In an age when even many adults find it hard to tell fact from fiction, the San Jose State University School of Information is offering a free virtual conference on the topic of digital literacy and fake news. The three-hour web conference consists of an opening and closing keynote session and crowd-sourced presentations on the topic.
Presentations are specially aimed at library media specialists, but will be of interest to all educators. Questions that will be answered include:
- How should library and information professionals address the issues of fake news, propaganda, and biased research?
- What technical skills are required for critical thinking in the digital age?
- As learners increasingly move from just consuming information to also socially producing it, what are the new requisite skills of critical thinking and decision-making?
- What are appropriate uses for social media when conducting research?
- What is digital citizenship in a global, globally-diverse, and often globally-fragmented world?
- What work on digital literacy is available, what frameworks already support these efforts, what are the perspectives of the leading thinkers?
The keynote panel, moderated by futurist Bryan Alexander, will discuss the foundational relationship of libraries and librarians to media, information, and digital literacy. Panelists will dig into the role of libraries and librarians in addressing fake news, propaganda, and biased research. Social media for information gathering, the requisite skills for critical thinking and decision making, and digital citizenship in our globally diverse world will also be covered in this tantalizing conversation.
Registration for this engaging event on June 1 from 12:00 to 3:00 p.m. PDT is completely free. And all registrants will receive links to the recorded sessions. This means that, even if you can’t attend the live sessions, you should register and then have access to all of the content whenever you have time for it, making it perfect for summer learning!