3.4.3 Technology, activism and education
Whether technology is used to help activists or to help oppressors communicate their agendas, the use of technology in political practices has influenced the relationship between activism and education, leading to new possibilities and experiences.
Forero and Álvarez (2019) discuss how technology and social media platforms offer constant contextual and relational learning, when not only the final readership audience, but everyone involved in using digital technologies learns from each other through the sharing of ideas and through the emerging social interactions, both online and offline. The different formats that technology supports – text, audio, video – allow everyone to learn about a topic of interest in a format that best works for them; access to diverse standpoints encourages the construction of informed and critical opinions. Activists who use digital technologies learn how to choose an appropriate digital tool to reach their audience, how to debate and participate in online discussions, and how to develop attitudes that are favourable to the respect of online and offline interaction rules. Forero and Alvares (2019) explain:
As can be seen, processes of activism mediated by digital technologies are themselves educational as they involve diverse types of learning. These types of learning are primarily aimed at people who participate directly in activism but can reach more broadly when social movements intentionally seek this societal education. Through dissemination of different educational content on digital platforms, or through educational spaces (workshops, courses, popular education experiences and even universities), learning is created by social movements and powered by digital technologies. Of course, just as activism mediated by digital technologies is inherently educational, education cannot be conceived of only as part or dimension of the processes of resistance and social activism. As has been widely discussed, education is in itself a form of activism or, at least, a political exercise.
Since digital technologies can be used to promote any social agenda, fake news and misinformation have become commonplace. False and inaccurate news have become especially prevalent during the Covid-19 pandemic, spreading rapidly on social media, resulting in what some experts call an ‘infodemic’ (UNESCO, 2021).
Fake news did not avoid climate change. Recent research showed that among 1,700 adults surveyed in the UK, almost half the respondents were unable to correctly identify 50% of fake climate change news headlines, and almost half (44%) of all respondents were unaware of how often they encountered misinformation online (Biddlestone and van der Linden, 2021).
The role that education can play in tackling fake news lies in the continuous effort to develop critical thinking skills among learners, as well as the skills concerned with evaluating any given information for truthfulness. It is important to help learners recognise their own role in combating fake news, encouraging them to do fact checking. Another recent study (Lewsey, 2022) suggests an effectiveness of ‘pre-bunking’ – creating educational stories or short videos that pre-emptively refute short extracts of misinformation and familiarise learners with the manipulation techniques used in these stories. Researchers behind this study compare this exercise to a vaccine:
By giving people a ‘micro-dose’ of misinformation in advance, it helps prevent them falling for it in future – an idea based on what social psychologists call ‘inoculation’ theory.
Mike Caulfield’s openly licensed book ‘Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] ’ is a valuable resource to support students in identifying misinformation and fake news. As it’s openly licensed, and available in multiple formats, it could be adapted to include examples specific to the climate crisis, or to a particular context. If you do use the book and adapt it, please share the adapted version so others can benefit from it. Another openly licensed resource, ‘Understanding Misinformation: A Lesson Plan Toolkit’ contains numerous adaptable lesson plans and other resources to support teaching on this topic, including a section on climate science.