Schools to wage war on putrid fake news

[noblegiraffe]

"Children will be taught how to spot extremist content and fake news online in a revamp of the curriculum following last week’s riots.
Schools will use lessons such as English, ICT (information and communication technology) and maths to “arm” pupils against “putrid conspiracy theories”, the Education Secretary has said."

Fine, not sure how that's going to fit into maths lessons, and ICT was binned a decade ago, but anyway.

"The planned changes will help children identify all extremist content, including far-Left conspiracy theories and religion-based propaganda.
One example could involve using English classes to dissect newspaper reports, examining their style and use of language compared to fake news.
That would teach children to differentiate between independent journalism and propaganda by looking out for bias and hyperbole in the latter."

This is printed, unironically, in the Telegraph. I'm not sure I could teach children to spot the bias and hyperbole in propaganda by comparing it to newspaper output. How could they tell the difference?

And it will surely conflict with our duty to remain politically impartial if we are supposed to teach kids the dangers of extremist content while it is being spread about liberally by elected representatives?

Schools are going to have a hell of a time dealing with the fall-out from these riots in September and obviously we already teach lessons about staying safe online and not being racist. But I'm not convinced that a curriculum review that teaches about 'photoshopped images' in an era of AI, deepfakes and TikTok is really understanding the scale of the problem.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/08/10/schools-wage-war-on-putrid-fake-news-in-wake-of-riots/

It's really very simple, educate children on a broad range of topics with a focus on analysis and critical thinking. Encourage an enquiring mind with lots of consequential thinking.

I take it you are not a secondary school teacher .

My DD is 13 and has been having lessons on this in ICT for at least the past six years - I can remember the scratch programmes she coded to illustrate the very point that not everything is what it says it is (there was a big reveal at the end!). I think what's actually missing is critical thinking skills but I'm not sure that governments/ corporations actually really want the masses asking too many awkward questions.

This is nothing new. As other have pointed out, it's already part of PSHE, English, ICT and History lessons. I encorporate it in my Science lessons (Wakefield, Jenner, space exploration and perceptions around acids are favourites) and I'm sure that Maths will have a statistical element to it that also deals with how incomplete data can manipulate the bigger picture.

The one change I can see is that it has an agenda now which takes away the lack of bias. This has been on the cards in the UK for a long time.

How is anyone going to influence or change social media outlets -Starmer seems to think he can - so who will SM police, Palestinian rhetoric or Israeli.
The best thing would be to discourage trigger actions to Twitter posts - the gov would be a good starting place, MPs are always leaping to defend or explain extreme views or comments - or to rush to fund school meals or whatever sad claim is being made.
There should be a ‘let’s sleep on it ‘ response to every comment on line.
We make them powerful by believing and responding to everyt bollox.

But in an exam, under time pressure, students can and do make up facts and statistics, and that's allowed.

MrsHamlet in what subjects? Science and maths? Sorry, I’m probably being stupid but I don’t understand how students can gain marks for writing incorrect answers.
Do those who write correct facts and statistics get higher marks?

@Barbadossunset , MrsHamlet won't see your post unless you tag or quote her.

However, she was replying to a post from me, which referred to English Language Persuasive Writing.

In English, which was the subject under discussion in the post. No, they don't. We're not checking things like that.

Yingdings and MrsHamlet thank you for answering my question.

Most of the exam boards (if not all) publish syllabi and lots of information.

There are (off the top of my head) at least 4 exam boards that offer GCSE media studies , and then there is also BTec.

the OP could find and read through all of those 40 page specs to find her answer.

Or, she could ask a media studies teacher on the thread.

Comments on Bridget Phillipson’s Facebook page are routinely deleted. Not because they are rude or offensive, they are deleted because they express an opinion that disagrees with hers. Maybe pupils could study this as an example of how social media is manipulated.