Digital resistance E-Book

Council of Europe

• Herausgeber: Council of Europe
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 191

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

An empowering handbook for teachers on how to support their students to recognise fake news and false information found in the online environment Do you check the sources of what you read online? Would you be able to recognise fake news? Information found online should be assessed and evaluated before it can be considered valuable. This handbook, developed within the framework of the European Union-Council of Europe Joint Programme Democratic and Inclusive School Culture in Operation (DISCO), provides key information for teachers and their students on how to recognise fake news and false information found in the online environment.

Leseprobe

 

DIGITAL RESISTANCE

 

An empowering handbook for teachers on how to support their students to recognise fake news and false information found in the online environment

 

Contents

 

Click here to see the whole table of contents, or go on the « Table of contents » option of your eReader.

Executive Summary

“The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousand-fold.”

Aristotle

About this handbook

This handbook and additional dossiers, freely available at the Digital Resistance project homepage (www.digi-res.eu), provide all the information teachers need to conduct a short module on the topic of “fake news” in the classroom or other settings with a group of students aged between 14 and 20 years. The methodology suggested in this handbook can easily be adapted by other actors in the educational sector working in different learning contexts. It begins by providing background knowledge about the topic of fake news and digital competences, followed by guiding steps on how to work on this topic with students in a short module. The learning methodology used is based on enquiry-based learning, so students can be supported to conduct a small-scale research project on a self-chosen topic connected to fake news. Information on this can be found in Chapter 3 of this handbook. In Chapter 5, the concept of peer-to-peer learning is used to set up learning processes between students attending the short module.

An overview of each section of the handbook is provided in the figure on the next page. Chapter 1 begins with a description of the concept of fake news, followed in Chapter 2 by an introduction of digital competences that can be used to resist and act against fake news. Chapter 3 explains the methodology of enquiry-based learning that can be used for a short module to enable students to deal with real-world cases of fake news. Chapter 4 offers guidelines for teachers to assist students in the creation of a media output as part of the short module. The media output will reflect their learning process and summarise the findings of the research undertaken. Chapter 5 offers support in establishing peer-to-peer activities at school or online as an additional part of the module. It enables students to share the media outputs they have created and their experiences with other students.

It is recommended to use this handbook chapter by chapter, particularly if teachers have little background knowledge on the topic. Those with more experience can select the chapters that they want to use in class. The section of the short module in Chapters 3 to 5 provides various elements that can be added to already existing teaching modules. Teachers seeking to implement the domains of digital citizenship as defined by the Council of Europe (2018a) can refer to the beginning of each chapter, where the particular domains addressed are noted.

In addition, each chapter provides further recommendations, suggestions and information in text boxes. Suggested classroom activities across the sections of this handbook, in the orange boxes, also provide different levels of difficulty: “foundation”, “intermediate”, “advanced” or “expert”.

Orange boxes provide activities and didactic recommendations

Green boxes provide resources such as links or videos

Blue boxes provide definitions

Further definitions of key terms related to fake news can be found in the glossary of the “Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture: Volume 1” (Council of Europe 2018b: 67).

About the Digital Resistance project

The development of technological structures in the course of a globalised digitisation has led to wide-ranging impacts on the societies of the 21st century. Possession of and access to information, as well as the ability to process it competently, have developed into central forms of social capital (Touraine 1971, Bell 2010).

Modern digital infrastructure opens up new possibilities for accessing information, but also allows users to create and publish information free of the technical restrictions that existed in the media landscapes of the past.

Distributing information of a political nature with the aim of manipulating or indoctrinating people, or to encourage discrimination against individuals or social groups, is not a phenomenon of the digital age. But the dynamic flow of information that is connected to this technological and social process works as a catalyst for the use of misleading information, disinformation or fake news aimed at particular political goals connected to discrimination or indoctrination.

Political concepts that rely on a mechanism of exclusion and aim at homogenous societies are mostly based on a nationalistic perspective and advocates also use digital channels to spread their agenda, even though traditional geographical borders are no longer of major importance for digital infrastructure.

The use of digital age tools to resist the spread of hatred and prejudice online is a transnational project per se, because it takes into account the global importance of protecting human rights that are permanently contested on the internet.

Existing political systems are struggling to find ways to regulate the digital space. Digital citizens act within an environment where trustworthy information and guidance is often hard to find. A parallel process to the political development of formal laws and principles for the digital sphere is the creation of educational frameworks for competences, since digital citizens need to act safely and proficiently while using digital tools.

