Shawn Lee, a high school social studies teacher in Seattle, wants to see lessons on the internet akin to a kind of 21st century driver’s education, an essential for modern life.
Lee has tried to bring that kind of education into his classroom, with lessons about the need to double-check online sources, to diversify newsfeeds and to bring critical thinking to the web. He’s also created an organization for other teachers to share resources.
“It’s not teaching what to think, but how to think,” said Julie Smith, an expert on media literacy who teaches at Webster University in Webster Groves, Missouri. “It’s engaging about engaging your brain. It’s asking, ‘Who created this? Why? Why am I seeing it now? How does it make me feel and why?’” Finnish children begin to learn about the internet in preschool, part of a robust anti-misinformation program that aims to make the country’s residents more resistant to false online claims. Finland has a long history of combating propaganda and misinformation spread by one of its neighbors, Russia, and expanded its current efforts after Russia’s 2014 invasion of Crimea set off another wave of disinformation.
In the U.S., attempts to teach internet literacy have run into political opposition from people who equate it to thought control. Lee, the Seattle teacher, said that concern prevents some teachers from even trying. For teachers already struggling with other classroom demands, adding media literacy can seem like just one more obligation. But it’s a skill that is just as important as computer engineering or software coding for the future economy, according to Erin McNeill, a Massachusetts mother who started Media Literacy Now, a national nonprofit that advocates for digital literacy education.
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