An innovative and timely new media literacy program, aimed at equipping teachers with the necessary skills to support their students in identifying truthful, reliable, and trustworthy information online, has now launched. Training sessions for UK secondary school teachers began in October and run until the end of January, and now we’re pleased to announce our accompanying resources are now available for free for teachers and students in our Resources Hub.
The resources include lesson plans, classroom-ready presentations, resources and guidance on how to use the resources in school settings. Developed by The PSHE Associations, Bellingcat and The Student View, the content covers key media literacy topics including misinformation, fake news, deep fake images, AI and much more.
Despite the majority (68%) of teenagers saying they use social media for news, research by Ofcom in 2022 found that only one in ten (11%) were able to tell what’s real or fake online[1]. Further research by the communications regulator found that more than a third (36%) of children aged 8-17 said they had seen something ‘worrying or nasty’ online in the past 12 months.
Additionally, a survey commissioned by The Student View, discovered that nine in ten (90%) UK teachers want media literacy to be included specifically in their curriculum, and according to The National Literacy Trust over half (53.5%) believe that the curriculum does not equip children with the literacy skills they need to identify fake news[2].
Jono Baggaley, CEO at The PSHE Association, explains further in this video:
Training is still available – with limited places – for secondary school teachers across the country, with sessions running up until the end of January 2024. Professionals who are interested in taking part can sign up to the free media literacy training programme here: https://thestudentview.org/teacher-training/