For any of you with Deacs in summer school, they may be looking for ways to fill the time outside of class. Wake has a Professional Development Center that offers all kinds of classes and workshops – some are just for faculty and staff, but many are open to students as well. One of our open-to-all classes is coming up next week, taught by our expert ZSR library staff:
Do you sometimes suspect people online aren’t really people at all? Do you have family or friends who circulate crazy stories and think they are real? Are you curious about how the Russians used Social Media in the 2016 election? If so, you are in the majority. Come to this one hour lunch-and-learn to find out how fake news spreads, who spreads it, and why it matters. We will look into the reasons WHY fake news is created and the mechanics of HOW fake news is disseminated. In the process we will show you how to recognize and respond to fake news, fake accounts, trolls and bots. (This is the first course in a three-part series.)
This is not meant to be an overtly political post – everyone in the Daily Deacdom is free to believe what they want and do their own thing. That said, information literacy is a very important skill for students to have, and librarians are the experts at sussing out sources and helping our students understand the wheat from the chaff in the sea of information online. This is why I recommend the LIB 100 class to my advisees and other students – it is a great class to help you confidently find credible sources and maximize good research skills. All our students will have to write papers, find reliable sources and facts, after all.