The overall objective of the project Digital Resistance, funded by the Council of Europe and the European Union, is strengthening young people’s competences in the field of media and information literacy and promoting Digital Citizenship Education in order to encourage students to be aware of their responsibilities as citizens in the digital space and to share their knowledge with other students.

The project focuses on strategies to detect, analyse and manage misleading information, disinformation and fake news online, which often leads to discrimination or indoctrination on the internet. The five partner organisations of the consortium have worked with teachers to design this module for students aged between 14 and 20 years.

Through enquiry-based methods, students learn to deal with the influence of (social) media on society and politics, question sources and their underlying motivations to deepen their media and information literacy, and develop counter-strategies to support democratic processes online. In order to reflect on and document their learning process, the students create media outputs in the form of videos, vlogs, blogs, short movies, posters, podcast episodes and online presentations. These media outputs have been published on the project’s homepage and on social media platforms to stimulate peer-to-peer activities. Students can thus pass on their newly acquired knowledge, present their projects and exchange perspectives.

Sustainable implementation in the classroom is supported by teacher training offered by the consortium. In addition, the project team, which supports the schools throughout the project, developed the present handbook with background information, basic knowledge, lesson examples and advanced methods.

School education plays an important role in this context because digital competence in the individual can only be fostered with the support of qualified trainers/teachers and student-centred learning environments. It is necessary to offer different, up-to-date and personalised learning paths to children and teenagers so they can gain the ability to reflect on their online usage and behaviour. Every individual user needs to know about and develop the competences necessary to be an autonomous, creative and socially responsible digital citizen.

Digital Citizenship Education is a lifelong learning process that changes depending on age, employment, interest and other individual circumstances. For these reasons the efforts of schools, policy makers and education professionals should be coherent and co-ordinated, and should take account of the wide range of cultural differences and the variety of linguistic, technological and behavioural competences that characterise our societies.

To reach the above-mentioned goals of Digital Citizenship Education, all educational stakeholders (governments, educational institutions, trainers/teachers, schools and parents) need to work together. The development of a cross-curricula framework on media education on a national or European level as well as an up-to-date teacher training programme could be a first step in the right direction.

This handbook aims to support teachers and educators to promote media information and literacy, foster the correct behaviour for online communication and collaboration, and encourage the creation of reliable, truthful, respectful and original digital content. It was created in the course of the project and is freely accessible on the project homepage (www.digi-res.eu).

Introduction

The Council of Europe resources for developing competences to resist digital manipulation

Calin Rus

Council of Europe and digital citizenship

The Council of Europe pioneered efforts to promote safety in the online environment for children and young people before the development of today’s influential social media platforms. A debate has been ongoing since that time on whether to focus on effectively regulating the online environment or on developing resilience to misuse of the internet. Guidelines for policy makers were drawn up and resources were developed for educators as well as children, so they could learn to keep themselves safe while using the internet.

The No Hate Speech campaign, initiated and led by the Youth Department of the Council of Europe, was also an important contribution to addressing challenges related to the online environment. The campaign started from the assumption that hate speech covers “all forms of expression”, including speech and texts but also images, videos or any form of online activity. Cyberhate was therefore also considered hate speech. Bookmarks – A manual for combating hate speech online through human rights education (2014) emphasises the complexity of hate speech in the online environment and the difficulties that may arise in defining certain content as hate speech. It also makes it clear that online space is public space, and hence all the principles of a democratic society can and should apply online. In this context, the role of young people online is seen as extremely important in combating hate speech: “Young people are citizens online, which means they can express their aspirations and concerns online, take action, and hold accountable those who violate human rights online. What’s more, they can be human rights defenders online” (Council of Europe 2014: 8).

Since 2016, the Council of Europe has moved beyond online safety and fighting online hate speech with a project on Digital Citizenship Education, led by the Education Department and aimed at promoting empowerment through education and the acquisition of the competences needed for actively participating in digital society.

Supporting children and young people to participate safely, effectively, critically and responsibly in a world filled with social media and digital technologies has emerged as a priority and the notion of digital citizenship has evolved to encompass a range of competences, attributes and behaviours that harness the benefits and opportunities the online world provides while building resilience to its potential harms and risks.

A conceptual model of digital citizenship has been developed, built around a set of 10 “digital domains” across three categories.

Being onlineWell-being onlineRights online

Access and inclusion

Learning and creativity

Media and information literacy

Ethics and empathy

Health and well-being

E-presence and communications

Active participation

Rights and responsibilities

Privacy and security

Consumer awareness

Below is a brief outline of what is implied for each of the 10 domains of digital citizenship.1

Being online

Access and inclusion refers to overcoming different forms of the digital divide and opening digital spaces to minorities and different opinions.

