, an understanding and the tools to build resilience against harmful, false, and misleading information. | Disinformation Goals & Tactics |
PARTICIPANTS
265 educators from Washington and beyond registered for MisinfoDay 2021. About 60% of these educators registered for at least one live session and 40% requested recordings. Educators were encouraged to tune in with their class but also had the option of attending on their own. The virtual format allowed us to open up participation to middle school students and educators in addition to our typical high school audience.
PARTNERS
MisinfoDay 2021 was made possible by presenters from:
- UW Center for an Informed Public
- WSU Edward R Murrow College of Communication
- WSU Vancouver
- First Draft News
RECOMMENDATIONS
Know your priorities and platforms: Since MisinfoDay 2021 had to be held virtually, we chose to prioritize reaching as many students and educators as possible by using a platform without a participant limit (YouTube Live) instead of facilitating a smaller event on a platform with more interactive features, like Zoom or Microsoft Teams. The number of educators that registered for the event from not only Washington but also states across the US and even other countries – 15 times the number of educators we’re able to reach in person – confirmed that this was the right decision for this year.
However, we learned shortly before the event that although students in most districts were using YouTube on their school devices to learn, YouTube Live links were restricted. Most teachers were able to work around this by streaming the content on their computer and screen-sharing with their class, but we likely won’t use YouTube Live for student-directed events in the future.
Future planning: We hope to return to our in-person MisinfoDay event next year and include virtual options for students and educators who can’t travel to an in-person event. Due to teacher feedback from this year, we would keep virtual sessions to 30 minutes or less.
Read more about MisinfoDay 2021 here:
Thousands of students, teachers and librarians from across the U.S. to participate in MisinfoDay 2021 workshops
- Important lessons and key highlights from MisinfoDay 2021 workshops
- Citing MisinfoDay, New York Times notes how students can educate parents, grandparents about misinformation