4.1. What is data and information literacy
4.2 AI-generated content
4.3. Information literacy techniques
4.4 Self-evaluation test
We are living in a rapidly digitalising world. This module discusses information and data literacy and its relevance in the quickly evolving information landscape.
Services are moving online, people’s interaction increasingly occurs through applications and platforms, and our world is globalising in an unprecedented way before our eyes. It can be difficult or impossible to distinguish an AI-driven chatbot from a real human. Just a moment ago, we were climbing down from trees; now, we live in a hypermediated cyber reality. It’s hard to anticipate what kind of reality we will live in tomorrow’s world.
4.1 What is data and information literacy
Data literacy typically refers to:
a. the ability to read, write and communicate data in context, including an understanding of data sources and constructs, analytical methods and techniques applied, and the ability to describe the use case, application and resulting value,
b. an individual’s skill in adeptly managing their privacy, cybersecurity, and digital footprint and
c. awareness of how various artificial intelligence algorithms influence everything we see and experience in online environments—and how they can be used to influence and manipulate us.
Digital information literacy, on the other hand, is the ability to access, manage, understand, integrate, communicate, evaluate, create, and disseminate information safely and appropriately through digital technologies.
All in all, data and information literacy involves a dimension of active and civic engagement with the digital world and promotes active citizenship. The main question we’ll address here is: how can one combat false information online? How can one identify the image or video manipulation? And moreover, how do we teach these to elementary school children?
4.2 AI-generated content
Artificial Intelligence is a powerful, easy-to-use tool for generating text, images, voice, and even videos. As of 2023, social media platforms have been flooded with AI-generated content, most harmless and spread purely out of amusement or curiosity. As these technologies evolve, it becomes more and more difficult or even impossible to distinguish between “real” and fabricated content – even for us adults.
Instead of demanding some novel “AI literacy” skills, this difficulty actually emphasises the role of “traditional” media literacy and critical thinking. AI-generated content, in this sense, is not in any way special or remarkable, as forged images, videos and texts have been around as long as tools for editing them have. Instead, they are remarkable for the scope and scale they enable to produce these. In a world where anyone can produce virtually anything that cannot be distinguished from “real” content, we must focus on teaching simple critical thinking: why am I seeing this? What’s the purpose behind what I’m seeing?
With the emergence of GenAI, there is a wide range of novel problems for schoolteachers. While there are some attempts to curb the use of AI in cheating in schoolwork, generative AIs are best understood as genies that have already escaped their bottle. Fortunately, it is still fairly easy to distinguish a paper written by an elementary school pupil from an artificial intelligence’s grammatically correct and polished text.
The task that lies ahead for schoolteachers is to ameliorate the harms somehow that learning this kind of tool can cause and do their best to make it for the best. This requires teachers to become familiar with AI applications to understand them better. Most importantly, teachers should be informed of AI “hallucination”: AI apps do not make distinctions between true and false information, so all the information they provide should be double-checked via other means. Otherwise, AI can become a fountain source of misinformation.
Artificial intelligence doesn’t touch only text-based schoolwork but is also a remarkable photo and video manipulation tool. The true risks involved in the emergence of AI are related to the digital reality the children face online: AI-generated content can give them unrealistic expectations and reference points to how they should look and what kind of things they should be able to do. They’re already used as chatbots in various services and even in social media. As they’re ultimately just automatons, there’s no guarantee what kinds of harmful advice they can give – for instance, a chatbot for eating disorder helpline in 2023 started giving weight loss advice for anorexic children.
The use of artificial intelligence apps has proliferated already. The best way for a teacher to understand its effects and limitations is to get acquainted with them, experiment and learn how they react to different prompts. For example, how would an AI answer your home assignment? Feel free to test the intelligence!
4.3 Information literacy techniques
4.3.1. Lateral reading
Digital Information Literacy is built on the simple attitude of stopping before acting (clicking) or believing. To support this simple pause and reflection task, there are various techniques and tools, e.g. fact-checking, which are constantly evolving with new technologies.
One simple technique that can be taught to support critical thinking is so-called lateral reading. At its simplest, when lateral readers investigate a particular topic, they seek answers to three questions from information about the same topic from several different sources:
- Who makes the claim? Is it someone trustworthy or identifiable? Or is it somehow obscured?
- Why is the claim made? Communication always has a motive. What does it attempt to achieve?
- What do other independent sources say about the matter? Are there any? Are they reliable?
Lateral reading exercises can prove interesting and fun activities in the classroom, as they require an investigative mindset. If you can find suitable websites or articles, you can tell the pupils to play “investigators” and instruct them to apply the three questions above. What do they find? How does this investigation relate to the content they see on the social media they use off-school?
4.3.2. Pre-bunking vs. debunking
Fighting false information online can be hard work because we tend to stick with previously adopted false beliefs even after those are proven false. This is because, psychologically, we tend to prefer familiar information, regardless of evidence. For this reason, debunking false beliefs and fake facts is very resource-consuming and even inefficient.
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” is also true in this case. A much more efficient strategy is pre-bunking, or being “vaccinated”, against common misconceptions, forms of disinformation, etc. Systematically cautioning children against false information e.g. social media has proven to be a somewhat efficient way of fighting dis- and misinformation.
There are three main categories of pre-bunking:
- Factual: correcting a false fact in advance
- Logical: explaining common manipulation tactics
- Source-based: cautioning against specific examples of well-known untrustworthy media sources (or AI apps).
Common manipulation tactics that could be addressed include, e.g. repetition to convince the reader, emotionally strong language, black-and-white thinking, appealing to secrets, referring to conspiracies, etc.
Untrue online information and various manipulation tactics makes a good subject for class. But there’s a reason we haven’t prepared any concrete examples for you – we want you to exercise your own investigative faculties. What examples can you find?
4.4 Self-evaluation test
1. What is the main question addressed regarding data and information literacy in the above text?
a) How to create AI-driven chatbots
b) How to combat false information online (Correct)
c) How to develop advanced coding skills
d) How to build secure online platforms
2. What is emphasised as a crucial role for teachers in addressing AI-generated content?
a) Encouraging blind acceptance of AI-generated content
b) Providing extensive training on AI applications
c) Helping students understand the limitations of AI (Correct)
d) Promoting the use of AI in school assignments
3. What technique can support critical thinking and is mentioned in the text?
a) Mindfulness
b) Blind acceptance of information
c) Pre-bunking (Correct)
d) Avoiding reflection before acting
4. What is pre-bunking, as described in the text?
a) Correcting false beliefs after they are proven false
b) Systematically cautioning against false information before exposure (Correct)
c) Encouraging blind trust in familiar information
d) Ignoring manipulation tactics used in online content
5. What are the three main categories of pre-bunking?
a) Factual, logical, and emotional
b) Source-based, emotional, and black-and-white
c) Factual, logical, and source-based (Correct)
d) Repetition, emotionally strong language, and conspiracies
Answers
1 – B
2 – C
3 – C
4 – B
5 – C
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