Today, people are surrounded with vast quantities of ambiguous information provided mainly through social media and the internet. When people are misinformed, they still make judgments or decisions, and form opinions, based on that misinformation. Consequently, misinformation becomes a serious threat not only to democracies, but also to the well-being of societies and individuals (Canales, 2020; Lewandowsky et al, 2012). Therefore, equipping individuals with news literacy skills in order them to judge the reliability and credibility of news has a crucial importance.
Using innovative teaching methods increases the success of news literacy instruction programs. Game-based learning is an active learning technique that utilizes games to enhance the learning process (Literat, Chang, & Hsu, 2020; Sousa et al., 2024; Wedlake, Coward, & Lee, 2024; Yu, Gao, & Wang, 2021). Learning while playing games boosts the capacity to retain information for a longer time.
In this workshop, participants will be introduced to two complementary board games developed as the outcomes of an Erasmus+ project (NEED – News Literacy on Board). First game is designed as an assessment tool for assessing the actual knowledge and skills level of learners and the second game (which blends analog and digital elements through the use of QR codes and an online learning platform) is for teaching news literacy skills based on findings of the assessment phase.
The primary challenge while developing the games was finding the optimal balance between play and learning. Therefore, the rules of both games were kept simple. Both games consist of a board, a set of rules, and questions. Players advance on the board by rolling dice. Both games incorporate a reward and penalty system. Games were designed to allow players to advance and win by correctly answering a series of questions. In order to make sure that the questions address different aspects of news literacy, three core competence areas, namely “Understanding the News Landscape”, “Finding Reliable Information” and “Verifying News”, along with three sub-competence areas within each core area were identified. Sub-competence areas include “Information Pollution and Its Reasons”, “The Psychology of Misinformation”, “New Media and New Journalism Practices”, “Recognizing News”, “Information Sources”, “Search Strategies”, “Algorithms”, “Verification” and “Fact-checking Platforms”.
The main aim of this workshop is providing participants with an opportunity to play both games and gain first-hand experience. Participants can download the game elements from the project website, adapt, further develop and use both games in their teaching and training activities.
References
Canales, S. B. (2020). The Australian Libraries and Information Association and National Archives band together against disinformation. The Canberra Times. https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7011365/australias-libraries-urge-government-to-adopt-anti-disinform ation-policy/
Lewandowsky, S., Ecker, U. K. H., Seifers, C. M., Schwarz, N., & Cook, J. (2012). Misinformation and its correction: Continued influence and successful debiasing. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 13(3), 106-131. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100612451018
Literat, I., Chang, Y. K., & Hsu, S.-Y. (2020). Gamifying fake news: Engaging youth in the participatory design of news literacy games. Convergence, 26(3), 503-516. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856520925732
Sousa, C., Oliveira, A., Casimiro, C., Léste, J., & Yaman, H. (2024). Exploring the impact of game-based learning on young people’s news literacy and digital citizenship. Media e Jornalismo, 24(45), Article 14199. https://doi.org/10.14195/2183-5462_45_10
Wedlake, S., Coward, C., & Lee, J. H. (2024). How games can support misinformation education: A sociocultural perspective. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 75(13), 1480-1497. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24954
Yu, Z., Gao, M., & Wang, L. (2021). The effect of educational games on learning outcomes, student motivation, engagement and satisfaction. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 59(3), 522-546.
