Resources for Teachers - Finding and verifying information

Digital Skills for Democracy: Assessing online information to make civic choices

In this activity, students :

  • think about the importance of making sure they have trustworthy information before they make a decision on a political or electoral issue
  • explore a series of scenarios designed to teach five strategies for verifying information: find the original, verify the source, check other information, read factchecking articles, and turn to places you trust 
  • reflect on the impact of false and misleading information in politics

Break the Fake Tip #1: Use fact-checking tools

Sometimes a single search can Break the Fake if a professional fact-checker has already done the work for you.

Connected to Learn: Teachers' Experiences with Networked Technologies in the Classroom

For more than twenty-five years, Canadian teachers have been at the forefront of getting students online and preparing them to use the Internet in safe, wise and responsible ways. Thanks to the SchoolNet program in the 1990s, many young Canadians had their first experiences with networked technologies in their classrooms and school libraries. However, MediaSmarts' recent Young Canadians in a Wired World, Phase III study shows that even now, our so-called "digital natives" still need guidance from their teachers.

Break the Fake Tip #4: Check other sources

This step may sometimes be the last one you do, but it could also be the first. The News tab is better than the main Google search for this step because it only shows real news sources. While not every source that’s included is perfectly reliable, they are all news outlets that really exist.

Spotting Deepfakes

Have you ever seen a photo or video online that seemed too good to be true? With today's technology, it's getting harder and harder to tell what's real and what's fake, especially with things called deepfakes.