“Combating misinformation and disinformation, especially during a pandemic is a civic duty that requires everyone's involvement." Andy Carvin, senior fellow at the Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab), April 23rd, 2020

The outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) was accompanied by a large amount of misleading and false information about the virus, especially on social media. This made it hard for people to find trustworthy and reliable information when they needed it.

This spread of misleading information about the virus led the World Health Organization (WHO) to warn of an on-going “infodemic” or an overabundance of information—especially misinformation—during an epidemic.

In this chapter, pupils will be asked how they got informed during the pandemic.

They will also work on the documents from the excellent Social Media Pack from the UNESCO site :

https://en.unesco.org/themes/gced/thinkbeforesharing

Then, they will learn how to separate fact from fiction with different documents published in the USA as well as in their respective countries.

They will also see how The World Health Organization worked with Facebook, Twitter, and other social media companies to stop misinformation. 

They will also discover thatFact-checking groups studied stories that popped up on the internet to see if they were real.

In any case, they will get to know some things they can do to avoid misinformation :

- How to check the source

- How to act like a journalist

- The importance of pausing, false news traveling faster than real news.

Here are some documents that will be used for this study :

The Covid-19 ‘infodemic’

https://www.sciencespo.fr/public/chaire-numerique/en/2020/07/09/social-media-and-content-moderation-in-times-of-covid-19/

GET SMART ABOUT COVID-19 : QUIZ

https://newslit.org/tips-tools/news-lit-quiz-get-smart-about-covid-19/

HOW FALSE NEWS CAN SPREAD

https://en.islcollective.com/english-esl-video-lessons/listening-comprehension/deep-listening-focus-on-meaning/how-false-news-can-spread/96616

Then, they will make a list of fake news they read or heard during the pandemic. And they will disclose them to their partners.

Some pupils will also make a kahoot for their partners who will have to decide whether the statements are true or false.

Finally, a chart entitled "Learn how to be a digital detective" will be created.

IN SPAIN :

During the last part of March and the beginning of April four students: Inés Sara, Sofía and Ángela prepared this: