Great Media Literacy Resources

Hello colleagues, Teachers are well aware of how important it is to evaluate internet resources for their accuracy and truthfulness. As our colleague Stephanie Sommers writes on the Minnesota ABE Teaching & Learning Advancement System's website, "... it is more important than ever for our adult learners to be able to evaluate the information they are given. As adult educators, we need to build the capacity of our learners to differentiate between fact and opinion, recognize bias, and make decisions that are informed by reliable evidence. In other words, we need our adult learners to have strong critical thinking skills."

How do you approach teaching the difference between fact and opinion? How do you engage learners in recognizing bias? How do you support learners to make decisions informed by reliable evidence?

In this article, Sommers features the NewseumED website and highlights a few useful instructional materials. All the great resources -- including fully developed lesson plans complete with student handouts-- are free, and registration allows access to everything. These are among the best resources I've seen designed to engage learners in evaluating the legitimacy of information.

If you are familiar with the NewseumED site and have used any of the resources, please pass along any tips. For those who are checking out the site for the first time, please share your thoughts about the usefulness of the materials.

Cheers, Susan Finn Miller

Moderator, Teaching & Learning CoP