Qapito! Critically assess sources
Teenagers and educational facilitators turn into fact checkers
Studies have shown time and again that children and teenagers cannot properly assess the content they find online. That isn’t surprising since this skill is rarely taught in the classroom. ICILS 2018 found, for example, that over 30 percent of eight-graders said that schools had not taught them how to determine whether the information they come across on the internet is trustworthy.
At the same time, children and teenagers no longer just consume content; they also produce it and influence its consumption. They often pass on information without verifying it, therefore contributing to its spread. Many do not even realize that they have the responsibility to check facts even though they know that misinformation exists.
Through “Qapito! Critically assess sources”, Deutsche Telekom Stiftung aims to improve the ability of 10- to 17-year-olds to assess source credibility. The project targets children and adolescents as well as adults accompanying them on their educational journey.
The project produces evidence-based modules that school teachers and educational facilitators at libraries and youth services organizations can use to teach basic and advanced skills for assessing source credibility. The materials (presentation slides, worksheets, videos, teacher manuals) have been developed by researchers at Ruhr University Bochum and TU Dortmund University (German) and are expected to be available free of charge starting in the first quarter of 2022.
The project team also developed “Facts & Fakes 2”, a digital learning game that teaches basic source credibility assessment skills in single-player mode. “Facts & Fakes 2” can be downloaded for free from the Apple and Google app stores or played in a browser at www.factsandfakes.de (only German language version).
