How much do we know about the impact that the spread of fake news has on our life? And how much attention has been given in schools in Europe to raise awareness on this topic?
According to European Union statistics, 70% of the population encounters fake news in the form of disinformation or misinformation and that affects various aspects of democracy and trust in media and institutions. Especially young people, given their strong exposure to digital life, are a highly threatened category that EU is addressing through actions undertaken at school level (see the Action Plan against Disinformations and the Digital Education Action Plan 2021 – 2027). Also UNESCO, the OECD and the Coucil of Europe have underlined the urgency to tackle disinformation and promote digital literacy in schools.
In order to create a strong base where to pose solid knowledge and awareness, the role of teachers and educators is essential. MILES aims to address the pervasive issue of fake news and disinformation among young people by addressing the educational sectors also in regards to teachers.
MILES’ approach relies on proactive measures such as prebunking, media literacy, and data literacy education. Rather than reacting to misinformation after the fact, the project seeks to equip students with the critical thinking skills necessary to discern truth from falsehood.
Throughout the course of the project, MILES will focus on training educators and conducting workshops with teachers and students. In the latter stages of the project, also families will be involved as well as the educational communities and policy makers with the aim of outlining a list of proposals targeting the educational sector by providing more attention, time and tools in fighting misinformation. MILES aims to create a domino effect, empowering all the targets involved students to navigate the great amount of news and information in paper and digital landscape with confidence.
Right in the first months of the project, all the partnership will be busy in trying to gather as many datas as possible on the local context awareness and on the status of education regarding the topic of the projects: this will be done through interviews to policy makers in the field of education, to stakeholders related to the topics or close to the school environment and to actors working actively in school; also students will be asked their opinion through a survey and finally each country will provide datas on national status that will be merged in a EU report collecting all the statistics, academic resources and good practices on fake news fighting, media literacy and the educational tools already in place in each country.
As MILES embarks on its journey, the collaborative spirit of the first meeting face to face in Palermo in late March serves as a reminder of the collective effort required to address the challenge of misinformation. Through cooperation and targeted interventions, MILES aims to make a meaningful impact in the fight against fake news, ultimately empowering young people to make informed decisions in an increasingly digital world.
For more information, visit the project website: https://miles.erasmusplus.website or contact Lisa Avarello: lisa.avarello@danilodolci.org.
MILES
MIL and PRE-BUNKING approaches for critical thinking in the education sector is a project funded by the program Erasmus + – Partnership for Innovation – Forward Looking Projects.