Countering Digital Disinformation

Light, J., Auer, M. WebSafe: Tools for Newcomers to Counter Digital Disinformation. TESL Contact, 47,1(2021):13-20

The March 2021 issue of TESL Ontario Contact Magazine reports on a number of topics of interest to the bibliography. One of them, WebSafe: Tools for Newcomers to Counter Digital Disinformation, describes a set of practical learning resources, one 50 projects funded to counter online disinformation by the Government of Canada since January 2020. The other projects are listed here.

Another of the 50 projects, from United Cultures of Canada Association, is an educational booklet that looks at three kinds of information with examples from COVID-19: Disinformation, Misinformation and True Information.

The topic of digital disinformation is being explored worldwide, including this conceptual paper  that focuses on the context of asylum seekers. It contains a literature review on the information practices of asylum seekers and provides insight into the kinds of misinformation and inadequate information they encounter. The authors propose a Social Information Perception Model to show what people may identify as accurate information, misinformation or disinformation.

Retrievable from:

http://contact.teslontario.org/

Microteaching in Isolation: Fostering Autonomy and Learner Engagement through VoiceThread

Bodis, A., Reed, M., Kharchenko,Y. (2020). Microteaching in Isolation: Fostering Autonomy and Learner Engagement through Voice Thread. International Journal of TESOL Studies, 2(3), 1-12 Foreign Language Annals, 53(2), 320-32.

The focus of this article is a TESOL training program at Macquarie University in Australia. Due to the restrictions imposed at the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis the program needed to move rapidly to an online environment.

 Online microteaching activities were developed, and a set of asynchronous tasks were developed using Voice Thread, an asynchronous communication platform whereby users can create and upload content, including text, and audio and video presentations. Voice Thread is interactive, enabling instructors and students to add comments and annotations in text, audio, and video.  The article includes a description of each of the two Voice Thread Tasks developed for the course.

The evaluation of the approach demonstrated that students were able to meet the unit learning outcomes.  Furthermore, the approach contributed to their overall learning in relation to feedback, the use of digital technologies for teaching and learning, and to the development of autonomy as students and teachers.  The authors conclude, “We, therefore, recommend the use of VT in a systematic way combined with enabling tasks and supportive teacher presence in and outside face-to-face classes.” (p.100).

Retrievable from:

https://www.tesolunion.org/journal/details/info/0NDkucNzIw/Microteaching-in-Isolation:-Fostering-Autonomy-and-Learner-Engagement-through-VoiceThread