Equips students of the tools necessary to develop a critical approach to information, especially online. This was the goal of the “Fake You” project, the initiative promoted by the Metropolis Association of Messina in the field of European Solidarity Corps (ESC) and which involved the fifth classes of the high school following to promote awareness of the manipulation of information and encourage critical reflection, contributing to the formation of responsible citizens, including digital citizens, capable of actively participating in the public debate and defending democratic values.
The initiative, which consisted of a series of meetings with 13 classes of the school, plus a final event in which the expert Francesco Micali also took part in “digital strait” (a very active reality in training on artificial intelligence), aimed to make young people capable of distinguishing between authentic news and fake news, through the understanding of the reasons underlying the creation of the same, the techniques used and the spy signals to be taken into consideration.
The project, through study cases, workshops and practical activities, has dealt with topics such as the evolution of digital journalism, the role of algorithms in social media, the recognition of fake news, the clickbait phenomenon, the fact-checking, the new frontiers of the AI, the truth and the post-truth. All in order to train digital citizens aware and capable of navigating critically in the digital world, making the students themselves become agents of change, spreading awareness of peers and expanding the positive impact of the initiative with an impact also on parents, teachers and other members of the local society.
“The school – comments the manager Lilia Leonardi – must remain systematically connected with the territory, following its social dynamics, being aware of the fact that the serious problems that afflict current society have a heavy relapse on the training of young people. On them, in fact, negatively affect the nefarious consequences of the valiant drift that threatens the entire society ».
Thanks to the project, three tangible results were also produced:
– a guide entitled “La Bufala only with the pizza: guide to the contrast of fake news”, created thanks to the contribution of young students who, throughout the project, have been stimulated to share their ideas on how to combat disinformation, exploiting what are the notions learned during the activities (here the link);
– A kit of instruction entitled “Fake You”, drawn up by the promoters of the initiative to encourage the replicability of the project in different territorial contexts, which represents the result of the activities and which includes didactic materials used (here the link).
– A report on the results of the initiative, highlighting the problems addressed, the identified solutions and the lessons learned, sent to the institutions (here the link).