Learning and creativity concerns the willingness to learn and the attitude towards learning through digital environments throughout life, and the capacity to develop and express different forms of creativity with different tools in different contexts.

Media and information literacy refers to the ability to interpret, critically understand and express creativity through digital media.

Well-being online

Ethics and empathy covers ethical behaviour in online interactions and the ability to recognise and understand the feelings and perspectives of others.

Health and well-being includes awareness of the issues and the opportunities that can affect wellness in a digitally rich world. Digital citizens inhabit both virtual and real spaces. For this reason, the basic skills of digital competence are not sufficient. Individuals also require a set of attitudes, skills, values and knowledge that render them more aware of issues of health and well-being.

E-presence and communications addresses the development of personal and interpersonal qualities that help digital citizens in building and maintaining online profiles of themselves and online interactions that are positive, coherent and consistent.

Rights online

Active participation refers to the competences that citizens need to be fully aware of how they interact within the digital environments they inhabit in order to make responsible decisions, while participating actively and positively in the democratic cultures in which they live.

Rights and responsibilities concerns awareness and understanding of rights and responsibilities in the online world.

Privacy and security covers two different concepts: privacy concerns mainly the personal protection of one’s own and others’ online information, while security is related to one’s own awareness of online actions and behaviour.

Consumer awareness starts from acknowledgement of the fact that in the digital world, including on social media or other virtual social spaces, being digital citizens means also being users – being consumers. Consumer activism can push businesses to align themselves with core values such as environmentally friendly business practices or support of the local economy.

Competences for democratic culture

The conceptual model of digital citizenship builds directly on another flagship product of the Council of Europe’s work over the past few years: the Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture (RFCDC). The Reference Framework is built around a model of competences including the values, attitudes, skills and elements of knowledge and critical understanding that are needed for citizens to participate effectively in democratic and culturally diverse societies. Indeed, if the digital world is seen as a public space, with interactions, decisions, diversity, opportunities, threats, rights and responsibilities, then the same competences needed for citizens are also essential in the online environment.

The model of competences that represents the core of the Reference Framework is the result of a review of over 100 models of competence related to democratic participation, human rights and intercultural competence. It consists of 20 elements, grouped by values, attitudes, skills, and knowledge and critical understanding.

There are two structural aspects that differentiate this model of competence from many other models.

The first structural specificity is that while most competence models include knowledge, skills and attitudes, this model also includes values. The decision to include values in the competence model was accompanied by extensive debate, particularly in the consultations organised with researchers, practitioners and policy makers while the model was being developed. It was agreed that all elements of the model needed to be “teachable, learnable and assessable”. Thus, during a hearing focused on the assessment of competences for democratic culture (and on other occasions), questions were raised as to the legitimacy and feasibility of teaching and assessing values in a formal education setting. Despite animated discussions on this topic, and the various perspectives articulated by different groups of education professionals from different countries, it was agreed that including values in the model was important. Therefore, the section of the model referring to values includes three elements reflecting the key values of the Council of Europe: democracy; human rights, with their recognised source, human dignity; and the rule of law, associated with justice, fairness and equality, as well as cultural diversity. These values are the same as those included in Article 2 of the Treaty of the European Union and in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

The second specific element in the structure of the model of competences for democratic culture is the fact that knowledge is systematically associated with critical understanding. This means that the accumulation of knowledge is not seen as important in itself, but only to the extent to which it supports critical understanding, and allows interconnections and meaning. This is closely related to the use of analytical and critical thinking skills. There are three areas of knowledge and critical understanding included in the model, referring to self, language and communication and certain aspects of the world, including politics, law, human rights, culture, cultures, religions, history, media, economies, the environment and sustainability. There is a close connection and complementarity between knowledge and critical understanding of language and communication and the linguistic, communicative and plurilingual skills.

There are also six attitudes in the model of competences and eight skills, with autonomous learning skills and linguistic, communicative and plurilingual skills being of a more general scope but with key importance for effective participation in a democratic and culturally diverse society.

For some of the 20 elements of competence, the meaning is relatively clear from the diagram above. For others, it is essential to look at the way in which they are defined in the Reference Framework to understand their meaning in this context. The bank of competence descriptors included in the second volume of the Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture is also a valuable tool that aids at grasping the actual meaning of each element of competence and recognising how they translate to actual observable behaviour, offline and online.

In addition, the recommended order of listing the elements of the model, starting with the values, continuing with the attitudes and skills, and ending with knowledge and critical understanding, emphasises the importance of values and attitudes.

The elements of competence included in the model are usually mobilised and deployed in clusters, depending on the specific situation. For example, a successful intercultural encounter implies valuing cultural diversity, along with manifesting openness to cultural otherness, respect, tolerance of ambiguity and civic-mindedness, as well as the use of linguistic skills, listening skills, critical thinking and empathy. This is also valid in the digital environment, with a combination of elements of competence mobilised in the context of a specific online interaction or behaviour.

Competences needed to resist digital manipulation or indoctrination

A person with high proficiency in all the elements of the model of competences for democratic culture is more likely able to resist attempts at manipulation or indoctrination in the online world. Manipulation may include disinformation, misinformation, or acceptance and support of discourses promoting racism, intolerance and discrimination.

Manipulation, that is attempts to influence people’s beliefs, attitudes and behaviours, is not new and is not specific to the online environment. Historically, education systems aimed at cultural homogenisation, and the creation of loyal citizens, often indoctrinated with ethnocentric ideas. Manipulation is often carried out through public institutions; by politicians and the mass media, who control or influence the public agenda and voting patterns; or the advertisement industry, to develop and influence consumer attitudes and behaviours. All this can now be accomplished in the online environment as well.

Computer applications and online platforms are often designed to exploit the rules of psychology to get people to do things they might not otherwise do. They also, by design, encourage addiction by providing easy answers to basic human needs for connection, approval and affirmation, as well as exposure to rewards on a variable, unpredictable schedule. Manipulation taps into people’s natural fears, such as the fear of missing out or the fear of uncertainty and difference. Digital technology may limit people’s capacity for making free choices as well as their range of opportunities for interaction and access to information.

The RFCDC provides an analysis of a type of manipulation very common in the online environment: manipulation that leads to the adoption of radical perspectives, leading to violent extremism and terrorism. A similar analysis can be done with regard to other types of negative messages transmitted online and the varying ability of people to resist such messages.

What a competent person can do:What a person lacking the necessary competences may do:

► critically analyse, evaluate, challenge and reject biased communications, propaganda, misinformation and disinformation;

► understand the complexity of social and political issues, and accept that these issues cannot always be adequately addressed through simplistic responses or solutions;

► imaginatively apprehend, understand and appreciate the beliefs, perspectives and world views of other people, and recognise that other people’s perspectives may be just as valid as their own when viewed from their position;

► accept in an uncritical way and believe messages received without checking or challenging them;

► promote or support simplistic “us versus them” arguments, overgeneralising and lacking nuanced reasoning in their thinking;

► look at the issue from a single perspective related to the group (s) to which they belong, considering it the only legitimate point of view;

► understand and appreciate how non-violent democratic means are more effective tools for the peaceful expression of citizens’ views and opinions, managing differences of opinions, and pursuing political and social causes;

► value human dignity, human rights, cultural diversity, democracy, equality, fairness, justice and the rule of law; show openness to cultural otherness and to other beliefs, world views and practices; and show respect for people who do not share their views, as long as they recognise human dignity and human rights.

► accept, endorse or support unfair, exclusionary or even violent measures to address social issues or differences of opinions;

► value the rights of only certain categories of people, consider cultural diversity a threat, and consider it legitimate to take measures that go against the principles of democracy, equality, fairness, justice and the rule of law, as long as they benefit certain groups in society.

The types described in the table above, of course, only point out some aspects and should be considered with caution. Indeed, sometimes populist politicians may pretend to uphold the values of democracy, justice, fairness and the rule of law while actually doing the contrary. They speak in the name of democracy but equate democracy with majority rule, and justify measures limiting the power of the opposition; controlling or threatening the judiciary; and reducing the influence of civil society with the legitimacy given to them by the popular vote. They also claim to be using critical thinking, pretending to have found flaws in the reasoning of the others, accusing them of manipulation, covering up reality and lying to the people, while they actually engage in manipulation by presenting one-sided arguments, ignoring facts and negatively labelling those who promote positions opposed to theirs.

The deconstruction of disinformation, misinformation, propaganda or populist messages requires skills in accessing and evaluating alternative sources of information, especially sources that provide alternative narratives. In addition, individuals need to be able to deconstruct the underlying motives, intentions and purposes of those who have produced the messages. This in turn requires the ability to understand and interpret the broader political and social context in which the messages have been produced. Following such critical analysis, individuals also need to be able to come to coherent conclusions.

Responsibility is also important in the online environment. A lot of harm can be done by simply sharing misleading, manipulative or false information, or opinions that go against the fundamental values included in the model of competences for democratic culture.