Call for chapters: Teaching About “Fake News”: Lesson Plans for Different Disciplines and Audiences

There is a call for chapters for a proposed book to be published by ACRL: Teaching About “Fake News”: Lesson Plans for Different Disciplines and Audiences. The Editors are Candice Benjes-Small (Head of Research) and Mary K. Oberlies (Research and Instruction Librarian), William & Mary; Carol Wittig (Head of Research and Instruction, University of Richmond). "The problem of “fake news” has captured the attention of administrators and instructors, resulting in a rising demand for librarians to help students learn how to find and evaluate news sources. But we know that the phrase “fake news” is applied broadly, used to describe a myriad of media literacy issues such as misinformation, disinformation, propaganda, and hoaxes. There’s no way we can teach everything there is to know about “fake news” in a 50-minute one-shot library session. What we can do is tailor our sessions to be relevant to the specific audience. For example, a psychology class may benefit from a session about cognitive biases, while an IT class might want to talk about the non-neutrality of algorithms. Special populations such as non-traditional students or writing center tutors could also be considered." Chapter proposals have to be submitted by July 31, 2019, via the form here which requires a 100 word abstract of the proposed chapter and a sample learning activity. You have to identify a specific discipline, or a specific audience (e.g. first-year students)
Final chapters will be 2,000-3,000 words in length and have a fixed structure: "it will begin with an overview of that specific aspect of fake news and be grounded in the established scholarship. Next it will include a brief annotated list of accessible readings that could be assigned to participants ahead of a workshop when appropriate. Authors will be asked to house a student-friendly PowerPoint version of their chapter in the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy Sandbox; the teaching librarian could use it as-is or modify it for the direct instruction portion of a session. Finally, each chapter will include hands-on activities and discussion prompts that could be used in the actual workshop." Email teachingaboutfakenews@gmail.com with any questions.
Photo by Sheila Webber: Alium and bee, June 2019