The Questions Matter initiative for adult education tutors, literacy educators and practitioners seeks to develop critical thinking and digital citizenship skills to assess and challenge news and information.
This page includes information about the WhatsApp microlearning short course run from December 2023 to January 2024, with a glossary, supplementary readings and links (see below).
The project:
- Promoted critical thinking alongside digital media literacy through anti-poverty and social inclusion education approaches. The project will take place in the north Wicklow region and be based around current events and protests recently.
- Aimed to empower adult literacy and education tutors to support adult learners to think and discuss key issues in the community such as poverty, migration, active citizenship and community development.
- Used inclusive and participatory approaches to include educators that work with minority groups.
The project made use of blended learning spaces through a combination of:
- Workshops and consultations on current topics and education materials
- Launched a micro-learning text-messaging approach on WhatsApp through 3 on-demand courses, reaching 197 participants.
- A magazine for adult learners to tackle disinformation through games, activities and exercises, co-published with the National Adult Literacy Agency. The magazine has been distributed through adult education centres and community groups across Ireland.
- Shared these approaches through learning networks in Wicklow and Kildare based on a half-day conference in December 2023 at The Mermaid Theatre in Bray; the Adult Educator’s Conference 2023 delivered as part of this project.
Interested in exploring how this microlearning course can be adapted for other contexts? Get in touch.
This microlearning short-course used WhatsApp to embed active citizenship and digital literacy learning outcomes.
🔍 In this course for adult educators & tutors, topics covered included: misinformation, how and why it spreads, what tools you can use as part of digital literacy and how you can protect both yourself and your students as part of active citizenship.
🎯 After 10 days you should feel much more prepared to spot and deal with any misleading or false information in an increasingly polarised digital world.
🏷️ Topics: self-awareness, empathy, media literacy, digital literacy.
Enrollment for one of the FREE microlearning courses and you will receive the first course automatically into WhatsApp on your start date.
- Course 1: 18th Dec – 29 Dec 2023 (closed)
- Course 2: 1st Jan – 12 Jan 2024 (closed)
- Register for course 3: 8th Jan – 19th Jan 2024 (closed).
This course includes:
- 10 Lessons
- 25 Questions
🕓Delivered: Anytime
📅When: Weekdays
Tip: update your version of WhatsApp to the latest version and choose a time that you would like the lessons to arrive.
Course Lessons
(delivered daily Monday-Friday)
Lesson 1: Welcome and course expectations |
Lesson 2: Motivations: why people deliberately spread disinformation |
Lesson 3: My digital footprint |
Lesson 4: What’s in the news? |
Lesson 5: Flexing your observation muscles |
Lesson 6: Artificial Intelligence and me |
Lesson 7: What makes a good place? |
Lesson 8: Think Like a Troll |
Lesson 9: Respect, Connect, Act (and de-escalating hate) |
Lesson 10: Where does this fit into my lesson planning? |
About this course
Takes 1.5 hours to complete over two week
Delivered straight to your phone once a day on WhatsApp
Catch up on the short course at your pace in your own time
Suitable as CPD course
GDPR-compliant
Aligns with The European Digital Competence Framework for Citizen (DigComp):
1.2 Evaluating data, information and digital content
2.1 Interacting through digital technologies
2.3 Engaging citizenship through digital technologies
5.3 Creatively using digital technology
Road-tested with a pilot group of 15 educators
Was produced using Plain Language approach
Earn a digital badge certificate once course completed
(for sharing on LinkedIn and as CPD)
(Note: optional peer to peer session offered)
A digital footprint is the information about a particular person that exists on the internet as a result of their online activity. It includes:
- the websites you visit
- emails you send; or
- posts you put up and information you submit to online services.
Infodemic – refers to the swift, widespread dissemination of both accurate and inaccurate information about specific issues.
Inoculation – Users get a taste of the tactics behind misinformation which can help to “inoculate” people against harmful content on social media. This works as a psychological ‘vaccine’ that actively builds cognitive resistance against online manipulation.
Misinformation – is false information that’s shared by people who don’t realize it’s false and don’t mean any harm. Often they’re just trying to help.
Data and Algorithms
🔗Read this article ‘Who controls your Facebook feed – and why they keep changing it’ by Will Ormus on The Slate
🔗Read this article ‘The poison in our politics runs deeper than dodgy data’ (2018) by Gary Younge, The Guardian
🔗 ‘The official US women’s soccer team did not lose 12-0 to a team of Wrexham ‘veterans‘ – FactCheck on TheJournal.ie
🎲Play an online game challenging you to spread a story through manipulation: https://www.getbadnews.com
Images and Observations
And here’s how to use your phone to find out where🧐 a photo or video was taken.
AI and Me
🔗 Watch: How will AI change the world? (TED-Ed)
🔗 Watch: Are men the default in AI art? (Vox)
🔗 Watch: Humans are biased. Generative AI is even worse (London Interdisciplinary School)
Think Like a Troll
Read this story about troll factories in Russia undermining democracy in the UK, The Guardian
Respect, Connect, Act
🔗Read this story about X in 2023 and the ‘block’ feature, on Time Magazine
🔗Browse the campaign website – is there anything that stands out about the campaign for you? https://stopfundinghate.info
📽️Watch a video introducing the Stop Funding Hate campaign about media advertising in the UK
🔗Read a four-part investigation into the growth of far-right activity online in Ireland explores how an anti-immigration agenda infiltrated local activism, on Thejournal.ie
Questions Matter is brought to you by
Questions Matter is a joint educational project supported by the ALL Collaboration and Innovation Fund 2023
