Week 13: Defending Truth with RumorGuard

 

Example of a Rumor on RumorGuard

Intro:
Are you interested in implementing lessons about fact-checking and misinformation in your library? RumorGuard is the perfect choice! This is a site that shows viral rumors and explains why they're fake. It has exercises that teaches students of upper grades identification skills that will help them avoid falling for traps in the future! Each viral rumor's explanation includes 5 factors: Source, Evidence, Context, Reasoning, and Authenticity, all of which are scored. This helps students know why these rumors exist, why they're convincing, and most importantly, how to look for warning signs. 

Cost: RumorGuard is free to use for everyone. It was created by the NLP, News Literacy Project. Their mission is to help improve news literacy throughout America so the next generation is informed and empowered. 

Audience: RumorGuard is best for students in Grades 8-12. The articles are curated for that audience, and the language and concepts are best suited to their curriculum as opposed to younger students. It's also best for these upper grades who are more aware of current events and may watch the news and be exposed to more misinformation and bias daily. 

Features: RumorGuard's goal is to help students determine credibility and best sources, and understand how to navigate the information around them. We live in a society that is so oversaturated with information that it can seem impossible to know what's real. RumorGuard exists to help correct that because it gives students the tools they need to call out misinformation.

The main feature is the Rumors, the curated fake statements. These are not randomly generated- they are actual rumors that exist online that people have fallen prey to. The rumors can be statements, tweets, images, news articles, etc. Sometimes they are misconstrued or taken out of context, and sometimes they are AI-generated. They are often about very important subjects, such as politics and world events. Each Rumor has five factors that explain why it's fake and act as a great lesson for students to unpack. Also, each Rumor teaches students important techniques that help students investigate a claim's source, evidence, context, reasoning, and authenticity. RumorGuard teaches these skills through videos, infographics, quizzes, and lessons. If you're navigating the site, there are 4 tabs. Recent Checks contain recent rumors that have been identified as false. If you scroll through, you'll see the evidence of why it's false, videos that are related, the 5 factors, and other takeaways. The Factors tab is the main hub that goes through all 5 factors and contains tons of lessons, videos, and other resources to hone these concepts. The tab Topics shows hashtags that Rumors are filed under. This is a good way to find specific Rumors that reflect things you're teaching in the library. For example, the hashtags range from Trump, Manipulated Content, Misattribution, Putin, Conspiratorial Thinking, Copypasta, Extremisim, DEI, Animals, etc. 

Use in a School Library:
You could pair this activity with AI since that is a tool that can sometimes give false information/have a bias. Both misinformation and AI are parts of computer science and library science. For example, you can have students watch videos on the 5 Factors on RumorGuard. Once the students are familiar with the factors, you can have them roleplay with AI on ChatGPT. You can tell ChatGPT to create some viral headlines, some true and some false. You can tell the bot to make the fake rumors very convincing. Then, the students can apply the 5 Factors to each statement and explain to the AI why they're real or fake. The AI can evaluate their work. Students can also test AI's limitations and biases by sending them Rumors from RumorGuard and asking the bot to analyze the statement. They'll find that most times, the AI will recognize misinformation, but some statements could slip between the cracks. These roleplaying exercises will strengthen the students' skills in both fact-checking and using AI ethically and creatively. 

Conclusion: We live in a digital world where students are bombarded by fake news and false information. It's at their fingertips thanks to social media. To combat that and empower the next generation of information experts, librarians should use RumorGuard. This Edu tool will help them create lessons about misinformation and fact-checking that can save students from falling prey to malicious forces. RumorGuard and AI can also be paired together for further exercises.