The better you know your subject, the less you are vulnerable to disinformation - ft Kari Kivinen

Let’s talk about information disorders with international education expert Kari Kivinen. Disinformation is a real threat to our democracies and makes things more complex for any learner confronted with online information who needs to have the right tools and competences to be able to discriminate between the accurate data and the misleading one. 

A few take-away from this very interesting discussion with Kari: 

Digital information literacy skills are useful, but you need to have a good subject knowledge: the better you know your subject, the less you are vulnerable to disinformation 

Let’s ask ourselves how to evaluate a scientific claim, and how to evaluate the expertise of an expert. 

Teachers should listen to their students and don’t hesitate to create safe moments to discuss online research and behaviour in order to raise the discussion in the classroom. 

Sometimes it is also good to invite a journalist or an expert to share their views about their ways of dealing with information, how to select it, evaluate it. 

We need simple traffic rules online. When you see a claim which generates strong emotions. Stop, think twice. And when the moment comes for you to act, ask you at least these questions: is there a name, can you identify the author? What evidence does it show? Check other sources. 

02:55  What is the current situation regarding disinformation, misinformation and malinformation? 

06:45 What are the main policy recommendations you and your peers are proposing? 

10:50 What are the concrete tips you would recommend to teachers and students of our community to help them tackle online disinformation? 

More info: 

Kari Kivinen is an international education expert who started as a teacher before managing schools and even a whole education system in quality of Secretary general of the European Schools. He is currently working as Education Outreach Expert of the EUIPO Observatory (EUIPO, is the European Union Intellectual Property Office) and has a strong expertise on information disorder and digital literacy. 

He contributed to various reports and initiatives on these topics: 

1. Report of the Commission expert group on tackling disinformation and promoting digital literacy through education and training: https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/72421f53-4458-11ed-92ed-01aa75ed71a1/language-en 

2. Standford University report on “Science Education in an Age of Misinformation”: https://sciedandmisinfo.sites.stanford.edu/sites/g/files/sbiybj25316/files/media/file/science_education_in_an_age_of_misinformation.pdf 

3. Guidelines for teachers and educators on tackling disinformation and promoting digital literacy through education and training: https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/a224c235-4843-11ed-92ed-01aa75ed71a1/language-en 

4. DigComp 2.2: The Digital Competence Framework for Citizens - With new examples of knowledge, skills and attitudes: https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC128415 

5. Digital Information Literacy guide published by Finnish organisation Faktabaari: https://faktabaari.fi/dil/ 

Are you interested to watch previous episodes? Check the Education for Climate TALKS